enjoy life, be kind

Knock. Knock.

“Hold on, Mom!” You yelled back. You were in the middle of taking down the Mclaren posters in your room, trying your best to remove and hide all of them before Isack’s plane landed.

“It’s getting lonely out here,” a voice echoed in the hallway.

Even if the French accent didn’t give it away, the laugh that followed has been engraved into your soul. You would’ve been able to recognize it anywhere.

Isack was here…and early.

You ran to open your door and tackled Isack in a hug. “You weren’t supposed to be here till tonight.”

He pulled away to take you in, “I found an earlier flight,” but his eyes started wandering past you and into your room; still half plastered with papaya, “and…what is this?” 

Your cheeks flushed as you creeped backwards to close your door. “Oh…you know…nothing,” failing to convince him with a bright smile.

He raised an eyebrow at you. “How come you never showed me any of that when we call?”

“Wouldn’t want you to get jealous.” You shot back, sarcastically.

“Jealous?” Isack snorted. “I’m the one who’s standing in front of you right now,” he said with his hands on your hips, pulling you closer. 

“And I'm the one kissing you,” Isack whispered, slowly closing the gap between your lips.

Isack was helping you and your mom set the table for dinner when your dad came home from work. He quickly greeted you and your mom before his eyes landed on Isack.

“So you’re my daughter’s boyfriend?”

Isack’s eyes went wide, his body went rigid, and he could’ve sworn a bead of sweat ran down his forehead.

“Yes, sir.”

Your father laughed at how uncomfortable he made your boyfriend. “Isack, right?” His hand reached out toward him.

Isack nodded nervously, but still took your dad’s hand trying to give him a firm handshake.

Throughout dinner, your dad was quiet. Instead of joining in, he sat on the outside of the conversation, making observations. Although he wished his daughter was more open with him, he understood why you didn’t tell him much. Isack asked you to be his girlfriend in October. It’s only late December now, so the relationship was still fairly new. 

In between bites, your dad watched the quick glances the two of you gave each other and made the decision that he liked Isack. Not because he helped set the table, complemented your mom’s cooking, or always passed the food when asked and without a fuss, but because his eyes were so easy to read. Isack looked at you as if he held you at the center of his whole universe.

Halfway through the meal, a moment of clarity struck your dad, “you’re the guy from the hotel, right? With the cardboard F1 driver?”

You almost choked on the water you were drinking.

Isack looked up from his food, nodding. “Yes, sir.”

Your dad turned his head to look over to you, confused. “You still work there?”

Isack chuckled. “No, it was more of a seasonal thing.”

“Ah, okay, what do you do now?” Your dad questioned, again.

Isack took a moment to think before he answered. “I drive cars.”

You shot Isack a look across the table, wondering why he was being so vague. Your mom, on the other hand, was finding the scene in front of her very amusing.

She had known who Isack was as soon as he stupidly signed the email off with his own name. She wasn’t going to give her daughter’s number out to just anyone, so before she had called you down to the living room that day, she did her research.

“Oh…that’s cool” your dad mumbled, ending that part of the conversation.

Later in the evening, you and Isack were on the couch watching the new 2026 F1 Secret Santa video just to pass some time.

Your dad had just come downstairs and walked into the living room when Max Verstappen started to tear into his Christmas presents. Inside was a box of macarons from the Boris Lumé Boulangerie in France and a cookbook that highlighted famous French cuisine.

“Hey, that's the F1 cardboard guy you showed us!” Your dad said laughing and pointed at the screen.

“Who do you think this is from?” The producer behind the camera asked Max.

Max thought about it for a moment. “Oh, well it’s got to be one of the French guys, I’m going to say Isack?”

The video proceeds to cut to Isack wearing a RedBull Santa hat.

“Wait,” your dad’s head looked back and forth between the TV screen and the guy who had an arm around his daughter.

They were identical. 

“Is that…wait…” your father stumbled, “is that you?”

You doubled over yourself in laughter.

Isack could barely put together a sentence. He was dangerously close to falling into your contagious laugh so the best answer he could give was a nod, yes.

