chasing - lando norris

twenty three.

[cassie klein]

The remaining time spent in Japan before the race was jam-packed with press interviews, filming, and events.

Every event was either brought in or followed by a breakfast, lunch or coffee with Lando. The more time I spend with him, the more I feel like I can forgive him for what he did. Every smile, every laugh at my joke, every tease of my accent draws me closer to him again.

But there has to be a boundary. A line neither of us can cross again.

I dwell on that thought, swirling the straw in my lemonade as Lando sits contently across from me. Suddenly I'm very aware of my body; the way I'm sitting, the way my hands feel, how uncomfortable this seat feels all of a sudden. It makes me squirm.

"You okay?" Lando lowers his head a little, trying to catch my attention. I blink away that train of thought, putting on a small smile and straightening my posture.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," I shift my weight slightly and release the straw - finally - and smile at the waitress who conveniently appeared just in time to save me from the awkwardness of this moment. She places our meals on the table as we both say soft 'thank you's.

I immediately grab my spoon and dig into the bowl of miso soup. My heart drops when he doesn't pick up his.

"You're lying, Cass." Lando says, leaning forward slightly in his chair.

"No I'm not," I say, almost too quickly, as I shuffle slightly in my seat. He points at me.

"There. See?" I frown at his words, "That's your tell. You squirm when you lie."

Little shit, I think. He's been reading my body language?

"I'm not lying!" I say, waving my spoon in the air and focusing all my attention on not moving in my -

"So that's why you're waving your arms around like a lunatic?" He smirks, raising a brow at my arms. I bite the inside of my cheek.

"Fine. I'm just a bit distracted, that's all." I drop my arms in defeat, focusing back on the soup in front of me.

"By what?" He questions further, chipping away at my patience ever so slightly.

"By the race, I guess," I say, swirling the soup with my spoon, doing anything but actually taking a scoop of my food.

"Okay," He says, grabbing his spoon. The tension in my shoulders loosens when I think he might actually have dropped it, just let me off the hook -, "But what else is wrong?"

Can he just drop it??

I drop my spoon in my soup and raise my arms in surrender.

"Whole truth?" I ask, leaning forward and resting on my elbows. My fiery gaze meets his calm one in a challenge, and I watch as his spark with mischief.

A moment passes.

"Whole truth." He says with finality, mirroring me by leaning on his elbows.

My jaw ticks as my heart rate doubles. Am I really going to bring this up? Now?

He raises his eyebrows after a while, silently egging me on. I scrunch my nose back at him, sitting back in my chair and crossing my arms.

"Fine. I'm thinking about when we had sex."

I'm not sure if I was paying much attention before, but I swear the restaurant wasn't this quiet. Maybe I'm going crazy. He appears in thought, mind ticking behind his surprised expression as he thinks of a response. I don't blame him - it was kind of an intense truth bomb.

I'm surprised as I watch him drop his eyebrows, removing any trace of shock from his face, before he nods.

Once.

Twice.

"That's not where I thought that was going," He says, clearing his throat. I smile weakly.

"Me either, honestly." I attempt a small chuckle.

"Can I have a whole truth?" He asks, and I can tell he's trying to feel out the situation before he gives his opinion.

So I nod.

"Do you regret it?"

I let the words sink in.

Do you regret it? Do I?

I'm not sure the answer to that. Yes, it was great, yes, I was drunk, yes, he did some bullshit things afterwards.

But I'm not sure if I regret it.

"No." I say confidently, looking at him. "Do you?"

He stares at me for a moment.

"No."

My jaw ticks again.

"Look, I know we both don't regret it, but I think there should be some rules here." I say, sitting forward again.

He clears his throat, again, and nods.

"Number one: nothing is going to happen between us. We're teammates, it would be weird, and it's too complicated. Agree?"

"Agree." He replies, nodding.

"Number two: we are in no way allowed to hook up again. Still makes things complicated. Agree?"

I swear I see his eyebrows lift for a moment, but it's gone as quickly as it happened and he nods again.

"Agree."

"Okay, and number three: no more distrust between us. We're teammates - you need to trust that I'm doing my best for McLaren and that I'm capable of keeping up with you. And no, just to clear this up, I have not slept with half of the grid or any of the managers. Okay?"

He laughs at that last comment, before looking back at me. His smile stays on his face.

"Okay."

He extends his hand across the table to me.

"Deal?" He offers.

"Deal."

I take his hand in mine.

This should be easy, right? I think. I've cleared everything up, my conscious is clear, and now there might finally be some trust between us.

This is good. We just need to stick to the rules.

Easy, right?

~~~

suuuuper easy

enjoy my loves, olive<333