Il s'appelle James

As we walk back to his car, I can’t help but notice how different he looks in a suit. In a good way, the suit makes him look more serious and a hell of a lot more handsome. I still can’t believe I agreed to this, we walked to his car, talking about how the day went and how excited we are for the race on Sunday. When we reach the car, he opens the door for me like the gentleman he is, I sit in the passenger seat already feeling the anxiety filling my stomach, when he sits next to me I can’t stop the comment from coming out:

“So… It’s kind of unusual for a team principal to be free on the evening of a race weekend…” I try to keep the question I really wanted to ask hidden in between the lines: ‘How come you’re free on the Friday of a race weekend?’ He laughs softly, I guess he caught on to the underlying question I made:

“Well let’s just say I had something more important to do than to stay in boring dinners and interviews today.” He says, focusing on the road, I realize that he’s saying going out with me is more important than the boring schedule of a team principal:

“Wait… You cleared your schedule for this…?” I ask confused about why he’d cancel his meetings for a girl he just met:

“When the universe finally drops someone interesting into my life… That’s a sign no one should ignore, darling.” He says, giving me a side smirk like he knows the effect that has on people. Only then I realize that I don’t know where we’re going, but I don’t care. For the first time in a while I don’t care about letting someone else take the lead, maybe Toto was right and I should try to give him a chance…

I spent the next few minutes of the drive trying to calm down the butterflies he woke up in my stomach and to soothe the warm feeling on my cheeks. I haven’t felt this way since I first went out with Carlos and it’s scary. What if I get my heart broken again? What if he judges me for having already dated someone from the paddock? Guess I’m going to have to find out, since it seems we have finally reached our destination and it’s one of those fancy restaurants that guides always recommend to tourists.

At the front door the hostess asks if we have a reservation and I’m surprised when James says that he has a reservation in place, the hostess guides us to our desk on one of the corners of the restaurant, not hidden away, but still private. I feel the butterflies again and try to fight my smile, that shows me how different James and Carlos really are. Carlos always made sure our dates were hidden away, in places no one would recognize us and James… James just proved to be the complete opposite of Carlos, he brought me to a good restaurant, got us a good table and he even pulled my chair for me. I sat and he gently pushed the chair to a comfortable distance from the table and seats in front of me.

The hostess comes back with our menus and waters, we thank her and I start skimming through the menu to see what sounds interesting to me:

“I heard that the steak here is divine.” James says, smiling at me through the menu, his eyes shining and crinkling on the edges. That encourages me to smile back at him:

“Well then I guess I’ll have to listen to your advice and get the steak…” I say, smiling back at him, already feeling my stomach flutter again, we close the menus and he places our order with our waiter who takes away our menus politely and notes down our order. I take this quiet moment to start a conversation with him:

“So um… How are you feeling about Sunday?" I ask feeling a little awkward, God I’m terrible at small talk, I wish George was here, he’d know exactly what to ask, James laughs softly, but answers my question:

“My… I feel like I’m in one of those boring interviews, but to answer your question… We’re feeling a little confident, since we got a good position on the practice today, hopefully our luck will follow us into Sunday.” I laugh as well, feeling my cheeks burning at the stupid question I asked:

“Sorry… I couldn’t think of anything else to ask…” I say laughing, trying to hide my embarrassment:

“Oh so let me ask you a better question… Why do you avoid the Williams’ garage like the devil is living there?” He asks smiling, it’s clear he doesn’t know the answer, otherwise he wouldn’t have asked, but I oblige and answer, if I’m going to give him a chance I better do it right:

“Well… Technically I’m avoiding one of your drivers, Carlos… I dated his cousin for a while last season, but he um… It didn’t work out…” I say, avoiding the real reason we broke up since I don’t want it to seem like I’m trash talking Carlos (even though I constantly trash talk about him with George):

“Aah… So it’s you that Carlos mentioned a few times…” He says as if he’s finally connecting the face with the histories he heard about me and I’m hesitant to ask what Carlos said about me, but my curiosity speaks louder and I ask:

