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“Come over here and say it to her face!” Éliott called out, causing the crowd to go silent as the French driver made eye contact with the guy who had yelled the rude comment. He motioned for the guy to come forward, and I could see everyone take out their cell phones, ready to film the situation unfolding in front of them.
Éliott pulled me forward, but Luca grabbed my hand and pulled me back to him. Éliott didn’t let go, and he pulled me towards the man as he stood behind me.
“Go on…” Éliott said to the man who was now standing in front of me. “Say it to her face.” The man was frozen in front of me, and I could tell he was not expecting Éliott, a male driver, to call him out like that. I suppose he figured he would be able to yell it from the back of the crowd, going completely unnoticed. After a few moments of the man saying nothing, I finally found my own voice.
“Cat got your tongue?” I mocked, standing a little straighter as I could feel my confidence surge. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luca, Henri, and Éliott smirking, the three of them looking very amused.
“I read what I read – why would they lie?” the guy finally spit out.
“Because cash is king, Darling,” I said coolly, “and they know they can con people like you into buying their trash.” When the guy finally started to back away, muttering to himself, I just shook my head in disbelief, turning back to the group.
“Let this be a lesson to all who dare mess with the lioness,” Éliott announced.
The group of fans around us started to dissipate after a few more autographs, and Luca and I started to head to the elevator. When the doors opened, I felt small hands pull at my dress from behind me.
“Excuse me!” A voice yelled, and I turned around to see a little girl waving at me. I knelt down next to her and smiled as she handed over her hat for a signature.
“Georgia is her favorite driver,” I heard her mother say to Luca.
“Mine too,” Luca whispered as I finished signing the little girl’s hat.
* * *
Luca
Henri had texted me Wednesday morning to let me know that Georgia had read the article while they were on the flight. Truthfully, I was surprised that she had waited that long, but I suspected that she felt like I did – reading the paper would make this seem all too real.
I knew I wanted to do something nice for Georgia, something to make her feel special. I had already purchased the Aphrodite’s Jewelry bracelet. It was going to be my gift for her at the end of the season, but seeing how beaten down she looked in that Valkyrie conference room on Tuesday, I just couldn’t bring myself to wait, so instead, I purchased some extra items and stuffed them into a gift basket, hoping that it would bring a smile to her face. Seeing Georgia wear the bracelet made my heart melt.
Seeing her happy made me want her even more.
Thursday, Georgia and I arrived on track several hours before our scheduled press conference. We were to meet the FIA and Formula 1 board along with our team principals. We knew the FIA wanted some explanation for the article before we went into the weekend. The consultant Isabelle had hired to help solve this mess had advised us on what to say, although I felt as though there probably wasn’t anything we could do to properly prep for this.
Georgia and I arrived at the conference room last, hand in hand, as instructed by Elizabeth. I could see the nerves on Georgia’s face, and I wanted nothing more than to soothe her worries and tell her that everything would be okay, but I knew I couldn’t do that.
Truth was, I didn’t know if everythingwouldbe okay.
“Good morning, Luca and Georgia. Please, take a seat.” Giovanni Bruno was a staunch Italian man with thick-rimmed black glasses. He had a frown on his face, although Isabelle told me he was always like that. At first, I was pleased that Giovanni used to be the Hermes team principal and hoped that his history with Hermes would give us some clout, but from what Henri had told me, due to the team’s recent lack of success, Francesco, the current Hermes team principal, and Giovanni were a bit at odds.
Great.
After we took our seats, Giovanni continued, “So, in recent light of this mess from the Daily Report, we wanted to touch base with the teams to make sure we are all on the same page.” There was a pause in his voice, but no one said anything. “To be clear, the FIA does not condone faking relationships so you can get more sponsors.”
“Good, neither does Hermes.” Francesco quipped, a scoff in his voice, which earned him a look of disdain from Isabelle, clearly telling her husband to leave the attitude behind.
“What do you want, Giovanni?” Isabelle finally asked after a brief pause. “The Daily Report is a trash newspaper that wrote a trash story to sell their trash magazines. You know that. We know that. Hell, I think even The Daily Report knows it. Now, you’ve called us into this office for agoodreason, I assume?”
“The FIA just wants to make sure that everything between these two teams is above board.” It was clear from Giovanni’s voice that he didn’t want to directly give us a telling off, but his tone was certainly insinuating one.
“The only thing going on here, Giovanni, is the FIA getting in the way of precious time I have with my driver to help her prepare for this upcoming race,” Isabelle said dryly, giving Giovanni a stern look that told him she had no intention of backing down.
“Fine. I want to hear it from the drivers, then you can go.” Giovanni turned to look at Georgia and me, expecting us to say something. I could hear Georgia’s breath quicken, her nerves were starting to get the best of her.
“There’s nothing to tell. I’m with Georgia because I want to be, plain and simple. I like spending my days with her, and I want to continue doing so,” I said finally, flashing Georgia a warm smile as I silently encouraged her to share her piece.
“I wish I could say this was one of my elaborate pranks, Giovanni,” Georgia said finally, “but it’s not. We’re just a couple of kids in our twenties racing cars and falling in love. People accuse us of using each other for PR, but how is it different than a driver dating a model and doing PR shoots with them? Luca and I like spending time together. If we want to do some photoshoots together, then so be it. Other drivers do photo gigs with their significant others all the time.”
I could see Giovanni pondering our words, and he nodded in response to Georgia’s comment, standing up from his seat at the conference room table.
