Lando's POV:

I was getting ready to start the race. My engineer started explaining some stuff, I really can't say what 'cause my attention got drawn somewhere else.

Maisie was walking in front of the garage with a camera following her. I smiled to myself as I watched her talk euphorically, a microphone in hand. She was wearing a purple shirt, jeans, and white heels, her hair in a ponytail.

Chiara was standing behind the camera, writing down on her hardboard as Maisie kept giving a tour.

"Lando, are you listening to me?" My engineer called me, snapping me out of my trance.

"Uh...yeah yeah." I lied looking at him. I looked back at Maisie. "I'll be back in a sec." I patted his shoulder and walked away.

"Lando, you need to be in the car in about 20 minutes." He called me as I walked. I turned to face him, walking backwards.

"It'll be just a sec." I yelled extending my hands and he sighed shaking his head. "You're the best!" I yelled and he threw his hand in the air.

I laughed as I kept walking towards my objective, her.

"This year we have the new rookies who are about to make their debut in their respective teams. We have Nyck De Vries in the Alpha Tauri, Logan Sargeant in the Williams, and Oscar Piastri in the McLaren." She narrated looking at the camera.

"Maisie Findlay." I intervened in her broadcast and she closed her eyes for a second and let a deep breath out when she heard my voice. "What about me?" I asked and she looked at me.

"We also have Lando Norris, who's still driving for McLaren and currently crashing the broadcast." She smiled raising her eyebrows and I chuckled.

"Don't I get a microphone?" I asked offended and she chuckled softly.

"Can we get Mr. Norris a microphone?" She asked looking at the crew.

One crew member intervened and handed me a microphone.

"Thank you." I smiled grabbing the microphone and he nodded. "First of all, I like you calling me Mr. Norris, keep doing that." I teased and she chuckled shaking her head.

"How lovely." She raised her eyebrows tilting her head. "So, Lando, do you think you can recover from P11?" She asked and I chuckled.

"Always so professional Maisie Findlay, love that." I teased and she smiled. "Uh, yeah, I'm pretty confident. I trust my skills, I trust the team, and I have your support, right?" I questioned looking at her with a smirk.

She made a thinking face and I crossed my arms looking at her with a smile.

"I'll have to think about it. I'll let you know." She joked and I chuckled.

She pursed her lips on a smile as we looked into each other's eyes.

"Well duty calls." I spoke and looked at the camera. "I'll leave you with your beautiful host, Maisie Findlay." I pointed at the camera and she laughed.

"Thank you Mr. Norris." She spoke in between laughter as I handed the crew my microphone. "Good luck." She told me as I started walking and I blew her a kiss.

She shook her head smiling and looked back at the camera. I chuckled as I kept walking, looking at her one last time as she kept talking at the camera.

[...]

Maisie's POV:

I watched the screen and shook my head letting out a sigh as I saw Lando finish the race P17. It had been his worst race ever in F1.

"P17." I put my hand on my chin and pursed my lips.

"That's harsh." Chi spoke letting out a sigh.

A camera focused Lando getting out of his car, he didn't take his helmet off, he just lowered his head and walked into the garage. The mechanics patted his back as he walked through to disappear in the back of the McLaren garage. Oscar had DNFd.

"He was so confident. I don't get it." I spoke disappointed and Chi shrugged.

"F1 is like that. Some win some lose." She spoke and I looked back at the TV. "Come on, let's get to the podium." Chi started standing up and grabbing her stuff. "Max will probably want to see us there."

"Yeah." I stood up too, grabbing my purse. "I also need to be at the post-race conference." I spoke and she nodded.

"I know." She pointed at her hardboard and I chuckled softly.

I looked back at the TV, getting distracted. They showed the results, I had to wait until the second screen to see his name.

"Hey." Chi called me and I turned to her. "You know there's a way you can make him feel better, right?" She raised her eyebrows and I furrowed my brows confused. She raised her eyebrows higher.

"No." I replied getting what she was referring to. "I told you I wasn't dating at the moment."

"You don't have to actually date him, just go out with him to cheer him up for his shit day." She suggested shrugging and I pursed my lips.

"I thought you didn't like him." I chuckled softly and she scrunched her nose.

"He's not bad." She replied and I laughed. "I prefer George though." She added and I rolled my eyes with a smile.

"Let's go." I started walking and she chuckled following me.

[...]

I was walking around the paddock looking for Lando. I spotted Oscar talking with a McLaren crew member.

"Oscar." I called him and he looked at me.

"Maisie hey." He immediately left his ongoing conversation and smile when he saw me.

"I'm sorry about your race." I spoke and he sighed raising his eyebrows.

"Not an ideal first race, huh?" He pursed his lips on a smile.

"There's still plenty of races, you'll get your shot." I tried comforting him. "Rookie." I nudged him slightly and he chuckled softly.

"Thank you Mais." He looked down with a smile and I smiled.

"Hey, have you seen Lando?" I asked and he looked back at me.

"Uh, yeah, he's been avoiding everyone but I saw him earlier." He spoke putting his hands in his pockets.

"Where?" I questioned.

"He was attacking the snack bar. Why?" He asked furrowing his eyebrows slightly as he rocked side to side.

"Just want to check up on him." I shrugged and he nodded. "Do you think he'll want to talk to me?" I asked scared he'd react badly to my presence.

"Of course he will." Oscar chuckled at the question. "Your presence is nice." He added and I smiled softly.

"Thanks." I spoke with a high-pitched voice and he smiled, his eyes crinkling softly. "I'll go look for Lando." I took a deep breath and his smile faded a bit.

"Sure." He pursed his lips on a smile.