“He um… He mentioned me? Why…? I mean… What could he possibly say about me…?” I ask laughing weakly, failing successfully in trying to hide how much it bothers me that Carlos was talking about me:

“Nothing bad essentially, he simply mentioned that his cousin was going out with someone that was much younger than him and that he felt bad for this poor individual, since they were apparently clueless to the kind of guy his cousin is.” He says, shrugging as if it was the most normal thing to say to someone, but I was speechless, I've been avoiding the Williams’ in fear of bumping into Carlos, fearing he might judge me for dating his cousin when in reality he felt bad for what his cousin did to me:

“I… I didn’t expect that… I thought he’d take his cousin’s side, honestly.” I say laughing softly, trying to hide how relieved I felt. He laughs with me and we fall into a nice conversation, he’s really nice and this date is going really well. Almost an hour later we’re eating our steak, which were indeed divine, when we hear a loud commotion on the door of the restaurant, someone is yelling, practically shouting at the poor hostess for the long wait, James turns around to see what’s going on and when the hostess one step to the side we realize who’s at the hostess’ stand causing this huge scene, Carlos Oñoro Sainz, my ex, and the girl he cheated on me with.

My eyes widen in surprise and for just a second our eyes meet and I notice the realization in his eyes when he sees me and James, suddenly his anger isn’t targeted at the hostess anymore, now he’s trying to push past security, yelling at me every insult he can, trying to make me feel bad for going on a date, when he’s literally on a date with the girl he cheated on me with. I lower my head feeling embarrassed that the whole restaurant is now looking at me and James:

“I’m sorry… I’m sure this isn’t what you were hoping for on a first date…” I say, hiding my face into my hands, fighting the sting behind my eyes of the tears of anger forming:

“Don’t worry about it, he’s a jerk anyway… We can get out of here if you want, I know a great ice cream place nearby.” He says with a soft smile, his hand gently holding onto my wrist, not controlling, not possessive, simply grounding me. I take my hands off my face and give him a faint and weak smile, nodding. He signs to our waiter for the check and pays for the bill entirely and gives the guy a nice tip for having to deal with the scene Carlos is causing. We stand up and he places a comforting hand on my lower back, guiding me to the exit as we thank the hostess and try to ignore Carlos, but he tries to follow us to James’ car:

“Hey! Already moved on?! Didn’t know it was that easy to get you into bed, Y/N!” Carlos yells at me, trying to grab my arm, but James is faster and grabs his wrist tightly:

“You don’t speak to them like that, not to anyone and certainly not in front of me.” James says seriously, gripping tighter on Carlos’ wrist, trying to make his point clear.

“Okay, okay… Geez, I know they look good, but trust me. You don’t want this one, they’re… Inexperienced, if you know what I mean.” Carlos says, trying to embarrass me for my lack of knowledge on the only department that mattered to him, the bedroom.

“So? You say that like it’s a bad thing, inexperience isn’t a bad thing, it just means they were focusing on more important matters than something as stupid as that.” James says annoyed as if the mere thought of what Carlos said is ridiculous and infuriating to him, Carlos scoffs, pulling his wrist from James angrily and when we think he’s about to say something he simply grumbles a “whatever” under his breath walking back to his date that was left by the entrance of the restaurant.

As they walk away from the restaurant we can still hear her yelling at him about being left at the door of the restaurant and how embarrassing it is that he didn’t make a reservation. Me and James hear that and we try to hide our laughter, but it’s basically impossible as we look at each other. After a good laugh out of this we decide that it’s getting late and that it’s best if we head back to the hotel, since the quali will be very early on the next day.

