Minefield of Mirrors

-26-

Just when the meeting with Mister Poken ended and Iris opened her notebook to scribble some ideas down to increase the speed of the progress so far, the door of the office was thrown open.

'YOU KISSED MICK?!' Max stormed into the financial office.

Luckily Brent was the only other team member inside the room. He was an easy guy and Iris already made a mental note that she had to talk to him a bit later. She had this feeling Brent could like the little challenge the girls had made for her. However, she had to make sure he knew about it all.

Iris only looked up at Max and casually asked: 'Jealous?'

He rushed further into the room, until he was only a couple of inches away, directing that finger of his to her again. 'Oh, anything but! I just never expected you to-'

'To what?' Iris was on her edge right away. 'To what, Max?'

'To act so slutty.'

That was the moment Iris couldn't contain the burning flame inside of her anymore. With an enormous force, she got off her chair, which resulted in the chair flying a couple of metres back. Luckily Brent caught the chair before it had run into Fred's desk.

'You have to shut up right away!'

'Oh, why? You're the one who kissed him! You're the one who pressed those pink lips on his!'

Iris lifted her arm and pointed towards the door. 'Out! Now!'

'Now it's getting funny. You're kicking ME out of this room?!'

She got closer to him and pushed with her finger into his chest. Her facial expression was anything but nice at the moment. Her eyebrows were pushed down and her eyes were spitting fire.

'You have no right, I repeat, NO RIGHT to accuse me of being a slut! You don't know me, Max!'

'Uhm, guys...' Brent tried to get in between.

Max looked shortly at the other member of the financial team. 'Oh shut up!'. Then he directed his attention back to Iris. 'You are a damn sl-'

Iris didn't give him a chance to talk further as she slapped him on his cheek. His head went along with the movement and shifted to the right. 'Don't you dare to call me a slut.' She hissed. 'You can come up to me whenever you want to talk bullshit about me, but I will never tolerate something like this. Let that be clear.'

He swallowed and took a few breaths before he looked at her again, his eyes filled with anger.

'If you want to talk as a proper adult, we can. Just cool down first.' Iris calmly said.

Brent interrupted the scene again. 'Guys...? Behind you. Christian is...'

Confused Iris tried to understand what Brent was trying to say, so she took a little step sideways to look behind Max's torso. Her heart stopped beating for a second when she saw the team principal standing. Fuck...

'Brent, can you give us a moment?' Christian asked as he crossed his arms while standing at the door opening.

The other member of the financial team mumbled something and walked awkwardly out of the office. Christian looked a bit after him and then closed the door behind him, so it was just the three of them inside the room

Max felt with his hand at the cheek Iris had just slapped him. Filled with guilt, Iris looked at him. Oh shit, she was about to lose her job. Just because of this joker in front of her, she was about to lose everything she had worked so hard for. The driver turned around and looked at his team boss who was standing with a questioning face still at the exact same spot.

'I won't ask what happened up here, because I think you two are capable of making your own decisions, but let me tell you that I don't want this to happen again in the motorhome. We have a policy up here that I would like to stick to. Do you understand?'

Iris nodded quickly. 'Of course Christian. I apologize for it all! It surely won't happen again.'

The team boss smiled lightly. 'Thank you Iris, I appreciate you saying that.' Then his eyes shifted towards his star driver. 'Max?'

'Yeah, I know. I'm sorry...'

'Alright, that's settled then. Max, please go back to your driver's room. Gianpiero is waiting for you up there. I would like to have a word with Iris alone.'

Iris's heart started to beat faster. This couldn't mean anything good. To her, it was already certain that Christian would tell her to step down and pack her bags to go home. What even came over her? She shouldn't have spoken to Max like that. The whole team was built around him as he had the biggest chance to lure that world championship back to the team again. She fucked it up. Big time.

As soon as Max left the room without making eye contact with either Christian or Iris, the door fell back into its lock. Iris watched how Christian took one of the chairs and sat down.

'Please, sit down Iris.'

Her legs felt like overcooked spaghetti. They were trembling underneath her and she had a feeling she could fall down any time. She sat down at another chair opposite Christian and looked at him.

'I'm really sorry Christian,' Iris immediately started. 'I know that this shouldn't have happened and I would like to assure you that it won't ever happen again.'

Christian just smiled and crossed his legs. 'Oh, don't worry Iris! It's all fine!'

Surprised Iris blinked a couple of times. 'So you're not angry...? You won't fire me?'

'No don't be silly! Not at all! It seems like you keep Max on his toes all the time and I have to admit that I like that very much.' The smile on his lips only grew wider.

And here she was. She was so convinced the team boss would fire her and yet the truth couldn't be any further than that.

Christian continued. 'And let's be honest, he indeed didn't have the right to shout at you like that. I let him off for now, but I'll have a firm word with him after the race this afternoon. He definitely can't get away with it so easily.'

Relieved Iris dropped her shoulders a bit. 'Oh, that's not necessary. It's completely fine.'

He tapped her on her arm. 'No, no, we have a policy within the team that I'm set to follow. I haven't seen Max doing this quite often, so I would like to know where this was coming from.'

It piqued Iris's interest. 'He has done something like this before?'

'Kind of.' Christian said as he played a bit with his wedding ring. 'But this kind of anger only seems to happen when his dad Jos is around the track. I have to apologize for that. I should've warned you.'

Eagerly Iris took the information in. The anger could be traced back to his dad? Well, that's some interesting background information. She would be very happy to dive deeper into that knowledge once she had the chance to.

'It's completely fine. Max may have overstepped today, but I think I made it clear he should not walk up to me with certain accusations.'

'And that's exactly what I like about you. You speak up in these kinds of situations but never cross the boundaries. He was way out of line and needed to be put in his place, so, thank you for solving this issue.'

Another compliment of the big boss. Was there a downturn after this? When would the critique come around the corner?

Iris smiled politely. 'Thank you. Even though it wasn't a real problem.'

Christian nodded. 'Just know that when it ever becomes a problem, you can always come to me so we can fix it. However, what do you think of the team so far? Have you gotten a warm welcome? And how did the meeting with your boss go?'

The conversation easily took a turn and for the next fifteen minutes, Iris spoke about the progress of the project and some irregularities she had already spotted within the past three days. She even talked about some tryouts she would like to put through during the next race weekend to see what kind of impact it would really have on the numbers. If it would be exactly what she anticipated, or if it would be even more than she could dream of. The wide smile on Christian's face made her feel happy. The fact that he agreed to it all, made the day even brighter.