Seb opened his eyes and groaned. It felt like there was a marching band moving around inside his head.
"Feeling rough?" he heard Alyssa say from next to him. He rolled onto his side and looked at her. She was sat up in bed, looking alert and refreshed. He groaned again.
"Rough is an understatement. I feel like death warmed up," he told her.
"I'm not surprised. You were totally shitfaced," she replied.
"Fucking Luther! He always gets me drunk. I wasn't even going to drink that much."
"Don't you blame Luther! You were just as bad as he was."
"How did I even get back here? The last thing I remember is singing on the karaoke."
"You call that singing? You were obviously more drunk than what I thought."
"Are you pissed off with me?" he asked. She definitely sounded pissed off. He didn't blame her really. It had been a celebration of her birthday and he couldn't remember half the night.
"No, not at all, but I'm not going to be sympathetic. It's self inflicted!" He pulled himself up into a sitting position.
"Have you got any Paracetamol?" he asked. Alyssa got up and went over to her suitcase. She took out a packet of Paracetamol and chucked it to him.
"There's a glass of water besides the bed," she told him.
"Thanks baby." He popped out a couple of pills and took them with a swig of water.
There was a knock at the door. Alyssa was still out of bed so she walked over and opened it. She grinned when she saw who was there.
"Oh thank you so much Joel! You're an angel."
"I'll remind you of that! Pisshead awake yet?"
"Yeah, he just woke up."
Joel stuck his head around the door.
"How's your head sunshine?" he asked Seb.
"Banging!" Seb replied.
"Serves you right. God knows what state Luther's in, he was still going at it when we left. Anyway, I've got to go, I have a flight to catch and I'm still not packed. You're not flying until later are you?"
"We're flying at four this afternoon," Alyssa confirmed.
"I'll see you tomorrow sometime I guess. Enjoy your breakfast sis!"
After the door had shut behind Joel Seb noticed the brown paper bag in Alyssa's hand.
"What have you got there?" he asked.
"Well this morning I woke up with a craving for a bacon roll," she told him.
She ripped the bag open and pulled out the roll. She opened it up to check it had the ketchup on it that she'd requested. Once satisfied that it had, she took a massive bite out of it.
"Mmmmm. God that's fucking good!"
"So are you over the fruit cake craving now?" Seb asked.
"Nah, I reckon one Bean likes that and the other one likes bacon. Do you want a bite?" she asked, holding it out towards him.
The smell hit Seb and his stomach lurched. He jumped out of bed and made a dash to the bathroom, only just making it in time. He emptied the contents of his stomach into the toilet.
Back in the bedroom Alyssa shrugged and took another big bite of her bacon roll.
***
"Wow, it's amazing here," Alyssa proclaimed as Seb drove her around the track in an Aston Martin Vantage. She'd missed out on visiting Mexico the previous year after her miscarriage.
"Yeah, it's really something. Imagine the atmosphere, they really go all out for Checo here."
It was Wednesday afternoon and Seb had managed to persuade the organisers to let him drive Alyssa around. He stopped the car in the middle of the stadium section. There were workmen still finishing off the paint on the curbs.
"This has one of the best atmospheres on the whole Formula 1 calendar."
"What's it like to drive?"
"I love it! I've never won here but I've had a pole, a couple of seconds. Hopefully I can go one better this year."
"I know you can," she said.
"You really are my biggest fan aren't you?"
"Of course. I love you." She leant over and kissed his cheek.
"Are the Beans behaving?"
"They're wriggling around like crazy this morning. I can't describe the feeling. I swear they're having a wrestling match in there."
"One takes after Uncle Joel and one after Uncle Fabian," Seb laughed.
"Please no," Alyssa said. "I couldn't cope with another Joel and Fabian."
"I bet you they're both girls," Seb said.
"Nah, the law of averages demands that at least one is a boy."
"As long as they're healthy it doesn't matter." He started the car up again. "Come on. Let's go. We can go and get tacos for lunch."
"Sounds good to me."
***
"Woooooohoooo," Seb cried down the radio as Chris told him he'd claimed pole position for Sunday's race. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"
"Amazing lap Seb!" Chris told him.
He brought the car back and stopped in front of the number one board. Alonso was already in front of the number three board. He'd surprisingly been outqualified by his teammate.
Seb got out of the car, punching the air in delight. Things were all coming together!
***
Things were all falling apart! Seb had had an average start and Alonso had a flyer, passing Ocon who'd been slow off of the line. They'd then gone into turn one side by side and ended up touching after Alonso had moved over on Seb. Seb had been sent into a spin and had rejoined dead last.
He'd spent the rest of the race fighting his way back through the field, finally finishing in fifth. He'd been voted driver of the day but there were no points for that.
He was fuming as he got out of the car. Alonso hadn't received a penalty, even though it was 100% his fault, and had gone on to win the race and take fastest lap, and had now taken a seven point lead in the championship.
Seb thrust his helmet and HANS into Antti's hands and stomped into garage, Antti having to jog to keep up with him.
He got weighed and then headed for the media pen. He didn't want to talk to them but he had no choice. He gave short, to the point answers, questioning the FIA's decision to class Alonso's move as a racing incident. Then he stomped off back towards hospitality.
"Hard luck Vettel," he heard a mocking voice say. He stopped in his tracks and turned around, coming face to face with the smug face of Fernando Alonso.
