Lando decides that the perfect way to hard launch their relationship is by doing the the trend - can you watch my girlfriend for a second.
“I think that’s potentially the stupidest idea you’ve had yet?” You stated, looked at him blankly with wide - unimpressed eyes.
“I actually think it’s kind of great.” Your head shot to Max who was sat beside you on the couch. Lando stood in front of you both after having presented his ‘amazing’ idea on how to declare your relationship to the world.
“Yes! Thank you Max!” Lando exclaimed clapping his hands together, causing your gaze to shoot from Max to him. “I knew there was a reason we were friends.” Max looked offended by his best mates words.
“You’re both serious?” You deadpanned. “Why can’t you just do a normal post like every other person on the planet.”
“You should know by now that I am not fucking normal Ellie.” He said back shrugging his arms in response. You ran a hand over your face in distress before looking back up to him. He was stood there, face pulled together pleading with you to do this with him.
“Alright!” You said holding your hands up in defeat. How could you say no to him. He jumped on the spot and your eyes widened.
“Lets do this.” He shouted excitedly before running out of the room. You turned to Max on the sofa who was sat there. Lips pulled together with a smug smile on his face.
“This is your fault.” You stated, eyes narrowed at him before standing up and following Lando out the room.
Max threw his arms up in the air. “How the fuck is this my fault.”
___
The set up was simple. You were sat at your desk, ‘working’ on your laptop and Lando would come in and place the camera against the plant pot they’d placed there for the perfect angle.
“Right you ready baby?” Lando asked from beside you.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” You were sat typing away on your keyboard pretending to work away. When you heard Lando click record.
“Hey guys, can you just watch my girlfriend for a sec.” He walked up beside you and placed the phone down on it’s mark. It was your time to shine.
You didn’t move from what you were doing at first. Only side eyed the camera and froze your typing as Lando walked off behind you. You stared at it for a bit before slowly, very very slowly turning to look behind you where Lando had just walked off.
You stopped in that position again for a second before slowly turning back to the camera. Your face was suspicious and you eyed the camera with near disgust whilst retracting your hands from your keyboard and placing them in your lap as you leaned back in your chair.
You froze like that for a second before twisting your head behind you whist still keeping your eyes on the camera. “Lando!” You yelled, not looking away from the camera. You twisted your head back, eyes still focused on the camera.
You could hear Lando and Max giggling off camera and you were doing your best to ignore them. Hopefully the camera wouldn’t pick them up.
After a few seconds of sitting staring you spoke to it. “Hello?” You questioned cautiously. Your eyes darted around you, as if you were growing uncomfortable staring at the phone too long. You leaned your head closer and whispered. “Is anyone there?” You froze in this position, as if you were waiting for a response, knowing that there wouldn’t be one. You leaned back and continued to stare, your eyes growing more and more concerned. “The fuck is he doing?” You muttered under your breath, just loud enough so that the camera would pick it up before yelling once again. “Lando!”
Then right on cue, Lando came back into frame and appeared beside you picking up the camera from it’s mark. “Thanks so much guys!” He spoke into the phone as the camera was now facing him.
“Who the fuck are you talking to?” You spoke loudly in the background, no longer in shot just before the video ended.
“THAT WAS GOLDEN!” Max shouted. “Ellie, mate, you’ve gotta pursue a career in acting!” You stared at him with a disapproving look. “Come on come on, lets see it!” Lando and Max marched over to the sofa and began.
“Baby, you coming to see your fine work?” Lando spoke patting the sofa next to him. You smiled and shook your head at him slightly before wondering over and plopping yourself down next to him. You leaned on him, chin resting on his shoulder as he clicked play on the video.
___
“Baby, people are loving this.” Lando said suddenly.
“Lan are you even paying attention to this?” You sighed as you tried to watch the finale of the White Lotus. It was a little while later since Lando had posted the video to his instagram to announce or ‘hard launch’ your relationship. He was lying down head on your lap as you fiddled with his curls. You had been so engrossed in the show that you’d not noticed his scrolling through instagram comments.
“No no, I am but baby listen.” He was sitting up now, and you reluctantly grabbed the TV remote clicking pause so he could speak without talking over the show. “This is the best hard launch I’ve ever seen.” Lando looked up from his phone to you. “This is what people are saying - Urgh, I just love them - someone else.” You sat watching him, not even really listening to what he was saying with a small smile on your lips. You were happy to see him happy.
He’d had a rough time in the media in his last relationship, one of the reasons you’d been reluctant to go public for a while. You knew that once you’d put it out there, you couldn’t take it back and that was scary. But Lando had wanted to let people know that you were his and he was yours and that was more reassuring than anything else.
You leaned forward on your hands and placed a short and firm kiss to his lips before quickly pulling away and resuming your place on the sofa. He looked up at you, a bit taken aback by your sudden movement.
“I love you.” You then said simply. His hands dropped lowering his phone into his lap.
“Babyyy” he said sweetly looking at you with nothing but love in his eyes. “I love you.” He said back. “Now can I please read you a few more comments.”
You had your headphones in as you approached the traffic lights. The sun was warm on your skin as you reached the edge of the road. You glanced at the lights waiting for them to turn green for you. You were suddenly distracted from your thoughts as the loud rev of an engine sounded, louder than the music playing in your ears. You looked up from your phone to see a McLaren pulling up slowly to the lights.
You eyes glanced over the car. God that is beautiful. Your eyes looked through the windscreen where you noticed a familiar face sitting at the steering wheel. You couldn’t help but pause as your eyes locked with them, he was already observing you. You could feel a small smile begin gracing your lips. You couldn’t quite believe that this was happening. You watched as he also graced you with a small smile back.
You couldn’t help yourself, you had to let him know that you knew who he was. You held up four fingers. His driver number. You could see him let out a small laugh from the car. You were pulled from your interaction when you noticed that people had begun crossing the road. You quickly started walking across the road in front of his car when a loud horn made you jump. You froze and turned to your right to see Landos’ window rolled down and he was leaning out looking at you.
“Need a ride?” He said from inside the car. You paused stood in the middle of the road looking at him with a blank face. You could see that other people around had stopped to witness the interaction. You even noticed a few people with their phones out.
“What?” You said dumbly. He laughed at this.
“Wanna go for a spin somewhere?” He said again. You let out a small laugh in disbelief and just stared at him, contemplating. He was still smiling at you. You glanced ahead of you towards the park that you had been intending to clear your head on a walk at before turning back to Lando.
“Fuck it.” You quickly spun on your heel and headed to the passenger side of the car. Before you even reached the door, it opened before you and you climbed in. You reached up and pulled it closed before turning to grab your seatbelt just as Lando started to drive off.
Neither of you said anything for what felt like forever. You found yourself staring at the window. You couldn’t bring yourself to look at him. You had no idea what to say. You eventually turned to watch him.
“I could be like an axe murderer or something.” You said looking at him from your seat. He let out a small laugh at that and glanced over to you quickly.
“Well are you?” He paused to look at you again. “Are you an axe murderer?”
“Of course not.”
“Well thats good then.” He looked at you again, for a little longer this time. “I’m Lando by the way, but you already know that.”