He drove us back to the hotel, his hand gently holding mine. Even after we left the car and he insisted on walking me to my room, he still held my hand. When we reach my room, I say almost sad that the date is over:

“Well… This is my stop…” I smile at him, holding my hands in front of my body:

“I guess it is… See you tomorrow or are you going to continue to avoid walking past the Williams’ garage?” He asks, laughing quietly through his nose, I try to stop the laughter that bubbles in my chest, but it was impossible:

“I’ll definitely see you tomorrow, James… Tonight was great…” I say smiling at him softly, taking a hesitant step towards him. When he doesn’t pull away, instead he takes a step closer to me, I place a hand on his chest softly and kiss his cheek softly. He laughs softly, but respects the boundary I set with him:

“Good night, Y/N…” He whispers softly given our proximity:

“Good night, James… I had a lot of fun tonight… Really…” I whisper back, smiling widely, no longer hiding the happiness or the butterflies he’s giving me. He takes a hesitant step back and starts heading for the elevator to go to his room, but every few steps he looks back at me.

Once he reaches the elevator, I open the door to my room and walk inside, I turn on the light and almost scream when I realize that George is sitting on my bed:

“I shouldn’t even tell you anything after you almost scared me to death.” I say laughing, but I sit next to him and tell him everything about the date, safe to say we went to sleep late after a full night of gossiping.

I heard his car parking in our garage and him coming up to the door, once he unlocked it, entered the house and turned on the lights everyone came out from their hiding spots, I was hiding in the kitchen with a cake for him, putting the cake on the table so I can hug him, once I reach him and wrap my arms around hm congratulating him for the one year in Wlliams he whispers in my ear smiling lovingly at me: “You’re so lucky you’re cute.” I smile back at him, we then go cut the cake so everyone can enjoy a slice, I ended up inviting everyone i could from Williams, both Alex and Logan confirmed they’d come and after me they were the first ones to hug James, he seemed very happy to see everyone here and we spent the next few hours talking to everyone. 

Once it started to get late everyone started bidding their goodbyes and hugging James congratulations a last time and soon enough we were alone.

I’m taking a walk with my closest friend on the paddock, George, he’s currently giving me an earful for taking the longest route to the Mercedes’ garage, since I don’t want to go anywhere near Williams’ garage: “Y/N, you can’t avoid Carlos forever, some day you're going to have to face him.” He says riding on his scooter, practically glaring at anyone who steps in front of his way, I laugh when some poor intern almost makes him fall when he tries to swerve. “I’m serious, if we’re late again for a meeting Toto might kill us.” He says when I stop laughing. “Okay, okay, you’re right… It’s just… It was already bad enough that his cousin was dating someone basically his age, but the fact that his cousin cheated on me… It’s humiliating, George, like with a capital H.” I say, sighing loudly, running my fingers through my hair as if that’ll fix all of my problems.

“I warned you though… But did you listen to me? No, because why would you? It’s not like I know every gossip to be known in the paddock.” He says mocking me, I turn around to face him, starting to walk backwards. Making silly faces to tease him, he starts laughing, but then: “Y/N, watch out!” He yells, but it’s too late, my back is hitting someone’s broad chest, the stranger’s hands hold onto my shoulder to make sure I don’t fall: “Sorry, I’m sorry. I should’ve been looking ahead.” I say turning around, trying to ignore George’s laugh as he continues going forward, leaving me with the handsome stranger, his dark blonde hair, dark eyes, soft stubble on his face, wrinkles adorning around his eyes and his smile, just when I notice his smile is when I realize he probably asked me something, my cheeks burn with embarrassment, I cough and ask: “Sorry… What was the question?” I try to muster a sweet smile, trying to hide just how much this 40 something years old man is swaying with my feelings already. 

“I asked you name, sweetheart.” He asks smiling, now that his hands have let go of my arms, he crosses them in front of his chest, his biceps filing so nicely the empty spaces of the sleeve of his button up shirt.

“Um… I’m Y/N, I’m… I work at Mercedes… Director of the Legal Team. And I don’t think I caught your name.” I say, trying to sound as smooth as I can, which probably wasn’t a lot, since he laughed softly and I realized I really want to hear that sound more often.

