midnight rain [f. colapinto]

t e n

It was early the next morning, and Evita was sitting at a long meeting table in one of the motorhome's conference rooms. She sipped at a cup of tea and opened a blank document on her tablet to take notes.

Various team members entered the room and took their seats, engaging in small talk as they prepared their materials for the meeting. Watching the workers interact with each other, made Evita feel a little lonely. She missed having Carmen and Logan around. With them, she always had someone to talk to. At least she still had Alex.

Speaking of whom, Alex walked in, taking one of the last remaining open seats, right beside his engineer. He waved at Evita from across the room. Evita smiled and waved back, her mood quickly changed when she realized the only available seat was right next to her. And Franco had yet to arrive.

Her fellow Argentinian finally showed up less than a minute before the meeting started. He smiled at the team members present and upon noticing the empty chair next to Evita, smiled even brighter.

"Good morning, Beautiful," he said quietly, so no one could overhear him.

"You're late," said Evita, her mouth pulled into a frown.

Franco looked at his watch. "It isn't 9:30 yet." he countered. "I'm on time."

"If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late," said Evita. "Try to get here early next time."

"You're not my boss," said Franco, a teasing smile on his face.

"Yes, but I make you look good," she responded with a cool tone.

Franco laughed softly. "Funny, I always thought it was the other way around."

"Shut up," hissed Evita. "We have work to do."

"Whatever you say, Gorgeous."

Evita rolled her eyes and refocused her attention on James, who sat at the front of the table.
"Good morning, everyone," he began. "Thank you all for being here today, I think we have a very strong weekend ahead of us. I'd like to give a brief shout-out to Franco for stepping into the car on such short notice, all of us are thrilled to have you here."

Evita fought back a laugh. James was such a comedian.

"Can we start with a media update?" asked James. "Eva, could you just let us know how the public is reacting so far, as well as give us an idea of how things are going?"

Evita smiled warmly at him. "Of course. The fans are still warming up to the change, as we had anticipated. They're still getting used to the idea of having Franco on the team, but the Latin American fans are thrilled to be represented. Most of the comments I've seen have just been questions about Franco's performance, given his lack of experience. Hopefully, people online will be more positive after this weekend. Until then, we'll try to keep things mindful and respectful.

"As for media day yesterday, things went smoothly, aside from a scheduling mishap. Franco's interviews were great, considering I haven't worked with him on anything yet. We have a meeting planned tomorrow after qualifying to discuss those matters," said Evita calmly, consulting her notes from yesterday's media.

"We do?" whispered Franco.

"I sent you an email invite," Evita responded quietly, trying to hide her annoyance.

"You could text it to me," said Franco.

"That's unprofessional," said Evita. "Now please, pay attention." She quickly directed her attention back to James.

"That sounds perfect," he said, completely oblivious to Evita's distress. "And how are things going in your new position? Are you getting along well?"

"Things are going fantastic so far," said Evita, hoping her forced smile wasn't too obvious. "We're getting along perfectly."

"Evita has been very lovely to work with," agreed Franco.

Across the conference room, Alex started coughing, choking on his cup of coffee. "Sorry," he said once he could breathe properly. "My coffee's really hot." As soon as everyone looked away from him, he flashed a knowing grin in Evita's direction. She scowled in retaliation.

"I'm glad to hear it," said James, ignoring Alex's antics. "Now, questions for our engineers. What's the plan for the practice sessions today?"

Evita tuned out of most of the remainder of the meeting, checking back in momentarily to hear about Alex's media group. She liked hearing from the team that worked with him, their combined experience in the field helped her learn more easily.

After the meeting, Evita was finally given some peace, as Franco had to leave for his first Free Practice session as an official Formula One driver. As annoyed as she was that he was promoted, a part of her was proud that he had made the step up to F1. He was representing not just Latin America, but also her home country. She just wished he could have done it without her as his press officer.