“I THOUGHT YOU WERE A TAXI DRIVER!” Your dad yelled while nearly dropping the mug he was holding out of embarrassment. 

“HE THOUGHT ISACK WAS A TAXI DRIVER?” Zia screamed, laughing.

You were on the phone with Zia, still high off of your father’s very poor read on Isack.

“Do I look like a taxi driver?” Isack asked, defeatedly, while sitting next to you on your bed.

“Is that a rhetorical question or…”

“ZIA!” You yelped.

“Yeah yeah, I know we talked about this.” Zia rolled her eyes playfully, “No making fun of your millionaire boyfriend.”

“Oh my god,” You turned and dug your face into Isack’s chest.

“Paddock passes are not guaranteed for next season, you know,” Isack told her, taking the phone from your hand.

Zia stopped laughing.

“Anyways…I was thinking…” She started.

“That’s never good,” Isack replied. 

You lifted your head back up to smack Isack lightly, “oh my god what am I going to do with both of you?” 

Isack laughed when you took your phone back from him, “okay Zia, go on. We're...well, I'm listening.”

“New Year’s party at my house? I’ve already invited some people…mmm okay maybe a lot of people.” Zia forced out, anticipating some backlash.

‘What?” You were surprised. “I thought we weren’t doing that?”

“Plans changed.” Zia smiled.

You sighed, staring at the girl on the other side of your screen, “what exactly changed?”

“My parents are going to be out of town, last minute.”

You groaned, “Zia.”

“Come on, it’ll be fun," she replied, her face now displayed a mischievous smirk. “Can you bake one of your cakes?”

“I feel used,” you sighed dramatically, “New Year’s Eve is TOMORROW!”

Isack’s face lit up when he heard that. He turned to you and quietly asked, “can I help you?”

You nodded, “of course.”

Zia, sighed hoping that the two lovebirds knew that she was still there. “Please don’t…I need this to be edible.”

The next morning, you woke Isack up by throwing a pink floral apron at his face. He immediately started panicking and threw the apron away just to hear you giggling at him.

“Chérie, what the…what time is it?” Isack rolled over trying to go back to sleep.

You pulled the blanket off of him and he groaned. “It’s already noon.”

Isack sat up rubbing his eyes, trying to understand what you were saying to him. “...Oh.”

“Come on, sleepy head, we have stuff to do.”

Isack reluctantly got out of bed and followed you downstairs, taking the apron down with him.

“The cakes are in here,” you opened the fridge to take the two 10 inch round layers of vanilla cake out and set them on the kitchen island.

“You already baked them?”

“Oops?” You said taking the plastic wrap off of the cakes. “I woke up early and couldn’t fall back asleep.”

Isack was even more confused at your explanation. “I didn’t even feel you get out of bed this morning?”

“I’m pretty sure my fire alarm could’ve gone off and you wouldn’t have even flinched.”

He was offended at first, but he didn’t say anything because he knew you were right. Instead, he washed his hands and put on the apron.

“We’re not hand mixing the frosting are we?” Isack stood there, nervously. He was ready to sacrifice his arm to help you out, but he was dreading it.

You shook your head no, “that’s what this baby is for.” You patted the KitchenAid mixer which was your mom’s first and favorite child. It was older than you, being a wedding gift for your parents all those years ago.

You pointed to the butter, already softened on the counter, and asked Isack to add it to the bowl and start the mixer. Meanwhile, you grabbed the powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and the food dye.

When you dropped all the ingredients on the counter, Isack asked, “how long do we have to beat the butter for?”

Looking through your cupboards, you chose an array of different kinds of sprinkles to use later. “10 minutes,” you responded.

Isack wasn’t sure if he heard you correctly, so he stopped the mixer for a second. “Are you serious?”

After what Isack claimed was “forever,” you added a healthy amount of vanilla and a couple pinches of salt. Now, it was finally time to add the powdered sugar. You handed Isack the bag and trusted him to be able to do the last step.

Big mistake.

