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"I'll see you at the press conference," Luca yelled back in his thick Italian accent. Edward waved at us, chuckling away as he watched me pull Luca to the Valkyrie paddock entrance. As we rounded the corner and stepped inside the garage, I dropped his hand in a show of both frustration and pleasure that this first charade was over – for now.
"Pick you up at 11!” Luca yelled back at me as I huffed it towards my driver’s room.
I spent the next ninety minutes being debriefed by the team on various activities for the weekend. After the press conference, I was to come back to the garage, get more strategy debriefs, and then get lunch at the Hermes hospitality center with Henri and Luca – another publicity stunt to show just how excited my brother was for this budding relationship. Of course, this one was Henri's idea, which was truly frustrating to me. He knew I had to spend all this time in a room with Luca; now, I had to give him my lunch break, too. Henri said that he was just trying to use the situation to see me more, which sounded sweet at the time but was also frustrating as hell.
Eleven o’clock rolled around, and Luca, as promised, was standing outside of the Valkyrie garage waiting for me. The press conference was to start at 11:15, and Lizzie and Matteo wanted us to arrive on time as a unified front, hand in hand, like a sappy couple in love. As we high-tailed it to the press conference, Lizzie walked beside Luca, happily chatting away with him as if they had been best friends for years. If Luca was annoyed by her constant chatter, he didn't show it, instead responding to her in fuller sentences than I think I had ever gotten out of him.
I walked into the press conference room, and of course, in addition to Edward, sat Éliott, a large smile on his face when he saw Luca and I walk into the room. They had strategically sat in the two leftmost seats, while Oscar Parker, another British driver who drove for the Rennen F1 Team, sat in the rightmost seat, leaving the two seats in the middle for Luca and me.I looked straight at Edward, shooting death glares in his direction, but he just kept chatting to Éliott, pretending not to notice me.
Looks like Edward has joined the list of people enjoying this a little too much.
As I went to take the middle seat, Michael Clifton, F1 TV’s lead presenter, came up to me with a large grin on his face and whispered, "Glad you and Luca worked it out." He gave me a subtle wink as I smiled at him, doing my best to hide my gritted teeth.
Great, so Michael had heard me muttering away in the elevator.I just nodded and gave him a small smile, truly unsure of what to say but feeling a bit of relief that I had gotten away with that earlier blunder.
I sat in the middle seat, nicely tucked between Edward and Luca, and waited for the press conference to begin. Lizzie was in the back, waving her hands at my face, indicating that I needed to smile. Before I had left the paddock, Isabelle had reminded me, "People in happy relationships smile, Georgia," to which I just flicked her off – my team principal – probably not the brightest move for my career.
Michael called the press conference into order and started the conversation with a talk on porpoising, something that had truthfully been affecting all of the drivers. Oscar, of course, had plenty to say on the matter, although I probably would too if I was driving a Rennen F1 car. The conversations continued to flow, with the presenter finally stopping at me.
"So, Georgia, we hear you are feeling better this week. How are things?"
"Good," I responded slowly, letting my eyes dart to Lizzie for reassurance. She nodded, motioning for me to go on. "I'm 100% recovered and looking forward to getting into the car tomorrow. We have some new upgrades which I think are going to truly bring something interesting to the race."
"Going to make sure you have enough water this time?" the commentator joked, clearly trying to poke fun at my expense from the last race. I just frowned.
Was this what we were calling journalism these days?I could feel Luca about to say something, but I put my hand out, signaling that I had this.
"Now, now, Jeremy, you know I can't give away Valkyrie race secrets," I said playfully, batting my eyes just a bit at the journalist, who awkwardly chuckled in response, clearly expecting to get a rise out of me. He looked a bit disappointed.Good.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Luca's eyes narrow at the journalist, a small grin forming on his lips. I’m not sure what it was, but something about having Luca there gave me the encouragement and confidence I needed to engage with the media. Seeing Luca about to butt in on my behalf might be the push I needed to engage with the journalists. Instead of sulking away or yelling, I dared to quip back at them, a little hint that they should leave me alone, without actually saying it.
Maybe Isabelle was right; having Luca Rossi teach me how to do media might be a good thing.
After the press conference, I trudged my way back to the Valkyrie paddock with Lizzie trailing behind me. Once the lunch at Hermes was complete, I would be free of Luca until this evening. Luca had a gig tonight with one of the big F1 podcasts. They were doing a live evening show with Luca, something they tried to do with all the racers at their home race, sort of a home race live series where fans were invited and got to submit questions beforehand. They had already organized one with me and Henri next week in Monaco.
Something else to look forward to, I thought sarcastically.
No one at Hermes F1 had thought to inform Lizzie before today, and as much as I didn't want to go to Luca's podcast session, Lizzie was right: I had to show up to Luca's live podcast. Fortunately, I had been let off from the after party, with an excuse that I had an incredibly early sponsorship meeting with VIPs. A small "I'm sorry" that Isabelle had gifted me with after she told me my evening would be spent among a group of fans, with mepretendingto fawn over Luca while everyone around mewas actuallyfawning over Luca.
At least Henri and Éliott had offered to go, so all wasn't lost.
* * *
Luca had arrived early to prep for the podcast, so Henri, Éliott, and I were ushered into a VIP room with some champagne, something I decided to definitely take advantage of. If I was going to listen to Luca drone on about Hermes for an hour, I might as well be tipsy for it.
The show hosts were nice enough. I figured they were overanalyzing Luca and me, trying to spot any inconsistencies in our behavior. Fortunately for Luca, he was a pro at winning over the media, and after a few awkward exchanges, things started to feel a bit more normal. About five minutes before the show started, the coordinator moved the three of us into our seats at the front. As we walked in, the crowd cheered, and the three of us took a few selfies along the way.
The hosts opened up with a nice bio about Luca, his history of karting, and his entry into Formula 1. They discussed his father and his life growing up as an Italian driver, plus his undying love for AC Milan. At about the forty-five-minute mark, I started to feel some relief; maybe the podcast hosts weren’t planning on mentioning our relationship. I knew that was a bunch of wishful thinking because, as if on queue, the podcast host cleared his throat, indicating we were about to change the subject.
"So Luca, rumor has it that F1's most eligible bachelor is no longer single," the podcast presenter said slyly, wiggling his eyebrows at Luca, making the audience laugh. I grimaced a bit, but Henri poked my side, reminding me that we were in public.
"Ooh, you heard that rumor too," Luca chucked, winking at me from the stage. I could hear a couple of girls behind me whisper about how lucky I was.
"I mean, can you blame me? With a smile that gorgeous and talent that enormous, it was pretty easy to see that Georgia was someone special." The audience 'ooh'd and awed' at Luca's comment, completely enamored by the Italian on stage. I did my best not to roll my eyes, hoping there weren't cameras pointed at me.
Bunch of crap, I thought to myself.
"I'm sure it wasn't easy getting her brother's approval, even if he is your teammate?’ the presented joke, gesturing to Henri in the audience, who was giving Luca a sly smirk.
