You're the risk I'm gonna take it

Chapter 8

30th of August 2nd practice
Max arrived yesterday and we all hang out and talk about the race and the days that past. Today I decided to sit at the balcony paddock again, but that time by myself. Max was in the garage with everybody else. I felt a little jealous and bored up here. So I took as many pictures as I could. After a while the second practise finished and I headed down towards the garages. A message came up my phone and while I was looking at it I bumped to someone.
"I'm so sorry.." I said to the person I bumped into.
"Watch where you going next time" the voice said. I looked up and I saw a tall figure looking at me.
"I said I was sorry, I was destructed ok?" I said a little bit irritated.
"Is everything okay?" Lando asked while walking towards us.
"Yeah everything is fine" I answered.
"No it's not, I except a real apology from this chick, cause all those girls come here to try to find a boyfriend and seduce one of us. Girl we don't want to, so back off!" He finished his sentence.
"Excuse me?! What the heck are you talking about?" I started to get angry.
"Lawson, stop it please, you don't want to go there."Lando start saying.
"What?! I am only saying the truth!" Lawson said.
In the meantime people were gathering all around us. I started to feel uncomfortable.
"Look buddy, I don't know what are you talking about I was just walking while looking at my phone and bumped on you by accident! I said I was sorry so leave me alone and continue with your life!" I said and started walking away towards the paddock exit.
"Don't worry you'll bump into someone else in the next few days I'm sure of it and you'll have your chance with one of us.." Lawson said.
I was ready to run and slap him but someone else beat me by shoving him on the wall. That was Lando.
"I said that's enough!" Lando said between his teeth.
"Ok Norris relax, what's wrong with you?!" He asked.
"She is my girlfriend, you idiot!" Lando said and everybody that were near heard him.
"Oh wow sorry mate I didn't know!" Lawson said.
"Yeah if you could think first and then talk we wouldn't be in this situation!" Lando said.
Max grabbed him and pulled him away from Lawson.
"Ok mate, I think he understood, let's go." Max said to Lando.
Lando turned and searched me. He found me frozen and in shock of what just happened. I felt like everything had stopped after he said that I was his girlfriend in front of those people. I tried to snap out of it and ignore the whispers all around me. I started walking towards the exit again without even hearing the boys calling me. I had reached Max's rented car and I was waiting till Max came and we got into the car.
"Where is Lando?" I asked him.
"He is coming later with his own car" he responded.
"What the heck was that?" I asked.
"That was Lawson, a reserved driver who thinks he is the next champion when he will have his own seat." He said.
"I didn't do anything! I said I was sorry! I really don't understand.." I was so confused that I almost started crying. "And then Lando told him that we are together, not that that was the problem, the problem is that everyone else who were there heard it too! I don't want any tabloids with my pictures on it."
"I say let's get to the hotel and we will figure everything out." Max said.
I looked at him and didn't speak for the rest of the ride and until Lando came to Max's bedroom.
Lando run and hugged me tightly.
"I'm sorry, are you alright? I didn't want that to happen that way.." Lando start saying.
"I'm fine, I just, I'm in sock cause I don't want to get recognised now, I don't want to ruin any of your image." I said to Lando
Lando laughed a little. "What image Artemis?"
"You know the single's guys image, maybe it was good for your reputation." I said
"Don't be silly, if I have a girlfriend it's not gonna ruin my image, the thing is that now that all this happened I don't want you to leave you alone anywhere. You should be with Max in the garage." Lando said.
"No Lando, I think the best thing for us is to leave from Italy and lay low so they can forget about me. The good thing is that they don't know anything about me except maybe my name. And all my social media are private and my work is in Greek."
"No Artemis!" Lando said.
"Please Lando, I'll watch it from my TV with my cousins and we will meet after the race" I said
Meanwhile Max had understood that we needed to talk privately and he had left his room.
"Please don't go...we had fun these past few days" Lando said.
I came closer to him and grabbed his hand. Kissed him gently and hugged him.
"Babe we are not breaking up you know" I laughed. He smiled and hugged me.
"I know I just want you with me all the time." He said.
