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“No doubt, I hear Peaches are all the rage these days,” I heard a voice from behind me declare. I turned around and saw Éliott smiling at me, as dashing as ever. He was wearing a delightful blue button-down and some new designer pants. I gave my friend a warm smile, and he came over and gave me an equally warm hug. I could smell his cologne – cinnamon and strawberries. Éliott always smelled like home.
“Nice of you to join us, Éliott,” I said sarcastically, motioning to my watch.
“A Frenchman is always a little late; you know this, Georgie,” he grinned.
The hostess motioned for the group of us to follow her. We had a gorgeous table in the back of the restaurant, which would be a little more private and away from prying eyes, a relieving notion after being front and center of the media circus recently. I hadn’t been able to truly talk to the guys in person since the charade with Luca had started, so I was excited to just relax and have an honest conversation without there being some media spin on it.
The four of us sat down, and Éliott ordered a nice bottle of red wine for us to share. It seemed as though my tradition of not driving before races had been thrown out the door the moment I started ‘dating’ Luca.So be it; I wasn’t a very good teetotaler anyway.
“So, Georgie, how are things with Luca?” Éliott started; his eyes were full of mischief, but his voice had genuine care in his question. Éliott, over the years, had become as much of a close friend and confident as Henri had. After my brothers, he was always the person I would call with updates and questions.
“They are what they are,” I responded dryly.
“Lizzie says things are going well. Fans, media, and sponsors love the two of you,” Henri interjected quickly, nodding at me to continue.
“Yes, so I’ve heard,” I said bluntly, earning a chuckle from Oliver. “Fortunately, we’ve barely had to spend time together. Just the occasional marketing stunt. But this weekend will be different; it’s the first weekend we have to actively pretend to be a couple, hold hands… nonsense like that.” The three of them immediately let out a laugh, and I knew it was at my last comment.
“Oh Georgie, you’re the only girl in the world that would call handholding with her boyfriendnonsense.” Éliott was very amused by how annoyed I was with the entire situation.
“Well, if he was arealboyfriend, I’m sure I’d feel less annoyed by it. Walking around, holding hands with the Devil doesn’t exactly bring me joy,” I hissed back.
Éliott had always been good at getting under my skin. It’s why I found him to be quite annoying when we first met. He always seemed to be picking on me, teasing me when I was younger, but as I got older and gained the courage to give it back to him, our friendship quickly blossomed. And then, for averyshort period, it blossomed into something more.
For years, the media had speculated about me and Éliott, and for what was a fun couple of months for two eighteen-year-olds, they would have been correct.I had spent so much time longing after Éliott when I was in high school that I had built up the type of relationship we would have in my head far beyond any realistic expectations. I was young and fancied myself in love.
Turns out our personalities were opposites, and not in the opposites-attract kind of way. We drove each other up the wall for all of six weeks and then quickly realized we were much better friends than lovers. As much as I had wanted to keep up the friends-with-benefits stint we had going, I knew in my heart I wasn’t that kind of person. I also knew that if Henri had found out, he would have been furious with Éliott, and I didn’t want to come between their friendship. Still, Éliott was my first love –even if it was young love. He was the first guy I had ever slept with, so he had a special place in my heart. His opinion meant something to me.
“Oh, Georgie...” Éliott just smiled back at me and shook his head, clearly a little amused by my answer.
“Why do you have so much beef with Luca anyway?” Oliver asked.
“I don’t think there’s enough time in the world to tell this story,” Éliott said snidely. He was the only one who knew why Luca irked me; even Henri just believed it was because Luca was a pompous ass. That was certainly part of it, but the rest of the reason? It didn’t seem like a good time to share with the group. We might be secluded in a restaurant, but there were eyes and ears everywhere. Plus, Luca's relationship with Henri was important. They were teammates, and they needed to be a united front. I didn’t need to come in with my drama and add fuel to the fire.