You looked away for a second and he poured out half the bag, but the problem was the mixer kicked out most of it leaving behind a cloud in the kitchen and powdered sugar all over the counter and floor.

Before you yelled, you saw his face covered in sugar and you couldn’t contain your laughter.

Isack had his eyes squeezed shut to prevent the sugar from going into them, but that didn’t stop him from screaming “WHY DIDN’T YOU WARN ME?”

Tears ran down your face and your stomach hurt from how hard you were laughing at the poor sugar covered boy standing in front of you. “I didn’t think I had to.”

Safe to say you took over while Isack was cleaning up the mess he made before your parents could see the state of their kitchen.

You dumped all the different food coloring bottles you had so Isack could see your full collection. “What color should the base be?”

He pointed to one of them, “I like this navy color.”

You grinned, “Oh yeah, okay, I like that, maybe the secondary color could be gold?”

“Gold and…red, maybe?”

You realized what he was planning and had to shut it down immediately, “Isack…we are not making a RedBull cake.”

After you tried to teach Isack how to crumb coat a cake, he surrendered and was now banished to the stool at the kitchen island while you did the main frosting job. He sat there in awe watching you work. He noticed how you bit your lip slightly when you were focused on getting the spacing correct, how you checked every single angle of the cake before choosing the best side to be the “front,” and the small smile on your face whenever you were proud of the beautiful creation that you were making. Most importantly though, he noticed how content he was just sitting there and taking you in. Little words were exchanged while you were working, but he could’ve sat there all day if it meant being around you.

Lost in his head, he didn’t notice you handing him sprinkles.

He shook the gold sprinkles in the container a little bit, enjoying the sound they made before he took off the cap.

“Go easy on this part, please,” you jokingly begged. 

“I’ll try.” He added each one delicately and you watched how focused he was. You could tell that he wanted this cake to look good just as much as you did.

When he finally put the sprinkles down, you grabbed a small spray bottle. “Okay, this is my favorite part, edible gold glitter spray!”

Isack looked concerned. “Are you sure we can eat that? It’s glitter?”

“I mean it says edible on the bottle,” you shrugged. Sure you had that same question before, but you watched so many baking videos and they all used the same product. It had to be safe, right? “I use this all the time so…”

Isack was about to say something, but cut himself off when you started dousing the cake in the gold glitter.

“Is this dress okay?”

Isack was sitting on the edge of your bed, playing a game on his phone. He had already been dressed for awhile and wasn’t paying too much attention to you running around your room trying to get ready, but when he looked up, he was at a loss for words.

The dress itself was quite simple. Short, navy blue, silver stars dotted around, and shimmery in the right lighting, but you? You looked radiant.

Your eyes were hopeful that you had finally found the dress so you gave him a twirl awaiting his answer.

In reality, Isack couldn’t find the words, especially not in English.

Your smile fell when Isack still didn’t answer your question. You sighed and turned back toward your closet.

Before you could find something else to wear, Isack walked over to you and pulled you close, finally finding the words, “Tu es le soleil, la lune, et les étoiles, ma chérie.” (You are the sun, the moon, and the stars, my darling).

Zia asked you and Isack to get to her house early to help her set everything up. Before you could even knock on her front door, it had swung wide open and Zia was already taking the cake from Isack’s hands.

“Oh my god the cake looks amazing.” Zia was already walking away with it.

“Thank you, but a little bit more notice would’ve been nice.” All you could hear was your best friend laughing at you from her kitchen.

You sighed and opened the closet door in her foyer. You handed Isack a hanger and grabbed one for your own jacket as well. After putting your jacket on the hanger, Isack grabbed it from your hand to hung both of them in the closet.

You walked into the kitchen, Isack slowly trailing behind you when Zia quietly whispered to you, “did you even let him help?”

Isack still heard her anyway. “I put the sprinkles on it.”

“Honestly that’s surprising,” Zia laughed. “Usually she goes crazy if someone else is even in the vicinity when she bakes.”

“Not true,” you rolled your eyes.

Zia was shocked at your blatant lies. “I was on the couch watching a movie and you told me to stop breathing so loud last time!”

