“Come to my Monaco race,” he says. “Please?”
“I’ll be there,” I say as if he should know it.
He shakes his head. “I mean, not just for your work. For me. I want you at the race for me.”
I chew on my bottom lip. This isn’t the first time he’s asked. And while I will be in attendance at some of the events for work, I still held out on whether or not I would attend the actual race. Being present for the qualifying rounds would already test me.
“If you do me a favor,” I say.
“Anything.” His answer is so quick I barely get time to recall what my favor is.
“Show me to the gift shop we passed on the way in.”
He blinks, and I almost laugh at how adorable he appears in his confusion.
“And then I’m craving some fish and chips.”
He’s so damn handsome when he smiles down at me, my face still in between his hands that I almost groan.
“Anything for you.”
CHAPTER 32
Alyssia
“Alyssia, are you certain you’re okay to handle this?” Jeanette asks as she comes running into the room we’ve set up as our department’s control center for the next few days.
It’s race weekend in Monaco. The day has finally come for our organization’s first charity event.
Over the next three days we’ll host a group of ten children where they’ll have a chance to meet the drivers, speak with the team engineers about what it takes to build the cars, and even meet a former team principal on what teamwork means in Formula 1.
I try to think about how much of a fun experience this will be for the children and not about how one employee called the cars ‘rockets on wheels.’
Rockets are supposed to launch in the air, where there aren’t things like metal poles and steep curves to navigate at one-hundred and fifty miles per hour.
Conversely, now when darker thoughts start to cloud in, I think about the trip to Silverstone. Seeing the safety features up close helped to lighten some of my fears.
Are you sure?I shake off the thought.
“I’m positive,” I tell Jeanette, who’s been running around since this morning, ensuring everything runs smoothly.
“Okay, okay,” she says, sounding like she ran a mile.
I go over to the table of the conference room and pour a glass of water before taking it to her.
“Merci.” She takes the glass and chugs half of it down in one gulp.
“Isabel is doing well with the influencers. She’s out with them now,” I remind her.
“Yes, yes.” She nods. “You’ll have to excuse me. I get worked up on race weekend. It’s always a pleasure to support a worthy cause, but it is a lot to handle. Are you sure?—”
“I’m positive,” I assure her in French. It seems to relax her when I speak her native language.
“The children will be here in about ten minutes, and then Gunther will come to give them his presentation before we walk them out to the paddock to meet a few of the drivers and watch some of the practices.”
I run through it to assure and remind her that we have this all under control.
“Perfect.”
