Never Again

Chapter 40: Nerves

She normally wasn't jetlagged that easily and the fact that everybody stayed on European time made the transition to being in Singapore quite smooth. She couldn't remember ever seeing one of the races in Singapore, so she was excited for the night race, everybody said it was a completely different experience. The first days she had used to get accustomed to the whole roller coaster that was Formula 1 and that's why Christian had send her out a few days earlier than she would normally do. It had all been a bit overwhelming, but just walking through the paddock in her Red Bull gear made her feel important. She was happier than she could remember and it was great to walk between the motor homes of her favourite teams.

She had had it relatively easy, but today had been rather busy as Thursdays were really the start of the weekend. She was told that on Thursdays she should keep her schedule clear as there was always someone popping in to ask to check some things or discuss parts of the car. As she was also supporting Seb's race engineer when the car was on track, with brakes and fuel management, that meant that a lot of these questions on that area would be directed to her. Indeed a few mechanic had wanted information on the brakes, Rocky had wanted to discuss some parts of the data and even Seb had came by to clarify something.

'You seem distracted,' Seb said as he noticed Keira's eyes were glazed over.

She quickly got back to reality and looked at Seb. 'I'm sorry, just thinking about how busy today has been and how much busier the weekend will become,' she smiled and focused her attention back on the food. She and Seb had gone out for dinner as it was the last time they would really have time to relax.

'You did great, a lot better than I did on my first day anyway,' he grinned and he took a sip of his water.

'It was all so hectic and there are so many different people you need to work with, how anyone can keep up is a mystery,' she said and she indeed hadn't thought she would get through this day because of the workload.

'That's just the beginning, in no time it's all normal and you'll find your own way of doing things,' he replied with encouragement. 'To be honest, you work quite similar as your predecessor, so everyone is already happy to work with you,' he smiled.

'I just hope not to fuck it up,' that was indeed her worst fear, especially because she was working on Seb's side of the garage. She had no idea how he would react if she did something that messed up his championship chances. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to work with your friends after all.

'I fucked up many times, you win and you lose together. Don't forget that,' he laughed and took another bite of his food. 'Don't worry too much, you always do that,' he added with a grin and a shake of his head.

'Oh shut up,' was her reply and she gave him the finger, but couldn't help grinning when he did the same. Luckily there weren't many other people around as it was night in Singapore, because they stayed on UK time it meant they were eating dinner during very strange hours.

After they had both eaten enough, or in Seb's case as much he was allowed to, they went back to the hotel. As it had became normal for them to be in her room or in his to hang out Seb invited her back to his room before they both had to go to sleep. Seb insisted on playing a stupid Scrabble game as he had found the game in one of the cabinets in the living room. It was an English version, so she beat him massively to Seb's displeasure. He didn't know that her sister and herself always challenged each other to use weird and uncommon words like 'aspergillum', which is an object used to sprinkle holy water in religious ceremonies. Every time she laid down a word like this he could only say things like 'honestly' and 'what are we doing here?' and frustration was visible on his face. That only made her up her game even more and her cheeks were hurting from laughing so much, because he was being utterly adorable when he was losing.