Hate You - LN

6 - Devin

"Hello," Oscar greets as he sits down in one of the chairs at the hospitality tables. He's dressed in a loose pair of blue jeans and a Mclaren team shirt. He offers Zak a smile and then turns to me. "Devin Garett right? You're our new head physio?"

"Yeah, I'll be working with the team for the year."

"Just the year?"

I nervously laughed. "Yeah, well that's the contract but we'll see if you guys like me or not after this year." Since my contract wasn't finalized with Mercedes next year I didn't want to say anything about leaving at the end of this one. But with Lando hating me and all, I doubt McLaren will want to keep me after my contract is up anyway.

"Oh we'll like you, and if you can manage to get under Lando's skin? All the better." Oscar laughed, a look in his eye that looked a lot like mischief. It made me question if he knew that things were tense between his teammate and I.

"Hey, hey now, teamwork makes the dream work," Zak cut in.

Oscar quickly covered. "Of course, I'm just saying Lando could use something other than racing in his life."

"Just because I've got you all love-struck doesn't mean you need to get Lando hitched." A woman interrupted, slinging her arm around Oscar's shoulders. She looked beautiful in a red maxi dress, I'm sure she must be a model. He practically melted into her. "I'm Blake, Oscar's girlfriend, you must be Devin."

Blake held out her hand and I shook it. "News must circulate fast around here, I had no idea someone in physio would get so much attention."

Blake shrugged. "I guess we are all a little concerned about Lando. If you're the one that's going to help him, and if your reputation precedes you, you definitely will. I think it's everyone's business to know who you are, you're extremely talented." 

Not being able to help myself I blushed. "Thank you."

"Mind if I steal him for lunch?" Blake asked Zak, and he nodded. "Yeah no problem, just have him back before his next media appearance is scheduled."

Blake Gave the CEO a double thumbs up and I couldn't help but laugh along with Oscar and Zak. It seems Blake is pretty welcome among the McLaren team.

"She's nice," I noted. "Oscar's happier than I remember."

"Yes, Blake is a good person, and good for Oscar, really helped keep him grounded last year in his rookie season." Zak paused for a second, taking a bite out of a small pastry. His phone rang again. "Shoot, I've got to take this, Lando will be around here in an hour or so. Of course, you're free to do whatever you'd like to until then." He got up and walked off in the direction of his office. Sighing I took a bite of my own pastry, finishing off the strawberry-infused goodness.

Essentially, being my own boss will be different. Before I had profs telling me what to do, and then I had Jake, the head of physio at Aston Martin. Now I just have Zak. And it seems he's pretty content to let me do my own thing and just report back to him every once and a while.

Wiping my shirt, making sure there weren't any crumbs on it I got up and headed to the garages. Of course, I don't want any of the mechanics hurt, but I do hope I spend more time with them than Lando this year. Mechanics tend to be great at hiding pain, but in my experience, almost every single one of them has back issues. The more excuses I have to stay out of Lando's way the better.

My team pass lets me go almost anywhere in the paddock and I find myself soon introducing myself to both Oscar and Lando's mechanics as well as the race engineers present and the other directors working on the cars before the weekend. With the doors shut, the garage is cool for once and I watch a while as the mechanics skillfully assemble the cars. After a while, I feel like I'm getting in the way I leave the garages. I've already noted how one of the suspension mechanics in Oscar's garage favours his left elbow. Another one in Lando's garage has a slight limp, but I suspect it's an old injury because when he stands his shoulders are ever so slightly uneven. And a handful of other smaller issues that aren't hampering them, but it's something I can lean into when I need an escape.