“I’m Ellie.” You said quietly, still quietly coming to terms to the fact that you were actually sat in Lando Norris’ car. “It’s nice to meet you Lando. Where exactly are we headed.”
“I’m heading to this barbecue at my boss’s house.”
“By boss..you don’t mea-”
“Zak, yes.”
“Brilliant.”
“Hungry?”
“You’re not suggesting..that I come?”
“I absolutely am suggesting that yes.”
“That’s a terrible idea.”
“I actually think its a great idea.” You stared at him blankly, looking for a sign that he was in fact joking.
“Oh my god, you’re actually serious.”
He turned to face you again with a smile on his face. He nodded.
“Well this is going to go terribly. You met me about 4 minutes ago and you only know my name?”
“Mhmm.” He hummed, nodding again with this big smile.
You let out an exasperated laugh before turning to look at the window again.
“Tell me something.” He said suddenly, you looked over to him again.
“Huh?”
“Tell me something…about you.”
You paused for a moment. “I drink about six coffees a day.”
“Six?!” His head shot to you. “That’s not good for you.”
“Some would say that racing a car at 300 mph around a track is also not good for you.”
“Ah but that’s entertaining at least.”
“So is me on about six coffees a day.” He laughed and you smiled. “You’ve got a great laugh ya know.” He turned to you with a big smile on his face.”
“Oh yeah?” His eyebrows were raised, teasingly.
“Yeah. I like it.” You looked out the window again.
“I like your smile.” He spoke unexpectedly. You didn’t turn to face him as you could feel a blush taking over your cheeks.
“Thanks.” You said quietly, you could feel his eyes burning into your head. “Now your turn. Tell me something.”
Your turned to face him again and he pulled a face of concentration as he pondered over a fact to give you. “Oh! I’m addicted to watching those deep cleaning videos on tiktok.”
Your face scrunched at his answer. “Oh my god Lando, those make me feel so sick.”
He laughed. “Yeah they’re gross aren’t they.”
“Completely.”
“How long have you been a fan of F1?”
“I used to watch with my dad all the time as a kid, and guess it just kind of continued into adulthood. Then Drive to Survive was released and it became even more entertaining.” He let out a small chuckle at your words.
“Have you ever been to a race?”
“Sadly not. You know its a pretty expensive sport to be a fan of right?” You joked and he looked over at you with a small smile. “It’s cool, I feel like you can actually see the race better from TV anyway.”
___
“This is Ellie.” Lando said as you both stood in front of Zak at the door to his house. You let a nervous smile grace your face and gave him a small wave as you said a quiet hello.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Ellie. How do you and Lando know eachother?”
“Oh we met about an hour ago.” Zak’s eyes widened ever so slightly at Lando’s words. “Shall I put these in the fridge mate?” Lando started to enter the house not addressing the bombshell he just dropped and carried the crate of beers inside with him. Zak moved out the way to let him pass and he left you both stood their slightly awkwardly.
“I’d just like to confirm that I did in fact say to him this would be a terrible idea.”
Zak let out a laugh at your words. “He’s never been one to follow the rules.” You eased slightly. “Come inside Ellie, let’s get you a drink and you can fill me in on what is going on.” You laughed and followed Zak inside.
You followed him as he led you through his house til you reached a kitchen which had floor to ceiling glass doors leading out to a beautiful garden. “Zak your home is lovely.” You said as you looked around the stunning kitchen.
“Thank you. I’m pretty chuffed with it.” You smiled and turned to face him. “What can I get you to drink?”
“Gin and tonic?” You questioned as you leaned against the island where Zak was standing.
“Gin and tonic coming right up.” He began preparing your drink. “Now tell me how exactly you came to meet Lando.”
You laughed slightly and looked down at your hands that were in front of you on the island. You glanced outside where you could see Lando saying hello to various different people outside.
“I was taking a walk and he pulled up at some traffic lights. Next thing I know he was asking if I wanted to go for a spin.” You watched as Zak’s eyebrows raised at your words. “Not everyday an F1 driver offers you a ride in his Mclaren..sooo I got in.”
“And she’s been regretting the decision ever since.” You turned your face to see Lando hovering in the doorway.
“That’s not true, its just a fucking weird situation.” Your head quickly shot to Zak. “Sorry.” He and Lando both laughed.
“Your gin and tonic.” He handed you your glass which you gratefully accepted.
“Thank you.”
“Come on Ellie, theres some people I want you to meet.” You took a large gulp of your drink before following Lando out into the garden. He led you over to a face that you knew. His teammate.
Lando greeted Oscar with a pat on the back. “Mate, how are you.” They then shared a quick hug.
“I’ve been waiting for you to get here, how’s it going buddy.” When they separated Lando also hugged his girlfriend and said hello.
“This is Ellie.” Lando put his hand on your back as he introduced you.
“Hello.” You said with a big smile.
“Great to meet you Ellie.” Oscar smiled at you. “Didn’t know when you were seeing someone Lan.” Your eyes widened slightly at his words.
“Oh no, we’re not..” You gestured between the two of you. “Lando picked me up off the side of the road about an hour ago.” You took another sip, Lando chuckled from beside you.
“True story.” He said before taking a swig of his beer. Oscar and his girlfriend Lily both looked slightly perplexed. There was a slight silence before Oscar started laughing.
“You serious?” He questioned you.
“Yeah.” You laughed and turned to Lando with your eyebrows raised. “Not a clue what I’m doing here.”
You and the rest of the group were all sat around the table outside after having finished the immense feast that Zak and his wife had prepared. You had managed to avoid being the talk of the day which you worried you would be after Lando introduced you to everyone and told them how you two had come to meet.
“So what is it that you do Ellie?” Max asked you from across the table. Oh yeah that’s right Max Verstappen was also at this barbecue.
“Oh, I’m a personal assistant.” You said with a small smile to him.
“Are you really?” Lando asked from next to you, with a slight quirk to his lips.
“Yes I am really.” You laughed.
“I’m sorry but this is still so funny to me.” Tracy spoke in amusement. “The fact that you two have never met before today.” You couldn’t help but laugh at her words.
Lando just shrugged. “Sometimes you just know someones gonna be your cup of tea.”
“How could you have possibly have known I was going to be your cup of tea from seeing me standing at the side of the road?” You scoffed, eyebrows pulled together. The table fell silent, intrigued to see how Lando would answer. He held your gaze for a moment.
“It was everything.” He started, placing his beer on the table. “Firstly..what you’re wearing. I mean look at you, you look amazing.”
“I’m wearing a tracksuit.” You deadpanned.
“No I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to second him on this one.” Other Max, Max Fewtrell was piping up now. “When you walked in, I did actually think to myself she looks fucking cool.” You pulled your eyebrows together and shook your head slightly at his words.
“No it’s true, like I said it was everything. It was the outfit, the jewellery, the shoes, the bag..I mean Ellie you look like a fucking model. But it wasn’t just that, you were completely in your own world at first, bobbing along to your music. Then when you saw me and you wiggled those four fingers at me..biting your lip.” You could feel yourself blushing slightly, suddenly aware of how everyone at the table was looking at you. You dropped your gaze to your hands. “I had to know you.”