Zia’s house was filled with gold and silver streamers and glitter was everywhere. The snack table was filled to the brim with buffalo chicken dip, bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers, a variety of charcuterie boards, and so much more. Obviously though, your cake was the beautiful centerpiece of it all.

Isack was just now coming back up from the basement with the drinks. “I’m surprised there’s no alcohol.”

“You don’t need to be drunk to have fun, you know?” Zia pointed to where she wanted the drinks to be.

Isack thought about what he wanted to respond with for a second, “I don’t know, they might have to be tipsy to deal with you.”

“I HEARD THAT,” you yelled from the other room.

As the night grew longer, the house grew louder. Some of the faces looked familiar, but most seemed to be a blur. Isack excused himself to the bathroom a couple minutes ago, so you wandered off. You were standing by the kitchen window when Isack finally found you again.

Just as his hand found its way to your lower back, you looked at the time on your phone.

11:50 pm

“Come on, I have something to show you,” you said, leading Isack to the living room just to hand him a large sherpa blanket.

The next stop was the closet to grab your jackets. When you handed Isack his, he asked, “where are we going?”

“Outside, bundle up,” you mumbled back.

As soon as he finished zipping up his jacket, you grabbed Isack’s hand and led him to the backyard.

Zia’s house had a small pond out back. A couple years ago, her parents built a dock and it’s been your favorite place to sneak out to. Sitting by the water, even with the cold of the winter season, would always be your safe place.

You sat down at the edge of the dock with your legs dangling over the water, patting the spot next to you. Isack sat down and allowed the blanket to drape over both of your shoulders, trying to keep you both warm.

The boom of fireworks was heard and suddenly, the sky above them burst into color. One by one, the colors started dancing in the night sky, leaving behind a shimmering dust that blew into the wind.

“Wow,” Isack looked up in awe.

“I know,” you whispered. “I don’t know how anyone could say that watching fireworks is boring,” your voice was soft as you stared up to the sky, mesmerized, “they’re beautiful.”

Isack didn’t respond at first, seconds ticked by before he finally spoke, “you’re beautiful.”

You turned to look at him and realized that he hadn’t been looking at the fireworks, at least not at that moment. Instead, his gaze was focused on watching the glimmer in your eyes as each firework lit up the sky.

Inside the house, you heard the large crowd of people counting down.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

You leaned closer to Isack and flashed him a warm smile. “Happy New Year!”

He gave you a nervous smile in return. Almost immediately turning his head back to look at the ripple of waves across the water.

He stiffened causing the air between you two to shift.

You joined him looking out into the distance, but you were starting to feel that all too familiar feeling settling into your bones again. Before you could overthink anything, Isack finally spoke up.

“I…I think I’m in love with you, Y/n.”

Your head turned in an instant, eyes wide staring at Isack who still hadn’t looked over to you, but a soft smile still creeped back up onto your face.

“I think I’m in love you too, Isack.”

Isack’s head snapped to meet your eyes and his whole body softened. A weight had been lifted off his chest and he finally felt free.

His hand reached out to your face and his thumb gently rubbed your cheek. He was making sure that what was in front of him was real, that you really meant what you said.

You could tell his eyes were searching your own for confirmation so you nodded slightly, but that was enough. People were cheering in the background and the fireworks were still going, but his attention was focused on you, only you. His lips formed a wide smile and a blush broke through on his cheeks.

“Je t’aime à la folie,” (I love you madly) he whispered breathlessly before closing the gap. This kiss felt different from the rest. It was slow, soft, and it wasn’t fueled by anything else but the gentleness of the love growing between two souls.

Somehow, no one had been able to find out who you were from the prank video and soon enough, people started to forget about it. That meant you two were able to keep things quiet and go your own speed without having others pick you apart. You could just be Isack and Y/n for now, and that was enough.

Zia sat across from you on the couch with an eyebrow raised. You had been staring at your phone with a wide grin for the last five minutes. “Why are you smiling like an idiot?” She asked.

