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Georgia and I had agreed to be friends, but we weren’t close friends; I knew that was true. I kept telling myself that I shouldn’t be offended by her comment, that her body didn’t lie to me, but still, my heart felt disappointed.
I spent the rest of the trip trying to keep a bit of a distance from her. If she noticed this, she didn’t say anything. She never came back to my room.
And now we were both in Baku, preparing for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on the day the GQ article was meant to be released. Georgia and I had barely said a word to one another since that morning in Majorca. She was incredibly busy both Wednesday and Thursday evening in Baku, so we’d only seen each other in passing at the hotel, but I could feel the awkward air between us, the unsaid words that we would have to discuss eventually.
Free Practice 1 this morning had gone better than expected. Georgia was, of course, P1, with Henri P2. I had settled into P5 in both free practice sessions. For some reason, in Baku, I couldn’t get the car underneath me to be any faster. It felt terrible – probably because I felt terrible. My mind was elsewhere, and Matteo could tell. As I returned back to the pits from FP2, I saw Matteo waving at me to get out of the car and come find him. He was in the Hermes conference room with the GQ article up on his laptop screen.
“They loved you!” he shouted in excitement as he bounced up and down, frantically pointing at his laptop. I had never seen him this excited before, not even when I took P1 at my first race win. I chuckled a bit, trying to let some of the tension leave my body before I read the article – but dread had already started to fill my body.
That day at the photoshoot had been fun and relaxing, and it was a fond memory. A memory that I felt would turn sour as soon as I started to read the article because of where Georgia and I currently stood.
Matteo sat me down in front of the screen, and I started to go through the article, paragraph by paragraph. The GQ article was incredibly well written, and much to my surprise, the article was full of gushing compliments towards us, intertwined with interesting tidbits about our lives and driving. A particular section caught my eye.
‘The couple have a natural air about them. While you would think F1’s hottest couple would be egocentric and opinionated, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Georgia is surprisingly shy for someone who spends her time battling journalists with the ferocity of a lion, and Luca has a sweeter edge than I expected, always checking in on Georgia and making sure that she is comfortable. The subtle exchanges between the two – the gentle hand-holding, soft whispers – is a real contrast to how most of us see them on race weekends.
When I asked Georgia what they were like as a couple, she said domestic and normal – boring even. I told her that was a cop-out answer, but as we went through the photo shoot, I began to see what she meant. They spend their days homemaking pasta and watching classic movies. They laugh at the silliest things and spent no less than half the photoshoot taking the piss out of each other. It was fun to watch and an honor to be a part of those moments with them.
As I finished the article, I looked up at Matteo, who was still beaming with pride at me, but his expression quickly changed when he saw the tears starting to fall from my eyes. I tried to wipe them away quickly, but I had failed to do so before he managed to catch me.
“Luca, what is it? This article, it’s amazing. Helios Sunglass Company has already reached out to the team – along with a couple of other big sponsors.” His voice was full of urgency, but I just nodded and instead elected to look out of the small window.
“I fucked up, Matteo.”
“Did you not hear what I just said-”
“No,” I put up my hand, halting his reassurances. “I fucked up with Georgia.” Matteo eyed me cautiously, not entirely sure what to say to that. “I slept with her in Majorca, and after we were done, I heard her tell Lauren that it meant nothing. Henri told me to stay away from his sister, to keep things professional, and I didn’t, and now I’m paying the price. I’m sure he warned her to stay away from me, that I was only after her for sex. She will barely look at me now.”
All of this kept spilling out of me, more tears falling down my face. Matteo was quick to shut the conference room door, and he took a seat next to me, patting me on the back.
“I had no idea you felt this way. I thought you considered her to be an annoying, stuck-up brat. At least that’s what you told me when I first suggested this entire thing to you.” I let out a forced laugh and shook my head.
“The truth is I asked her out several years ago when she came to visit Henri and Edward, but I stood her up on that date. I was scared and pathetic and convinced she wouldn’t want me. I’ve hated myself ever since. I proved to her that I wasn’t to be trusted.”
“Oh, Luca, is that what you think?” he said in a soothing voice, leaning a little closer and giving me a brotherly hug. “Youareworthy of love. If Georgia can’t see that because of yourpastactions, then it’s your job to show her with yourcurrentactions. Your heart has no boundaries.” I smiled at him, appreciating his pep talk, even if I was still struggling to believe it.
“How about this, I’ll text Lizzie and say you guys need to have dinner after that article. You can use that opportunity to do something special for her. Show her who you are as a person. Show her that you can be the Luca fromthisarticle.”
I looked up and into Matteo’s eyes. They were soft but pleading, and I nodded in agreement. He was right – I had to show Georgia who I really was.
* * *
Georgia
I arrived back in the garage from FP2, having gotten P1 in both free practices, and I was feeling over the moon. I hopped out of the car and turned to my left, only to see Lizzie, Lily, and Fiona waving at me ecstatically, each of them looking like they had won the lottery.
“I mean, P1 is pretty good guys, but I think this might be a bit much for a Free Practice,” I chuckled, knowing that there was no way they were celebrating the car and the good practice sessions. Even Lily had managed to get P3 and P4 in both sessions, and the team was overjoyed. That thought in itself made me chuckle. Here I was, having the drive of my life, and these fools were celebrating something else entirely.
“The article is out, and it’s amazing!” Lily gushed, holding up her phone and shoving it in my face. Before I could take a look at it, Lizzie ushered us into the conference room. The article was already up on her laptop, and she sat me down in front of it, clearly eager to get my opinion. As I read through the article, I stopped at one of the blurbs and re-read it.
‘It's not hard to see that Georgia was extremely nervous during the photo shoot, which I found to be interesting for someone who had such a public life in America, but it allowed me to see how someone like Luca compliments her. His charming personality and attentiveness to her is endearing, and we can see why she fell so hard for someone who was considered to be F1’s biggest playboy. During the last photo session, when I could tell Georgia was feeling nervous, I heard Luca whisper a dirty joke in her ear, which caused her to laugh and relax, much to everyone’s amusement.’
Good grief, so everyone had heard that comment. My cheeks went a little red, and Lily leaned over my shoulder and chuckled, clearly waiting for me to get to that part of the article.
“You know, for a couple that’s meant to be fake dating, you sure do look hot together,” Lily teased as I continued to scroll through the article. I wanted to retort back something rude and tell her to piss off, but I couldn’t. All I could focus on was my heart and how it ached reading this article. Luca and I were nothing like this article had written, and as the week in Baku had gone by, the more I realized that I wanted something more. I wanted this article to be true. I felt like in Majorca, I had to keep reminding myself that this relationship was fake, but articles like this made it hard to remember that fact.
“The fans have just been loving this article. I heard Isabelle on the phone earlier with a few of our sponsors, and they are interested in having you and Lily feature their products. Such great news!” Lizzie was doing a little dance in the middle of the conference room, jiving to the invisible music in her head. I let out a small huff and a chuckle at her antics. I’m glad she was pleased. Truthfully, I was glad that this gave the team the extra funding that we needed. If we truly had secured these extra deals, we were going to be set for development on next year’s car. We had another year to prove ourselves.
I had another year to fight for the championship. I went to say as much to Lizzie, but before I could get the words out, I heard Lizzie’s phone ding with a text.
