Chapter 12
It was finally their break. A chance to be together as a normal couple. Ingrid arrived at Erik’s place in Monaco to find Mark there. She hadn’t expected this. She knew they were meeting up, but thought it was already done.
“Umm…Hi Mark.” She hugged him awkwardly. “How are you doing?”
“Hello, don’t worry, darling, you don’t need to treat me like a fragile object,” he said. “My sobriety is going well, and I have come to make amends. To you, too.”
“You have nothing to apologise to me for!” Ingrid said.
“I do. I suspected something was going on between you and Erik.” He looked at Erik. “And I tried to sabotage it.”
“Well, as you can see, you didn’t.” She hugged him again. “But I will take the apology because I know that’s an important step. I’m glad you’re doing better.”
“Thanks. Just wish I hadn’t fucked up my career to get to this point.”
Ingrid looked at Erik awkwardly. As much as she wished Mark well, she didn’t want to waste time or bring up an old fight.
“I can see the two of you are ready for your summer break, so I’m going to leave you to it,” Mark said.
“Yes, mate, it was good to talk. We’ll be around in a week or so and can go for dinner then?”
“That sounds good. I’m looking forward to it.” He smiled at both of them.
When he left, Ingrid turned to Erik and said, “What was that all about?”
“He just came to apologise, and wanted to apologise to you too, so I said you would be here soon.”
“Ok…” Ingrid still didn’t trust Mark. Even though he was definitely sober, there was still something in his energy that she didn’t like. She left it at that and kissed Erik hello.
“That’s better. Now it’s just the two of us.” He smiled, stretched out his arms, and pulled her onto the couch with him. “I hope that suitcase only contains bikinis.”
“You do realise that it won’t just be the two of us the whole time? Plus, we’ll be stopping off to go to shore occasionally?”
“I know, I know, but a man can dream.”
For the first time, they left Erik’s apartment building holding hands with Sir Lewis and Senna in tow.
They went to the marina and boarded the yacht together.
It was a fresh, sunny day. Perfect for their departure.
Ingrid felt like they were honeymooners, even though they were still a long way from that.
They set sail, and it was just them, plus a crew to tend to their every need.
They stopped off a little way from Portofino to relax in the sun and swim.
“Have I told you yet how beautiful you look today?” Erik said.
“No, you haven’t, and you don’t need to.” She kissed his salty lips.
“Do you know why I wanted to leave today?”
Ingrid tried to think of a specific reason, but couldn’t.
“It’s our one-month anniversary.” He grinned.
“Only one month?” Ingrid was taken aback; it was definitely much longer than that.
“I’m taking it from that Sunday before Silverstone when everything was out in the open between us, and we made love on your couch in a way that I had never felt before.”
“I can definitely agree to that…” Ingrid kissed him softly but intensely.
“Come here, I want to commemorate with a photo.” He pulled her between his legs, and he kissed her. “Perfect.”
“Let me see?” She looked at the photo, and they really did look completely in love and happy together. It was because they were. Everything was behind them now. The waiting, the Mark incident, opening up to each other. It had taken them months to reach the same position.
“I’m posting this,” Erik said.
“Are you sure? Your PR team is going to flip because we didn’t give them any warning.”
“They’re all on holiday…technically.” He smiled, naughtily. “Done.”
“Show me.” It really was a beautiful photo of them. Their sandy-blonde hair was still slightly damp from swimming in the sea, their long limbs entwined, both in shades of blue swimwear. The caption read:
‘One month official
Had my heart since Bahrain’
“Oh, Rik, you know you’ve had my heart since then, too.” She kissed him again.
“I think we should test out the soundproofing of that room downstairs.”
“Me too.” She winked.
On his way down, he told the captain to head for Portofino. They set their phones to silent so no one could bother them with reactions to the photo.
“Are you happy we’ve finally gone public?” He asked her as they were lying naked in each other’s arms.
“I don’t care anymore. I think I’ve finally caught up to you.” She could feel him getting harder against her body. She stroked his back and pressed up against him as she kissed him.
“I’ve been waiting for months for you to do that.” Their bodies found each other so easily now. It was like that magical moment when the driver and car just clicked on a perfect qualifying lap. Or perhaps, in their case, a longer stint…
Once they reached Portofino, they went out for dinner.