You were at Zia’s house for her annual birthday sleepover. Every year, both of you guys would tease the idea of having a big party, especially this year being her 21st. At the end of the day though, it was just you at the door holding the small homemade cake and she couldn’t have asked for anything better.

“I’m not,” you gave a clipped response.

Though, she was not convinced, “yes you are.”

You tried to defend yourself, “there’s nothing to smile about,” but as lousy as that defense was, your face already betrayed you. You were bright red.

Zia was amused. You had been spending more time on your phone, but honestly with classes, she assumed that you were frantically looking at your Quizlets all the time (which was only half true). “YOU ARE HIDING SOMETHING,” she lunged to try to grab your phone.

“I’M NOT-,” you started, but it was no use. You can’t hide anything from your best friend, it was a miracle that you had gotten this far.

She sat back down in her place with her arms crossed against her chest, “spill.”

“Okay…okay, hold on.”

Instead of explaining it to her, you pressed the button on the top right of your phone screen. The phone rang once until a quiet, “Bonjour, ma chérie," was heard.

“Hi,” you blushed.

“Y/n,” in an instant, Zia was back in your personal bubble trying to see who was on the other side of that phone call, “who is that?”

You turned the phone toward the confused girl and her jaw dropped. Isack Hadjar was staring back at her with a very cheeky smile.

“WHAT THE-”

“It’s a long story,” you interrupted her.

Isack laughed at Zia who still could not believe what was right in front of her. “I stole the RedBull team admin’s phone and sent her mom an email asking for her number,” he explained.

You chuckled at how straightforward his answer was, “okay so I guess a short story then.”

“I feel betrayed,” Zia sighed, flailing her arms in the air dramatically, “the ultimate betrayal revealed ON MY BIRTHDAY!”

“I’m sorry,” you replied sheepishly.

She deadpanned and stared at you, “no you're not.”

You bursted out laughing.

Isack was sitting there enjoying the lighthearted banter between you two. “How about I make it up to you?” He asked out loud.

“And how would you do that, frenchie?” Zia asked half mockingly, but also very intrigued.

Isack had already planned this out for a couple of weeks. “COTA is next week, there are tickets with your names on them.”

Zia screams.

“Isack…” You were in disbelief, “what?”

Over the last couple of months, you and Isack would always tiptoe around the idea of you attending one of his races, but for some reason, you never really took him seriously, “You don’t have to-”

Zia interrupted you, “Can Y/n wear her Lando merch?”

“Her what?” Isack laughed.

You threw a pillow in her direction, but she quickly deflected it. “Zia shut up!”

“She didn’t tell you?” Zia’s grin had only widened, “Lando’s her favorite driver.”

You hung up.

Zia was still looking over your shoulder when the texts came in, “He’s totally going to make you wear his last name.”

Changing the subject, you yelled “CAKE TIME!”

When you opened the door to your shared hotel room, Zia ran past you and belly flopped onto the bed closest to the window. She didn’t even notice the paddock passes laid out neatly in front of the TV, which you slipped into your purse as a surprise for tomorrow.

“This hotel room is nicer than I thought,” Zia sighed. “Your man did good.”

“Not my man” you laughed.

“Not yet,” she replied teasingly.

You didn’t answer, instead just rolled your eyes with a smile.

A couple minutes had passed and you were pretty sure that you heard soft snores coming from Zia’s side of the room. Your plane had touched ground in Austin, Texas late Friday night, sadly missing the practice sessions. As fate had it, both of you guys had exams that morning and unfortunately could not skip your classes (although it was very tempting). The exams left both of you guys exhausted, so you were ready to head to bed. 

Just as you were grabbing your pajamas from your suitcase to get ready for the shower, Zia woke up and called “dibs” on showering first. You laughed as she jumped out of bed, grabbed some clothes, and headed to the bathroom.

While she was in the shower, you facetimed Isack.

“Paddock passes?” You tried to keep your voice down just in case Zia could hear you.

Isack only replied with a muffled laugh. He was already in bed for the night, mentally preparing for the long day ahead of him tomorrow.

