Arriving back into Nice airport a quiet anxiety had settled over Aimee about whether she had made the right decision.
Despite the speed at which Lando marched through the airport, head down and hat pulled over his face, as he kept hold of her hand she was aware of all the cameras pointed in their direction.
Something she was going to have to get used to, but it might be easier said than done.
It wasn't as though she was entirely unused to it, she tried to reason with herself. She'd spent years walking through the paddock with drivers as fans and photographers flocked around them and she'd never thought twice about it. It was just this time she knew her, and her relationship with Lando, was the topic of all the gossip.
"Are you okay?" Lando asked quietly, continuing to pull her along behind him as the crowd slowly thinned out nearer the spot where his car was parked.
"That's going to take some getting used to." Aimee joked weakly, giving his hand a squeeze.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to it." He sighed. "Hopefully it'll die down a bit? At some point someone's got to do something more interesting than the two of us just existing, right?"
"Yeah." Aimee nodded. "It's fine, I'll be fine. We can do this." She repeated it like a mantra, trying to convince herself.
"We'll be fine." Lando repeated, unlocking the car and putting their bags in. Aimee climbed into the passenger seat, already relaxing a little at the thought of being safely shut in the car.
"Lily's been texting wanting to know if she can come over later." Aimee told him as he headed out on to the road, looking up from her phone.
"She asked me." Lando nodded. "I said I wasn't sure if you'd be up for company or not so she'd better ask you."
Aimee was quiet for a minute, thinking. "You don't mind?"
Lando shook his head. "Of course I don't, but only if you want to see them."
"Maybe I'll just get it over and done with." Aimee said hesitantly. "Like ripping off the bandaid."
"They're not mad at you." Lando reminded her. "There's nothing to be worried about."
Aimee hummed a noise that wasn't disagreeing with him, but didn't sound like she entirely believed him as she sent a message back to Lily. "We can get some takeout? I don't want to go out."
"Sounds good." Lando nodded. "I'll get back on my diet tomorrow." The last part was said with such distain Aimee couldn't hold back a laugh.
"Don't worry, I won't tell Jon." She promised.
"You might not but Oscar would definitely grass me up just to watch me suffer." Lando rolled his eyes. "I can't get away with anything anyway, Jon's got some kind of sixth sense that just seems to know when I'm about to go off the plan."
Aimee was interrupted by Lando's phone ringing on the hands free in the car before she could say anything. The pair of them frowned as they looked at the screen and saw it was Christian Horner calling.
"Hi, Christian." Lando greeted him as he answered the phone.
"Hi, Lando." Came the response. "Sorry to interrupt your summer break, but I thought I'd better keep you in the loop."
Aimee saw the way Lando glanced over at her, this was clearly going to be about Tom. "It's okay." She whispered.
"What is it, Christian?" Lando asked hesitantly.
"We terminated Tom's contract with the team this morning." Christian explained. "Given he'd lied about being fired from McLaren it wasn't too hard to do and he hasn't got a case to argue it. You won't be seeing him around the paddock anymore."
"That's great." Lando nodded, although he had a feeling there was about to be a 'but' because Christian had chosen to call him when this could've easily been a text message.
"But..." Christian sighed.
Lando's stomach flipped, here it comes he thought to himself. Aimee had somwhere along the line grabbed hold of Lando's forearm, fingers digging into his skin so hard he was left wondering if it was going to bruise.
"He didn't take it too well, as expected." Christian explained. "He did quite a bit of damage to the building, punched a couple of security guards and the guy from HR... we had to call the police."
"Well, I can't say I'm surprised." Lando shook his head. "That sounds about right for him. I'm sorry for the trouble it's caused you, Christian. But I can't do much about it?"
"It's not that I need you to fix it, they'll make him pay for the damages." Christian sighed.
"Well, what is it then?" Lando prompted.
"When I was talking to the police, they were masking about what had gone on, why he was being fired and all that. I told them what had happened, I kind of had to as an explanation for all the stuff he was shouting... they want to talk to Aimee and get a statement."
Lando glanced over at Aimee quickly. She seemed to be frozen, staring out of the windscreen at the road ahead as she gripped onto his arm tighter than he would've thought was possible.
"Can you uh... can you just send me their details and I'll talk to her?" Lando got out eventually. His mind was spinning and he was still trying to keep enough focus on the road in front of him to avoid crashing.
"Of course, sending it now."
"Thanks, Christian." Lando mumbled, hanging up the call.
There was absolute silence in the car except for the engine and the occasional tick of the indicators as he mannered his way through the traffic as they got closer to Monaco.
"Did he really smash the Red Bull office up?" Aimee asked in disbelief, eventually breaking the silence.
"I'd have to ask Christian what actually happened, but yeah. It sounds like it. What an idiot."
"Do you think they'll lock him up for it?" Aimee asked. "It must count as criminal damage?"
Lando shrugged his shoulders. "That and assaulting the security guys. You'd like to think he wouldn't get away with it, but honestly who knows."
Aimee was quiet for a moment, not really registering that they were already parked in the under ground garage of Lando's apartment building. Neither of them made any move to get out.
"You think I should do it, don't you?" She asked quietly.
"Do I think he deserves prison for what he did to you? Absolutely." Lando said. "But if you don't want to relieve it all and have to testify then I'll support you. Maybe they'll have enough just on what he did at Red Bull?"
He was trying to hide quite how strongly he would love to see Tom end up behind bars for what he'd done to Aimee. At this stage it might give him more joy than winning a world championship ever could. But he knew how she felt about the idea, so he tried to stay as neutral about it as he could.
"Yeah, maybe." Aimee mumbled.
YOU ARE READING
Stay With Me- Lando Norris
Fanfiction*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.