"Yeah I want that too, but please try to understand me too. You're in the spotlight most of the time and I don't want that. It's too early for me." I said
"Ok, so what do you want to do?" He asked me
"I don't want to go to the garage the next days so they can forget about me if they don't see me, but I don't want to go back home either cause I want to be with you." I said.
"I have an idea, you'll stay here for the rest of the weekend and you'll see the race from here. That means that you'll check from your hotel and come here." Lando suggested.
"Okay..we'll do that" I smiled and kissed him.
"You go with max to pick up your things and I'll go out for a run so I can lure the media out of the hotel's perimeter and you can sneak in". He said.
"Wow you thought everything mister Norris!" I laughed again.
"Anything for you my lady Diana" he leaned and kissed me.
And we did as he said. I return to my hotel packed my things, checked out of it and drove back to their hotel with Max. The rest of the day passed by watching Netflix and hanging out.
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31st of August Qualifying
The quali went pretty well. Lando got pole position and I was very happy for him! I left the TV open while I was going to grab my charger from the bedroom when I heard the post interviews from today.
"So Lando, congratulations again for your pole position today, how do you feel about it? Do you believe that there is a potential win for tomorrow's race?" The reporter asked him
"Thank you! I feel great, the car is were is should be and we just always hoping for the best results. We will try our best as always for tomorrow."
"Thank you, one last question for you, what exactly happened yesterday after the second practice? We saw some tension between you and Liam Lawson over a girl and people heard you call her your girlfriend. Are you out of the market? Where is she now?" She asked.
I was nervously biting my lips waiting for Lando's responds.
"I think that those things are not anyone's concern. You are here to ask me about my job and not my personal life. And I think my fans want to see me happy even if I have a girlfriend or not." He answered.
"Yeah I understand that but your fans want to know.." she kept asking.
"I think that I'll like my personal life private until I'll share anything about it. As I said before we are here to answer race questions, if you have anymore questions about the qualifying I'm here to answer them." Lando said a little bit irritated.
I lower the voice as the interview continued and texted Lando to asked him when is he coming back.
Artemis:
So proud of your results today! Text me when you coming back whenever you can ❤️
An hour past and I had fallen asleep on the sofa till I heard the door open and Lando came in.
"Hey babe! How are you feeling?" I asked him after I hugged him and kissed him.
"Tired and irritated by the interviewer's questions about us" he said and sat on the sofa.
"Well your answer were pretty good and honest you didn't say anything about us neither you lied about being single." I said.
"Yeah I know it's just that it gets into my nerves when they ask personal stuff out of the blue when their jobs is to ask about our performance and driving...Anyway I'm going to take a shower, are you hungry?"
"I agree with you...um a little bit I think. Do you have any preference?" I asked.
"No, What you like order...I'm sorry that we can't go out tonight, I need to rest and probably head early to bed.."
"Babe it's fine, you have a race tomorrow and you need to rest I get it, no need to apologise about it. Now please go to the shower cause you smell pretty bad" I laughed.
"Thanks for the compliment babe I appreciate it." And he closed the bathroom door behind him.
I ordered some food and watched the next episode of the series. After that Lando went to bed. I stayed longer up because I needed to check something about my jobs. After that I also went to bed.
———————————-
1st of September Race day
Race day and Lando was gone pretty early from the hotel room. I decided to have some breakfast down at the restaurant. I had a few hours until the race starts so I decided to walk a little. The town was quieter due to the race today so I felt more relaxed to stroll around town. I took some pictures and walked back at the hotel. I ordered some food and opened the TV to watch the race. It hadn't started yet but you could see the preparation that it's been going on. The camera went through the McLaren garage but I didn't see Lando anywhere. At that moment my phone started buzzing. It was Lando calling me.
"Hey!" I answered.
"Hey babe! How are you? Did you have a good sleep?" He asked me.
"I'm fine I just ordered some food and I've put the race on TV and I didn't see you anywhere."
"Yeah I'm in the cool room trying to relax and concentrate before the race." He said
"Are you nervous?" I asked him.
"We all are in every race cause we won't the pest results all the time" he answered.
"Ok mister Norris thank you for your time!" I said and laughed.
"Why are you laughing?" He asked me.
"Cause you sound like you're giving an interview" I said.
"Oh, sorry, it's just everyone is asking me questions about today and how the results are going to be and my mind is all over the place."he said.