“It’s…it’s too much” You said hesitantly.

Isack’s eyes softened, “why do you think that?”

“The flight, the hotel, and now this? It’s just a lot and I feel bad because…” You paused, “well…I don’t know what I did to deserve all of it.”

“Y/n,” Isack’s voice was hushed, “I wanted to do this, don’t overthink it, okay?”

“We would've been ecstatic for grandstand, you know?”

“I know,” he smiled, “but this is you we’re talking about, and you do deserve this.”

“Isack…” Your heart swelled.

“Have you looked in the closet yet?”

“No?” You got up from the leather chair you were sitting in, and opened the closet door. Almost a dozen RedBull sweaters and shirts were on hangers and on the top shelf sat a couple of RedBull hats.

“What…” You started looking at all of the clothes more closely, ”is this?”

He laughed when he realized you’d already pulled one out, presumingly your favorite. “I’m sorry there’s a lot, I just wanted to make sure that there would be something you liked.”

“You’re…crazy”

“Maybe a little, for you.”

You quickly moved the phone so that he wouldn’t see the stupidly wide grin and blush that spread across your face.

“You didn’t bring your Lando merch, right?” He questioned.

You angled the phone back onto your face and nodded, “No Lando merch in sight.”

“Good, good,” Isack sighed disappointedly as he looked at the time. “I should go sleep, early start tomorrow.”

“Okay,” you replied quietly. “Goodnight, Isack”

“Goodnight chérie, I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, waving to the camera.

You waved back and as he hung up, you whispered, “see you tomorrow,” in disbelief that you would be face-to-face with him again soon.

The next morning, you woke Zia up with her paddock pass dangling in front of her face.

Her eyes fluttered open with a yawn, “Y/n it’s too early for this.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“WAIT IS THAT A-” She cut herself off when she tackled you with a bear hug. “Give Isack a kiss for me.”

You ignored her, instead telling her to get ready soon or else you’d leave her at the hotel.

Scanning your pass and walking into the paddock made you feel like a poser. You didn’t know what you were doing here or if you even belonged. You were supposed to be excited, your best friend was practically bouncing off the walls, but you? You felt so small in this big world. You were so used to watching the weekends on the corner of your laptop screen when you were supposed to be taking notes in class or studying. Actually being there, though, was overwhelming. There were cameras everywhere and you knew they weren’t there for you, but it still only poured fuel into the fire.

Zia had left you to explore by yourself while she got her first of many coffees for the day. As you were walking you were typing and deleting several texts to Isack, trying to tell him in the most not awkward way that you were there. After five different drafts, you gave up.

Q1 was just about to start when you saw Isack walking over to his car down below. Before Zia could yell his name to get his attention for you, it was almost like he sensed you were there. He whipped his head around to see you waving and when you got his attention, you proudly turned around to show him the back of your shirt; his name and number were plastered in big white letters. You looked back at him again to see him with a blush on his cheeks, laughing at you. Then, a team member had called his name, but before he left your sight, he blew you a kiss.

You knocked on the door of his room, it was only a couple floors above your own. The door opened and left you in front of bed-headed Isack Hadjar who was already wearing his pajamas.

“Hi, come in,” He moved out of the way from the entrance.

When you walked in, you marveled at the difference between his room and your own. Even though your room was still the nicest hotel room you've ever stayed in, this was on another level. A king sized bed was on side and on the other there was almost a whole kitchen and living room set up.

“I hope Zia wasn’t too upset that I stole you tonight,” he joked.

“Oh, she was devastated.”

You sat your bag down on the side of the couch when the smell hit you. He had already ordered all your favorite foods and had them sprawled across the coffee table.

“Don’t tell my trainer, but there’s ice cream in the freezer too.”

Your heart flipped.

Isack sat down on the couch handing the remote to you, “What movie do you want to watch?”

You silently debated sitting on the other end of the couch or sitting right next to him, but before you could talk yourself out of it, you decided to be brave.

“I'm okay with anything really, is there anything you wanted to watch?” You asked.

“Nope, the choice is all yours.” 