Lando's POV:

I had been avoiding as most journalists as I could. They just kept asking about my shit race.

I knew it was a shit race. I didn't need people reminding me how bad it was. I was grabbing some snacks from the hospitality.

"Mr. Norris, can I ask you a question?" I heard a voice behind me and closed my eyes taking a deep breath.

"Listen, I'm not really in the..." I turned around and paused when I saw her, meeting her dark eyes looking at me.

"It's me." She went back to her normal voice, a smile on her face. "I'm sorry, did you like my fake voice?" She asked and I chuckled softly.

"Really convincing." I replied and she tilted her head. "Almost flipped you off." I joked and she chuckled looking down.

"I'm sorry about your race." She told me and I clicked my tongue.

"I'll get over it." I tried playing cool and she put her hand on my arm, my eyes went to her hand and then back to her eyes like I couldn't believe she was touching me.

She took her hand off my arm and looked down.

"I was wondering if you still want that interview." She looked back at my eyes and I felt my heart race at her words. "I owe it to you." She added and a smile appeared on my face. My eyes glistening with excitement.

"Yeah!" I exclaimed and she raised her eyebrows smiling. I cleared my throat when I noticed my over excitement. "I mean, yeah, cool." I crossed my arms and she chuckled softly.

"Cool." She giggled. "Pick me up at 9:30." She told me and I nodded.

"Yes ma'am." I smiled and she smiled back starting to walk away. "Hey, Maisie Findlay." I called her and she stopped, turning towards me. "Does Italian sound good?" I asked and she chuckled.

"Sounds great." She replied and I smiled putting my hands in my pockets.

"Great." I smiled brightly and she kept walking.

I watched her walk out of the hospitality, following her with my eyes. When she was out of sight I did a little victory celebration, whispering in excitement as my heart almost jumped out of my chest.

I had finally gotten her to go out with me. And I was planning to make this date the best one she's ever going to have in her whole life.

[...]

Maisie's POV:

I walked in the hotel lobby. I was looking through my notebooks, I needed to write down some of the questions and answers of the press conference for an article that needed to be published by Tuesday.

I also needed to get ready, Lando was picking me up in about 30 minutes, I knew he wasn't going to be late.

Suddenly, I bumped against someone, my notebook fell from my hands.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't..." I apologized going down to pick up my notebook and looked up meeting a pair of familiar blue eyes.

"We really need to stop meeting like this." George handed me my notebook. I chuckled grabbing it. "Why are you rushing?" He asked smiling.

"I'm going out." I replied and he raised his eyebrows.

"Alone?" He asked and I shook my head. "Ah, so with Chi?" He asked and I shook my head again. He furrowed his brows looking at me for a response.

"Lando." I let out and he raised his eyebrows slightly, surprised by the response.

"Well, that's not what I expected." He chuckled and I chuckled softly. "Have fun." I noticed the tone of his voice which was saying exactly the opposite, his face did too. "If anything goes wrong call me." He spoke, meaning just the last sentence.

"I will." I laughed at his comment.

[...]

Lando's POV:

My phone kept dinging as I got ready. I groaned annoyed by the noise and grabbed it seeing it was from my group chat with some of the guys on the grid.

George, Charles, Carlos, Max, Alex, and Oscar.

Oscar
Lando, where are you mate?
You just disappeared 😕

George
He's taking Maisie out
That's why he's on a rush 😒

Max
HE'S WHAT?

Oscar
HE'S WHAT?

Carlos
I already knew, Chiara told me

Max
You knew?!

Oscar
Why didn't you say anything mate? 😒

Carlos
I'm not a gossiper 🤷🏻‍♂️

Charles
Yes you are mate

Carlos
You just joined the convo to say that? 😒😒😒

Charles
Just saying facts 😘

Alex
Maisie as the journalist? 😳
I think she's friends with Lily
Let me ask her
Yep, she has interviewed her a few times

Oscar
Why is Lando taking her out?
Did she finally grow tired of you following her around and accepted to shut you down? 🧐

Me
ACTUALLY, Oscar
SHE was the one who went looking for me to ask if I still wanted to take her out 😚
So stfu 😒

George
I don't believe you 🥱

Oscar
Me neither 🥱

Carlos
Actually... 😬
He's telling the truth

Oscar
WHAT?!

Carlos
Chi told me she wanted to cheer him up

George
Good to know she's just going out with him out of pure pity 😊

Me
Stay salty 🥱
Haters gonna hate
I'm just gonna shake it off as Taylor Swift would say 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

George
🙄🙄🙄

Me
Keep rolling your eyes George, I'm the one going out with Maisie 🥱

George
Yeah, yeah, fine
You win

Me
Thank you 😘

Oscar
That's not fair
I had a bad race too

Alex
We can go out and drink if you want to?

Oscar
I'm in

Charles
I'm in too

George
I'm in three

Me
What a George thing to say 😐

George
Hey

Alex
He's right
The other day you said "see you later alligator" and slapped your knees 😕
It was traumatic

Charles
Such a George thing to do

Me
You have to be more considerate with the people around you George, you can damage them permanently 🙏🏻💔

George
Shut up and go get ready for your date
Don't make her wait 😒

Me
Won't make her wait a second 😶

Carlos
You better

Max
You better X2

I turned my phone off chuckling softly and looked at myself in the mirror. I fixed my curls a bit and grabbed a bottle of perfume, Dior Sauvage.

I turned the lights of the bathroom off and looked at my watch. I still had 20 minutes, I was going to get her some flowers.

Carlos had asked Chiara what her favorite flowers were. I was getting her white carnations.

[...]