"I'm so happy you're back." Lily greeted Aimee, wrapping her in a tight hug as she stepped into Lando's apartment.
Aimee gave a cheerful wave to Oscar as he greeted Lando, Lily already dragging her further into the apartment. "It's good to see you, Lily." Aimee smiled warmly.
"I'm really sorry about... well, everything."
"I think I get it, don't worry." Lily brushed it off. "We'll talk about it another time. We'll be seeing a lot of eachother now."
Aimee smiled back at her, opening a bottle of wine and pouring them a glass each. "How was it, the move?"
"Uhhh... it took forever. Oscar did nothing but complain the entire time." Lily rolled her eyes. "We made Lando come over and help us put all the furniture together in the end although that just meant I ended up with both of them whinging at me."
Aimee laughed. "I can imagine. It'll be nice though, having you guys close."
"I haven't forgotten about that spa day."
Lily joked. "What are you doing about Zandvoort? Are you going?"
"Um..." Aimee's eyes flickered to where Lando and Oscar were still stood in the doorway chatting. "I haven't decided yet."
She wasn't sure what to do for the best. She wanted to be there to support Lando, and she didn't particularly want to spend a week on her own in Monaco, but the idea of heading back to a race after how overwhelming the last one was was terrifying.
"No pressure." Lily said quietly, breaking her out of her thoughts. "I'm going, if you wanted to join you'd be more than welcome I'm sure. Even if you just wanted to hang out in the hotel and not come to the track. I'd love the company."
"Let's see how this week goes?" Aimee proposed. "It feels weird enough being back here."
"Fair enough." Lily nodded. "Lando said you were at your parents?"
"Yeah." Aimee nodded. "I hadn't seen them in years. It was weird, but good. They loved Lando. They're actually going to come to one of the races soon. You might get to meet them."
"That sounds lovely!" Lily smiled. "What's wrong?" She asked as Aimee's face fell.
"Nothing, I just... I realised I'm going to have to brave it and get back in the paddock if I'm going to be there when my family come." Aimee said quietly, glancing over to check Lando wasn't listening.
"There's time." Lily reassured her. "Don't stress."
"Right." Aimee agreed, taking a sip of her wine. "I mean Tom's not going to be there now at least, how bad can it be?"
"What happened with that? Last I heard was Lando trying to get hold of Christian?" Lily frowned.
"I don't know the whole story, but he phoned earlier to say they'd called Tom in and sacked him and then he'd done a fair bit of damage to their offices and assaulted a couple of people." Aimee shrugged.
"You don't seem surprised?" Lily asked.
Aimee just shrugged again. "He was like that pretty much the entire time I was with him. It would've been weird if he hadn't lost it."
Aimee didn't see the hug Lily grabbed her into coming at all.
"What's going on?" She laughed, trying to untangle herself from Lily's grip after a moment.
"I just... you're amazing. Don't you ever forget that." Lily said softly. "To go through all that and still be such a wonderful person... I don't know how you do it."
"You're going to make me cry if you carry on." Aimee warned. "I don't think there's enough wine in the house for this kind of emotional talk."
"Right, sorry." Lily chuckled, blinking away a couple of stray tears. "Emotional moment over, shall we get some food ordered?"
"Thank you." Aimee said quietly.
"For what?"
"For being such a good friend."
"Stop it or I'll be the one crying!" Lily laughed, linking arms with Aimee as they went to find out what on earth Oscar and Lando were doing.
****
The week of the next race in Zandvoort came around very quickly. Lando has been carefully skirting around the topic of whether or not she was going to go with him, Aimee had assumed because he didn't want her to feel like he was putting pressure on her to go.
It was something she'd spoken about at length in the therapy sessions Sophie had made her promise to try. She was reluctant to admit to her sister quite how much it had helped, knowing she'd be delivering another one of her victory speeches, similar to when she'd surprised with Lando at their parents house.
She still hadn't entirely committed in her own mind until a couple of days before the race, when she got a text from Tracey.
Hope you're doing okay my love,
Lando filled me in on what was going on
So glad you two seem to be working things out
Take care of yourself, call me if you need
Anything. Hopefully we can catch up soon.
All my love, T xx
It was standing there reading the message that she realised how much she missed her teammates and friends. It confirmed something for her, that as nerve wracking as it was, she wanted to be there with them all. She wanted to be there with Lando.
So she'd started shoving clothes into a suitcase, probably packing far more than she needed to but she was struggling with the idea of being in the paddock without having her uniform to wear... she was really going to have to remember to ask Lily for some tips on what to wear.
"What are you doing?" Lando asked, leaning in the doorway to their bedroom as she hurried around the room.
"Packing." She answered quickly, barely looking up at him.
"For....?" He raised an eyebrow. There was a part of him that was still anxious she might be about to bolt again.
"Zandvoort." She said casually, trying to play it down in the hope he wouldn't make a big deal out of it.
"You're coming?" He asked, a big smile slowly spreading across his face.
Aimee straightened up, nodding at him as she chewed on her lip nervously. "If that's still okay?"
He crossed the room in a couple of steps, wrapping his arms around her, lifting her up off the floor and spinning her around as she laughed. "Of course it is! Best news ever."
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.
