Torn: A Formula 1 Story

Chapter 3

Cassie stepped off the plane, the heat hitting her the moment she reached the door, as she pulled her sunglasses down to keep the glare of the sun out of her eyes she disembarked the flying machine. She had never flown on a private jet before, but there's a first for everything. There were quite a lot of them on it, her and Tracy sat together talking about the plans for the week, they had all the planned interviews all on one calendar, so they would know where each other was at all points. She'd seen Ollie and Hadyn but they were both sitting near the front of the plane with their technical teams, most likely talking about all the intricate details for the week.
Once she got into her hotel room she left her suitcase by the bottom of the bed and flopped down on it, it was gorgeously soft, sighing as she knew she couldn't stay there, she needed to get changed and then to the track to start working properly. She took another minute to enjoy relaxing before getting back up, pulling her suitcase onto the bed and opening it to get her uniform, a grey polo with Ignite branding alone with their sponsors and a black knee length skirt. Making her way to the bathroom to take a shower so that she could freshen up before getting back to work.

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Later that day she was at the track, specifically in the Ignite hospitality area, waiting on Ollie to be free from his briefing so they could head for some of his interviews. Over the last few weeks they had been working together more, the odd interview here and there before the start of the season, including some for popular podcasts. They planned what would be talked about, she was the point of call, after his manager, for these sort of events and so she would receive an email with all the possible questions and topics and it was up to her to okay and veto things, though she did always include Ollie in these decisions. He definitely wasn't too hard to work with, she'd gotten more comfortable around him as time went on, they'd even joke together.
Whilst she waited for the blond driver she got her phone out, seeing she had some notifications from her Instagram, most likely to do with her most recent post about where she was. There were the usual likes from her friends and family, some of her colleagues as well, along with comments from them about their jealousy and wishing her a good week in the sun. What stood out to her was a comment from someone she didn't recognise, 'Race_Boy_98: Looks like fun' . It was an innocent comment but she had remembered following someone with that name, considering her account was private. She clicked on the name and it took her to the profile, but it didn't help much either, all the photos were of landscapes, race tracks, cars, and well, everything but people. The bio didn't give any indications either, and by that, it didn't say anything at all.
"Hey." She jumped at the voice, looking up to see Ollie standing in front of her.
"Oh hey, sorry, distracted." She replied, putting her phone away. "Ready to get started?" She asked as she stood up.
"Definitely, let's get this show on the road." He chuckled in response as he started to head towards where his first interview was.
"So, what kept your attention so much you didn't hear me the first two times?" The blond asked her inquisitively, this caused Cassie to blush slightly,
"Oh, erm, nothing really. Just something I saw on Instagram." She shrugged. He looked over at her, head slightly cocked to the side.
"Distracted over an Instagram post? Well I'm guessing he's good looking then," He smirked in response as they made it to where they were expected. Before she could protest this comment he'd walked over to the interviewer, she sighed as she got her voice recorder out ready to tape the interview.
Her arm was aching after spending a good few hours going around all the media personnel for the interviews, a couple were live, some for articles and other recorded for future posts. She was grateful to be able to put the recording device away and let her hand dangle by her side. "Well that was fun." Ollie chuckled lightly as they made their way along the Paddock to the Ignite building.
"Oh, yeah, super fun." She replied whilst rolling her eyes. "I knew what this entailed, but I wasn't expecting to have to stand around listening to you talk to people until my arm all but drops off," she added sarcastically.
He laughed at her response, "Are you telling me I'm boring?" feigning hurt as he spoke.
"Well you're no Taylor Swift." She laughed back at him, "Her, I can listen to al day." She added.
"Ahhh, I apologise greatly for not being a beautiful, American singer." He hung his head playfully before she slapped his shoulder lightly.
"Oh come off it, I know you think you're the best thing since sliced bread, you can't fool me."
His hand rubbed his shoulder as though she hurt him, "Hey, that's just mean. I'll have you know I'm quite modest actually."
"Yeah, yeah. Sure you are, Mr I'm The Best There Is." She laughed in response.
"Come on, you know that was aimed at my trash basketball game," He said with his own chuckle. They were now at the main door for the Ignite building, walking in together the driver held the door open for her before following behind.
"I'm still waiting for that rematch." She replied with humour, sometimes in their meetings they'd get bored and end up doing silly things, one such thing was a game of what they called Trash Basketball, taking turns through crumpled up paper into the bin in the corner of the office, so far Cassie had only managed to reach the basket once, Ollie on the other hand had managed to get many on target.
"And I'll still beat your ass." He replied with a teasing tone.
"You'll do what? With her, what?" Haydn's voice appeared from an open door, the pair started laughing at this intrusion, the brown eyed driver was looking at them curiously, "What is going on with you two?" He asked, shaking his head lightly.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing." Cassie managed to reply as she finally stopped laughing. 

