INTRODUCING
EMILY BRADWELL

PORTRAYED BY LAUREN GERMAN

"... And over here we have the aerodynamics department."

Emily had been showing Evelyn around the factory for about two hours so far but they hadn't seen George yet, which was both a good and a bad thing. Evelyn wanted to hold off seeing George as long as possible but the longer she waited, the more worried she became.

"And that's pretty much it!" Emily said as she finished explaining everything about the aero workers. "All that's left now is to see your office." She took Evelyn's arm happily and lead her upstairs. "Oh and we can see if George is around somewhere too. It'd be ideal if we could get you guys introduced today."

Evelyn let out a weak chuckle. "Yeah... Great."

If Lilian had been there in that moment, she would have known Evelyn was dreading seeing George but not having known her as long as Lilian, Emily just gave her a large smile and guided her towards her new office.

Evelyn tried her best to push all remaining thoughts about George out of her mind so instead she tried to focus on the thought of having her own fancy new office.

Evelyn continued to follow Emily down the spacious hallways and after a couple of minutes they arrived at an opeque glass door with a welcoming plant pot placed at the entrance.

It was even the corner office! Only important people get the corner offices, everyone knows that. So of course this just gave Evelyn an even bigger ego boost.

Evelyn could barely contain her smile anymore.

"And here we are!" Emily waved her hands in front of the door magestically which made Evelyn chuckle.

"Would you like to do the honours?" Emily pointed at the door handle.

Evelyn straightened up her jacket in preparation.
"I'd love to." She opened up the door and walked into her office.

Her office.

That's never gonna get old.

Evelyn's office was a very spacious room with huge windows that displayed the greenery outside of the factory below.

She had a modern desk with plenty of space for working and even for personal belongings such as framed photos. There was a cabinet to the right of her desk where she could store and organise various folders and books so her office wouldn't eventually end up looking like a bomb site.

There was even a whiteboard in the corner where she could brainstorm any new strategy ideas or just general information she needed to remember, like picking up ice cream from the shops on her way home.

Evelyn looked around the room with a content smile.

"Fancy eh?" Emily leant against the door frame as Evelyn took in her surroundings.

"Very." Ev replied and walked over to her desk

She ran her hand over the smooth surface and let out a large breath. Ev smiled to herself softly as she sat down in her desk chair.

"I made it." She thought. "I really made it."

A knock on the door snapped her out of her thoughts, and a familiar voice made her freeze. "Heard my new race engineer was in town."

Evelyn looked up slowly, and the face of George Russell filled her vision. Her old best friend was really stood here before her, with an expression a mix of confusion, happiness and longing plastered on his face.

"Ev. I- oh my god." He said breathlessly.

"Hi." It was all she could manage to say. Her words caught in her throat and her mind went blank. She had been thinking of this moment all morning and afternoon but now that it was finally happening, she had no thoughts, no words.

George took a hesitant step forward, still not believing that his best friend from school was sat right in front of him. He shook his head, desperately trying to think of anything to say. "When did- I mean you- what?" He couldn't process what was happening.

"I uh, I got a new job." She stated bluntly.

Neither of them broke eye contact as they spoke. It felt so weird to actually see George in person after all this time.

He still looked like the George she remembered. Still tall, eyes still as blue as ever, although he had obviously grown up a lot.

George admired Evelyn as he stood there. If he thought she was pretty as a teenager, she was damn beautiful as an adult. He still couldn't believe that she was really sitting there. It was almost too good to be true.

Emily suddenly cleared her throat behind him, breaking the silence. "So you guys already know each other then?"

"You could say that..." Evelyn muttered.

"We were friends back in secondary school actually." George said, still not taking his eyes off of his long lost friend.

"Oh wow you guys go way back then." Emily stated with a smile, blissfully unaware of their strained history.

"Yep."

"Yeah." They both said at the same time with a blunt tone.

Before Emily could push on the subject at all, her phone suddenly rang. "Damn, sorry guys I've got to take this." She walked over to the door with her phone in hand. "I'll just be outside so you two can catch up for a bit now if you want. If you need anything at all just give me a shout." She exited the office to take the phone call, leaving George and Evelyn alone in the room together.

Neither of them spoke for a moment.

Evelyn honestly didn't know what to do. I mean what do you even say to your childhood best friend that you haven't spoken to or even seen in over eight years.

She eventually cleared her throat to speak up. "So... how have you been?" She asked very awkwardly.

"That's what you're starting with?" George asked almost in disbelief.

"Well what do you want me to say?! How does someone even start a conversation with a person they haven't seen in over eight bloody years?" Evelyn said in a stressed tone.

"Well maybe you could start with an actual explanation about where the hell you've been all this time?" He asked with a hint of desperation in his voice.

He hadn't seen her in so long and right now, he had no idea what to think or what to feel. He just wanted some answers.

Evelyn looked at him softly.

"You're right. Yes of course you're right, the least you deserve is an explanation." She took a deep breath to steel herself and managed to build up enough courage to stand up from her desk and walk over to him.

