ALICE Ch 323

Glynda manages her nerves well, belting her robe and putting on her slippers. It’s late enough that the hotel is settling down. She ought to be sleeping, but it’s early in the week. She can either lie in bed and worry or she can do something, anything, no matter how daft it might be. She chooses the latter and leaves her room, padding through the quiet hallways.

Matt Berry is in the corridor with one of the Woodcock girls; Glynda can’t tell them apart. It looks as though he’s signing something for her. There’s a rumor that Liam Neeson is around somewhere, but Glynda hasn’t seen him. Interfacing with celebrities is thankfully not her job, but they’re everywhere, and she’s still not used to being around them all the time. Meeting several times with Vivien Corbin hasn’t helped with that at all. If anything, it makes Glynda more uncomfortable.

She rides the elevator down and conceals her irritation as she approaches the hot tub. Akiko Tanaka is alone in the swimming pool, dutifully swimming laps in a modest one-piece.

Lotte sits in the hot tub with the posture and bearing of the head of a cocaine cartel. Her rather skimpy red bikini with gold accents is a little over the top, although it is very Italian. Beside her is the Swedish blonde from the pit crew, the quiet one that Glynda likes best because she seems happy to fade into the background and stay there. Her swimsuit is far more modest than Lotte’s, yet it doesn’t come off that way because she’s built more like Glynda.

There’s no need for words. Lotte didn’t mention anyone else, no doubt because Glynda wouldn’t have come. Of all the people that could be here, Ingrid is high on the list of most tolerable. There’s pride, too. Glynda contents herself with giving Lotte a sour look, then she takes off her robe and joins them in the tub.

The novelty is undeniable. Anyone in F1 who wants to be in a hot tub will be, naturally, but that’s usually not the hotel tub. It’s on a yacht or in a villa that they’ve rented or something. Glynda’s never gone out of her way for one; she soaks in a bubble bath whenever possible, but that’s a solitary activity. And although Glynda does not particularly care for the way that Lotte is making a point not to rub her face in it, it’s not lost on her that she has been too solitary these past years, and Faye has been among the people to pay for it.

“Hello,” Ingrid says warmly. She and Glynda are the same shape, and they are both mothers, but that’s where the similarities end. Ingrid hasn’t come to F1 for the money or even for the adventure; it’s clear she wasn’t eager to leave her family behind. She’s done it because she wanted to see her old friends. Glynda tries not to stare. A person without an agenda; Ingrid might as well be part of an alien species.