"Well, you're going to do your best as always no matter the results, whatever place you'll get I'm still proud of you and I'm going to be supportive of you! Just focus on the race." I said to him.
"Thanks babe I appreciate it a lot! Look I need to go so enjoy the race and think what you wanna do after. I got to go." He said and hang up the phone. After an hour the race started. Sometimes Lando's car popped on the my screen and I could hear his voice from the radio. He was doing good but in the end Ferrari's driver Charles Leclerc won the race, and he came third.
Artemis:
I know that you wanted to do better but I'm very happy for you and proud! ❤️
I texted him, and then called Max
"Hey Artemis!" Max answered.
"Hey Max! How's everything over there?" I asked him.
"Pretty hectic, we are heading to the podiums" Max said.
"Great! How is he? Did you get to see him?" I asked.
"Not yet, probably after the ceremony and the interviews..do you want me to tell him to call you?" He asked.
"No, I'll wait, have fun and enjoy it. See you later!" I said and we ended our call.
I watched the rest of the celebrations and left the TV open so I can hear the post interviews while packing for tomorrow and making the room. After that I decided to take a shower. By the time I got out of the shower and changed I had got a message from Lando.
Lando ❤️:
Thanks babe ❤️ I'll be there in a few hours...sorry a lot of stuff still to do.
I sat in the couch and decided to watch a movie to pass my time. My phone rang and I saw my mom's picture coming up.
"Hey mom! What's up?" I asked her.
"Hello honey! Everything's good, I called to see how you doing and to ask you if you having fun.." she said.
"Everything is great! I'm in the hotel room right now just relaxing and waiting for Lando to return." I said. My parents knew that I met someone and started dating him a couple weeks ago. They always are very supportive of me and mostly all my decisions.
"Great! How was the race? Your dad tried to put it on the TV but he couldn't."
"Yeah it's a channel that you need to pay to have it, like Netflix, but it's more expensive than that. You don't need to pay for it I'll find the race for you to watch next time from somewhere else."
"Okay, so...is he there? When are we going to meet that Lando?" She asked.
"He's not here yet mom, and you'll meet him when the time is right! It's still early for these kind of meetings and plus I don't want to scare him" I said.
"What that suppose to mean?" She asked in shock.
"Mom come on, we are Greeks, he is British these are two totally different cultures. We are loud, very touchy and we like to learn everything."
"Oh fiine!" My mom said defeated. That moment the hotel door opened and Lando came in.
"Hey babe, you look exhausted.." I stand up and kissed him.
"I am, who are you talking to?" He asked and try to see my phone.
"Oh, my mom, she's been asking to meet you..but you don't have to.." I said to him.
"No it's fine, I'll just say hi" he leaned forward so his face will be in front of the screen. "Hello misses.." he looked at me "Natalie" I whispered
"Hello misses Natalie, I'm Lando, nice to meet you." He said.
"Hello my boy, it's nice meeting you too! We heard from our daughter about your race today, good job!" She said to him.
"Thank you very much, you'll have to excuse me now cause I'm really tired, I hope we meet in person one day!" He said it and looked at me smiling.
"Me too Lando, have a nice rest!" My mom said
"He seems cute.." my mom added before Lando closed the bathroom door.
"Mom!" I said
Lando was laughing in the bathroom.
"I'll have to go, I haven't seen him all day, bye bye love you!"
"Love you too honey bye!!" And we hanged up the phone.
I waited for Lando to finish. He went out of the bathroom fresh and clean and lay in the couch with his head on my thighs. He let me play with his hair for a bit while we were sitting in the silence. After a while he spoke.
"Charles invited me to celebrate his win at a restaurant"
"Okay, what you want to do?" I asked him.
"I wanted to ask you if you want to go.."
"I'm fine, even if we don't go, if you want us to go we will go."
"Okay we have to leave in a hour then." He said and stood up to go prepare for tonight.
"Um okay that was fast...I'll find something appropriate to wear.." I said and started to get ready..
After an hour we were just parked outside the restaurant. At that moment I felt nervous. Lando saw that and took my hand.
"Don't be nervous, they're chill if they don't drive" he smiled at me and we went into the restaurant.