Checkmate - [F1 - Pierre Gasly / Lance Stroll]

3

On Sunday night just as the sun was setting, Rose was pulling the curlers out of her hair. Her strawberry blonde hair bounced as she shook her hair out. She loved the volume the curlers provided. The same volume always reminded her of her mother.

Rose sighed deeply, she shook her head and tried to forget the chaos of seeing Lance Stroll stark naked while dropping off dry cleaning earlier that day. It was a crazy morning, scratch that, it had been a wild couple of weeks. Rose thought as she put on a pair of wide legged dress pants and a green silk blouse. She would give anything to do today over again, and avoid the awkwardness of the interaction with Lance.

She did a final touch up on her no-makeup makeup look. She fluffed her hair one last time, sprayed some hairspray to lock in the volume and headed out her front door.

She ignored the prying questions from her father who was desperate to know where she was going at this time of night. "Work." She said plainly, as she closed the front door.

Her Volkswagen Beetle made another successful trip to Eleanor's house. Rose hopped out of the car and saw Eleanor sitting in her car waiting. Rose opened the passenger door and looked over to see a stern look waiting for her.

"You know, don't you?" Rose said, as she saw the look of disapproval on Eleanors face.

"Lance called me earlier." She said with a hint of a smile, Rose could see she was holding back a laugh. Eleanor cleared her throat, and her face went stern again. "You're not fired, don't stress. Just be careful around Lance tonight." she warned.

"Oh man, he will be there tonight?" Rose almost whined.

"Seriously? You thought he wouldn't be at his fathers F1 party?" She said.

"I was hopeful, I guess." Rose sighed. 

Eleanor backed out of her driveway and sped down the streets of Montreal. Rose was still just as awestruck pulling up to the mansion, as the first time she was shown it by Eleanor three weeks ago.

The two of them quietly entered through a side entrance into the kitchen and were greeted by the caterers. They were busy prepping fancy appetizers and small bites for the party. Eleanor greeted them and then pulled Rose over to help her organize the drink area before the bartenders arrived.

"Can you please take an inventory of the beer and wine under the bar?" Eleanor asked.

Rose nodded her head and ducked behind the bar. She started making notes in the notebook that was now her new best friend. She had been trained in the last three weeks to never not have it with her. Everything she did needed to be recorded. That was one of Eleanor's rules, and Rose didn't want to question it.

The bottles seemed to be endless under the massive wood bar in the kitchen. She was counting and taking notes when she heard a feminine voice.

"Eleanor!!" The woman exclaimed "It has been too long!" She said with a cheery tone.

Rose stood up to see who it was. A blonde woman, roughly Rose's age was hugging Eleanor.

The blonde pulled away and looked to Rose. "You must be Rosemary. I'm Chloe. It's super nice to meet you." She extended her hand. Rose shook her hand and smiled. "A pleasure to meet you, Chloe." Rose said politely.

It looked like Chloe was about to burst, she couldn't stop smiling. "Okay, I need to tell you something Eleanor! You should have been here this afternoon, Lance has been mad all afternoon." Chloe couldn't finish her story, she was laughing so hard. "Eleanor, never send the dry cleaning people to the family home again." She laughed. "Lance was walked in on!" She was now almost doubled over laughing about it.