After the accident, Vienna moved back to Bristol, which was where she was born, as she lost her seat and couldn't return to racing. She spent more time with family and became closer with her friends from school. One of her friends' family, Sophie Samuel, owned a small coffee shop opposite a beach. Sophie recently got the shop passed down to her as her parents decided to retire at 50 and travel the world until they get too tired to.
The interior of the shop was really simple, black walls, white tile flooring, marble counters, wooden tables and chairs with metal legs that matched the shelves oddly placed around the room with the miscellaneous fake plants that stood out against the black paint and there's a record player towards the back of the shop which is constantly playing some sort of soft jazz quietly in the backgroud of the chatter of costumers. It's honestly a minimalistic mum's dream.
"Hey, Vie!" Sophie sang after she swung the door open, scaring a few customers with her loud entrance, and started walking towards the office at the back of the shop.
"Hey Soph!" Vienna sang back while making a cappuccino for a regular customer. He was a real estate agent who sells mostly holiday homes and he looked like he was sent from heaven... Except he was married and had two children.
"There you go Mark, have a good day." Vienna gave Mark his Cappuccino with a smile.
"Thank you, Vienna, you too." Mark replied, returning the smile and walking towards the door.
Without realising who was next in line, Vienna started asking them for their order.
"Welcome to Samuel's Coffee House! what can I-." She then looked up to see the brown curly hair, the soft blue, and the short beard and her heart drops.
"Vienna Valentine?" The man said in surprise.
"Max Fewtrell?" Vienna exchanged the expression.
On the other side of the counter, was Max Fewtrell standing there in surprise wearing a Quadrant sweatshirt, navy shorts, and blue Nike dunks with white socks peeking out of them. Max and Vienna knew each other as Max was like a mentor to Vienna in her early racing days.
"How have you been?" Vienna asked Max, trying to break the awkward silence.
"I've been amazing actually, content creation's been doing well at the moment, how about you?" Max answered with a smile.
"I've been good... Yeah... I'm enjoying it back home." Vienna returned the smile and then it went silent. After a few seconds, Vienna realised that she should probably get back to work.
"What coffee would you like?" Vienna asked Max still with a small smile on her face.
"I'd like a medium iced mocha and a large cappuchino please Vienna." Max answered her and her smile dropped a little bit realising who that other coffee is for. After Vienna made the coffees' she decided it was best to make sure that Lando wasn't in the shop.
"He isn't here, right?" Vienna asked Max anxiously while handing him the coffees'. It took Max a moment to realize who she was talking about.
"He isn't in the shop, but he's in the area, I won't tell him I saw you but he might see you around.. Thanks for the coffee" Max answered honestly and turned to walk away but before he could get to the door he turned around which caught Vienna's attention.
"He still talks about you." Max said and left which sent a ping of gulity through Vienna's body.
Vienna asked one of her colleagues to cover for her and she rushed to Sophie's office in shock of what just happened. Luckily, the office wasn't that far from the counter.
"Oh my god. What happened to you?" Sophie asked looking concerned. And after Vienna explained everything to her while her friend was in her office, Sophie came up with something that always made Vienna feel better.
"Message Mils, we're going for a girls' night out."
