Reviewing priorities - Sebastian Vettel

34. Disappointment in Sochi

'Vale, you might want to see this' Pietro told her, pointing at his laptop.

They had arrived in Sochi that morning and were already hard at work for the weekend ahead.

Valeria looked up from her emails to see the picture of her and Charles at Singapore on her friend's screen. 'what am I looking at?' she asked, confused.

'The article.' He pointed. Her eyes widened, someone had spotted her engagement ring and had zoomed in on the picture to make a news story out of it.

Could Sebastian Vettel and PR officer Valeria Proietti be engaged? She started reading from the screen Miss Proietti was seen in Singapore sporting a quite visible diamond ring on her left hand which could mean that the 32 year old German has popped the question. Both Vettel and Proietti remain quite private about their relationship, with only a couple of picture having being shared online by the Italian herself.

'meh. It was going to happen some day' Valeria smiled. 'can you send that to Britta as a heads up?'

'Sure thing. You seem fairly calm' Pietro said, his fingers dancing on the keys as he forwarded the article to Seb's assistant.

'I have decided I can't change the situation. Seb and I aren't going to break up, Charles and I won't stop having known each other for 20 years, Daniel won't stop being a dork around me... you know, I might as well embrace it. Also I started talking to a therapist online.' She concluded.

'have you? I'm so proud of you for doing that' Pietro told her with a smile.

'yeah, it was time. My uncle suggested her to me, she's good. Makes it a lot easier to deal with life. Sorry, Seb's calling... hallo?'

'hallo, Schatzi. wie gehts?'

'alles gut, danke. Und du?'

'my god, you're cute when you speak German. But you're cute all the time. Aaaanyway , Britta just showed me the article. We're on the way from the airport now, I'll come catch you as soon as I get there, OK?'

'it's cool, I'm not too fussed to be fair, maybe it was time'

'Maybe! See you in a bit. Ich liebe dich'

'ich auch' she said before hanging up. 'you see? I speak to him and I just don't care about anything else.' She told Pietro, who pretended to throw up. Valeria went back to her laptop, shaking her head.

Seb had just arrived at the paddock and had already been stopped a few times by journalists. He had politely declined to reply, with the excuse of being late for meetings with the team. He walked into the motorhome with Britta and Antti, his eyes searching for his fiancée. He spotted her deep in conversation with Silvia and Charles. She had left her hair down but pinned it at the back, her light makeup was making her hazelnut eyes look even more beautiful. Every time he looked at her, he managed to forget about everything else.

She looked up, smiling as their eyes met. Seb gave her a questioning look, as if to ask for permission to talk to her. She nodded, finishing up her conversation with the other two and walked over to him.

'Alright?' she asked, with a smile, letting him kiss her cheek.

'of course. Have you got 5 minutes?' he asked her.

'Yeah, sure, follow me' she replied, walking towards the meeting rooms. She looked in to find an empty room and they walked in.

'Firstly...' Seb started, pulling her in for a kiss. 'better' he said, as they separated. 'I already had a few people stop me. Have you thought about what you want to do?'