“Oh, I don’t know, his constant flirting with the W-series drivers, lack of respect for his fans, playboy lifestyle…” I raised my hand and started to count the reasons on my fingers in a dramatic display to Oliver. It was, to be fair, a little petty, but when it came to Luca Rossi, I couldn’t stop myself.
If Luca was Luca‘Playboy’Rossi, I was Georgia‘Petty’Dubois.
“He did defend you at the press conference,” Henri pointed out, to which I gave him a pointed look that screamed, “Why are you defending Luca so much?” I wondered if Henri spent this much time defending me to his teammate. I had just been stuck in a room with a man that I could only describe as insufferable, a man who had decided to use the entire suite like hisprivateroom, and all Henri had done the last few days was insist that I see Luca’s side.
“True, and he pulled you out of the car. How did he even know you weren’t feeling well?” Oliver asked, sneaking a glance at Henri, whose face was covered in guilt. I knew my brother felt guilty that he was too busy celebrating to see that I was on the verge of passing out. I told him that it wasn’t his fault; he didn’t have a responsibility to check on me after each race. I might be his sister, but at these races, I was simply another driver, and I wanted to be treated as such.
“I have no idea,” I replied truthfully. “I never asked.”
Éliott furrowed his brow at me, clearly a little unimpressed that I hadn’t bothered to ask. Truth is, I didn’t want to know. It scared me that Luca read my body language well enough to know that I was suffering in Miami. I knew deep down that I was too much of a coward to face the possibility that another Luca was hiding under the monster I had created, one that was perhaps observant, kind, and caring.Because if there was another Luca, then this whole stunt was going to be a lot harder than expected.
There was an awkward silence among the four of us, and no one knew what to say after that. Fortunately, the waiter arrived and took our order, and the food followed shortly after. The rest of the evening went by smoothly, full of Luca-less conversations. We sat and chatted for a while before Henri motioned to me that it was late, and we should go.
As we hopped into Henri's Lamborghini, I called out to Éliott and Oliver, “Good luck this weekend; I’ll be sure to wave when I lap you!” They both gave me their middle fingers and laughed, I’m sure cursing me under their breath.
Henri walked me back up to my room, giving me a big squeeze before heading over to his room. When I opened the hotel room door, I crept in silently, truly hoping that it would be empty. I had probably drunk a little bit more than I should have, and I didn’t want Luca to witness how much a couple of glasses of wine had affected me. Éliott had ordered a second bottle of red, and it tasted more like grape juice instead of wine, and I was not one to turn down delicious red wine. If kryptonite was Superman’s weakness, a good bottle of red wine was definitely mine.
Fortunately for me, there was no sign of Luca anywhere.
Must have been held up at the sponsorship event Hermes F1 had asked him to attend, I mused, kicking off my heels, not particularly caring where they landed. I moved towards the plush couch, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge on the way. I picked up my phone and scrolled through Instagram for a while, doing the one thing I should never do before a race – read the comments on the Valkyrie F1 social media page. I was, however, pleasantly surprised at the number of F1 Fan accounts speculating over our relationship, all of it positive.
“Why do they love me and Luca so much?” I grumbled, continuing to scroll until I could feel my eyes close. I knew I should probably get up, take my makeup off, and go to bed, but the couch was so inviting.I’m not sure how long I had dosed off, but I woke up to Luca coming into our shared living room. He was kicking off his shoes and staring at me, a big, stupid grin on his face. As I was sleeping, my dress had ridden its way up my body, and I realized my lacy black thong was on show for him.
“Why hide such sexy underwear from me, Cara?” he asked, and I tried to pull my dress down quickly. I could feel my cheeks heating up as his eyes drank up my embarrassment. The top of my dress had come down, and my bra was on display for the world to see. Luca started to move towards me, his eyes transfixed on mine as I sat still on the couch, slowly pulling my dress back into place. I knew I should get up and move, but my body felt frozen. Maybe it was the several glasses of wine, but part of me wanted to see what Luca would do if he approached me.
