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As my vision started to fade black, I felt someone begin to lift me out of the car. Strong arms lifted me out of the cockpit, wrapping my arms around their shoulders.
“I got you,” I heard a soft voice whisper. Henri? No, it couldn’t be; the person was taller than him and slightly stockier than my brother. Whoever it was quickly took my helmet off and put a straw in my mouth, still holding me up in my cockpit.
“Drink slower,” he reprimanded as I began to quickly suck the hydration liquid out of the water bottle. I inhaled a large breath and smelled something familiar.
Lilacs and pine trees.
The realization hit me – it was Luca holding me.
As I began to come to, I opened my eyes and looked straight into his brown eyes. They were soft, full of concern, and staring right back into mine. As I observed his face, I noticed he had the smallest freckle on the side of his right eye. Our faces were mere inches apart, and his breathing was steady. He really was a beautiful man.
What is wrong with you? I internally reprimanded myself.You almost passed out in your car, and here you are ogling the enemy.Must be the heat exhaustion.
“Keep drinking,” Luca commanded, and I listened, grabbing onto his shoulder tighter as he pulled me from the cockpit. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my brother running towards me, panic written all over his face. Luca set me on the ground but held onto me firmly, letting me put my weight on him. My feet were unsteady, but as I began to feel the breeze against my face, I was feeling a bit stronger.
Henri reached out to grab me from Luca, but Luca blocked his way. “I got her. Don’t crowd her,” he told my brother. Henri wasn’t one to listen to anyone, but I could tell he was panicked enough to back off just a tad, giving me some room. By now, a few of the other drivers had come over, Noah and Eric included.
“Let’s take her to the medical tent,” I heard someone suggest.
Before I knew what was happening, Luca had picked me up in his arms bridal style, and he and my brother were moving me toward the medical tent. I could hear Mel and Fiona behind, calling out to Luca and Henri, asking after me.
“Probably just heat exhaustion,” the doctor declared as we entered the medical tent. He had seen the footage and was already prepping IV packets. As Luca set me down on the medical bed, I was beginning to feel myself again, the waves of intense nausea had settled down.
“I’m fine. Just give me a minute, and then I can go weigh myself.”Henri scoffed at my insistence to get up and put his hand on my chest, pushing me back down.
“Peaches, you need to lie down for a bit.” But before anyone could stop me, I threw myself off of the makeshift medical bed – a little unsteadily – but caught myself and launched myself upwards. My brother had just won his second F1 race of the season, and I had fought long and hard to be on that podium with him – nothing was going to stop me.
“How about this,” the doctor suggested, “you can head to the podium celebration, but I expect to see you back here for more fluids after it is finished. Take this water and hydration package with you.” Before I could protest, the doctor dumped water and hydration mixture into the Hermes F1 water bottle I was still holding – which I then realized was Luca's water bottle.
Henri helped me from the tent, and we set foot towards the cool-down room, where I proceeded to rip off my race suit and tie it around my waste. My fireproof shirt was completely soaked through and sticking to me. Not the classiest look, but if the F1 cameras weren’t in the room, I definitely would have taken my shirt off.
Not that the F1 TV cameras had stopped Luca. As I turned around, I saw a shirtless Luca sitting on one of the chairs, rubbing his soaking wet hair with his shirt. I stared for what was probably a little too long and then sat down next to Henri, who was forcing the water bottle back into my mouth,
“Drink, Peaches,” he demanded, a serious look in his eyes. I knew he was annoyed that I had come to the cool-down room, but I had been insistent.
As Henri turned to his left, he saw the shirtless Luca, who was watching the race replay on the screen. I heard him mumble something to Luca, who only scoffed something dryly back to Henri. Henri turned back to me and smirked a little. I had been caught staring.So sue me, Luca was attractive. No one had accused me of being blind, just of being bad at media. It was clear that Luca had been told to put his shirt back on because he rolled his eyes but slapped his sweaty shirt back anyway.
Show is over, ladies, I chuckled to myself. I knew there would be hundreds of GIFs of shirtless Luca all over the internet by tomorrow.
Soon, the three of us were ushered onto the podium, wearing our winners’ podium hats, as we sprayed champagne all over Henri. If someone had asked me for one of my favorite memories, I would happily say it was any of the times I stood on the podium with my brother. It didn’t matter who had the higher step – being with Henri on that podium was a dream come true.
Once the anthems were done and the champagne spraying was finished, we walked back down to the cool-down room. Paula, Valkyrie’s team doctor, met me at the bottom of the steps and ushered me back towards the medical tent. After some more fluids and Tylenol, I was beginning to feel like a new person. While I hated getting the fluids, I figured it was better than attending the press conference.
“How do you feel?” I heard a voice call from behind me. Isabelle had arrived just a few minutes ago to check on me.
“Much better, thank you.”
“That was an excellent race today. You showed great pace. We’ll get them next week.” I nodded in agreement but eyed her warily. I suspected Isabelle wanted to address my outburst on the team radio, but when she said nothing, I let out a small sigh of relief. It seemed as though Isabelle would give me some reprieve today.
“Well, since you’re feeling better, Georgia, I guess you had better get prepared for the winner’s conference. Starts in thirty. They pushed it back in hopes that you would feel better.” If I had known better, I could have sworn that I saw a slight smile on Isabelle’s face.
Well, shit, so muchfor that dream of missing media duties.
Had Isabelle asked the race organizers to push back the conference as punishment for my outburst on the radio? Most definitely. Isabelle knew how to push my buttons. The fact that if I hadn’t pushed so aggressively to make it to the podium, I wouldn’t have had to do media duties was not lost on me.
When I entered the press conference, I walked over to Luca and handed him his water bottle.
“Thank you… for today,” I said softly.He took the water bottle and shook it a bit.