She stopped a few steps away from him and lifted her head to look him in the eyes.

... My god he has beautiful eyes.

Her mind went blank momentarily as she looked up into them.

It was an odd sensation to describe as she stood there. It almost felt... nostalgic, staring into his eyes. It was the sense of familiarity that comforted her and yet provoked an uneasy feeling in her stomach at the same time.

"So?" George's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "The explanation?"

"Oh yes, right..." Evelyn cleared her throat as she prepared to speak... but no words came out.

"I- I don't really know where to start." She bit her lip anxiously and looked down at her feet, trying to avoid the harshness of George's gaze.

"Well, I would say 'at the beginning' but that's probably not the most helpful thing to say right now." George chuckled dryly, attempting to ease a bit of the tension in the room.

Although it proved to be a more difficult task than expected.

"Yeahh, not really." Evelyn chuckled but it was clearly restrained.

She rubbed the back of her neck, desperately wracking her brain for something to say. "Um- right, so- I'm guessing your main question is why the hell I just disappeared off of the face of the earth eight years ago?"

George nodded. "In a nutshell, yeah."

"Yeah that's fair enough..." She nodded and took a deep breath before finally lifting her gaze to look him the eye again.

Her words caught in her throat again but this time she fought through it. George deserved an explanation, so she planned to give him just that.

"It's just- wow okay this is complicated to explain."

George's gaze softened slightly at this. As much as he wanted answers, he didn't want to make Evelyn too stressed out either. "I get that. I've got time don't worry." He reassured and gestured for her to continue.

Evelyn gave him a small smile of appreciation.
"Thanks..." She took another moment to gather her thoughts about how to start this long awaited explanation.

"Okay, well... " She finally started. "Do you remember the conversation we had over text when you were away in Silverstone for f3?"

George nodded. "Yeah. That was the last full conversation we had before you ghosted me."

Ev dropped her head guiltily.
"George that's no-" Evelyn began to say but was then suddenly cut off as the door swung open, revealing Emily placing her phone back in her pocket.

"Oof sorry guys. That man sure knows how to ramble on about the most pointless topics." She laughed and closed the door behind her, but the laugh was cut short when she noticed the somber expressions plastered on the two Brits' faces.

"Everything okay?" She asked, a bit confused by the tense atmosphere between them.

Evelyn took a step back from George as she cleared her throat. "Yep mhmm totally."

Emily raised an eyebrow at this.

George looked at Evelyn in exasperation. "Real smooth." He mouthed.

Evelyn pursed her lips and fought the urge to stick her tongue out at him as he turned around to face Emily.

"Yeah we're alright." He started. "We were just recounting some particularly embarrassing stories from our school says." George laughed to sell the lie.

"Oh gosh." She chuckled with him. "I imagine you guys got up to all sorts of things together back then."

"You have no idea." George replied with a slightly forced smile.

Evelyn looked up at George sadly.
They really did have some good times together... But those memories that were once fond and comforting were now just a painful reminder that Evelyn left. She left without a single word. And George still didn't know why.

"Well you know I'd love nothing more than to hear about your many embarrassing childhood stories-" She teased George. "-but actually I need to get you down for a meeting with Jost and Nicky." George nodded and muttered something in agreement.

Emily looked over at Evelyn apologetically. "Sorry Ev, I'm sure you would've wanted a bit more time to catch up with each other." She gestured to George who was stood in front of her.

Evelyn shook her head and gave Emily a small smile. "No it's okay, don't worry."

George finally turned to look at Evelyn again, his eyes filled with longing, but he looked away again before she could react at all.

"Alright I'll meet you out there." He said to Emily.

She gave him a thumbs up. "I'll see you later Evelyn. Feel free to set up your laptop or anything else you might need to get started up with work." She waved and turned on her heel, leaving the old friends alone again.

George opened his mouth to say something but Evelyn cut him off.
"I won't keep you from Jost."

"Evelyn-"

"Look George maybe it's best if we don't talk about this right now. At work." She reasoned. "Can we just... wait." She said in a tone that was more of a statement than a question.

George stared down at her and took a few steps forward so they were closer together. "Evelyn I've spent eight years waiting just to talk to you again."

Ev looked up at him with empathetic eyes. "You can wait another twenty four hours." She assured.

George sighed and rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully. "... Okay." He agreed. "We'll talk tomorrow." And with that, he followed Emily out of the office.

Evelyn let out a breath she didn't even realise she was holding in. "So now I'm gonna have to find enough time out of work tomorrow to actually explain all of this shit. Great." She mentally face palmed herself as she shut her office door and then returned back over to her desk to set up her work computer.

-

Hey
Long time no see 😼
I hope this chapter makes up for my extreme inactivity lately lmao-

Also I couldn't be bothered to give this a final proof read so if there's any stupid mistakes pls ignore them ✋

OH AND A BIG THANK YOU TO -SREID FOR HELPING ME WRITE A LOT OF THIS CHAPTERR <3
writers block is a real bitch so thank you for your help with that