There was a slight silence as Landos words hung in the air for a few moment. You cleared your throat. “Well now you do.” You looked to him again.
“Now I do.”
___
“Can I see you again?” You didn’t turn to face him at first. You’d left Zak’s house a little while ago and had been driving back to London in a comfortable silence. You let a small smile appear on your face.
“You sure you want to?” You answered, still facing out the window.
“I definitely want to.” He replied. “Today was nice, but I want to get to know you more..preferably without a crowd of people watching us.”
You let out a small laugh and turned to face him. “I like being invisible Lando. I’m not really sure that hanging out with you in London fits into that so well.”
“We don’t have to go anywhere, just come to my flat?” You pondered over his words. “We can cook and watch TV and just..chat. I just want to spend time with you.”
“Okay, when?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow..okay yeah tomorrow.”
“And just so you know Ellie, you’re definitely not invisible to anyone on this planet.” You turned to face him again to find that he was already looking at you. You gave him a small smile, and he turned back to the road.
___
“Okay, like I said I’ll send a car to come and get you.”
“You really don’t have to, I can just get the tube.”
“I’m sending a car.”
“Okay.” You gave in, already learning that sometimes there was no point in arguing with Lando. “Thanks for today..I had a lot of fun.”
“I had a lot of fun too.” He answered, you were both sat inside his car parked just around the corner from your flat. “I knew you’d be my cup of tea.” You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at his words.
“Goodnight Norris.” You said quietly.
“Goodnight Love.” You sat there for a moment longer, before rather boldly placing a hand on the middle console and leaning over to place a kiss on Lando’s cheek.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” You said after pulling away. You quickly opened the door and climbed out without saying another word.
___
“Where have you been?” You were immediately pounced on upon walking into your flat that you shared with your two friends Charlotte and Bea. You hovered in the doorway to the lounge where they were both sat watching TV.
“You won’t believe me, there’s simply no point.”
“Oh don’t be like that!” Bea said before throwing a cushion at you.
“What the hell!” You said picking it up off the floor and throwing it back.
“Come on Ellie..where were you?” You walked in and flopped down next to Bea and began to tell them about your day.
…
“So you’re going to see him again tomorrow, at his flat..just you and him?” Bea questioned sceptically.
“I mean yeah that’s the plan.” You ran a hand over your face. “I don’t know, the whole things so fucking random.”
“It’s not fucking random, it’s like a one in a billion chance that you’d bump into Lando Norris outside of Battersea Park which in my book means that it was meant to be.” Charlotte spoke before taking a sip of tea.
“I second that.” Bea chimed in.
“Meant to be?” You questioned quietly, mainly to yourself really.
“Think about it, out of all the places that the two of you could have been at that exact point in the day. You were meant to meet. Things like this don’t happen for no reason.” Charlotte said again nudging your slightly.
“Urgh, this is too much for my brain to process right now.”You said before standing up abruptly. “I’m going to bed.”
___
You stood outside the front door to his apartment. You had been standing there for a couple of minutes since arriving at his floor. You just couldn’t bring yourself to knock. He’d buzzed you into the building so he knew you were here. Come on Ellie, this is ridiculous. Just knock on the fuckin-
Before you could even get there the door was being swung open from inside, revealing a very confused Lando.
One of his eyebrows raised slightly in confusion seeing you just…stood there. “How long have you been standing there?”
“About three minutes.” You answered flatly.
“Right…and were you planning on knocking at any point?”
“Yeah..I was just working up to that.” He let out the smallest laugh before stepping to the side of the door gesturing for you to come in. You walked past him and inside. “Shoes off?”
“Nah you’re all good, follow me.” He headed past you and led you down a hallway into the most beautiful kitchen and living room. Your eyes widened at the view from his window. You could see almost everything in London.
“Oh wow Lando..” You said dropping your bag to the floor and walking over to the window. “This view is..” You couldn’t even find the words.
“Pretty cool huh?”
“It’s beautiful.” You said still staring out over the London skyline.
“Okay. So just go with me on this.” You turned around to look at Lando hovering behind the island in the kitchen. “But I thought we’d make pizza.” You began to walk over to where he was. “And by make, I mean from like scratch.”
“I’m gonna level with you here.” He looked up at you from reading the off a piece of paper he had in front of him “I’m terrible at cooking..like can barely keep myself alive terrible.”
“Well it’s a good thing I’m a pro then isn’t it.”
__
“Okay so now see if you can spin it in the air.” Lando said as you stretched the dough out on the counter in front of you. Your movements paused as you turned to face him. The process of getting to this stage had been eventful. You were a disaster in the kitchen and spent most of the time watching Lando whilst clearing up a mess that you’d made. You didn’t even want to think about the bag of flour that you’d accidentally crushed with a bowl causing flour to fly into the air and subsequently all of Lando. His revenge being to smear butter all over your forehead.
“You’re just asking for trouble with that.” You scoffed.
“Come on, you’ve got this. Here let me help.” Lando left his pizza base out on the side and clapped his hands together to get rid of the excess flour. He came to stand behind you and placed his arms alongside yours grabbing your hands so that he was guiding your movements. You felt yourself grow hot at the proximity of your bodies. His chest was flush up against your back. His chin was resting just above your shoulder and you could feel his breath fanning against the side of your face.
“Okay so make this hand into like an open fist, so it’s sort of curled over.” He spoke just above a whisper, his hands gently moved over your left hand curling your fingers in until your hand was shaped the way he wanted. “And then with this hand your gonna pick the base and sort of drape it over.” He moved your hand again, until the dough was balancing across both your hands. You couldn’t help your gaze drifting away from in front of you where you should have been focusing to over your shoulder where his gentle voice was coming from. Your breath was sort of shaky. You weren’t even listening anymore, you were totally consumed by his proximity to you. “Ells, you still with me?” His voice suddenly brought you back to where you should be.
You cleared your throat abruptly. “Yes..s-sorry. Okay so now what.”
__
“So why’d you move to London then?”
“I figured I needed to be away from my folks.” You put the slice of pizza you’d just bitten into back on the plate which was on the floor in front of you. Pizza making was a success, mainly thanks to Lando and now you were sat on the floor in his living room in front of the window enjoying it. “I have a tendency to rely on them I guess. Like my mum is literally my best friend and I go to my dad for everything and I just figured that even though I don’t know what I’m doing I needed to be away from them to try and work it out.”
Lando was nodding away to what you were saying. “Do you like London?”
“I do, I think sometimes it’s hard. Like it can feel so lonely sometimes. All my friends are kind of spread out now, I don’t have a massive core group that’s here anymore. And it can suck because I’m like broke all the time and Londons expensive to live in. Hence why I live with two flatmates.”
“What are their names?”
“Charlotte and Bea.”
“Were you friends before?”
“No, they posted an add on this app called spare room and I came to meet them.”
“You serious?” You laughed.
“Its how most people who flatshare in London meet.” He seemed shocked at the revelation.
“I don’t know if I could do that.”