Dangerous answer.

You made him watch The Notebook.

Halfway through, the food was gone and the ice cream long forgotten still sitting in the freezer. He had worked up the courage to wrap an arm around you while you laid your head against his chest.

In the film, Noah had just finished restoring the mansion that he had once made a promise to Allie that he would do. “That house is beautiful,” you whispered.

“Yeah…” Isack was only half paying attention to the movie now, instead looking down at you, “yeah, it is.”

The movie was almost over when Isack noticed that you had dozed off. He didn’t know if you were planning on staying the night in his room, but he also didn’t want to wake you. Instead, he carefully picked you up, moving you to the bed and tucked you in.

The next morning, you woke up to a large empty bed in a room that was definitely not yours. You quickly ran through the events of last night in your mind and came to the horrible conclusion that you had fallen asleep during the movie.

You slowly pulled yourself out of the most comfortable bed of your life, slightly hoping that it would just pull you back in so you could just lay there all day. Sadly, you were only in Austin till tonight so you had to make the most of your time here, and with Isack. When you finally brought yourself to your feet, you saw a pillow and blanket laying on the couch. Unfortunately for his back, that's where Isack had decided to sleep last night. 

“You’re up early.”

You froze.

Isack had just gotten out of the shower, towel wrapped only around his waist.

“Oh…um…y- yeah,” you stammered trying not to look him in the eyes. “I should um…yeah I should probably get going so that I can get ready.”

He laughed at how your face had suddenly flushed at the sight of him, while also slightly embarrassed himself, “Okay yeah, I’ll see you later?”

You nodded and reached for your bag which was still sitting lazily by the couch and as you passed Isack, you paused. In the brief second that you stood in front of him, your brain went a million miles, but you still stood up on your tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek. A brief “good luck,” was whispered before you ran out of the room.

Isack was left standing there, mouth agape and rosy cheeked.

Isack didn’t have a good start to the race, he dropped down from P3 to P6 quite quickly. He was able to maintain that position for most of the race, but with 20 laps left, it started to rain. The rain was heavy, but it wasn’t supposed to last long. Isack was gambling on the slicks. 6 laps later, the rain had not let up, but the finish line was almost in view, he just had to hang on and grab these points for the team. That was the plan, at least, till a car went into the wall.

When the race restarted, you could barely watch. The track was drenched and the rain had decided to stay. Isack sounded scared on the radio, so you sat there with your elbows on your knees and your hands in your face till you felt Zia tense up next to you. Then, you heard the whole garage cheering. Isack had pulled off a brave overtake on Kimi Antonelli on the final corner of Lap 53.

With three laps left, Isack was left with a provisional podium, but right now that wasn’t enough for him. Lando was just a couple seconds ahead. The straight between turn 11 and 12 on lap 55 was the closest he had gotten to the reigning world champion. It was now or never.

Isack had overtake mode and even though his car had barely enough left to give, it roared past the papaya car and Isack had done it. P2, his highest finish in F1, so far.

George Russell had claimed the checkered flag first that day, but Isack Hadjar felt like he was on top of the world.

As soon as he got out of his car, he took his helmet off, weighed himself, and then ran towards the RedBull garage.

He found you in a quiet corner, away from all the noise happening in hospitality.

“Isack that was incred-” He cut you off with an almost suffocating hug.

He pulled back slightly to really look at you, his hands came up to your face and cupped your cheeks.

“You’re still wet.” You pointed out the obvious.

He laughed at you, “I know…”

“You really are my lucky charm,” you melted under his touch and his words.

With all the leftover adrenaline still rushing through his veins from the race, he kissed you. The air was nearly knocked out of your lungs, but when you kissed him back the weight of the world disappeared. There weren’t people outside waiting for him with large cameras and a billion questions. Zia wasn’t in hospitality waiting for you to get back so that she could talk to you about how well George had done. It was just you and the boy who tried to convince your parents that Max Verstappen had zero world championships, and it was perfect.

When he pulled away, he leaned his forehead against your own whispering, “I’m so glad I found you.”