Checkmate - [F1 - Pierre Gasly / Lance Stroll]

13

Rose smiled at Pierre's name that lit up her screen. Pierre was a gentleman and called her the morning after their date. He apologized that he didn't walk Rose to her hotel room, and that he got caught up in the little scuffle with Lance in the lobby. They continued to keep in touch during the week off. The butterflies in her stomach swirled. She was excited to see him again.

She unlocked her phone to read her messages.

Pierre - Can't wait to see you this weekend.

Rose - I can't wait either, I hope we will have some time. This weekend's going to be a whirlwind for me.

Pierre - Don't worry, I'll make sure we can get some time together.

Rose - Oh will you?

Pierre - Just try to stop me.

Rose - Alright Mr. Gasly, I will try to resist, but not that hard ;)

Rose smiled as she locked her phone and put it away. She looked up around the plane and saw Lance looking in her direction. She gave him a tight smile and pulled out her laptop to finish up the second report on Proviva Technologies.

Rose worked through the entire flight to Hungary. When the plane hit the runway, she had to be ready to go to the hotel and sort out the long list of responsibilities that Eleanor had given her in a little notebook.

The plane door opened; Rose quickly walked down the aisle of the plane, and down the stairs. She met the awaiting cars, quickly meeting with each driver and assigning them a list of personnel to drive to the hotel.

Rose waited for everyone to get loaded into the cars, then ensured the luggage was getting put into the van that would trail behind the convoy of cars.

Once the luggage was loaded, she ran to the front car and opened the back door. She slid into the back seat right next to Gwen who was still glued to her phone.

"We are all good to go," Rose said as she clicked her seatbelt on.

The driver took off down the road.

After an awkward 15 minutes of silence in the car, Gwen finally looked up from her phone and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Lance asked immediately placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh nothing, just so tired of waiting to hear back about my contract," she said, as she threw her head back into the headrest.

"Oh weren't you on your phone trying to sort it out?" Rose asked.

"No," she said coldly.

"Oh, sorry. I guess I misunderstood." Rose said, as she sat back in her seat and continued to pray that nothing would go wrong today.

"I was just distracting myself, I can't stand waiting," she said, rubbing her temples.

Lance let out a small chuckle and shook his head. Which caused Rose to smile.

The car arrived at the hotel and Rose quickly gathered her work bag. She exited the car and ran up the steps to the front desk to check in for all the Aston Martin staff. She had a long list of hotel room numbers and a bunch of keys that she was responsible to hand out to pit crew, office staff, hospitality, and various other staffers. The way that Eleanor handled this so seamlessly was shocking, but Rose was holding her own.

She spent the afternoon hanging out in the lobby of a fancy hotel in Hungary. She handed out keys to various staff that approached her. Lance and Gwen came up to her.