Free Now- Lando Norris

6. Life's unfair

"So then... are you going to stop asking me random questions about this place and tell me why you're really here?" Daniel asked, looking at Lando.

He'd been so pleased when Lando had called to ask if he could come and visit him while he was in Australia, even if it had been rather out of the blue. But when his former teammate had arrived he'd quickly realised something was wrong. Every attempt Daniel had made to ask about it, Lando had just gone off on a tangent, asking seemingly more and more irrelevant questions about the place and what Daniel had been up to as a way to deflect the attention away from himself.

"I told you, I wanted to come and visit. I miss having you around every weekend." Lando shrugged. "I'd come and visit more often but you decided to live on the opposite end of the planet."

"I've been in Monaco just down the street from you half of the year and you were always too busy." Daniel pointed out. "Also, you're still as bad at lying as you were when we were teammates. So come on, tell me."

"It's fine." Lando dismissed. "I'm sure you don't want to listen to me complain about absolutely nothing."

"I've got time now, I'm retired." Daniel joked.

"Do you miss it?" Lando asked curiously, picking at a loose thread on his shorts.

"Yeah..." Daniel said slowly. "I miss it, but I think I miss the days when it was good, if you know what I mean? I miss being there with everyone, but I don't miss the constant pressure to deliver and being torn apart for not meeting other people's expectations. So yeah, I miss it but maybe not the way people think I would."

"I think I get it." Lando nodded.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on now?" Daniel raised an eyebrow. "Why are you really here?"

"I told you, I wanted to come and see you." Lando repeated.

"You know, Carlos called me yesterday to find out if you were really coming to visit me or not. He thought maybe it was just an excuse you'd come up with because you were still avoiding him." Daniel said.

"I told him I couldn't play golf with him one time." Lando let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm not sure that really counts as avoiding him. I was in Dubai doing some sponsor stuff on the way here. I wasn't even in the right country, and he thinks I'm avoiding him?"

"Alright, no need to bite my head off." Daniel held his hands up in mock surrender. "I think he has a point though. Normally you'd rearrange whatever you had to and never turn down the chance for a round of golf with Carlos."

"I'm tired." Lando shrugged. "I didn't feel like playing golf."

"Which brings me back to the question of why you're avoiding Carlos." Daniel repeated. "Well, I don't even think it's just Carlos, is it? I saw Max a few times when I was in Monaco and he said he hadn't heard from you at all since before the end of the season."

"I've been busy." Lando shrugged. "You're really annoying now you're retired and you've got time to pay attention to other people's problems, you know that?"

Daniel laughed, and the sound was so infectious that despite his sour mood Lando couldn't help but smile back at him. "I get that you don't want to talk about it, I've been there and done that... but I'm here, if you change your mind. Don't let it fuck with your head too much. You won't do yourself any favours trying to keep it all in."

"Thanks, Danny."

"And call Carlos back." He added. "He really, really wants to play golf with you by the sounds of things."

"I think he's just hit the depression point of realising in a couple of weeks he's got to actually drive that Williams in a race." Lando shrugged. "He wants to play golf to take his mind off it."