ALICE Ch 253

Parties are not as bad as press conferences. At least at parties, Alice can swear without anyone scolding her for it. She appreciates that drivers have to wear their own merch instead of dressing properly; she hates dresses and formalwear. It also helps that England isn’t hot like some places, although country manors suck compared to yachts for seeming glamorous.

Everyone is here except Faye.

Alice opens a can of kombucha, watching Mio attempting to flirt with Erica Bruhl.

Val is talking to Max animatedly, unable to hide the way that she worships him. Lando is trying to sneak in there, but he’s bad at it. People laugh raucously over where the Top Gear guys are, and Glynda’s talking to the Woodcock sisters. They see Alice looking, and in perfect unison, the twins give her a rude gesture.

That’s earned.

Alice has just shaken off Irina, who pounced on her at the beginning of the party and paraded her around like a trophy husband for the first half hour. That’s not Alice’s first choice for how to handle these things, but Irina did function as a magical talisman to ward off Cosette. One can’t put a price tag on that.

“Hey,” Val says, and Alice looks down to see her. She didn’t notice her break away from Max.

“It’s like you’re getting shorter.”

“Shut up. You need to chill,” Val says sternly. “Come here.”

“Huh?” Alice bends so they can speak quietly. “What?”

“Maybe you should talk to Matt.”

That’s all Val says. Puzzled, Alice stares at her. Then Val goes a little pink, and Alice notices Erica Bruhl staring at them. And Mio looking annoyed, which doesn’t bother Alice. Mio’s lucky that Alice isn’t dunking her in the fountain outside.

“You’re kidding,” Alice says to Val.

Val shakes her head and hurries away.

It does make sense though. Patty has underperformed.

“Are you mad at me too?” Alice asks as Erica approaches, having slipped away from Mio. Mio heads for the Woodcock twins, looking determined. Alice just can’t even begin to understand the little Japanese driver. It’s exhausting.

“It’s complicated,” Erica says. She looks beautiful in her black party dress with her hair up. Just amazing. However, Glynda’s out there in a similar dress with twice the bust and pulling literally all of the male eyeballs as well as Patty’s. Is she doing that on purpose?

It doesn’t matter.

“What do you want?” Alice asks.

“Normally, I would want to flirt. Or I would want to know about you and Red Bull.” Erica shrugs. “I suppose I’m just wondering if you are OK.”

“I’m not. My girlfriend’s hurt. My car is slow. I think I hate my teammate. I mean, just looking at her makes me rage. I’m scared.”

“Of what?”

“Being a shitty person. This is bringing out the worst in me. What I did was wrong.”

“Right or wrong, people like it.”

“That’s not actually a good thing.”

Erica puts her hand on Alice’s shoulder and squeezes. “I don’t think you’re a shitty person.”

“I don’t think I am either,” Alice says with a snort. But she can feel that changing.

“About Val.”

“What about her?”

“What were her interests when you knew her?”

“Doing a story on her? You mean when we were kids playing soccer? Before we got into karting?” Weird question. Alice frowns and folds her arms. “She carried a stuffed animal in her backpack, which was weird. I think she liked Legos, actually. She was always weird. Serious loner. Even in like fourth grade. Coach Riley loved her, though.” Alice snaps her fingers. “She could learn anything just like that. She’s like a literal genius.”

Alice wonders what that is about as she watches Erica head off toward Glynda. How long until this is over? And how many more selfies will she have to take with super-rich fans who can buy their way into these things?

“Alice,” says a familiar voice behind her.

She turns to find Christian Horner rather dressed down in his khakis and Red Bull polo. He holds a bottle of Stella.

“The evil villain guy thing,” Alice says, facing him. “Do you do it on purpose?”

“Netflix likes it,” he replies, taking a drink. He joins her, and together they regard the party.

“Where is Netflix, anyway?”

“Right over there.”

“They see us.”

“Indeed,” Christian replies, unbothered.

Alice feels her skin heat up from head to toe. He’s acting casual, but he’s not really casual. This is it. She has taken it down to the wire on timing.

“Shall I have something drawn up?” Christian asks simply.

Alice hesitates. He watches her.

“I suppose,” he says after a moment, “That if you get tired of winning races and having loads of money, you could always come back.”

Alice snorts and looks away, heart thudding.

Go to Red Bull?

Finish the year with FUTA?

New FSC super mega extended epilogue content in the meantime. The Adella/Riley route in FSC starts around here, way back a zillion years and a gazillion chapters ago.