"What if we're better as a team?" Lando asked, his gaze softening.
"We're better as rivals," Rose replied, her heart pulling her in two directions.
In this world of speed ambition friendship and love, every race could change everything-on and off th...
Lando stood on the balcony of his apartment in Monaco, staring out at the calm waters of the harbor below. The city's glitz and glamour felt muted tonight, unable to distract him from the knot of emotions twisting in his chest. Monaco had always been his escape, a place where he could clear his head between races, but tonight, it felt suffocating.
Pulling out his phone, Lando scrolled through Instagram, unable to stop himself from checking Rose's profile again. There it was—another photo from her vacation in the south of France. She looked beautiful, seated at a quaint café, sipping wine with her usual effortless grace. And then the comments—people speculating that Franco was with her, based on his own posts from the same location. Lando clenched his jaw, a familiar wave of jealousy rising inside him. The idea of them together made Lando's stomach turn.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It wasn't fair.
Lando had kept his feelings for Rose buried deep ever since their days of karting as kids. From the start, something always stood in the way—first, it was Rose's crush on his older brother, Oliver. Lando watched helplessly as Rose's admiration for Oliver grew, and while Oliver, the karting prodigy, seemed oblivious to her feelings, Lando wasn't. He saw the way her eyes lit up around his brother, and though it stung, he accepted it.
But everything changed when Oliver got married three years ago. Lando thought it would finally give him the chance to step out from his brother's shadow. Yet Rose found comfort elsewhere, jumping into a relationship with Arthur Leclerc. It all happened in the middle of Lando's first season in Formula 1, and from the start, he knew it was doomed. In the middle of the summer break, when the heat of both the season and his emotions peaked, everything started to unravel. Rose and Arthur, both fierce competitors, were locked in a battle for the F2 championship, and the media turned their relationship into a spectacle. Every glance, every race, every win or loss was scrutinized, making their love life as intense as their rivalry. It was too much. What began with mutual admiration soon twisted into resentment, and before long, they couldn't even stand to be in the same room, let alone share the same track. When they finally broke up, it broke something in Rose too.
Lando had vowed never to risk it—their careers and rivalry were too important. He'd seen how Rose's relationship with Arthur had crumbled under the weight of competition. It started off strong, with them pushing each other to be better. But as the stakes grew higher, their rivalry sharpened, and the pressure of fighting for the same glory ripped them apart. What had once been supportive turned painfully personal. Lando didn't want that to happen to him and Rose. He couldn't bear the thought of them falling apart the same way.
No, he told himself, he'd keep things as they were—simple, lighthearted. They were best friends, rivals on the track. That's how it had to stay. Because if he let himself feel more, if he let her in, everything could come crashing down, and this time, it wouldn't just be their relationship at risk, but their careers, their dreams—everything they had worked so hard to build.
