ALICE Ch 208

Alice doesn’t have to drive tomorrow, so this isn’t even bending the rules. She finishes her Long Island with an irritable sense of determination and places the glass on the bar carefully. She wants to slam it down or throw it, but does not. The bartender looks sympathetic.

The Top Gear guys are at the other end of the bar, wasted. Christian Horner and Matt Berry are with them. They seem to be having a great night.

Horner looked over a few minutes ago and spotted Alice. His gaze lingered just long enough for him to give her a sympathetic look. That hurts as much as reality does. So not only is Alice living this, but guys like Christian Horner know enough to take one glance at her and feel bad.

Alice made a point not to worry about her appearance, but she pauses to consider her reflection in the marble countertop. What could be sexier than messy hair and a rumpled tee? Nailed it. She eyes her empty glass and shakes her head at the bartender. Another one of those would be overkill. It’s time to stop stalling; the longer she stays here, the more she’ll be thinking about Faye alone in bed.

Christian is politely ignoring her now, which is good.

Alice leaves the bar, dragging her feet only a little. It feels wrong to drown herself in self-pity, and even to complain. Lots of people would probably be happy to be in her shoes. She’d once dreamed of doing proper F1 hotshot driver things like… doing horny stuff in nice hotels and all of that, but it turns out that might not be who she really is.

Or maybe she’s just never happy. She thinks about herself in high school, thirsty to lose her virginity. Once she’d done that, she wanted other things. It just kept going. Now she’s driving in F1 and she’s with Faye and she’s unsatisfied with her team and even Faye gets on her nerves. Is that because all couples are like that? Or because she’s the problem?

Shaking her head in disgust, Alice steps into the elevator only to find it occupied.

Val stands there, arms folded. Her legs are bare, and she wears what is clearly a tee that she sleeps in. She looks grumpy. Things get a little informal in these hotels when several teams are staying in them on a race weekend, but not usually right before a race.

Alice’s struggles vanish as she steps into the elevator. Something’s not right.

“Uh, hi,” she says, hitting the button for the top floor.

Val sees that and looks curious, but she doesn’t ask.

And Alice doesn’t ask about the smell of sweat and the noticeable stain on the front of Val’s shirt.

They don’t look at each other as the elevator rises. The doors open, and now Val looks at Alice. The moment stretches painfully. The doors start to close again, and Alice’s hand automatically shoots out to stop them. Val wakes up and steps into the corridor.

Alice lets her breath out. She hopes that Val’s OK. Alice can handle this shit. Val? She’s a good driver, but she’s probably a more normal person emotionally. Alice isn’t close to her and can’t know for sure; she’s just assuming. She shakes her head again as the elevator goes up. Alice just hopes that Val isn’t in an ogle lark situation of her own or something. She acts aloof, but that’s just her way of dealing with the pressure. Val is not a bad person, and she deserves better than having to deal with some other version of Irina.

Alice reaches the top floor where the ultra-rich suites are, because they even have those in Canada.

Now it’s time to manage Irina and Sasha. It’s time to be less passive about this, and Alice can’t just do whatever she wants thoughtlessly. That backfired last time. Irina wants Alice to be Sasha’s pet and status symbol, but she was also OK with getting some action for herself. What about Sasha? What does Sasha want? There’s probably a human being inside Sasha, but Alice has a feeling all that gets lost in Irina, who seems to have enough presence and personality for the both of them. It might not actually be the healthiest situation…

Irina is good at power moves, but Alice isn’t shy. And she is not afraid of her. Sasha and Irina are not going away. If they’re going to be in Alice’s life, it needs to be on Alice’s terms because something has to change. This is just like overtaking someone in a race; Alice sees two lines.

Should she challenge Irina and take her power away?

Or try to connect with Sasha and reduce Irina’s influence over her?