Chequered Flag | FORMULA ONE (COMPLETED)

CHAPTER TWENTY

I landed in Saudi Arabia quite late. I bought the latest plane ticket to the sandy place, because during the break between the Aussie and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, I went back home to Lake Geneva to take care of my dad for a few days. Gerard also followed me to Switzerland, and for the duration of my stay at home, he accompanied me a lot and helped me feel better about the whole situation with Ember. Despite that, I didn't think my jealousy could subside so easily. I irked at all the failed attempts to suppress and dismiss my negative thoughts, but I could do nothing about it. It's consuming me.

All I could do is do my best and outperform Ember. That's the only way I knew, and I wasn't even sure if this would be realistic and effective.

The weather in Saudi Arabia was boiling hot. After I landed, I quickly grabbed my belongings and rented the first car that caught my eye - an F32 BMW 4 Series. Not too shabby, I thought.

When I got into the car and started the engine, I turned the climate control to the coldest setting there was. It felt so comfortable as the chill air hit my sweaty skin. I was so not used to the weather here, and I really needed to. How was I supposed to race if I couldn't bear the heat?

I drove to my hotel, checked in, and took a nice cold shower before collapsing onto the bed into a deep sleep.

I was standing with the mechanics and engineers in the team. They were all looking up at the podium, smiling, laughing, cheering. They were all happy about something.

It didn't take me long to realise what that 'something' was. Not 'something' but 'someone'. It was Ember Williams. She sauntered onto the top step of the podium to retrieve her first place trophy.

A first place trophy.

Many people were in tears of joy, rejoicing over Ember's mega achievement; others couldn't believe what they were looking at.

Ember Williams. The first ever female race winner in Formula One. And This was not even her first full season. Who knows what the future holds?

Ember waved to all the people in front of her, blowing kisses to her fans. She placed her trophy down on the ground and opened her victor's champagne bottle. As she shook the bottle, drops of champagne flew everywhere. But nobody cared about the mess she had made with the fizzy, bubbly liquid.

After all the splashing and celebrating, she then looked down and saw me. "Oi Mick, this is for you!" she yelled, and she threw the bottle in my direction.

I looked at the bottle as it free fell in a parabolic trajectory. I positioned myself in its path to try to catch it, but it was flying at such a high speed it would be impossible for me to catch it without hurting myself.

My realisation came too late.

As I attempted to dodge the flying champagne bottle, it hit my head.

That was when I woke up. Blinding bright sunlight shone straight into my eyes. I groaned in frustration. Why didn't I close the curtains yesterday? I took a brief glance at the alarm clock beside my bed. 9am. Just give me more sleep, okay? I thought to myself.

Just as I lay on my bed, I was interrupted by my phone ringing. Apparently, it was Guenther.

I answered it. "Hi, Guenther."

"Hi Mick. The media crew has something planned for you today. Arrive at the garage by 12 noon, okay?"

What? 12pm? That was 3 hours later! Well, there's my morning rest time gone. "Fine. I'll be there."

"Okay. Bye." And he hung up.

Guess I'll have to start preparing myself for a trip to the Haas garage later on. Sigh... I had no idea why, but the thought of seeing Ember tied knots in my stomach.

***

I turned my steering wheel as I entered the drivers' parking lot. I looked around for my named parking spot and parked my BMW there. The whole parking lot was empty, except for a shiny blue Ferrari SF90 beside me.

It was Ember's car.

What? She drove a freaking Ferrari here? And I had a BMW! (No offence to BMWs, I love those cars.) I got out of my car and stepped back to compare the two cars. I thought my M4 was a decent car, but apparently it was inferior compared to Ember's supercar.

I shook my head. I was jealous once again! I couldn't believe I didn't look more closely at the options when I rented my car. I should've picked a McLaren or something! At least I would be on par with Ember's Ferrari.

Enough with the negative thoughts, Mick! You're meeting your team, and you can't act like a jerk. I took a deep breath and entered the Haas garage.

"Mick! You're here!" Ember jumped towards me.

"Hi."

"What's wrong Mick? Did you have a bad morning?" she asked, trying to be empathetic.

I nodded, because I actually did. I just didn't want to tell her why.

"Oh... Don't worry Mick, the team has set up something very fun that'll cheer you up!" Ember consoled me. "Come on! Follow me!"

Ember grabbed my hand and practically dragged me onto the empty pitlane. Sydney and the whole Haas social media crew were present. We greeted each other, then Sydney let us have a seat, and she explained what we were going to do.

Apparently, Ember and I were doing an international food taste test. Because of the controversy of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the Haas team wanted to maintain the #weraceasone spirit as much as possible. Reasonable, I thought.

The team gave us many cuisines to try out, including European food, local Saudi Arabian delicacies, Chinese food, Japanese foodstuffs and American snacks. Overall, we had a nice time filming the challenge. Ember and I got to laugh at the team's jokes. Some of them were terrible, others were decent.

Plus, for once, I find myself on par with Ember, or even better than her, in terms of taste, because in the end I outscored her by one point!

I was totally in ecstasy, one-hundred-percent satisfied with my results. I must admit, it suppressed my jealousy for some time, and I was genuinely enjoying my time with Ember and the team.

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I know I have been saying the same things over and over again but bear with me, they're only a few more chapters left xD