Faking it || Lando Norris LN

52

Wednesday. Belgian Grand Prix.

The photos were out as soon as Olivia and Charles woke up. He helped her get up from bed, and the first thing Olivia wanted to do was take a shower. He took one of Olivia's room keys just in case and headed for his room to shower as well, struggling not to send Lando a message to ask him if he knew what was going on with her. 

Charles had no idea what the hell was happening, but his sixth sense kept screaming at him that this whole thing had Lando's name written all over it. Charles could still tell how weak her body was, but thought her eagerness to jump into the shower may be a good sign.

Olivia stood in the shower for half an hour until she couldn't tell the tears on her face from the water stream apart. She scrubbed her body so hard she suspected her skin would start bleeding at any moment. She didn't care. She wanted to scrub every inch that had been touched by him. Olivia wanted to rip every memory of his hands on her, and if she couldn't, she wanted the memory to hurt.

She didn't want to think of the softness of his touch. She wanted to train her mind to look at Lando's hands and feel her hand touch a hot stove.

She wanted to reprogram her brain to think of everything they'd gone through together and think: alright, and nothing else.

Olivia's phone chimed as she stepped out of the shower, the exact moment after she'd accepted the defeat. Lando's name was still written all over her skin, and no amount of scrubbing would tear him away. Gianna had sent her the details for the photoshoot she would have later that day. Olivia quickly read the message, not wanting to spend a second more than needed. She knew Lando's pictures were getting released at any moment now, and she knew that looking at them again would send her spiraling —again.

But as her eyes scanned over the time and address for the photo shoot, a new message from Gianna popped up in their chat. A dozen of pictures came into view. It was the Clinique campaign, along with a couple of screenshots of statistics and a message from Gianna celebrating how great the numbers were.

The campaign had also been released that morning —right before Lando's pictures. Gianna also included a couple of screenshots from hundreds of people online talking about how Lando had fumbled the bag. Olivia skipped those screenshots as fast as she could. She knew Gianna's intentions were kind, but she was sure hundreds of people would also say he'd upgraded to Luna, even if Gianna didn't send those.

But then her eyes landed on the campaign pictures, and a knot took over her throat.

Olivia was dazzling. She looked gorgeous. It was, undoubtedly, the best she'd ever looked, but all she could think about was the reason she'd been dazzling in the first place.

The smile on her face had a name written all over it, and it was his. She could see him all over her skin, in the sparkle of her eyes, and in the subtle curl of her lip during the "serious" shots where she hadn't been able to stop thinking about the polaroid picture inside her jean pocket.

Gianna was already sending her messages, voting for which of them she should use for her Instagram profile picture when Olivia locked her phone and almost smashed it against the bathroom sink. She didn't want to see those photos ever again.

She tore her towel off and jumped into the shower again.

*

Chanel had been looking for a strong woman to be the face of their new fragrance since the beginning of the year. They knew exactly the kind of woman they were looking for: a flower in the desert. They wanted a strong-willed, beautiful, independent woman. Single, gorgeous, triumphant in a male-dominated field while still looking delicate and feminine.