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The week went by much the same as the first day, well except for the actual testing. Ollie was on the track all day Wednesday, the morning of Thursday and then Haydn had that afternoon and the Friday, but there were still a lot of interviews to get to, even some smaller content creators had managed to get some spots on the schedule. Anytime she wasn't dealing with interviews or Ollie she was in a small office shared with Tracy, Tatiana and Benedikt. Luckily there were no wrong comments, or scandals to cover so that made her job easier.
When Friday came around she was spending most of the day with Ollie again, apart from when he was in meetings to go over the results from his track time. He'd managed to keep within the top 5 during all his sessions so the whole team was pleased with that. After their last interview of the day they made their way to the hospitality centre, Cassie dropping onto a small sofa by an empty table with Ollie choosing to sit next to her. Her eyebrow raised at this but stayed silent, there were two chairs also at this table, so why pick to sit right next to her. "So, anymore Instagram distractions?" He asked her with a cheeky look on his face, she groaned in response.
"Seriously? That was, what, 3 days ago?" She shook her head, "I hadn't really given much thought to it, if I'm being honest." She shrugged as she moved slightly into a more comfortable position.
"What? Not good looking enough for you?" He teased lightly.
"Why are you so sure it's a guy?" She asked him, turning her body to face him more, "It seemed more a 'tog account anyway." She continued, she should have got a drink before sitting, but she didn't feel like getting up again, she sighed as she sunk further into the comfort of the cushions.
"You were that distracted over an account of random photos?" He looked at her with an inquisitive look, "So distracted you were deaf to the world, there's got to be more to it than that." He added before looking around the room, "I'll grab us a couple of coffees and you can tell me more about this "tog" account." He laughed, using his hands to make the quotation marks, showing he didn't really believe her.
He made his way back to the table, placing two lattes down as he sat back down next to her, "Ready to tell me now?" He asked, watching as she leaned forward to add 2 sugars to her drink and pick it up, taking a tentative sip.
"You're not gonna let this go are you?" She sighed as she looked up at him to see him shaking his head with a cheeky smile on his face. "Ugh, okay. It was just a random account that I didn't recognise, they'd commented on my photo and I thought I'd try and figure out who it was, but alas, there were no clues." She shrugged, leaning back again as she continued to drink her coffee.
"Are you sure there wasn't a single clue?" He questioned her.
"None." She shook her head, "Just a load of random photos like you said." She added, placing her coffee down to get her phone out. She searched for the account, as it popped up she noticed some new photos had been added to their page, photos that had a familiarity to her. "They're here?" She spoke in a confused tone as she turned her phone to show him the photos. There were a couple showing the Sakhir race track, and some of the desert as well, with some of the local wildlife.
He laughed as he glanced over her screen, "This is what distracted you so much that day?" He asked, the humour showing on his face.
"What's so funny?" She had a stern look showing, confused about his response.
"It's me." He replied, using his hands to frame his face with a wide smile.
"You? But I already have your account?" The confusion only getting worse for her now.
"You have my racing driver account, this is my photography one." He chuckled as he picked his coffee up finally, drinking it.
This revelation didn't really help much, it didn't answer how she was following the account back but didn't recognise it, she only followed those she knew, so why would she have followed the account without knowing? She decided to just forget about it for now, she finished her week in the desert and was back home in rainy Watford before she knew it.