Chapter 24 – David
I thought being home would help. I thought being with Rich would make me feel better.
It hadn’t. I still felt lost. We had come out to Vincent, and it had gone better than I hoped.
But it still felt like there was a huge hole in my life that needed filling.
Vincent had said that I could stay with the team but never said what I could do.
Rich had been doing his best, but he couldn’t help.
He still had work to do. I had only been home about twenty-four hours when I heard him talking on the phone about the final race of the season.
Rich took the call into another room so I couldn’t hear what was being said, probably to try and ease my discomfort, and I loved him for that.
The final race was tomorrow, and it was an afternoon race, so I knew by Monday morning the press would be pushing again.
Even though the next season wouldn’t be starting till the end of February, some two and half months away, the press would want answers.
Answers that, at the moment, I didn’t have.
Jasper had been telling me that I could race again. That I needed to give my body time to heal. That having the knee injury would end up helping with the shin splints, as it was forcing me to rest.
“Hey, what are you thinking about?” Rich asks, coming into the living room.
“Tomorrow’s race, and the future.”
“The future doesn’t have to be decided right now,” Rich states, as he comes over to me.
I’m sitting at one end of the couch, pillows propped up against my back, and my leg stretched out in front of me.
My knee brace securely on. I had been advised to avoid putting weight on my leg, so I had been resting it as much as possible.
But I did have crutches, so I could move about the house, and get upstairs to the bedroom.
Rich had offered to get a bed downstairs for me. Yeah, that was not going to happen. We weren’t going to start off this marriage, in our home, in separate beds. But with some help from Rich, I had managed to get up the stairs. It was quite the workout.
“I need to decide soon,” I tell him.
“You know Vin told you to take your time,” Rich says. “Here, take this. It’s time to ice again.”
“Already?”
“Yep,” Rich confirms. “Only you could get an injury that requires the same treatment as shin splints.”
“Next injury, I want the treatment to involve heat,” I say, as I unstrap my brace, and place the ice pack over my knee.
“Can you please hold off on any more injuries? I don’t think my heart could take anymore.”
“I’m going to try. Plus, if I’m not driving, more injuries aren’t likely.”
“Baby, we’ve talked about this. We need to wait and see how you heal,” Rich says. “Now, move over so I can sit.”
Shuffling forward, Rich moves some of the pillows and gets in behind me, wrapping his arms around me as I settle back into his chest, and he places a kiss at the base of my neck.
“It wouldn’t be fair to Otis. He, what, gets to drive for six months, and then bam, sorry, you’re demoted. No, I couldn’t do that to him.”
“Otis is good, but we don’t know how he’s going to fare being in F1 full time. We have both seen drivers who excel in F2 but aren’t able to match the performance at the higher level,” Rich starts.
“Maybe.” But I know that isn’t going to happen. From what I’ve seen and heard, Otis could give Lars a run for his money on natural talent.
“How about this as an option? You become our third driver, if you’re able to. Yes, it’s not ideal, but you could still drive,” Rich ventures.
Third driver. It’s not an option that I considered. Yes, it’s not ideal, but it could mean that I get to drive once in a while. But this still leads to the question, what would I do with myself the rest of the time, while I’m waiting for the chance to get back in the car?
“Maybe,” I add, as I shift the ice pack around on my knee.
“I have also been thinking of something else,” Rich adds and pauses for a second. “Why not be the test driver? Join the design team. You know these racing circuits. Know what’s needed from the cars.”
“So, what, I get involved with the car specs, and then what, test them?”
“Yeah,” Rich confirms. “That’s something you could do alongside being the third driver.”
I had never considered this, but this sounds interesting. Getting to work with the team on the cars. Yeah, this could be fun, and also, if I get to test drive the cars, I will get to be in them before Lars and Otis. That, I definitely like.
“You think Vin would be up for that?”
“I think so, but I was hoping you would like to help me. I’ve been enjoying learning about the cars etc, when I’ve been with Otis. So, I’m considering asking Vincent if I can get more involved with his side of the business.”
“I think you would be good.” Because I know he would. All the team members have a lot of respect for Richard.
“It would take time, but I thought, one final option would be for you to take my place. You know the team. Know the type of person who would, and wouldn’t, fit with the team.”
“You’ve been thinking about this,” I say.
