After an adrenaline filled day just the day previous, Alessia was back at the track early the following morning. The following evening, she would be back for an open graded event. It was something that any athlete could enter, regardless of age or ability and based on their personal best, they would be entered into a race with others of a similar ability. The whole point was to warm up for the competition season and get some good times on the board.

Her training session was to be relatively light. A long distance run to warm up, some sprint drills followed by a few sprint sets and to cool down, yet another long distance run. The track was always quiet on a Tuesday morning so Alessia knew that she had nothing to worry about. No distractions, just her and the track. At least, that's what she thought it was going to be.

When Alessia made it to the track on foot, there was one car in the otherwise empty car park. Even if the car park was full, the expensive car would stick out like a sore thumb.

Deciding that it was best to ignore the fact that Pierre was at the track, Alessia made her way to the stands where she dumped her bag.

"Alessia, sorry, I didn't know you'd be here at this time-" Pierre started when he saw the girl that had made him so smitten over the past few days. He had just completed his first lap of the track so he wasn't yet drenched in sweat but he was topless and Alessia found it to be very distracting.

"No, it's okay. You have as much right to use the track as I do." Alessia quickly dismissed him. She quickly tied her curly hair back and off her face.

She did a few stretches and the moment that she was done, she started to jog around the track, joining Pierre.

"My trainer is ill today so I have to do all these exercises by myself." He stated and Alessia couldn't help but laugh.

"You come down to the track when I'm training and you think that you have to do the exercises yourself? Not a chance." Alessia's words filled Pierre with dread, even more so than if those words came from his trainer. They both pushed their bodies to the limits in their sports but in completely different ways.

"No slacking, Pierre. Keep up the pace." Alessia scolded him as they reached the home straight for what would be their tenth lap of the track. It was to be their final lap but Pierre was really feeling the effects of keeping up with Alessia's pace.

The Italian picked up her water bottle from the grass field that covered the inside of the track and took a long gulp. She quenched her thirst and when she was done, she tossed it to Pierre who did just as she did.

Next on Pierre's regime was mobility stretches. Alessia left the Frenchman to do those at the side of the track as she set up her starting blocks for her sprint sets.

Getting through her sprints relatively quickly, Alessia only had one left to go. However, as she set off, she felt a shooting pain through the back of her heel.

"Fuck." She cursed as she stopped midway through her last run.

"You good?" Pierre checked on Alessia, noticing how she cautiously started to walk again. Alessia didn't limp or grimace which suggested that whatever it was, it was simply a one off.

"Fine, thanks." She gave him a forced smile. Although there was nothing evidently wrong with her leg, it worried her. She couldn't afford an injury so close to the Olympic games coming up. With only six weeks to go, every minute of preparation counted, especially when she was going for gold.

Pierre knew that despite Alessia's words, she wasn't 'fine' but he didn't push the issue any further. Instead, he helped her carry her starting blocks back to where they came from.

The pair enjoyed walking a few laps around the track to end their sessions. As Alessia noticed that it started to get busier, she couldn't help but be grateful to have Pierre by her side. She had enjoyed training alongside him and for the very first time since she met him, she looked forward to the future. Alessia hoped that there would be many more training sessions where Pierre would be present.

"Thanks for a good session, partner. Now I'll be all set for tomorrow." Alessia joked as she pulled her trainers back on and packed up her stuff.

"What's tomorrow?" Pierre questioned as he too gathered all of his belongings.

As the pair made their way out of the facilities, Alessia explained to him what she would be doing the following evening. He was fascinated by the concept but then he supposed it was similar to pre-season testing and practice before qualifying started.

"I'm free tomorrow night. Can I come and support you?" At his question, Alessia was shocked. Nobody ever offered to watch an open graded event, not even her coaches. It was the sort of thing where you show up in enough time to declare, collect your number, run the race and then leave immediate after. It was nothing special, not like the Olympics.

"I mean, yeah, if you really want to but I doubt it will be interesting. It's barely even ten seconds worth of racing." Alessia admitted sheepishly. She would hate for Pierre to take time out of his day to watch something that lasted such a short amount of time. He would be massively disappointed.

"No, it's fine. I want to. I'll see you tomorrow night." He gave her one of his signature smiles and without thinking, a quick kiss on the lips before hurrying away in his expensive sports car.

For the moments that followed Pierre's departure, she stood in the car park, completely dumbfounded. That kiss was one that was only shared between official couples. A fleeting goodbye, a 'see you later' or a 'I just want to kiss you for no reason'. Alessia had known Pierre for a total of seventy-two hours. What was going on in her life?

1046 words
29th June 2022

note from e!

Hello, loves! Another update for you all! I'm kind of hoping to get all the Miami based chapters out this week just because Miami has just passed. Keep things relevant, you know?

Thoughts on Miami?
- I'm going to pretend that it didn't happen. Delusion is how I as a Ferrari and Charles fan am going to get through this season :)

If you're interested, I created a Google form in which you can reply to some unlikely scenarios with the F1 driver or footballer that you think suits best. It's all anonymous and for a bit of fun. The results will be posted in my spam book.

Also, just watching the Forest v Southampton game and I said to my parents that Gibbs-White would go down the middle for his penalty as he hadn't been there yet in his last four penalties as a joke and HE DID?!

Enjoy and stay safe!

Lots of love, e x