Never Again

Chapter 52: Inattention

It had been an enjoyable dinner with Fernando, but she had struggled to finish her plate. Also the conversation was more like one-way traffic, because he liked to talk about himself very much. Sometimes he had asked her a few questions about herself, but her answer then triggered another story he remembered to share with her. To make it clear, she liked his stories, because he had the life experience of an eighty-year old. Only it made her feel so excluded, because she couldn't relate to any of his stories. She hadn't met anyone famous, of course except from Sebastian and the other drivers, and she also didn't go to fancy parties or visit expensive holiday destinations. That had made it impossible for her to contribute to the conversation and although Fernando didn't seem to mind, it made her feel like less of an equal. Seb on the other hand always knew how to make her feel included and he seemed like a regular human being, just like she was.

She noticed herself smiling when she thought about Seb and got angry at herself for doing so, because it hurt every time she realised that Seb would never be hers. She loved everything about him and the feeling of elation when she thought about him made her feel invincible, only to have that feeling crushed when the image of him kissing a blonde girl popped up in her head. It was so unfair, why was life doing this to her? She was used to having thrown curveballs at her, but this rollercoaster of emotions after what she had went through with David made it all so much worse.

'How do I look?' Macy had just stepped out of Keira's bathroom and sounded rather insecure. She tugged on the collar of her Red Bull shirt and positioned her hair so that it was covering only her right shoulder.

'Normal,' Keira grinned when she had sat back up from the bed she was laying on. Macy had knocked on her door in distress early this morning, so she was still very tired. She had been home early enough last night, but she had spent a couple of hours Skyping with Tom and Abby. It was the closest thing to spending time together with them and they had loads to talk about. It had also been a good distraction from keeping her mind off Seb, but it also made her realise that she missed her best friends massively when Abby and Tom kept on arguing like they had always done.

Macy eyed Keira with suspicion and turned towards the large mirror. 'Are you sure?' she asked.

Seeing her normally very confident colleague being this unsure, made Keira stifle a laugh. 'If you are so self-conscious about it, you should have told Jenson to hold back a bit,' she chuckled.

'I didn't know he was going to do this and that it would still be visible this morning!' Macy shrieked and she had her face now up close to the mirror while looking very flustered. 'Do you think people will believe me when I say I fell or was beat up?' she looked over her shoulder at Keira.

Keira shook her head and this time didn't suppress the urge to laugh. 'Mace, we work with a bunch of guys, what do you think?'

'But-,' Macy began, but stopped when she noticed the look of victory on Keira's face. 'Shit,' she screwed her eyes shut and popped up the collar of her shirt in another attempt to hide the purple marks on her neck.

'Brace yourself for questions about who was the lucky guy though, you know how they are,' Keira teased when she put on her shoes.

Macy's eyes went wide, as she realised what Keira had said. 'I'm not ready for them to find out about Jenson, they would murder me. Also I don't really know what we are, as we haven't discussed that yet,' she turned pink and combed her hair with her fingers so it would cover her exposed neck.

'I'm a bit surprised though no one has found out yet, I have walked in on you kissing several times now. Maybe I can take a photo and send that to the press, to just get it over with. Painful, but quick, just like ripping off a bandage,' Keira chuckled and stood up to check if she had put everything she needed into her bag. She found a couple of papers she needed to take with her to the track still laying on her bedside table and quickly stowed them into her bag.