Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well last night. Felt pretty embarrassed.
But I couldn't be distracted because I liked a damn picture. He probably forgot about it already.
I parked my car, grabbed my stuff and got out.
"Knox" Lando nodded at me. He parked his car next to mine. "Don't you have your own parking spot?" I raised my eyebrow.
"I do" he said, grabbing his stuff out of his car. "But I like this parking spot better"
I rolled my eyes, ignoring him. He was trying to get under my skin. Trying to distract me.
I wasn't dumb.
"So, which picture did you like?" He asked as he walked next to me to the entrance of the paddock.
"Thought you saw it?"
He shrugged. "Saw you liked a picture, but you unliked so fast, I didn't see which one" he scanned his pass, walked in and waited for me. "Was it a cute one?"
"You have your notifications on for Instagram?" I ignored his question, trying to switch the subject.
"Yeah uh-" he shrugged again. "For some people"
"Oh right" I raised my eyebrow, this time, I was the one with a smirk on my face.
And with that, I distracted him. Didn't want to admit that it was a picture from months ago.
He cleared his throat. "Anyways, good luck Knox, you will need it"
"Yeah you too" I mumbled.
—————————————-
We did everything we could. The mechanics handled the pitstops perfectly, the strategy was amazing, both George and Lewis were fast.
But the car just wasn't fast enough.
George ended P5 and Lewis P7, and honestly we should be happy about that. Most of the team was happy.
Except for me.
Because Lando ended on the damn podium.
And for some reason, I went to see the podium ceremony. Not for Lando, hell no.
It just was my first ceremony in real life. I wanted to enjoy it, didn't matter who was on the podium.
Charles walked up first, he ended P3, followed by Lando and obviously Max ended first.
He took the top step of the podium.
Lando looked down at me, a little smirk on his face. He felt as if he won, and he did if I was honest.
For now.
I walked away after that. Didn't finish the entire podium ceremony.
He still needed to do interviews and stuff, I didn't. So I should get out of the paddock before he could make a snarky comment.
I walked to the hospitality, where Toto was waiting for me.
"Debriefing meeting" he nodded and gestured for me to follow him.
And during the entire meeting, I was the one they blamed. Couldn't understand why, I wasn't a fucking engineer.
I couldn't be out of this paddock fast enough. I grabbed my stuff and walked out as fast as I could.
It wasn't my fault the car was so damn slow, I couldn't push the car faster.
"Knox!" Someone yelled after me. Someone I definitely didn't want to see or talk to.
"Not now Norris" I didn't even look at him, scanned my pass and walked to my car as quickly as I could.
But he obviously followed me because his car was parked next to mine.
"What happened?" He asked.
I opened the door of my car, wanted to get in, not even answering his question.
"Knox" he stood next to me, putting his hand against the door, to block my way. "What happened?"
"Nothing happened, Norris" I leaned against my car, avoiding his gaze. I didn't want to look at him, I wanted to get out of here.
Also didn't want to cry because I didn't want to give him that. He would love to see me cry.
"You sure?" Lando looked down at me. "It's not your fault Bamb-"
"Dude, leave my girl alone" Ryle said as he looked at Lando.
"Your girl?" Lando turned around to face Ryle. His eyebrow raised.
"Yes man, my girl" Ryle walked up to me, kissed my cheek and smiled at me. It made Lando take a step back.
"Good night Norris" Ryle looked at him. "Yeah whatever" Lando answered, turning around and walking to his car.
Not looking at me anymore.
And I felt bad - why did I feel bad?
He probably wanted to laugh in my face. Tell me that he was right, that I would mess it up, just like he predicted.
Fuck him.
But also, why did he sound as if he was genuine?
