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“I’ve got to head to the Hermes garage, but I’ll see you after qualifying.”
He nodded in agreement, and I left the hospitality suite as discretely as I could, heading towards the Hermes garage. It was only a few minutes past 8 a.m. when I got to my garage, and I took my seat inside the conference room. Fortunately, Francesco was also running late from an engineering meeting.Unfortunately, that meant it was just Henri, Hugo, and me sitting awkwardly together in the Hermes conference room.
“I saw the photos from the boat ride last night,” Hugo said, finally breaking the deafening silence in the room. “Georgia sent me a couple of photos.”
“It was good fun.” I let my eyes glance at Henri, who still hadn’t said anything. He didn’t look too shocked, which told me that he knew about the date but had decided not to say anything.
“So, Henri, you read the GQ article?” I asked casually, knowing full well that he would have been instructed to read it. Hell, Francesco wouldn’t even have needed to tell him to read it. Henri's jealousy would get the better of him, and he wouldwantto read it. I knew he wanted it to be him and Georgia – a fun brother/sister spread in the magazine talking about their life together. He had mentioned it before, and the duo had done a few articles for Monegasque and French magazines, but nothing of this size.
Part of me felt pleased that he was jealous, and I knew it was petty. Everyone under the sun knew that Henri was the number one driver. He was the driver that Hermes had put all of their hopes and dreams on. By all means, this should have beenhisarticle. He should have been the one to get the big spread, but instead it was me, Hermes driver number two – the irresponsible ‘playboy’ who had put several sponsorship contracts at risk.
And fuck it, I was pleased.Not a lot of things had gone my way this season, and I was going to revel in the few things that did. Henri looked at me, clearly pondering how to respond to that. He knew I was baiting him in front of his brother, but his pause told me that he was debating on whether he should take the bait.
“Peaches looked beautiful.” Henri's eyes narrowed, looking directly into mine.
“Well, Georgia doesn’t need a professional photographer or fancy clothes to do that,” I responded back, letting a sly grin form on my lips.Should I be pissing off my teammate before a qualifying where I needed a tow? Probably not.But no one had accused me of being level-headed, and this was far too fun.
I could see Henri's jaw twitch a bit, but he remained mute and instead turned back to his phone, continuing to scroll through whatever he was reading. Part of me felt a little bad; in truth, I understood where he was coming from on a deeper level. He was a protective older brother whose sister had been hurt before. I would be acting like him if it was my sister, and I knew it.
As I considered this, I thought back to Anthony who was hanging out in the Wilmington garage. I wondered if Henri knew that Anthony was here. I expected that he didn’t; even Edward seemed shocked to see the American NASCAR driver this morning. I pondered for a few moments if I should tell Henri and Hugo and decided that it was the right thing to do. If it was my sister, I would want to know that her asshole of an ex-fiance was here.
“So, I, uh, saw Anthony at the Wilmington garage this morning.”Immediately, Henri and Hugo looked up, their attention fully fixated on me.
“What do you mean he’s here?” A look of concern spread across Hugo’s face. “Does Georgie know?”
“Edward pulled me into the Wilmington garage this morning. Anthony was in the VIP suite. Apparently, he’s had some Formula 1 testing at Wilmington, and he has been given an Indy Car seat. He’s here all weekend, moseying his way around the paddock as he gets further acquainted with the Wilmington team.”
“Why would the Wilmington F1 Team, or any team, want that asshole?” Henri loudly scoffed, slamming his hands on the table. I jumped back, a little shocked by my teammates’ outburst. Henri ruffled his hands through his hair as he muttered a frustrated sigh. Hugo put both his hands on his hips and began to pace the room, and I could see the wheels turning in his head.
“We need to keep her away from Anthony,” Hugo said finally, stopping mid-pace as he sifted his hand through his hair.
“With all due respect, Georgia is a big girl. She can handle herself.” I didn’t like to pick fights with Hugo, but I couldn’t help myself. I understood that her brothers were concerned, but I also felt like Georgia wasn’t a child.
Hugo let out an irritated chuckle but nodded in agreement. “You’re right. Shecanhandle herself, but this is a huge weekend for her, and Anthony is very good at getting under people’s skin. They ended very badly, and I have no doubt that he’ll do everything in his power to get into her head. She doesn’t deserve that, not after everything he did.”
“Well, we’re having a quick lunch together after FP3. I figured we’d stick around the Valkyrie hospitality area, probably the safest place to be.”
“I will come and have lunch with you,” Henri piped up. I tried to hide my displeasure as I nodded at my teammate. It would be best to have a small group. I’d ask Edward to come too – might as well add company to misery.
* * *
Free Practice 3 had been excruciating. I hated these city tracks, favoring the more traditional racing tracks like Spa and Silverstone. Still, Georgia and Henri had done their usual – P1 and P2 as normal, with Noah in P3. They were separated between something incredibly miniscule, like a thousandth of a second.
I knew my P6 result was pathetic for the car, but I was not fairing well on the track. I felt uncomfortable and displeased with the car’s setup, but we were stuck with what we had this week. As I hopped out of the car, I saw Henri wave me over. He had his suit wrapped around his waist, clearly ready to head to lunch so he could brag to Georgia that he had beaten her into the P1 slot at FP3.
We arrived at the Valkyrie hospitality suite and took a seat outside. It was somewhat visible to guests who walked by, but they wouldn’t be allowed in unless they had a VIP pass.Georgia had insisted on sitting outside, even though Henri tried to convince her otherwise. Unfortunately for Henri, the weather was too nice for Georgia to possibly believe that we stay inside, just in case it rained.
Edward had arrived shortly after we sat down, a knowing look on his face. Henri gave him a small shake of his head, letting him know that we hadn’t told Georgia. I had been team‘Georgia deserves to know,’but I was overruled by her brothers, who said absolutely not, or at least not until qualifying was over. We all knew we couldn’t hide her all of Sunday, so we struck a deal – let’s get through qualifying.
But, as I suspected, the universe had other plans.
Georgia insisted on having a short walk to get her legs going before qualifying. I offered for Edward and Henri to head back to their garages, but they both insisted on staying.About halfway through our walk, I saw Edward’s face go wide, telling me what I needed to know – Anthony had spotted us, and he was heading over to our group.Fuck.
“Well, well, well, Edward, I had wondered where you had gone off to!” I heard a voice call out. Edward ducked behind me as if that was going to hide him from Anthony. Georgia immediately looked up at the person standing in front of her, a look of dread –and then anger– on her face as she turned to see Anthony standing there with a female redhead, their hands intertwined.
Edward said nothing, his eyes shifting to Georgia, who was already giving Edward a pointed glare with a questioning look on her face, clearly expecting an answer out of the Brit.
“Just having lunch with friends,” Edward replied with a dry smile.
