ALICE Ch 30

There are already a lot of limits on what F1 drivers can and cannot do, even under the best of circumstances. Adding to it that some countries aren’t necessarily the greatest about women’s rights can complicate things further. There’s nothing to worry about inside a nice hotel that’s more or less staked out for F1 teams in relation to the Grand Prix, but it still feels stifling. Alice is technically allowed to leave the hotel, but that is a huge hassle with security and other stuff.

Usually, the drivers are the ones gatekeeping cool stuff from the fans, but in this case, the fans are the ones who have what Alice wants. Irina must be pretty rich.

It’s everything that Alice hoped it would be: the hotel’s huge, sparkling pool area, all but deserted.

Irina is swimming laps when Alice arrives and Sasha floats sedately on a donut-shaped floater with a drink in her hand. The massive space is so quiet even with the sloshing of Irina’s strokes that it feels like a heavy blanket of silence. Very different from the grid, where everyone has hearing loss despite wearing protection at all times. Alice doesn’t have tinnitus. Yet.

“Wow,” she says as she enters the space with her towel wrapped around her waist. She wears a basic, uninteresting blue bikini because her body is so long and lanky that nothing looks cute on her, so why bother? But she didn’t want to be flashing the Saudi hotel people with her bulge.

This is sweet. She plops at the edge of the pool and puts her legs in, leaning back to take a deep breath. This is amazing. It’s funny; there had been a time when the idea of sitting in silence in an almost empty pool space would’ve seemed like the most boring thing ever. Now that she’s in F1 there’s just interminably slow time in hotel rooms and everything else goes way too fast. There’s nothing in between. She kicks her feet in the warm water and breathes in the damp, chlorine-smelling air. Beautiful.

And speaking of beautiful, Sasha’s looking pretty good. She’s no Instagram model, but she has great skin and her slim, cute body looks amazing in that white bikini. She notices Alice looking and waves with a smile.

Alice comes to her senses and realizes that ogling might not be the best idea. She jumps in surprise as Irina abruptly emerges from the water right there and hauls herself out, dripping to sit beside her.

“Oh. Hi,” Alice says as the older woman sits beside her. Now she’s staring at her; Irina’s a little fitter than her daughter, but their physiques are otherwise similar, and their bikinis match. It’s too cute; Alice can’t stand it.

“I’m glad you came,” Irina says, and Alice painfully yanks her eyes up to the older woman’s face.

“I wasn’t staring at your boobs. Or your daughter,” Alice adds quickly. “I promise.”