“Well it’s a good thing you’ll probably never have to then.” You joked and he let out a small laugh in response. “What about you, do you like London?”
“I do, I think it’s beautiful here.” You hummed to his words. “But I think home for me now is definitely Monaco.”
“Where do you spend most of your time?”
“That’s a really hard question to answer.” He sort of laughed. “Monaco by a very slim margin, but I travel so much that it never really feels like it.”
“Do you like how much you travel?”
“Umm, I like being able to see as much of the world as I do. I know how lucky I am.” He paused for a moment. “But I don’t like how much I miss out on. It makes things hard, you know meeting people, keeping friends, staying close to family. Especially when not everyone is able to drop their lives to come with me wherever I go.”
“Is that what you’d like, someone to come with you everywhere?”
“I mean yeah that’s the dream. I want to share all this with someone, otherwise whats the point.”
“Maybe there is no point.”
“That’s a very cynical way to look at things.”
“What can I say I’m a realist.” You uncrossed your legs and fell back slowly so that you were lying down on your back.
“What about you, what do you want?”
“What do I want?”
“Yeah, you know..from your life?”
You stayed silent for a moment. “Honestly..to be happy.” You turned your head to the side so that you were looking at Lando again. “I don’t have a plan, I never have. I don’t know what my life’s going to look like, all I know is that I want to be happy doing whatever it is I’m doing.” A small smile came over Lando’s face.
“Are you not happy now?”
“I don’t think I’m quite there to be honest. I have these moments where I feel happiness and I know that somethings..good?” Your eyebrows scrunched together as you tried to explain what you meant. “But I don’t think I’m happy. Does that even make any sense?”
“Yeah, it does..in a weird way.”
“Are you happy?”
“I can’t lie to you..yeah.” You laughed at him. “Fuck yeah, I’m so happy.”
“You can tell.”
“You can?”
“Yeah, you can tell that you’re happy. You give off this energy, it’s hard not to feel happy around you.”
“That’s potentially the nicest thing anyones ever said to me.” You laughed again. “I feel happy when I’m around you.”
he'd somehow forgotten how important she really was.
****
‘It’s just the way that it is Lando.’ You spoke shortly down the phone.
You heard him sigh on the other end. ‘Please don’t be like this.’ You paused for a moment at his words, they cut deep. He’d cancelled coming home again due to another last minute work commitment that he couldn’t get out of. You hadn’t see Lando in 6 weeks. It was the longest you’d ever gone. ‘You knew what you were signing up for.” You let out a shaky, short breath.
There was a cutting silence. He shouldn’t have said that, and you both knew it. ‘You’re right Lando. Don’t worry about it yeah - just call me when you can come home.’ You rushed your final sentence so you could hang up the call. There was no way you were going to let him hear you cry. You threw it onto the sofa behind you. Before finally letting the tears escape.
You ran your hands over your face and sunk down onto the sofa in Lando’s London flat that you had moved into after him having asked you only 6 months ago. Not realising that it would soon make you feel the loneliest you’d ever felt since moving to London. You rested your chin on your knees that you were hugging, trying to find some form of comfort as you glanced around at the room.
Since moving in with Lando he’s been home, with you in the flat that you shared for probably three weekends. Rising popularity of Formula 1 and Lando himself meant that over the last few months he’d become increasingly popular. Meaning that alongside racing, which took up enough of his time as it was, he had a whole host of media events, collaborations and his own personal brand that had to attend.
Meaning that you, had started to feel like a less and less priority in his life. You wiped your face of silent tears that had been falling before reaching for you phone that lay next to you on the sofa. You stood up and moved to the window whilst dialling your best friend. After a few short seconds she answered the phone.
‘Heya babes, whats going on.’ Fi answered the phone in a cheery voice. A cry slipped out at hearing her voice. ‘Ell, what’s going on, are you okay?’
‘I think I’ve made a mistake Fi.’ You said shakily down the phone.
___
“Do you think that will be enough.” Fi asked as she helped you grab a few more bags of your things.
“Yeah I think so.” You said rolling your suitcase to your side. You looked up to her and she was already watching your with a sad expression. “I’m okay.” You gave her a reassuring smile, but you both knew it was fake. “I think I just need some time away from all this.” You gestured around the room.
“Okay.” She nodded, giving you a small smile. “I’ll take these down, come down when you’re ready.” Fi headed out and left you alone for a minute in your flat. You had made the decision to spend some time staying with Fi and figure out what you wanted to do about everything. You needed to figure out if this was what you really wanted.
You walked over to the kitchen counter and started to removed her keys to the flat from your keyring. You left it on a piece of paper where you had written ‘E. x’ before grabbing the last of your bags and heading out.
You’d looked down at your phone as you rode down in the lift to see the messages and missed calls that were piling up from Lando.
Lan 🤍 11 missed calls
Lan 🤍: I shouldn’t have said that
Lan 🤍: baby I’m so sorry
Lan 🤍: please answer the phone
Lan 🤍: I don’t want to leave things like this
Lan 🤍: please answer me
Lan 🤍: I need to know that you’re okay.
Lan 🤍: Ellie. Answer me.
Lan 🤍: I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
A few stray tears had escaped as you looked down. You hated this. You hated what this had become.
Ellie: I’m sorry I haven’t answered you. I’ve just been thinking about some stuff.
Ellie: I’m gonna move in with Fi for a while, I just need some time to think over everything.
Ellie: I love you.
After sending your final message you turned your phone off and headed to join Fi in her car.
____
E x: I’m sorry I haven’t answered you. I’ve just been thinking about some stuff.
E x: I’m gonna move in with Fi for a while, I just need some time to think over everything.
E x: I love you.
He felt like he couldn’t breathe the minute that he saw the messages appear on his screen. He just kept staring at them. No. He couldn’t process what he was reading. He ran a hand across his face, she was moving out.
“Lando, are you okay?” Kevin asked concerned after seeing Lando visibly pale in front of him. Lando was pulled from his bubble at his words. He looked up to him. “Whoa, mate you alright?” He asked again.
“I need to go.” Lando suddenly started walking to his suitcase so he could pack up his belongings. In this moment, nothing else mattered.
“Go where? What are you talking about?”
“I need to go home Kevin.” He said again shortly, grabbing things out of the wardrobe in his hotel room and throwing them into his suitcase. He wasn’t even taking removing them from the coat hangers.
“We just discussed this, we’re flying to Ital-”
“Well yeah that’s before I received a message from my girlfriend telling me that she’s fucking moving out.” Lando spat, cutting him off. “So I’m going home Kevin.” His voice broke towards the end.
Kevin didn’t scything anything immediately. He just watched as Lando sunk down to his knees in front of where he was packing his suitcase. His head fell forward to the bed. Kevin slowly made his way over to Lando and crouched down to his level.
“I’ll deal with everything okay. We’ll get you on the next flight back to London.”
____
“And then he said - you knew what you were signing up for - and that’s what really hurt, but also why? Because he’s right. I knew who he was, I knew that this is what his life was like, it’s my fault for thinking that I could handle it.”
