Hope is a dangerous thing for a Woman like me to have

Chapter 33

This was my first race weekend where I was really dating Charles Leclerc. Not that anyone knew of course. Keeping this thing secret was my top priority, as well as Charles'. 

Imola. Ferrari's home race and the home of the Tifosi, so all eyes would be on their prince and most precious prize - Charles. He arrived at the track long before me to try to meet as many fans as possible and prep for the pressured race. I didn't come across him at all around the fan zones when I arrived though. 

As I entered the paddock area, I was joined by a Netflix camera crew for Drive to Survive. I personally wasn't a fan of the show; I had stopped watching after the first 2 and a half seasons as the drama spun by the producers baffled and irritated me, but I had signed on to take part in this season in the hope to boost my image and give girls the representation they lacked on screen. In the 3rd season, episode 4, I decided to make a note of how many women who worked in the paddocks appeared on my screen and managed to collate a whopping 4 tallies. After that epsiode, I totally gave up watching. 

The camera crew told me to just act normal and they would just follow me. They made acting like cameras weren't on me was an easy thing to pull off. I mean, I was used to having cameras on me, from fans in the paddock, but being filmed by Netflix felt different. 

I set off down the paddock, trying my best to ignore the massive filming crew and their equipment, signing fan's hats and clothing. I signed a young boy's mclaren hat and looked up to see Charles walking towards us. I tried not to let it show on my face the electric feeling that ran through my body at seeing that cheeky smirk and green eyes, but my body betrayed me with the goosebumps that appeared on my arms. 

"What's your name?" I asked the boy, trying to distract myself. 

"Mario!" He chirped. 

"Oh my gosh, how cute." I giggled and placed the hat on his head. I didn't look up, but I sensed Charles walk by from the tingle that ran up my spine. Mario's dad took a picture of us, before I was met by Charlotte. 

"I know you love the fans, but we need you in the paddock asap please." She requested, ignoring the cameras like she was a paid actress. 

"Sorry Netflix, but I'm urgently needed." I winked. "It was a short pleasure, but you know how it goes - the less time it took, the better the performance was." I heard Charlotte cough behind me, probably trying to cover up a choke after hearing the abomination that just came out of my mouth. Like I said, i'm not a natural around cameras. 

"What - I'm talking about qualifying of course." I tried to cover myself up with a natural grin, but the red heat I could feel invading my cheeks definitely gave myself away. 

"It's ok, we'll come with you." A camera man said, and my embarassment grew even more. "Like we said, we're trying to capture your natural routine." 

"Oh, of course." I stammered, trying to smile. I walked with Charlotte to the Mclaren paddock. 

She informed me of the routine, but her tone told me she was still trying to get over my previous fluff-up and I would be getting it in the neck from her later. 

"Then you'll race," She finished off. "But if we have time, maybe we could do some media training..." Ok, I'll be getting it in the neck aswell as another lesson in PR, where Charlotte would try to teach me how to present myself in the public eye. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starting from a solid 5th place, I could just see 1st place, and my body ached to be in that postion. Despite obviously wishing I was on pole, I was proud of my quali. I sat behind Max, Checco, Charles, with Lando just infront next to me and Carlos just behind me. I hadn't managed to talk to Charles after qualifying yesterday as we had both been super busy at sponser events, but I'm sure he was happy with his podium spot. 

But at this point, my mind wasn't on Charles. I couldn't care less about what he was doing as as soon as I had gotten into that race car and put my visor down, my mind was on the race and what my plan could be when those race lights went out. 

As soon as the red lights disappeared, my foot was on the accelerator, pushing the car to speed up. My reaction time was good and my nose was already ahead of Lando's. As we pushed into the  second corner, I saw two cars spin off in a collision. It was nothing dangerous, they must've just tapped each other, but even the smallest of touches can have serious consequences when you're going over 150MPH.

"Who was that?" I asked into my radio, as I had gone by too fast, concentrating on what I was doing to see who it had been. 

"Just checking now. Appears Leclerc and Perez made contact."

"Is he ok?" I burst out

"They're both fine." Daniel responsed, sounding slightly confused. Pull it together Edom. I thought to myself, remembering that could be playing on live TV now. 

"Focus on yourself, you're now second Edom." Daniel urged me on. 

"What!" I nearly shouted as I powered round turn seven. I realised the Red Bull infront of me was actually the red bull of Max Verstappen and I held in another yelp. "Oh my god Daniel. What's the gap?"

"0.5 at the moment, but we still have 2 laps until DRS opens, so don't let the pace slack." He answered and before I could ask my second question, he read my mind. "Lando is 0.2 behind us, but don't worry, we've told him not to make any moves yet. We want to bring this home as a team and we have a long way to go." 

That took some pressure off, and we continued in that formation for a while. I totally forgot about Charles, like I do with everything else when I race. 

I boxed at lap 20 to change my softs to mediums, and then again at lap 50 to change to mediums again. Although I was 11 seconds behind Max, I had created a gap between me and Lando which was 4.7 seconds, a comfortable distance. 

With 5 laps to go, the gap between us had shorted to 3 seconds, and Max 10 seconds infront of me. 

"Edom, Lando's got a lot of pressure from the ferrari and mercedes behind him, so we want you to try drop back to give him a tow and potentially DRS." I felt a pang when I realised the ferrari wasn't Charles and he must feel so shit right now, having to watch the race from the sidelines. 

I managed to drop back so Lando was 1.5 behind me for 2 laps and then for the final 2, he was within DRS. We came home to finish on the podium together in second and third. 

I screamed with excitement over the radio. 

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I gushed into the radio. "The car was a beauty this weekend thanks to all your hard work! We so deserved this." 

As I made my final lap around the track, I pumped my fist in the air and waved at the fans, relishing the feeling of a good weekend. I pulled up with pride and satisfaction to the 2nd place flag, jumping out my car and hugging Lando. 

"Congrats Edom!" He celebrated with me, as we made our way over to where our crew stood behind the Park Ferme barrier. "Nice start!" 

"Thanks slow poke." I laughed with him as we high-fived and hugged the team. The interviews went smoothly, and Charlotte would've been proud of my amazing responses. 

The podium was just as amazing as the last time I got to stand on it, and Lando and Max ganged up on me to spray champagne at me. I looked into the crowd, and immediately found the green eyes of Charles Leclerc. He stood smiling and clapping for me, wearing normal attire and a cap, presumably to be less noticable. My smile grew wider at seeing him out there for me, and I giggled when he winked at me, feeling my knees grow slightly weak at what the wink promised. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hiya Guys - I'm back again! (For now) 

I haven't had much time to write but I'll try get better ahhhh. 

Happy Valentines day to all my lovely readers - I love and appreicate you all so much and your support for this story x