My father has separated work from family my entire life, and probably his too, and this is unfamiliar territory for both of us.
“Only in Formula One,” I add, and his eyes go wide from surprise. “I know you don’t like us interfering in your work, but, theoretically, I won’t be in your way. I might interview you at some point if my training goes well, but that’s all so far in the future, so I wouldn’t worry about that. It’s just—” I cut off when I see amusement replacing shock on his face.
“May I speak now?” he asks, smiling. I give him a small nod before resting my chin on my knees. “I think that’s terrific, Vaeh,” Papa says and gets up to walk over to the artwork I took down earlier.
He lifts up the one of Serena Williams before putting it back on the nails. I wait patiently for an explanation for why he did that, but I don’t get one.
“After everything you’ve been through, I’m so proud of how far you’ve come. I know tennis meant everything to you, and it’s not easy recovering from that kind of heartbreak, but you, Nevaeh, you’ve exceeded all my expectations.”
Tears shoot into my eyes, and I’m not sure if it’s from his words or from me reliving the memory of my injury. My hand lifts to my right shoulder so I can run my fingers over my scar. It’s five centimeters long and one of my biggest insecurities. The doctors fucked up during my surgery because they promised me I’d barely see it afterward.
“What about keeping work and family separated?” I ask him to change the subject back to the problem of this situation.
“If I could, I would take all of you with me to every race, but you’re so busy with your own lives, I would never put more stress on you. But now, it’s great. Your mother and I have discussed her coming with me this season a while ago, and Nova and Aileen will love their privacy,” he tells me and sits back down on the bed. I let out a relieved sigh, which doesn’t go past him. “Why do you always expect the worst from me?” he asks and tilts his head.
This is a good question with a clear answer, but I don’t want to hurt his feelings.
“Will you read over my article once it’s done? It’s supposed to be about F1 and how it works,” I explain, and Papa stands up again, but this time, he gives me a kiss on the top of my head and moves toward the door.
“Of course. Show it to me later,” he replies and disappears out of my room.
Something I love about him is that he doesn’t force a conversation when he senses I’m done talking. Mama is a little different that way. She likes to pry.
I lean back against my headboard and open my laptop again, trying to come up with something that isn’t boring. After all, Formula One is all about thrill and excitement. Every race weekend, the teams perform to the best of their abilities to fight for any of the top ten positions, ideally the top three, to get points counting toward the championships. There are free practices, Qualifying, sometimes sprint races, and then, on Sunday, it’s race day.
Papa is usually MIA from Friday morning all the way to Sunday after the race. As the team principal of the Grenzenlos team, he has a lot of responsibilities. He doesn’t like to get distracted.
Mama throws herself into work to pretend that she’s busy too, but I can always tell how much it bothers her when Papa ignores her texts. It’s something we’ve fought over many times, which is why I’m glad Mama decided to join Papa for the season. She’s a very successful author of non-fiction novels and is currently writing her seventh one. This one is about our life in Australia. She doesn’t have to stay home to write it.
I shake my head to focus on my article again. My writer’s block is trying to distract me, but I have to get over it. I have to get this done by Monday, and I don’t have time to procrastinate, as much as I want to right now.
My fingers glide over the keyboard for a moment, searching for any starting point. Still stuck, I decide to look up the drivers for this season. Kyle Hughes and Lincoln are racing for Grenzenlos. Jonathan Kent recently retired, opening up the spot that Lincoln filled, not merely thanks to his talent, which he has a ridiculous amount of, but also thanks to his and my father being best friends. George Nash is also an engineer for Klein Racing, Lincoln’s former team. Lincolnisan incredibly talented driver, but there is no denying any of this.
Getting what you want in Formula One is a lot easier when you have connections.
I focus on Hawke next. James Landon and Grant Irwin are teammates for the first year this season after what happened with his former teammate Eduardo last season.
My research moves on to the Velocità Rossa team. As much as I’ve tried to avoid a very specific Velocità Rossa Formula One driver since our conversation three months ago and tried not to think about him, I can no longer avoid him, not when my job will bring us together eventually. All I need to do is approach this as logically as possible.
This is work, nothing but work.
Gabriel Biancheri, last year’s World Champion, and Adrian Romana are teammates for the second season now, but they’ve been doing well together. Papa always says that he hopes to find two drivers that make up such a great team for Grenzenlos one day.
I’ve watched some races in the past year, and I have to agree. They’re always respectful of one another, help the other when their team asks them to, and celebrate each other’s highs after the race.
No matter how hard I try to think only about that as I do my research, I can’t help getting lost looking through photos of Adrian. He’s ridiculously attractive: tall, muscular but lean, with dirty-blonde hair, and blue-green eyes. I get stuck on his smile, the one that has been replaying in my mind every night for the last three months right before I fall asleep too.
I shake my head once more to refocus on the task at hand.
Valentina is racing for Alfa Adrenalina alongside Leonard Tick. From what I’ve read, they’re not only teammates for the first year this season, but they’re also opening their own driver’s academy called ‘Kids Like Us’ soon.
Maybe I can focus on the drivers and teams for the article. As long as I get something on the page, it will be fine.
Right?
I stare at the blank page again and take a deep breath.
I can do this.
