It’s a Twitter hashtag. Of my name. With thousands of posts under it. What. The. Fuck. I’m not exactly anonymous because I’m the race engineer to someone who loves to win, so people post things about me every now and again, but these are all from today. This is next level.
‘What am I looking at?’ I ask Nils as Johannes peers over my shoulder.
‘You went viral. I think Sky Sports or something aired your little story to Johannes, or at least parts of it, and everyone’s lapping it up. They all think it was so cute and now they’re basically worshipping you.’ Nils is beaming and I can’t help but notice he’s liked a ton of these tweets.
I’m hoping that it’s at least from a burner account, not his official one, because that would be really stupid of him. Especially the ones where people tweet that Johannes and I are #goals. Too many girls are saying they wish their men would speak to them like that and others are tweeting about being a part of a big family, too, which is kind of cute.
I’m sure when I turn my phone off do not disturb, I’ll have a ton of messages from my brothers, but I made sure not to say anything embarrassing. I knew I was mic’d up, so I wasn’t about to be stupid on the radio.
‘When did you post this pic?’ Johannes is on his phone now, too, looking at the same hashtag and someone’s found a picture of me from like eight years ago. I’m shirtless, sitting by the pool with a book placed over my swim trunks so it looks like I’m naked– and possibly also pitching a tent. I probably shouldn’t still have that up, but I’d clearly forgotten about it.
‘Oh, fuck. Are people sharing that?’
He nods. ‘This tweet alone already has over a thousand retweets. I suggest making your Instagram private, but it might be too late.’ Sadly, he’s right. ‘They’re all calling you hot, though, and of course I agree.’
‘My ma’s gonna have a field day with this.’ I bet my brothers are screenshotting literally everything into the family group chat. She’ll chastise me for the amount of skin I have on show, but she’ll probably be tweeting back anyone she considers suitable for me. I wince at the thought of her getting carried away on Twitter, but it’s a very real possibility.
‘There are even news articles already. One of the sports channels in Europe has the full clip. They must be absolutely raking it in. This person who’s tweeted it said they’ve already listened to it five times.’ I don’t even remember everything I said. I’m sure I was just chatting crap about being from a big family, something simple to soothe Johannes’s nerves about his friends being hurt. That was all I wanted. For him to feel okay, for him to be able to get through the race, pull off the win and make it to the hospital quickly.
We have a lot to talk about, and we will, because it’s not like I can just switch off my feelings. I care about him, no matter what. Plus, it’s also my job. Maybe not to be that nice because I’m sure Ian would have just said ‘You can do this’to Nils and kept feeding him the factual information he needed, but that’s not me. It never has been and it never will be, especially with Johannes.
‘Okay, well I might need a visit to the PR team, then.’ That’s something I never thought I’d find myself saying. At least they’re easily accessible through the team, but I’m pretty sure they won’t be expecting to have to deal with this. Maybe they already are, though. They probably started planning responses the minute I opened my big mouth and started reading Johannes the story of my life to keep him calm.
My phone rings loudly in my pocket. As my mom’s is the only number that’s set up to break through the workplace do-not-disturb settings I currently have on (because my dad refuses to get a mobile phone) I already know who’s calling. And sure enough, when I slide my phone out of my pocket there’s her name flashing up on the screen. ‘I should get this,’ I say, showing the screen to Nils and Johannes. Both of them grin as they nod, and I hate them. This is going to be awful.
‘Hey, Ma,’ I say as I slip into a quiet corner of the busy hospital corridor. ‘I’m at the hospital right now visiting Nils so I have to be quick.’ And mostly I don’t want to have this conversation right now.
‘We saw the race. Are the boys okay?’ At least she cares enough to start with asking that, but I’m sure she’s just getting the polite questioning out of the way before she begins to interrogate me.
‘Yes, Ma. They’ll both be fine eventually.’
‘I’m glad it’s not more serious because it looked really bad.’
‘Thanks for calling to check up on them, though, Ma. I appreciate it, but I should probably go back in and spend some time with them before visiting hours are over.’
‘My sweet Caleb, you think you’re escaping your mom so quickly, but we have to talk about Johannes first.’ My whole body twitches at the way she says his name. There’s no way she can be implying what I think she’s implying.
‘My driver?’ I ask. I’ll play this coy until she admits to what she thinks she knows. I’m not about to hand it to her on a plate.
‘Yes, your “driver”. Don’t pretend that’s all he is to you,’ she says. One thing I’ll never do is lie to my ma. Obstruct the truth occasionally, sure. Fail to tell her vital goings-on in my life– has to be done sometimes. But straight up lie? Never.
‘Ma…’ I warn but she hears something in my voice that apparently confirms it for her.
‘I knew it! I knew it! From the moment I heard how you were talking to him, I said straight away to all the family who’re gathered here to watch the race that you’re in love with him.’
All of the family? Great, just great.
‘You do love him, don’t you, sweetie?’.
‘Ma, you can’t go around telling people that. You know that, right? Tell me you know that.’
‘Of course not, sweetheart, butyoushould have told me! I shouldn’t have had to figure it out for myself.’ She’s right. Of course she’s right, but I’m not sure I’d realised it myself until very recently.
‘I know, Ma. I’m sorry. Things have just been so busy with work and, you know…’
‘I need to hear all about him! My lord, Caleb, you’re dating a celebrity!’
‘Shhh!’