“It is not your fault.” Fi scoffed pouring you both another glass of wine. “You could never have known what this was going to be like. There’s no manual for dating someone that lives this kind of lifestyle Ell.” He slid back under the blanket that you were sharing. You’d put on a rom com, but it had since become background noise as you started to share what had been going on.
“I always knew it wasn’t going to be easy though Fi. I knew that he would be away, I knew that I would be lonely. It doesn’t take an idiot to know that. I should never have moved in there.” You could feel tears forming in your eyes. “The last six months have been honestly so shit. I’ve felt so alone and it’s like he doesn’t even care.”
Fi placed her wine glass down on the table and reached out to pull you into a hug. “I wish that you had told me about how you were feeling Ell. We could have sorted this out, we could have talked about it.”
“I know, it just felt stupid. I didn’t want to feel like I was complaining, because in so many other ways he’s perfect. And I love him so much.” You said muffled into her hair.
As you both pulled away Fi spoke again. “Do you know what fuck this. We’re going to go out.”
You scoffed wiping away tears from your face, before brining your wine glass up to your lips downing the remainder of what was in the glass. “No we’re not.”
“Yes we fucking are.”
___
“Look what Mel just sent me.” Fi moved her phone under your face as you both sat in the back of the uber one your way to meet some friends. You hadn’t taken much convincing to go out and so here you were all dressed up, ready to get drunk.
LN4updates : Ellie photographed after seeing packing up multiple bags into a friends car from the flat she shares in London with Lando. He hasn’t been home in six weeks, and now she’s moving out?!
“Oh for fuck sake.” You sighed pushing it away. “That didn’t take very long did it.” You had somewhat grown used to this, but the shock of seeing yourself plastered over the internet when you had know idea there was even a camera there is not something you ever become completely used to. Especially when it’s not even your life that they’re interested in.
“I didn’t even see anyone?” Fi exclaimed to you in shock.
“Yeah I know, it’s horrible isn’t it.” You sighed. “There always there lurking though.”
As the uber pulled up to your location you received a call from Alex, Charles girlfriend. ‘Ma cherie! Just be warned, there are paparazzi here.’ Her angelic voice sounded through the phone.
‘Alex! Okay thank you for the warning. Are you inside already?’
‘Yes we are here, see you in a minute?’
‘We’ll be right in!’ You hung up the call and turned to Fi. “There’s paparazzi outside, just so you know. Fi nodded and you thanked the uber driver before climbing out the car Fi following you closely behind. You linked arms and began walking towards the bar heads lowered as the flashes began.
___
LN4updates: oh mother is serving. I am concerned - she’s out the same day she’s spotted moving out of Lando’s flat? It’s not looking good - divorce pending?
Lando looked at the instagram post eyebrows scrunched together. She hadn’t answered a single one of his texts since she sent him a message stating that she was going to be moving in with her best friend for a while.
He was currently sat on a plane flying back from Miami. The minute that he’d got he messages he’d questioned every decision that he’d made over the past few months. He’d fallen in love with the most amazing person he’d ever met. She was the one and somehow over the past few months he’d manage to treat her like she wasn’t even a priority in her life and now he risked losing her all together.
___
When he unlocked his front door he was greeted by total darkness. Stepping inside and flicking the lights on the apartment felt cold and empty. He shut the door behind him and took in his surroundings. He hadn’t been home in six weeks. He noticed a vase of sunflowers on the kitchen counter, but what pulled his attention completely was seeing what looked like a small key lying a short distance away from them. His backpack fell to the floor from his grip as he instinctively made his way over to the work surface where he found her keys lying on a piece of paper signed ‘E. x’
He just stared at it, trying to remember how he’d allow it to get to this point. He turned from the counter, his back resting against it as he pulled out his phone from his back pocket. He dialled Ellie’s number hoping that she would be awake by now.
___
Your sleep was disturbed by the ringing of your phone, you reached out to it on your bedside table from bed and in your hungover state swiped to answer the call bringing it to your ear.
‘Hello?’ You spoke groggily, barely registering what was going on.
‘Baby?’ Landos voice sounded through the phone and your eyes shot open. ‘baby, I’ve been going insane you haven’t answered a single one of my calls.’
‘That’s because I didn’t want to talk to you Lando.’ You stated simply.
‘I’m back in London at the flat…’ You now shot up in bed. ‘I found your key.’
Your head was pounding and you rubbed your eyes with with the palm of your hand. ‘I thought you were flying to Italy for some event with Monster?’
‘Yeah, well that was until my girlfriend told me that she was leaving me.’ He let out a small chuckle, desperate to lighten the mood. Hoping that you would immediately would tell him he was crazy and that you weren’t leaving him, but instead you didn’t say anything. ‘Are you leaving me Ell?’
‘I don’t know Lando.’ Now it was his turn to be silent.
‘Look I don’t want to do this over the phone.’
‘Neither do I.’
‘So can I see you?’
‘No Lando, I said I needed time.’
‘I know bu-‘
‘I haven’t seen you in six weeks. You haven’t come home..to me.’ Your voice cracked and you took a moment to compose yourself. ‘You haven’t come home to me in six weeks. You can’t just all of a sudden rock up and expect me to drop everything. I said I needed some time Lando so can you please just give me that.’
There was silence for a little while.
‘I’ll be here, I’m not going anywhere..I love you Ellie.’ You felt a small tear roll down your cheek before you hung up the phone.
___
“He said he wasn’t going anywhere.” You said as you sipped your coffee. You and Alex were sat outside having brunch. You had called her this morning after your call from Lando asking to see her. She was your saving grace in all this. You two had become close through your relationship with Lando and she was the one person that you felt like you could go to for advice, she was really your only friends that knew what being in a relationship like this felt like.
“Monza is next weekend.” She stated. “Do you think he’ll miss it?”
“He can’t.” You scoffed. She raised her eyebrows at you. “He can’t..can he?”
___
You were sat at your desk when the notification popped up on your phone. You grabbed it and opened instagram.
fi_rosex sent _ellielove a post by LN4updates
LN4updates: Uumm, Mr Norris, shouldn’t you be in Monza right about now?
Your eyes pulled together as you looked at the screen. You felt your heart speed up at the thought of Lando still being here. He should be about ready to climb into a formula one car right about now.
You locked your phone screen before grabbing your belongings together and slamming your laptop closed and flinging it into your bag.
___
When you arrived outside your apartment building you paused before hitting the buzzer to your apartment number. A few moments later a familiar voice came through the speaker. “Hello?”
“Lan?” You spoke quietly in the receiver. There was no response, only the sound of the buzzer notifying you that the door was open. You quickly grabbed the handle and yanked it open making your way inside.
You couldn’t stop picking at the skin around your nails on the lift ride up to your floor. You were nervous, nervous of seeing your boyfriend. You hadn’t seen him in the flesh in six weeks and in the midst of being angry at him you’d forgotten how much you were also missing him.
You were making your way slowly to the door and just as you arrived, before you could even knock it swung open revealing Lando, looking as beautiful as ever. Your breath caught in your throat at the sight of him. Christ he was beautiful.
“You know if you hadn’t left your keys here, you’d have been able to let yourself in.” He joked with a tone of sadness. And you let out a small laugh before your face turned back into one of sadness.
