Lando had been antsy the whole way through his media obligations and the team discussions after practice. He'd all but dragged Oscar out of the paddock, dashing past the fans to get to the car.
"Will you just calm down?" Oscar sighed as he got into the drivers seat. "She'll be asleep, Lily said she looked awful when they got back to the hotel."
Lando pulled out his phone trying to call Aimee again, but Oscar snatched it out of his hand before he could hit the dial button.
"Just calm down and let the poor girl sleep." Oscar rolled his eyes at his teammate. "It's fifteen minutes back to the hotel. You'll survive. If there was something else going on Lily would've called."
"Right." Lando agreed, although he sounded uncertain. "Sorry, I'm stressed... I don't think I did the right thing bringing her here. The car is a piece of shit and I've got no idea how I'm supposed to get it round quali tomorrow never mind the race and..."
"Trust me mate, I get it." Oscar smiled ruefully, raising an eyebrow. He'd been the one struggling with the car and its sudden inability to take a corner the most, taking several rather unplanned excursions across the gravel and grass as he tried to navigate the track.
"Good point." Lando laughed. "I suppose I should thank you for making me look a bit less shit."
"Hopefully they'll be able to do something with it because it's going to be a really long weekend for both of us if not." Oscar groaned. "I don't know how I didn't end up in the wall the second time."
"Me neither." Lando shook his head in disbelief.
"Do you think Aimee will come back to work?" Oscar asked as a silence descended over the car.
"It never even occurred to me that she wouldn't until I saw her face this morning." Lando admitted.
"I can't believe I had no idea what he was doing all that time." Oscar shook his head. "We went out for drinks one night not that long after he started and he was making all these weird comments and jokes about his girlfriend but I didn't put two and two together that it was Aimee. I think by the time he told me they were engaged I'd just forgotten about it... Apart from that one night he seemed like a nice guy. I was asking her about the wedding plans in Monaco the day before all that happened for gods sake."
"I know." Lando nodded. "I've been through it all about a thousand times trying to work out if I could've done something to stop it reaching that point."
"How long did you know for?" Oscar asked curiously. "Because you two were pretty friendly even before Monaco?"
"I over heard her on the phone to him at the Christmas party." Lando admitted. "I didn't put it together at the time but a couple of weeks later. I should've done something... all that time."
"Something tells me she'd have kicked your ass for interfering if you tried."
Oscar offered as a form of comfort. "Probably in the same way she's going to kick your ass for calling her two hundred times while she was trying to sleep."
"Two hundred times is a bit of an exaggeration." Lando rolled his eyes. "I'm just worried about her."
"Well, we're here, so get out and then you can stop stressing." Oscar pulled the car up outside the hotel.
"Cheers, Osc!" Lando called, springing out of the car and running past the fans waiting outside the hotel with an apologetic wave.
****
Aimee felt like something of a fugitive as she snuck out of the side door of the hotel to go and meet Tom. She'd told him she'd meet him at the park just down the road in the end, realising there were fans gathered around the entrance of the hotel and she didn't want anyone to see them.
She wasn't entirely sure why she was going, other than the fact he'd asked and she still didn't seem to be able to say no to him.
It was a public place in broad daylight after all, what was he going to do to her?
Her bigger worry was that Lando might never forgive her if he ever found out.
Her stomach flipped again, a mixture of nerves and guilt over lying to Lily who'd come to the room to check on her. Aimee had practically shoved her back out of the door saying she just needed to sleep.
She did a double take as she rounded the corner into the park and found Tom sitting on the bench waiting, wearing a Red Bull team uniform. It was like being transported back in time to when they'd first met. When they'd been happy, before everything that had followed.
"So that's what you were doing in the paddock?" She asked, sitting down on the opposite end of the bench. "You're back at Red Bull."
Tom nodded. "They were pretty keen to have me back actually. I've moved back to Milton Keynes."
"I put your stuff into storage, from the house. You didn't answer me." Aimee told him. This might be okay, if they could just keep it matter of fact, deal with the practicality of it they'd be okay.
"I suppose you didn't need it now you're living in Monaco." Tom raised an eyebrow.
"We're not going to talk about me and Lando. In fact I'm not really sure why I'm here at all?"
"So it's true, you and him? You're together?" Tom asked.
"We're...." Aimee stopped, searching for the words. She wasn't really sure what she'd describe it as. It was a sensitive topic with Tom too. "It's complicated."
"So I was right?"
Aimee shook her head. "No, nothing happened before we.... Before what happened in Monaco."
"I um... i wanted to ask you why you didn't give the police a statement." Tom said quietly. "Does he know you didn't?"
Aimee stared at him. She had no real answer for that question. Not one that she wanted to share with him anyway.
"Look, Tom. I'm not sure what you thought you were going to get out of this, but I really don't want to go over all this with you again."
"You know we're going to see eachother around. You can't hide from me forever." Tom reminded her. "I am sorry Aimee, really."
That was the final straw for Aimee. "You can't just say sorry, Tom. You can't just say it like it's going to undo everything you did to me! You could've killed me, you've left me with no family, no job, no friends and absolutely no where to go. You absolutely ruined my life because you got drunk and couldn't control your temper?! And what you want to just say sorry and go back to red bull like nothing happened?"
She got up fully prepared to run all the way back to the hotel. "Aimee wait." He grabbed her wrist to stop her leaving.
The panic that consumed her at the action was on another level. He wasn't even angry, unusually, but the action was all too familiar.
"Just stop for a minute." He pleaded as she fought against him, trying to rip her wrist out of his strong grip with very little success. "Aimee, stop."
"Let go of me." She pleaded. "Please. Let go."
"I know it doesn't change what I did Aimee, but I need you to hear me say it. I really am sorry, for everything. I thought maybe you were ready to forgive me. I mean why else would you even come here?" Tom looked at her in confusion. "We were good together, Aim's. Before all this happened... we could get back to the way things were. I love you and you know he's never going to understand you, not like I do."
His grip loosened a tiny fraction and with that Aimee was gone. Running like she'd never run before back to the hotel with nothing but regrets for having been talked into meeting him in the first place.
YOU ARE READING
Stay With Me- Lando Norris
Fanfic*Completed* After discovering that one of his coworkers is in a desperate situation, Lando makes it his mission to try and help her. Except she doesn't want his help, and does everything she can to push him away.
