Before you

18.

Lando's POV

When I woke up the next day, Riley was already gone.
Did this girl ever sleep?

She was still awake at 4 am and she's been gone when it's only 8 am.

I quickly put some clothes on, fixed my hair and walked out of the room. I didn't have time to worry about her right now.

It was race day, I had to grab breakfast and get ready.

Go eat breakfast was first on my list.

I walked in the breakfast hall, most of the guests in this hotel were Mclaren employees, but there were also some regular guests.

I grabbed some food, not too much though, I don't want to get nauseous in the car.

I turned around with the plate in my hand, scanned the room for a place to sit when I spotted Riley.

She was sitting alone, looked down at her plate while she was pushing her food around her plate with her fork.

I felt bad for her. I dragged her into this mess while she had her own problems.

I walked up to her, she immediately looked up and forced a smile. "Good morning"

"Good morning, can I sit down with you?" I asked.

She nodded. "If you find a seat that's free, yeah" she chuckled a little with her own joke.

"I don't know if you checked your socials already" she said as she grabbed her phone. "But we made the headlines"

She put her phone in front of me. It was a picture of the two of us, walking through the paddock.
I expected it, so I wasn't really surprised.

"At least you look pretty" I said as I gave her the phone back. She smiled a little at that. "Thanks"

She cleared her throat, pushed her plate away and looked at me. "Are you ready for the race today?"

"Oh yes I am, you will be watching in the garage, right?" I asked.

She tilted her head. "You think it's a good idea? I mean after the article, pictures and stuff"

"It's published already, we can't do anything about it anymore - so yeah I'm sure" I smiled. "I want you there"

"Okay" she nodded enthusiastically. "Then I'll be there"

Zak was gonna be so mad about that. He didn't want me to hang out with her anymore. But I definitely didn't care what he thought.

I had fun with Riley and I wanted her to be there.

"Did the article about your dad come out yet?" I asked. I didn't really want to bring up the subject, but I wanted her to know that she wasn't alone in this.

I wanted to be there for her, like she was there for me.

"Not yet, but I know it will be published today, just waiting for the notification"

"You think it's going to be bad?" I asked. Pretty stupid question because it was obviously gonna be bad.

"I know so" she sighed. "But it is what it is"

"I am here for you, no matter what" I said as I put my hand on hers and of course, just in that moment, Zak sat down with us.

She wanted to take her hand back, but I quickly intertwined our fingers. She was going no where, I was gonna defend this woman until the end.

"Lando, Riley" he nodded at both of us. "Morning Zak, how did you sleep?" I asked with a smile.

"Not that great" he mumbled. "Are you two gonna keep this act up or when is it gonna stop?"

"What act?" I tilted my head. "I really like her"

Wasn't a complete lie.

"Oh c'mon, you are doing this to get over your ex and make everyone believe you're doing fine" he said as he pointed his spoon at me.

"And you are doing this to keep your dad happy, to make him think you're responsible enough to be in charge of the company" he now pointed it at Riley.

He wasn't wrong about my part of the deal, but I always kinda worried why Riley was doing this.

Was this it?

I looked at Riley who just looked at him unimpressed.

"I don't want to keep my dad happy Zak" she said calmly. "And besides, I don't need to prove anything, I am responsible enough to do better than him"

I smiled at her, turned my head to Zak and raised my eyebrow.

He didn't have anything to say to that. He got silenced.

And fuck, I think I like this girl a little more now.