“Well, that’s something.Car felt great.”
“Youlooked great, bro.”
Relief, but also a long-forgotten sense of achievement washes over me.I haven’t made it to the final round of qualifying in a while.I have a long way back to peak performance, but I’ve delivered a season best.
Archie chuckles.“Not bad for a...what did they call you?A lame dog?”
I grin as I pull into the pit.I can’t wait to see Chloe, hear her thoughts on the run.I can’t get the steering wheel out fast enough.I yank everything out and leap out of the car.Behind us, in the pit, I spot the cameras right on me, and I turn around and give them two fists in the air.
“Hell yeah,” I shout, as Archie comes over and chest-bumps me, and then hugs me tight.I spy Chloe by the back with her strategists, and try to wave her over, but she has seen the cameras too and waves me away.
After being weighed and relieving myself of my helmet, I race back to find her, but she’s not there.I push out of the garage and out into the paddock, where I spy her leaning against the trailer, head down, arms folded.
“Chloe!”I shout as I run across the lot to her, not caring who can see us.
She looks up, and for a brief moment I wonder if something has happened.But then a smile stretches across her face, and my heart squeezes.
“Eleventh place.The best we’ve ever done!”
“It’s a start,” I say, sheepishly.
“If you can follow that tomorrow, we can stay in this.You were so—”
“It was the car,” I say, holding out my hand and pulling her up and into a hug, unable to control the excitement I’m feeling too.I forgot this.I forgot what it was like to fight your way up.To be outclassed in every way, and to scrape back, slowly, in tiny steps, until you improve.
At Rossini I was only ever there to drive.Just a driver.The brand was bigger than all of us.This absolutely feels more like a team.It feels damn good.
Chloe does a little jump up and down in my arms, burying her face in my chest.Then she pulls back abruptly, remembering herself, glancing around the lot.
“Your stats were good.Your vitals pretty normal.Was it okay?”She stammers around the words.
“It’s not good still.Maybe a little better.”
She breathes out with relief.“Betterisgood.”
“Better isn’t great, though.I’ve got a ways to go.”
She stares at me like she’s got ideas.Her brown eyes are alive in a way I’ve not seen before.
“Come on,” she says, yanking on my arm as she pushes the door to the driver room open and tugs me inside.
“Wait!You have to go talk to press, Chloe.Everyone’s going to be looking for you.”
“All the more reason,” she says, slamming the door shut and twisting the lock.
It’s only seconds before she’s unzipping my racing suit, and with the adrenaline still coursing through me, I do nothing to stop it.My undershirt is damp with sweat, and I must smell of burned rubber, and motor oil, and...
“Where did this come from, Ms.This Is A Mistake?”I say, laughing at her.
“I’m so amped up, and proud of us,” she says hungrily, as she pulls me in for a kiss.I’ve not seen her like this, hot and greedy.I stop her for a moment, pushing her off me and holding her at arm’s length.
“I don’t want to stop this, obviously, but yesterday you were...”My voice trails off.
“Yesterday we weren’t eleventh place on the grid.”
The room is long, narrow, and tight.A small table to theright of us, and a little sofa with a TV at the far end and a window overlooking the lot.Chloe doesn’t seem to care, as she tugs at my undershirt, peeling it up and off.
She pauses for a moment, putting her small hands against my skin, her fingers tentatively dragging behind as she moves them down my chest.I allow her fingers to explore for a moment, as her chest starts to heave.
