He picked up on the second ring. “Livia, you okay?” We’d spoken a couple of times sinceLuca’sboxing match, and each time, he had an urgent tone to every word.
“Uh, yeah, you?”
“Ever, stop singing!” he shouted to his daughter and I could hear him close a door on his end. “Are you sure? Did Nix manage to sort out the restraining —”
“Yeah, that’s all sorted, thank you,” I said and the tension in my voice had Nix look up from his phone. “Cris, I need to talk to you.”
He shouted to his daughter over the receiver for her to be quiet then said, “Go on.”
“I need to tell you something.”
“Go on,” he urged again.
I twiddled the pen lid, placing it back on the pen and then off, the clicking noise a comfort. “What they’ve said… what they’ve been saying about— about me and Nix,” I stammered. “Well, it’s true.”
He was silent. The only reason I knew he hadn’t hung up was his daughter singing in the background.
“I know I should have told you, I know I’m in breach of my contract and I am so, so sorry. And I know thatLuca’smanager will want me gone, but with everything that’s happening… I don’t want to lie any more.”
More silence and then the request for our call to change to a video call came through.
My heart sank. I didn’t want to see a disapproving glare. I didn’t want him to see me cry when I knew I was in the wrong.
I accepted.
He was straight-faced, grey stubble making him look older than before, but his question was unexpected. “Is this why you took the job atPrixton?”
I nodded, awaiting the anger.
“Instead of talking to me?”
Another nod.
“Is it serious? Are you just sleeping together or is this…” He screwed his nose up in discomfort. “A relationship?”
“It’s serious,” I said. “I love him.”
Crissighed and Nix squeezed my thigh. “Prixtonwon’t accept you publicly being with another racer when you’re publicising their own,” he said, shaking his head as he walked through his house. “Not at the same championship,Livia.”
“That’s fair,” I whispered.
For the last few weeks, I’d worried if my upcoming job atPrixtonwas secure after the media storm that had followed me.
With what would happen in the next few days.
But now knowing I would lose my contract… the job I had worked so hard to save…
Nix shuffled beside me, an arm over my shoulder as I looked down at the notes from my speech.
Some things were worth more than my job.
“If you had come to me…”Crisstarted. “Oh,Livia, if you’d told me weeks ago, I wouldn’t have hired a new media manager and you could have stayed.”
“I could have what? Relationships aren’t—”
The two contracts I had signed mentioned very clearly no relationships within the teams.
“You’ve managed to take NixonArmasfrom being the most hated racer to being nominated for sportsman of the year,” he sighed. “As if we wouldn’t keep you despite that.”
