Asher looks back to me, and to my closed laptop. “Hard at work, I see. Is this what you spend all your free time doing?”
“Uh, it’s getting kind of late, so I’m just gonna…” Amanda doesn’t finish her sentence before scurrying off, leaving me alone with the big, bad asshole of F1.
Asher and I spend a few seconds staring at each other. Eventually, he asks, “What, no commentary on my driving this time around?”
I shrug. “You won’t listen, so why bother? I have better shit to do.”
“Like sit in front of a closed laptop and contemplate your life choices?”
I feel my nostrils flare. “For your information,asshole,I’ve been working most nights only to be on my feet all day, running around and being treated like the team bitch—”
“Bore someone else with your complaints,” he sighs. “If you want to have a pity party, throw it for Barbie. She has to deal with Elio 24/7.”
I stare at him, lips parted. “You and my best friend would get alongsplendidly.You’re both massive jerks.” Delilah really would love him.
“Sounds like my kind of gal.” He rounds my spot and drops into the armchair Amanda vacated when she scuttled off to escape his insufferable presence.
“That seat’s not available.”
“Looked empty enough to me.” He swipes the candle off from the table and starts fiddling with it. “If you know so much, what would you do different?”
My eyebrows shoot up to my hairline. Is he actuallyasking my advice?This has to be a trap of some sort.
“Why do you care?”
“Never said I did. But you’re young and arrogant, and I’m curious what fantasies of success you’ve conjured in that pretty head.”
I think that was sort of an accidental compliment. He didn’tdirectlycall me pretty, but nevertheless, I feel myself start to blush. “Um… well, I’d start out by reading the updated car manual, front to back.”
“Already skimmed it. Next?”
“Read summaries from engineers—”
“Something that doesn’t involve fuckingreading. Give me somethingactionable.”
“Okay. Use overtake mode, control your boost mode spurts, activate X-mode in the applicable zones. I’d start there. You don’t drive with strategy, which—”
“God, you’re boring.” He cuts me off with a yawn. “Well, nobody can say I didn’t try. Good night, intern.”
I release an aggrieved sigh. Instead of sayinggo fuck yourself, asshole, I mutter, “Good night.”
“What thefuckis he doing?” Thomas asks the following day. I feel my blood drain from my face as I split my attention between the wall of screens, focusing in on the footage of Asher, and the absolute spectacle he’s making of himself…andof the team.
He’s racking up penalties right, left, and center… because he’s fucking up the suggestionsIgave him. He’s using X-mode in every areaexceptwhere it’s allowed. His booster mode is turned on and off sporadically, without any forethought.
He's a hot mess because ofmyinstructions, and if he keeps driving like this, odds are he’s going to crash. And doubtlessly blame me.
Everyone in the garage is freaking out over him, and rightfully so. But they’re missing vital information; that in some roundabout, twisted way, he’s taking my advice. Of course, he missed the part where I told him he has to read the manual front to back. He didn’t do that, he didn’t even bothergooglingrules or strategies. He’s just randomly pressing buttons and switching modes, almost like he’s testing them out… or throwing pasta on the wall and trying to see what sticks.
“I can’t watch this,” Thomas mutters, even as his gaze remains glued to the screens. “Jesus, what the hell got into him? What is hedoing?”
Despite the fact that he’s absolutely going to lose this race miserably, he’s presenting me an opening. A window of opportunity. My first flash of hope with him.
He’s doing a piss-poor job of it, but he’slistening. Maybe if I can actually pull him into a strategy conversation, he’ll implement some changes. I saw what he did in the simulation chamber; when Asher Lawrence applies himself, he can get shit done. The problem is that for some reason, he won’t bother applying himself.
The next time I run into him, which happens to be in the paddock after the race, I tell him exactly as much.
It doesnotgo over well.