“Of course. I don’t want to see you leave the team, as much as Vincent doesn’t, hell, if not more. If you leave, I will never see you.”
“You just want to keep me around so your marks don’t fade.”
“True, but I would miss you, too,” Rich adds, as he pulls me closer to him. “Want to watch some TV for a while? You still have about ten minutes on the clock before the ice pack has to come off.”
“Yeah, but can we stay like this?” I ask, I don’t want Rich to let me go at the moment. I need his warmth around me.
“I had no intention of moving.”
Rich turns on the TV, and as the screen lights up, I recognise the picture. Qatar. Richard had left the TV on the dedicated F1 channel, and now that the racing was over for the day, they were discussing the crash again.
“Shit, sorry,” Rich says, as he tries to change the channel. “I was watching some of the quali earlier.”
“No, leave it on.” Since the crash happened, I have been avoiding watching it, but I need to see what happened.
I watch as my car is hit from behind, and hurtles towards the barriers, and the car igniting into flames. It seems surreal to watch it happen. I’m that person in the car. What I’m watching happened, and yet, I feel oddly disconnected from it all.
“David hit the barriers at about one hundred twenty miles per hour, and we think with a force of about sixty-seven G’s,” the commentator says. “He was in the fire for about twenty-five seconds.”
“Was that all it was, seconds?” I ask.
“Yeah, but I can tell you, it felt a lot longer than that,” Rich says, and I feel him holding me tighter.
“Did in that car, too,” I tell him, quietly.
We both keep listening as the commentators explain about the penalty given to the other driver involved in the accident, and whether it was fair. That this could be described as a racing incident.
“Racing incident, my arse,” Rich spits out, and I can feel him getting tense.
“Rich. Accidents happen. The stewards looked at it and gave the penalty they thought was best. You need to drop this.”
“But….” Rich starts, and I know that he wants to blame the other driver, but I can’t. We collided on the track, something that has happened hundreds of times before, and will happen in the future, it was just, this time, it caused my accident.
“No buts,” I tell him, and lean down, and place a kiss on his arm that’s wrapped around me. “It happened, and we can’t turn back the clock.”
“Do you know how much I hate it when you’re logical?” Rich starts, as he places another kiss on my neck.
We go back to watching the F1 programme, and it soon moves on from the crash. Of course the presenters have to mention the lack of information coming out of the Montague racing team, but then they wish me a speedy recovery.
Both Rich and I jump when we hear Rich’s mobile start ringing. I shift about so Rich can pull it out of his pocket, and we both groan when we see Vincent’s name on the screen. He has been phoning daily to get updates on how I’m doing, even though we’re telling him the same thing every day.
“It’s Vin, probably calling for a daily update,” Rich says, as he swipes to answer the call.
Being so close to Rich I can hear his voice clearly, and just from his tone, I know that something is wrong.
“Have you been online today?” Vincent demands.
“No. Dave has been resting, and I’ve been watching the quali, something I thought you would be doing too,” Rich responds.
“I was until Charmaine called me. A picture has appeared online.”
“What type of picture?” Rich asks.
“It looks like it’s from when David came home,” Vin adds. “It’s taken from a distance, but the two of you are in an embrace.”
“Shit,” Rich responds, which isn’t quite the word I would have gone with.
“Rich, put Vincent on speaker,” I state.
“Vin, Dave is here. You’re on speaker,” Rich explains.
“Vincent, what has Charmaine said?” I ask.
“So far, none of the major news outlets have taken up the story yet, we aren’t sure why. We think it’s because the only clear shot is of you, and given the accident, they might be giving you some privacy. You can clearly see you are embracing a man, but you can’t tell who that man is.”
“That’s not good, right?” Rich asks.
“Charmaine is concerned. She’s watching the press closely and is hoping that it’s just seen as a friendly, and not a romantic embrace.”
“Do the press know when we got back into the country?” Rich asks.
“When did you get back?” It never occurred to me to even ask, until Rich mentioned it.
“The day after the crash,” Vincent confirms. “We waited for confirmation that your condition wasn’t life-threatening and then started to make plans. Plus, it was the only way to make sure Rich calmed down.”
“There is the chance that nothing will happen with this,” I try.
“Yes, but we don’t think that’s going to happen. The crash makes you a hot commodity,” Vincent replies.
“So, what do we do?” Rich asks.