“What are you still doing here Lan? You’re meant to be in Italy right now.” He stepped to the side of the doorway allowing you to come in. You moved inside past him, it took everything in you to not reach out and touch him.
When you were safely inside Lando closed the door behind you both. You turned around to face him, he was leaning against the door. “I told you..” Your eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Do you know that since you asked me to move in, we’ve only spent three weekends in this flat together.” Landos head lowered at your words. “Three weekends out of six months. I knew what being with you would entail Lando.” You voice was beginning to break. “But I didn’t sign up for this.”
Landos head shot up at your final statement and he moved towards you, his arms reaching out to grab you. “I should never have said that. I didn’t mean it.” He was desperately searching your eyes, bending to your level.
“Do you know how lonely I’ve been?” You asked him whilst refusing to meet his gaze. You shrugged yourself out of his grip and turned away walking towards the kitchen. You dropped your bag onto the sofa that you’d been sat at crying, only a week earlier.
“There’s nothing I can say that’s going to justify how much of an idiot I’ve been.” He moved to stand in front of you. “Asking you to move in with me was the best thing I’ve ever done.”
“Not sure how you can know that when you’ve barely been here.”
“Okay I deserved that.” You sank at sat on the sofa and he came over to you, kneeling down in front of you. “I’ve fucked up, I’ve massively fucked up. I’ve let you down and I haven’t been there for you. I know that, it doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten how important you are to me. I know I haven’t made you feel like it, I haven’t shown you. I haven’t put you first.”
“I know that I can’t always come first Lando, I know that.”
“You come first. You come first Ellie. I think of you before everything. The past few months have been a shit show. We’ve had some deadlines, things that I needed to get done. I let that take over and I knew what I was doing to you was wrong. When I spoke to you on the phone last week I said that because I was angry, but not at you. I was angry at myself, I’d let everything pile up and it had been you that it had all fallen on, and I couldn’t believe I’d done that. Not to you.” You reached out and placed a hand against Landos cheek. He raised his gaze to you and leaned into your touch. “I’m so sorry Ell.” You shook your head at his words and reached out with your other hand to grab his face. You gently pulled him into you so that his face was millimetres from yours.
“It’s okay.” You whispered against his lips. You felt as his hands came to rest on your thighs. You watched as his eyes flickered down to your lips and then back up to your eyes. Suddenly the weight of the fact that you hadn’t seen him in six weeks came crashing down on you. “I’ve missed you so much.” You whispered again.
Lando didn’t say anything in response only pushed your thighs apart and then moved his grip round to your back to pull his body flush against him before bringing his lips to yours in what seemed like a split second. The minute your lips touched, your whole body just melted into him. Your hands moving from the side of his face up and into his hair. The kiss was passionate, it was weeks of missed phone calls, missed face times, missed conversations all boiled down into one moment.
“Oh my god.” Lando said as he pulled away from your lips before moving to work on your neck. His nose ran along your jaw before he placed hot wet kisses at the base of your neck just above your collar bones. “I’ve missed you so fucking much.” His hands moved from your waist to round the front of your jeans where your belt buckle was.
“I need you.” You said said breathily, Lando consuming all of your senses. He stopped what he was doing and moved so that he was looking into your eyes. “I’ve missed you too much to prolong this any longer, I just want to feel you now.” Your hands moved to the base of Landos t-shirt and began tugging it up, he moved his arms so that you could easily pull it off and over his head. The minute it was off his hands went back to your belt buckle where he immediately began to undo it before getting to unzip your jeans you moved back on the sofa and lifted your hips so that he could shimmy them down your thighs. Your hands went to the waist band of his tracksuit bottoms and you began to push them off him, he took over removing them from his legs. He came to hover over you and you could feel him pressing against you.
“This isn’t exactly how I imagined this after having been apart for so long.” He said in a bit of a joke before coming down a placing a gentle kiss to your lips. You ran your hands up his back as he reached down and positioned himself at your centre, you connected your lips again as you felt him push into you. Your mouth opening and a loud moan sounding as you stretched at his length inside you. “Oh my god” he said shakily as you took him. Your nails dug in to his back at the familiar, but missed feeling. “You okay?”
“Yes.” You whispered back. He began to rock into you, slow and deeply. “I love you so much.” You said against his lips.
“I love you too.”
___
After your reunion, Lando had very quickly realised that if he didn’t leave for Italy soon he wouldn’t make it to FP1 and in turn would probably face a lot of punishment from the Mclaren team for not giving them any warning.
So you’d very quickly packed up some stuff and made your way to the airport where a jet had been organised by Landos assistant. You were now sat comfortably waiting for the plane to take off with Lando by your side. He was replying to some emails from his phone as you sat, head turned to face him.
You couldn’t help but think how you’d got so lucky. Your relationship hadn’t been perfect, it was hard. His constant travel, the fact that you were tied to a normal 9-5 working week. It had been testing with pressure of his fans and the press, but despite everything he was fucking amazing.
“I’m so lucky to have you.” You said quietly. Your words pulled him from what he was doing and he turned to look at you with a small smile playing on his lips. You blushed under his gaze. “I’m sorry for what I put you through this week.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “No no, baby dont apologise.” He locked his phone and leant toward you. “You were right, I was taking you for granted.” His hand reached out and tucked a piece of your hair away from your face, you leant into his touch. “Never going to do that again. You come first, always.”
“So what actually happened then? Like why did it end.” He asked before taking another sip of wine from his glass.
“He actually slept with my boss.” You stated blankly, scrunching your face up at the memory. Lando’s face was a picture. He froze as he took in your words.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“It’s actually fine though, like he was a horrible person. He didn’t treat me right at all.” You turned to face the view. You’d since finished your pizza and had moved to sit out on the balcony. “I think more than anything, him doing that gave me the reason that I needed to end things.”
“He was how much older than you?”
“He was eight years older.” You turned back to face him.
“Do you always go for older guys?”
You laughed a little at his question. “Umm, no. I’ve been with younger guys as well.”
“Well that’s good to know.” He said quietly.
“Is it now?” You challenged with a cheeky tone in your voice.
“Considering the fact that I’m two years younger than you.” You smiled back at him. “It’s good news to hear.” You blushed slightly at his words. He was smirking at you slightly, obviously enjoying your reaction to his words.
You’d been surprised by how easy being around Lando felt. You’d been talking for hours which normally being a massive introvert you found quite difficult with people you didn’t really know.
“Right then, your turn.” You said, bringing your legs up to sit crossed legged on the chair slightly twisting your body to face Lando more. “Your last relationship, what happened?”
“Ummm, well she ended it.” He started, your head tilted slightly at his words. “There was a lot of outside pressure from media and..” He paused almost like he was reluctant to continue. “Well my fans to be honest.” You nodded slowly at his words. “She just decided it was too much.”
“That’s rough, I’m sorry.”
“It’s all good, it was a couple years ago now. We’re still friends, there’s no bad blood ya know? It just wasn’t right.”
“Yeah that’s good.”
“Unlike yours I’m guessing?” He questioned with a slight devious tone.