“James, sweetheart. Williams’ team principal.” He says and I feel all my hopes and dreams get crushed, I shake his hand and mutter an excuse for being late to a meeting and hurry away from the most handsome man I’ve seen in a while.

When I reach Mercedes’ garage, everyone is smiling at me like they know something I don’t and I slowly walk to the meeting room, where Toto, Susie, George and Kimi are waiting for me.

“Did I miss anything important? I’m sorry for being late, someone left me all alone on the way here.” I say glaring at George, as he stares at everything but me, pretending I’m not in the room.

“Oh don’t worry, Y/N. George filled us in on your little… Mishap with James.” Susie says, smiling at me as if I told her that we just won the championship. As I look around the room confused, George finally decides to fill me in on the joke of the moment.

“So… I might’ve told them that you had the most romantic moment with James and… They approve.” He says, smiling like he had just given me the best news ever. I look at him like he’s crazy. “George, there was no ‘romantic moment’. I bumped into him and that is it.” I say putting the documents on the desk to start the meeting, but Kimi seems to have other plans. “James is single… If you’re wondering.” Kimi says giving me that sweet boy smile he has, I sigh loudly knowing my friends won’t drop this unless I give them a real answer. 

“Guys, nothing will happen… I’m taking a break from relationships after my… Fiasco with Carlos Oñoro Sainz. Besides he’s Carlos’ boss, it’d be weird to be with his boss right after his cousin cheated on me… And besides, he doesn't even seem interested in me…” I say trying to hide my disappointment.

“Y/N… I’ve known James for a while and from what George said… He’s interested, you should give it a chance… Who knows…? Something good could come out of this.” Toto says, giving me one of his knowing smiles.

“Thanks, boss… I’ll think about it, for now can we just… Focus on the meeting?” I ask, trying to get this over with so I can go back to my hotel, order a huge tub of ice cream and watch corny movies to forget today happened.

I’m so focused on the documents that I don’t even realize that Kimi took my phone from my briefcase, nor do I notice his quiet conversation with George as they do something on my phone, but Susie and Toto notice and they’re amused by this. After the meeting they put my phone back on the briefcase and I start gathering the documents, George approaches me with a look on his face that tells me he did something: “What could you possibly have done? We were at this meeting for hours…” I say scratching my forehead annoyed at this antics.

“Well… Let’s just say someone has a date today thanks to me and Kimi.” He says smiling with a wide smile, glancing between me and my briefcase.

“No… You wouldn’t, George, I’ll kill you.” I say rummaging through my briefcase, desperately looking for my phone, when I unlock it, there’s a conversation open with James and the last message he sent read: “I’ll pick you up from the garage, what you were wearing was perfect and I can’t wait to see you. ;)” My jaw drops and I really consider killing George, who’s still smiling at me like an idiot. 

“Thank me later, pretty stuff, go woo your man.” He says, smiling like his life isn’t on the line here, I take a look outside of the meeting room into the garage and James is already there waiting, how did he already know the meeting was over, when I hear a squeal from behind me, I connect the dots, Susie and Toto must’ve told him.

“We’ve been trying to set him up with someone for months and you’re the first person he’s shown real interest… Come on, I’ll help you get a little more fixed up for the date.” Susie says, pushing me into the bathroom to fix my hair, throw some water on my face and try my best to make this clothes look even a little less like a ‘I’m ready for work’ and more like ‘I’m so ready for this date’. 

After a few good minutes, I walk out of the meeting room to find James leaning on the wall waiting for me and he looks even more handsome at night, the moon gives him a sharper edge that I hadn’t noticed before.

“Ready for the date, sweetheart?” He says, offering me his arm like a gentleman. I hold his arm softly, while trying to contain the burning sensation on my cheeks, I start laughing softly: “I thought I already told you my name…” I say, trying to keep my voice steady, but just by looking into his eyes I already know I’m doomed.