Racing Love

Chapter 3

Vic put her headphones up and plugged them up. Everyone got ready for the practice session in the garage. She is supposed to sit with the team but she choose to sit inside the comms room inside the garage rather than outside. Charles had taken the upgrades and was the first car to be outside.

He was on his out lap and there was a bit of anticipation in the garage to see if the updates work. Vic was a bit nervous too. Charles crossed the line and stated his timed lap. Vic looked onto the screen keenly. So did everyone in the garage. Carlos sat in the car and was looking at the screen.

Purple sector. Vic closed her fists. "Come on. Come on" she huffed.

Purple sector. "He is flying" Carlos said.

Purple sector. And top on the timing. Vic puched the air once but also composed herself a bit. Mercedes, McLaren and Red Bull drivers crossed the lines and Charles was over half a second faster than the rest of the gird.

"Feedback Charles?" Bryan his engineer asked. "I think we all owe an apology to Vikki. The car is incredible" he said. Vic relaxed a bit. Fred entered the room with a huge smile. She patted her shoulder twice.

"Good job Vikki" he said. He gave a short nod.

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That day went by swiftly. The upgrades was now put on both the cars and both the drivers were happy about it.  She was in her room and didn't come outside from her room just as Ricci and Bryan, race engineers of Carlos and Charles only came in handing out her data.

Carlos wanted to talk to her. He felt bad. The least he could have done was atleast say something nice when she was put on the spot. Charles felt bad too. But he was able to put it out on the radio to the world that he was sorry that it happened. Carlos just took the upgrades, went out felt good, did very good lap times.

He passed her room a few times, could see the feeble lamp light from below the door. "Is she even alive inside?" he asked Ricci.

"Oh very much. And she is focused as a laser" he replied. The day just went by him debating if he should talk with her or not. He did his training, had a meeting with the team where he hoped he would see her but didn't and went over the data. Everyone slowly started to leave the Paddock.

"You coming, honey?" Rebecca asked him. "No. Go on. I still have some work to do. Rupert can take you" he said informing his trainer and he obliged.

Carlos rested few hours in his driver room looking at some onboards and stuff. When he noticed the time and saw it was past 8 at night, he decided to leave for the hotel. He passed by Vic's door and noticed the lamp light on still.

He looked around to see if anyone was still there in their motor room and pretty much everyone left. He again debated if he should go inside but then decided he should. It was pretty late. He slowly knocked on the door and there was no response.

He slowly opened the door and it was complete silence. She was not on her desk but on the couch with her glasses on hair tied in a messy bun sleeping. She looked relaxed. Her breathing was stable. Carlos had noticed that she always had a restless demenour. Though he was never near her he always felt her heart was pounding on her chest. She had a bit of ragged breathing. In her one week of work where they had no contact except walking past each other, this the the most calm he has ever seen her.

He slowly made his way towards her. She had few papers on her chest. He picked them up and noticed it to be her notes. She had stuff scribled down and his name caught his attention.

'Carlos' it said with a little chilli that she had drawn beside his name. 'Loves understeer. Does not like last minute changes. Patient. Intelligent. Fast.' It said under his name. 'PS: has lovey dovey puppy eyes' A big smile formed on the driver's face. Her analysis was spot on actually and he was impressed. She turned around and checked if Charles had the same analysis. He did find his name.

'Fast. Quali King.' That's it. Charles was pretty and girls loved him. The fact that he had two words but he himself had a sentence called 'lovey dovey eyes' made his heart flutter a bit. Why is he feeling it? He doesn't know. Did he like it? He loved it.

He placed the notes on her table and bent down to take her hand. "Hey" he gave a small pressure to her wrist which made her squirm.

"Vikki. Come on. It's late" he said softly. Once she comprehended who was talking to her she opened her eyes. "Oh..sorry! I must have dozed off" she said slowly getting up.

"What time is it?" she asked rubbing her eyes.

"Late" he replied straight. She got up from the spot and removed her hair tie. She straightened her hair and tied it in a pony. Carlos didn't understand why but he liked looking at her when she is tieing her hair. She straightened out her dress and picked up her phone. She searched around for something.

"Can I help?" he asked.

"My car keys"she replied and checked in her drawers and arund the table. Carlos checked the couch but seems they just couldn't find it anywhere. More she searched more she felt restless.

"Carlos, I don't wanna hold you up. Please leave. It's already late. You have Quali tomorrow" she said as she ruffled through her bag.

"Yeah. That is not happening. I am not leaving you alone here at this time" he said sternly. Vic huffed and felt bad.

"Fine. Let's leave. May be I can get a taxi or something. I am not holding you up" she said.

"What? Vic we literally live in the same hotel 2 rooms apart. Come on let me take you back" he said.

"No. Carlos. I don't wanna be-" he took her bag from her hand. "I am taking you" he said walking towards the door. Vic stood there and looked at him trying to process what was happening. In doing that all she could notice was how good he looked, this late at night, after two session on track. Carlos turned around and looked at her.

"What?" he asked that got her out of the zone.

"Nothing" she said walking towards him. "Let's go" she said.