Minefield of Mirrors

-17-

Once Iris's finger had touched the red button to end the phone call with Judy, she let herself fall back on top of her bed. She knew she had ignored her mom's phone calls that day, but her mom was the last person she wanted to talk to at the moment. After living abroad for quite some time, she knew exactly what phone calls with her mom looked like. First, she would ask how Iris had been doing and then she would continuously talk about what she had been up to lately. And not just the general story, no, everything in full detail. For example, a simple chore like cleaning the bathroom would be told extensively. Everything that had been cleaned would be told and even which kind of detergent had been used.

No, Iris was not up for such a conversation with her mom. Especially not after a day like she just had. So instead, she sent her brother Jonas a text to let him know that she was doing fine and that work-related stuff had come in between so she would call him back later on. Secretly she was also hoping that those words would reach her mom indirectly as well and that Iris could buy some more time before calling her back. Avoiding her mom one more day, sounded like heaven.

The phone call with Judy had already taken way too long. Once she had thanked Lando again for the car ride, she had gone up to her own hotel room and called Judy right away, before all of her energy had been drained. Judy almost ate every little detail that Iris told about these past two days. According to Iris, not much had happened, but Judy kept reassuring her that certain things had more meaning to them than she thought.

For example, Judy was convinced that Mick was on to her and that dates had been covered up as classes about Formula One. Sure, they talked about the details of the sport. However, Mick had also been able to get to her with his clear eyes. There was something that was just mesmerizing about him. However, Iris still couldn't put her finger on the exact thing that made him so special. Was it his manners? Or was it just the way he was?

She turned around on her bed and grabbed her phone again to put on some music. She hadn't heard anything back from Mick, so she assumed the F1 lesson tonight would be postponed. And honestly, she didn't even feel really bummed because of it. No, this day had been tiring enough and to make it worse, the conversation with Lando kept gnawing at her. She knew that he was right and she had to meet up with Thomas to find out the truth. The long-hidden truth... After all these years, she owed it to herself. Yet it didn't mean that it would be any easier to see him again and talk about all these things.

A long time had already passed since he rejected her, and she wasn't ready to dig into all these feelings again. It felt like she was at a T-junction right now. She could go left and ignore the fact that he was here, but still see him now and then walking around in the paddock. Or she could go right and find out what had been bothering him at the time she popped the question about their future together. Both would fuck with her feelings, but which direction would be the best for herself? She had no clue. All she knew was that she couldn't keep standing there. She had to make a decision...

A knock on her door woke her up from her thoughts. She got off her bed and walked over to the door to see who was standing in front of it. Only Linsey knew which room number belonged to her, so Iris opened the door without any hesitation. Linsey would probably have come up with the next steps of their little game with Max.

Iris's smiling face quickly changed into a questioning one, when she saw Mick standing in front of her door, holding a bag in one of his hands. 'Mick?'

'Hi.'

He didn't say anything else. Quickly Iris looked to the left and right to see if it was really just Mick that was standing there in the hallway. It wasn't some kind of prank, right?

'Hi,' Iris said. 'how... How do you know my room number?'

Awkwardly Mick looked down for a second as a blush started to cover his cheeks. 'I uhm... Lando actually tipped me.'

'Ah, okay.' Slowly Iris nodded, not knowing how to respond. 'Well, uhm...'

She watched as he took the bag in his other hand and then he smiled at her. 'I was talking to Lando and Alex in the lobby downstairs when Alex suddenly spilled my plans with you to Lando. And well, Lando told me that you had a rough day. So I thought, let's not go through another lesson about Formula One.'

Iris had no clue where he was going. She crossed her arms, suddenly well aware of the baggy clothing she put on while calling Judy.

Then he started stumbling over his words. 'I uhm... Maybe you... I don't know... Would you rather spend the night by yourself, or...?'

'Well, I honestly wasn't really in the mood to go downstairs for a drink, but I was looking forward to see you. I-' Her phone started ringing and Iris glanced behind her towards her bed, where she left the phone before she opened the door. 'I'm sorry, is it okay if I quickly pick up?'

Mick nodded. 'Of course! Go ahead.'

With a graceful smile, Iris turned around on her feet and walked over to her phone to see who was calling her at the moment. An unknown number was showing on her screen.

'Hello, this is Iris Jansen speaking.'

A grumpy voice immediately sounded on the other side of the line, not even greeting her. 'Who the fuck is this Thomas?'

Iris felt a bit starstruck. 'Excuse me? Who is this?'

'Max. Who else?'

With narrowed eyes, Iris looked in front of her. 'How did you even get my number?'

He sighed deeply. 'That doesn't matter. I want to know who this Thomas is. The one we saw in the paddock.'

'I told you, it isn't your business. You don't need to know.'

'I actually do.'

Iris put one of her hands on her hips. 'And why is that? So you can humiliate me? Didn't think so.'

'Do you always have to be like this? Just cut the bullshit. He's sitting here at the bar, almost drunk and he keeps on repeating your name.' He was getting less and less patient with every word he was saying.

An image popped up in front of Iris' eyes, and she could easily imagine what it looked like. Maybe it was so easy because she had seen it multiple times before. The only difference was that the previous times he hadn't been saying her name over and over again. On the other side, maybe she hadn't seen him drunk too many times.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her heart sinking to her feet. 'Which bar...?'

'The one downstairs. Apparently, he's staying here as well.'

Iris turned a bit around and saw Mick standing inside her room, still close next to her door. He had put the bag between his feet on the floor and looked at her with his arms crossed. There was some weird mix of curiosity and protectiveness to be seen in his body language.

'Alright, I'll come downstairs to take him to his room.' Iris said softly.

Iris didn't give Max a chance to answer and ended the phone call. This was the last thing she wanted to be dealing with. She picked up her sneakers from the floor and sat down on the bed to put them on.

'Everything alright?' Mick asked hesitantly as he stepped closer to Iris.

'Yeah, it's just...' She bent forward to tie the laces of her shoes. 'It's complicated, but I have to go downstairs to bring someone up to his room. He's drunk and only asking for me.'

Once the laces were tied, she got up from the bed and grabbed her key card from the nightstand next to her. She looked at her phone which was still lying on top of the sheets of her bed, but she decided not to take it along. It was only going to take ten minutes, right?