“What my ex?” Your eyebrows scrunched at his words. “Yeah no, theres some fucking bad blood there for sure.” He laughed.
You were distracted when your phone lit up on the table in front of you with a notification displaying the time. “Jesus Lando! It’s 12:20 am!”
“Is it really?” His laughter stopped. You both locked eyes in silence before bursting out laughing.
“Oh my god, I’ve got to get home! I have work in 7 hours, for fucks sake.”
“Let me call you a cab.”
“That’s okay, I can just order an ub-”
“I’m calling you a cab.” He reached out his hand after rising up from the chair. You picked up your phone and grabbed his hand, allowing you to help you to your feet. He didn’t let go only led you back inside his apartment.
___
Lando received a call stating that the cab he ordered had arrived so now you were both stood by his front door before you left.
“What are your plans this weekend?” He asked as you stood in front of him fiddling with your fingers.
“Umm, I don’t think anything really. Why?”
“It’s the Silverstone Grand Prix this weekend..will you come?”
You looked at him for a moment. “You mean like all the days?”
“Ideally..yeah?”
“So from Thursday to Sunday?”
“Yes.” He said with a hopeful look on his face.
“Let me speak to my manager and see if I can get Thursday and Friday off, but I’d need to look at booking a hotel and then travel arrangements there and the-”
“Don’t worry about any of that.” He reached out and grabbed your hands. “Just get the days off and I’ll sort everything else out.”
Your body went all tingly at his touch and you took in a deep breath as you looked into his eyes. “Okay.” You said quietly, scared to disturb the moment. Next thing you knew Lando was tugging you towards him gently until you were mere inches from him. You could feel his breath on your face as you looked up to him through your eyelashes.
“I’ll call you tomorrow?” He whispered, you just nodded in response. He started to move toward you slowly, waiting to see if you might pull away. You moved to close the distance and your lips met in a gentle kiss. His hands left yours and found their way around your waist, moving to hold your back as he pulled you into him. You placed yours on his chest and you grabbed your t-shirt in your fists. The kiss was gentle, but passionate. Your lips moving together perfectly.
When you pulled away he rested his forehead against yours. “Will you message me when you get home please?” He asked still holding you in his arms. Tracing small circles on your back with his thumb.
“Of course.” You smiled. “But I really do have to go now.” He let out a gentle laugh before placing one more kiss to your lips and reluctantly letting you go. He opened up the front door and you began to leave. “Bye Lando.”
“Bye Ellie.” You turned to walk away and gave him one final glance as you turned the corner and headed for the lift.
___
You were biting your little finger as you waited for Lando to answer the call.
‘Hey.’ Sounded through the phone.
‘Hey Lando.’ You smiled. ‘So I spoke with my manager and all good for Thursday and Friday.’
‘Perfect, Okay. Leave everything with me and I will get all the details sorted.’ He sounded ecstatic and it made your heart flutter at the thought. ‘I meant to say, is there anyone you’d like to bring with you? I want you to be comfortable and if having a friend there would make it easi-‘
‘No no, its all good.’ You cut him off. He was already doing too much
‘Are you sure?”
‘Yes Lando, I’m sure. Plus I’ll just chill with Zak.’ You joked. His laugh came through the phone and you smiled again.
‘Okay, I’m gonna get everything sorted. Text me your email and I’ll send everything through there.’
‘Okay will do.’
‘You’ve just made my whole day you know?’
You blushed. ‘Glad I could be of assistance.’
‘Right, now get back to work…slacker.’
You scoffed at him. ‘Bye Lan.’
‘Bye Ellie.’ You hung up the call and went to text him your email address when a message from appeared on your screen.
Lando: Did you just call me Lan?
You closed your eyes and groaned. It slipped out without you even realising.
Ellie: …maybe
Lando: Cute.
Lando: Ell.
Ellie: Leave me to my work please, you’re incredibly distracting.
“Okay, so just make sure that you keep this on you the whole time.” You nodded at the McLaren assistant that met you at the entry gates to the Silverstone GP. “If someone sees you without it on, they’ll try and get you out of here.”
Your eyes widened ever so slightly at her lighthearted threat. “Got it.”
“Perfect, now follow me and I’ll take you through to the McLaren garage.” She stated and set off on a fierce stride, you sped up a little to rejoin her before levelling out to walk by her side.
“The garage?” You questioned as you walked through, you’d never been to a race before and this moment, being here was all so surreal.
“Yes, Lando told me to bring you straight to him.” Your tummy fluttered at her words. He wanted to see you straight away, you felt warm at the thought.
When you arrived to the garage the assistant asked you to wait at the side of the room whilst she went over to let Lando know that you were here. You stood anxiously waiting as she approached him. He was mid conversation when she interrupted and gestured to over where you were stood. His head turned rapidly and he looked over to you with a small, excited smile on his face.
You blushed under his gaze and bit your lip giving him a small wave from the corner of the room. He thanked the assistant and then excused himself from the conversation with his engineer as he made his way over to you.
“Hey” he breathed as he pulled you into his arms in a hug. Your arms made there way around his back and you squeezed him. God he smelled good. When he eventually pulled away, he brushed the side of his face against yours, keeping himself right up against you as his hands made their way to your waist. His nose bumped into yours as he placed a gentle but firm kiss to your lips. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
After you parted your eyes darted around the garage, suddenly aware of the pretty public affection you’d just displayed. “I’m glad I’m here too. This is all so exciting.”
“Did you check into your hotel okay?” He asked, his fingers still fiddling with yours.
“Yes. Oh my god, Lando the room is amazing. Thank you so much.”
“It’s my pleasure, I’m on the same floor. So not too far from you.” You smiled at him. “Wanna go for a walk?”
“A walk?” Your eyebrows pulled together sceptically.
“Yeah, we can get a coffee.”
“Are you not like…needed here?”
He chuckled at you. “Not for a bit no. Plus I want to introduce you to some people.”
“Oh! Yeah okay then, lets go.” You smiled excitedly and gestured for him to lead the way. He went to reach for your hand and you ever so slightly pulled it away. “Are you sure that’s the best idea?”
There was a moment where a frown flashed across his face, before he seemed to recompose himself. Remembering where they were. “No sorry, you’re right. Not a good idea.” You smiled, relieved that you hadn’t fucked that up a bit. “Okay, lets go.”
You began walking out of the garage back the way you came to the paddock. You walked next to Lando, close..but not too close. “I’m sorry if I seem nervous by the way. This has just all been a little overwhelming and it’s nothing something I’m used to…like at all.”
Lando froze in his step for a second, before grabbing your arm. “Actually come here a sec.” He jolted you back into the garage entrance quickly and led you through a hallway until you came to a room that said Lando on it. He pulled you inside and closed the door behind you two.
“Okay…” You said with a confused look on your face.
