All I see is Sainz

Chapter 21

        
           It was now race day, we were arriving at the track hours before the race started. Elias was so excited he picked his clothes out himself. He wore one of Carlos's signed Ferrari shirts with his driver's number. Some dark jeans and some white shoes Carlos had bought him. I went with a red off the shoulder shirt, tight faux black leather pants and red heels I brought with me as I planned to wear red to support my man. Carlos was in a team hoodie of course. We got into the paddock and got something to eat and drink, Carlos took Eli and I to his driver's room. Cassidy said she'd come more later to go the race as she insisted she needed more sleep.
     
         Caro knocked on the door and Carlos told him to come in, "hey Angela, Elias." He greeted. I gave him a smile and waved back politely. Eli made sure to greet Caro back as well. "Sorry I need to borrow Carlos for a bit. Team meeting." He said. "No worries. Go mi amor" I told Carlos who seemed to hesitate to go. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Wait for me here?" He asked. "Of course" he and Caro left the driver room. It wasn't that spacious but it was just big enough. Elias was looking at Carlos's racing gear. "Look but don't touch baby" I reminded him. I took my phone out and took a quick picture of Eli as he admired the race suit. I decided to upload it to instagram. I captioned it "looks like you've got an admirer" and tagged Carlos. I decide to kill some time by scrolling through my feed. Pictures of Kelly on her modeling jobs, Lily at her golf tournaments. Then of course came the fan pages that uploaded just about every public aspect of the drivers lives. There were plenty of fan pages centered on Carlos. There were photos and videos of Carlos Eli and I walking in public, in the paddock, back in Madrid. It didn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

          For the next couple of minutes I just sat on the small bed/couch in the room. Eli was walking all around over and over as if each time there was something new. Carlos was gone almost 45 minutes when he finally came back. He didn't look too happy but not bummed either. "Hey amor, everything ok?" I asked as I got up and went to give him a hug and kiss. "Yeah. I think." He said as he returned the hug. He took my hand and lead me so we could take a a seat. "I've known since the beginning of the season that my contract with Ferrari ends this year, but I've been doing extremely well, I'm second in the driver's championship behind Max. I was pretty certain the team would have renewed my contract already like they did Charles, or at least mentioned something. Caro has been telling me lately that something wasn't adding up. They shouldn't said something by now. That's what the meeting was about right now. They just threw it on me now, that they won't be renewing my contract. They've already signed Lewis from Mercedes for my seat next year. I'm officially without contract for next year now." He explained. Eli must've heard Carlos because he stood up from the floor he was sitting on and walked over to us.

I had my hand on Carlos's, on my lap. Eli came and gave Carlos a hug. "It's ok Carlos. You'll be a world champion this year, I know it. You'll have plenty of team offers when they find out Ferrari won't be renewing you" Eli encouraged. "Thanks Eli, for believing in me." Eli gives Carlos some soft taps on the back and breaks the hug. "Everything happens for a reason amor. Let's try and push this to the side for now, you have a race to win ok? Whatever happens I'm here and I'll be here for you every step of the way." I soothe. I give him a kiss and he relaxes. "Yeah, thanks Eli, thank you mi Vida. I know plenty of drivers are without contract next year so that's plenty of open seats." He says as a pep talk. We shake off the bad news and exit his driver room. We go to the paddock for media opportunities until race time gets closer. Charles and Alex are at the Ferrari hospitality with members of the team. When we walk up Charles tells Carlos the team has a last minute team challenge they want to do. I greet Alex with a hug and the kiss on the cheek customary.

I pull Eli back so he's not in the cameras view of the challenge. The team is playing clips of songs and Carlos and Charles have to be guess the name of the song, whoever gets more points wins. It was fun and relaxing to just sit back and do a fun challenge. I saw the way Carlos was in the moment stress free, it made me relax knowing he wasn't so glum anymore. Alex, Eli and I would laugh quietly in the background as the guys would get stumped on a song and then start yelling our random names to try and earn a point. In the end it was a tie. We still had about two hours and a half at this point until light out so carlos wanted to go back to his driver room to get into his race suit. He asked me to go with him and we left Eli with caro who would take him to the garage. I knew Carlos was still upset about the news and he had every right to be, but I wanted to try and distract him so for now he's focus on the race. When we get to his room I locked the door behind us and he looks at me confused. I blush to my self as I go over what I want to do in my head. "I just want to help you loosen up a bit amor." I tell him.