“I just want to say that even though I’ve made my intentions pretty clear by now, I mean I hope I have…” he trailed off for a moment, looking to the ground crossing his arms. “But I’m like, interested in you.” A small smile took over your lips and your eyes softened at his words. “Like I want to date you, that’s what I was sort of hoping this weekend would be, like a very long drawn out date.” You bit your lips now as he was fumbling over his words a little. “I know that it’s not normal and you just reminded me that in fact, my life and anything that comes with it isn’t something normal people experience.” He looked up to you now. “But I can help you through it” he paused looking at you. “As in, we can take things slow and we can figure out how we do it, together.” You stood there about to speak before he quickly piped up again. “I mean if that’s something that you want of course.” You laughed a little at his words.
“I’d like to date you too.” You said quietly. And his whole face and body relaxed. “But I’m going to need some help, because like I said..this has all been a little overwhelming so far.” He stepped towards you slowly and placed a soft kiss on your lips.
“I didn’t mean to overwhelm you I’m sorry.”
“No no it’s okay - I just mean that like..I don’t know whats normal here. Like I normally would have held your hand, its just I don’t want to be photographed like that..not yet anyway.”
“No no of course, and that’s my fault - I shouldn’t have even done that.”
“And like going on dates - how do we even do that, if theres cameras there all the time?”
“They’re actually not everywhere all the time, there here all the time..obviously. In normal life though - don’t see them all that much.”
“That doesn’t mean that you don’t have random people coming up to you asking for photos.”
“Yeah, now that does happen quite a bit.”
“It’s like even when we met - people were filming that you know?”
“Yeah I know.” He laughed a bit. “I’ve actually seen that online.”
“You are joking.” You deadpanned, you hadn’t come across a video of that so far on instagram or anywhere else. “You have to show me.”
He waved it off. “Maybe later, anyway for now. We just figure things out as we go?”
“Yeah” you smiled at him “sounds like a plan.”
__
“Hey Ellie!” Zak pulled you in for a hug. “Lando told me you’d be joining us this weekend.” You smiled as you pulled away.
“Hasn’t shut up about it actually!” Oscar shouted from across the room. You chucked and blushed.
“Okay, that’s an exaggeration.” Lando was blushing also.
Zak went to move past you both, as he did leaning down to beside you at your level before quietly saying “no it’s not.”
“Charles!” Lando suddenly shouted - voice directed outside the building. He was waving at Charles Leclerc and who you knew was his girlfriend, Alexandra.
“Lando!” He shouted back stopping to wait for Lando to meet him. Lando nudged you a bit to follow after him. You both walked outside the building and went to greet them. “Mate, how are you doing?” Charles pulled him into a hug and you stood there.
“I’m good man, how are you?” He pulled away and then greeted Alexandra quickly.
“Good mate, good.”
“This is Ellie.” Lando stepped back beside you and smiled as you looked at him before turning to the couple. “Ellie this is Charles, which I’m sure you already know and his girlfriend Alex.”
Charles immediately stepped forward and outstretched his arms and you met him in a hug. “Ellie, it’s lovely to meet you.” When you pulled away you went to hug Alex.
“It’s so nice meet you both.” You said stepping back close to Lando’s side.
“It’s so nice to meet you too! I love your dress Ellie.” Alex spoke to you.
“Oh my gosh thank you! You look incredible too!”
“Will you be with us for the whole weekend?” Charles asked you, grabbing Alex’s hand.
“Yes, til Sunday.” You smiled at them both.
Charles had a little smug look on his face and glanced to Lando quickly. “You should join us for dinner tonight.” He turned back to Lando. “Alex and I are going out with Lewis and George and Carmen. Come.” He gently tapped Lando on the stomach with his free hand.
“You up for it?” Lando turned to you.
“Yeah, sounds nice!”
“Perfect, I’ll get it sorted.”
“When they go off for practice later we should get a coffee!” Alex spoke to you from beside Charles.
“I’d like that yeah.” You felt some relief wash over you at her kind offer.
“Here, put your number in my phone and I’ll text you mine.” She came over to you and Lando went and stood by Charles. You took her phone and typed it in as requested. She then texted you so you also had hers. “Perfect.” She smiled. “I’ll text you and can always come and find you! This place is a total maze at first.”
“That’s so kind of you.”
“Alright, best be going - see you on track mate.”
“Yeah see you.” Lando pat Charles on the shoulder as he left with Alex on his side.
___
You were back in your hotel room after a long day staring at the different options you had brought with you and what you could possibly wear to dinner this evening. When you were with Alex earlier she had told you she would send a photo of what she was wearing and when the picture of her outfit came through, it had sent you into a complete spiral. She was going to look incredible, her dress was incredible. Nothing that you had brought with you was going to compare.
You were stood there biting your nails as you stared at your bed, three possible options that would just about suffice. “Oh fuck this.” You turned around to grab your phone from the table behind you and called Alex. It rang a few times before she answered.
“Hello, Ellie!” She sung through the phone. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes, yes everything is fine! I’m sorry to call.” You started “It’s just, you’ve got me panicking about what to wear this evening. I don’t feel like anything I brought with me this weekend is going to be okay for dinner tonight and I don’t want to look out of place or anything.. I don’t want to embarrass Lan-“
“Oh my god Ellie no!” She interrupted your ridiculous train of thought and you suddenly felt really embarrassed that you’d called her.
“Oh wow, I can’t believe I’ve just said all that. This is really embarrassing.” You ran a hand over your face.
“I’m going to come over with some dresses, what is your room number!” She sounded so lovely and concerned at the same time.
“214.” You muttered hopeful through the phone.
“Okay, give me 10 minutes and I will be with you.” And exactly 10 minutes later, she arrived, dresses in hand as promised.
“I just don’t know what any of this looks like - what being in this environment is like, I’ve never been surrounded by it, ever.” Alex had come round and the two of you had decided on a simple black dress that was the most you of her options. She was now helping you with your hair as you sat in front of a mirror, her standing behind you. “I just don’t want to embarrass Lando, or myself.”
“You couldn’t embarrass him.” She stated, nudging you slightly to say that you were being ridiculous. “I know it can feel overwhelming, but I promise you he doesn’t care about that stuff.”
____
Alex had left you to go and meet Charles before you all headed to the restaurant. You were finishing off popping some things into your handbag when your phone buzzed from beside you. You reached to see a notification displayed from Lando.
Lan: Heading to your room now, better be ready Ells x
Ellie: ready as I’ll ever be Norris x
You took a deep breath and sat and waited for what felt like a lifetime for a knock to sound on your door. When it did, your heart fluttered. You took one more look at yourself in the mirror before heading over to the door.
When you opened it up you were greeted with Lando stood looking as beautiful as he always did. He was wearing black wide leg suit trousers with a fitted black tshirt tucked in. Your eyebrows cocked and a little smug grin took over your face as your eyes scanned over him. You were suddenly brought back to reality as he cleared his throat.
“Pretty sure my eyes are up here Miss. Love.” You looked at him and saw that he was stood biting his lip as he took you in. He looked at you with wide eyes, taking you in fully. “You look…incredible.” He whispered, before reaching out to grab your hand. He tugged you gently toward him and placed a firm kiss on your lips. You placed a hand against his chest to steady yourself as you fell into him ever so slightly.
“I definitely don’t look as good as you do right now.” You spoke against his lips and he chuckled ever so slightly.