The camera phones were out everywhere. They still didn’t check their own phones for reaction to the news; they didn’t care.
It was a romantic dinner for two, and they weren’t going to be interrupted.
Erik was still polite and waved to fans, but he didn’t take any photos.
This was holiday time. The following day, Oliver, Sigrid, her boyfriend, and two of Erik’s friends from home were going to join them.
For now, they were just going to enjoy each other.
The next day, they took the boat to Portofino again and strolled around the town while they waited for the others.
For Ingrid, it did feel like being on a honeymoon.
A couple walking around a beautiful old city, holding hands, eating gelato, stopping for coffee, and kissing each other whenever they felt like it.
It had been such a long time waiting for this moment to be free with each other.
When the others joined them, they regretted inviting them. Their romantic holiday vibe was killed.
“Sister, please can we keep this one?” Oliver said as he was sipping a cocktail on the deck. “I already liked him, but now I like him even more if we can do yacht holidays like this.”
“He’s not a pet, Oli, but yes, I’d like to keep him too.”
“How are you handling the reaction to your coming out?”
“Has there been a reaction? I haven’t really noticed.”
This was true; they saw a few comments from their friends on Instagram, but agreed not to look at anything else.
“So many heartbroken girls! And boys, for that matter…there’s been a mixture of they love you two together and then some who thought you weaselled your way into his bed.”
“I don’t really care about the online trolls. I’m out of the F1 working world for now, so it doesn’t impact my work.”
“True.” He shrugged his shoulders.
Lars and Alexander were tech startup guys, so they spent a lot of time connecting with Oliver.
They had known Erik since they were five years old and had also been involved in karting, but decided to take the more conventional route of school and university.
They were also a part of Erik’s virtual racing team.
Ingrid mined them for childhood stories about Erik.
Somehow, he had been the quiet, well-behaved one of the three of them.
“Not any longer!” Lars said.
“Although, Ingrid, I think you have made him behave this year. I don’t think I’ve seen any party photos of him once since the season started.” Alexander added.
Erik put his arm around her and kissed her on the head, “See, I told you that I’ve been behaving myself.”
Antoine and Daniela were also in the area, so they had dinner with them one evening in Portofino before their guests left.
It was a cheerful, wine-filled night. Unfortunately, the summer break wasn’t as long as they wished for, so it was back to the shores of Monaco sooner than they wanted.
Training and promotional work had to begin again.
And Ingrid had to adjust to a working life outside the F1 world.
???
Back in Monaco, Erik decided that he was going to do it.
He had spent enough time without Ingrid in his life, and he wanted a more stable arrangement.
They were both supposed to be going to the UK in a few days; Erik to work and Ingrid to her everyday life.
They hadn’t discussed how things would work going forward.
“It’s time we talked,” he said.
“Now?” She looked up from her book. “You always interrupt me in the middle of a paragraph!” She carried on reading, then put her book down. “Ok, now we can talk.”
“Race weekends and Monaco.” Erik was nervous, so he didn’t know how to frame the questions.
“Yes, what about them? You need to use longer sentences, so I know what you’re asking.” She smiled lovingly at him.
“Are you going to come to race weekends?”
“Of course, silly!” She patted his leg. “But not Vegas, too many celebrities and I would prefer to watch in the comfort of my PJs.”
He laughed. It lightened the mood for the next big question he had to ask.
“And would you like to live in Monaco with me?”
“I have to think about that one…”
He knew that this was a long shot.
“Ok.”
“Really?” He fell on top of her and kissed her.
“Ow, careful,” she said. “You might think you’re light, but you aren’t!” She kissed him back.
“So, we’re doing this?”
He eased himself around her so he could hold her and look into her eyes.
“Ja, I guess we are,” she responded, stroking his hair.
“We have some time before we have to meet Mark and the others for dinner…” She slid her hand down his shorts.
It didn’t take him long to shift gears from being a nervous schoolboy to a hard racer when she did this.
He undressed her quickly and was in her within seconds.
“How are you always so ready for me?”
“Just touching you turns me on. It’s why I avoided you for so long.” This made him come close to climaxing, but he controlled himself.
“By the way, we’re getting rid of that ugly coffee table. Mine is better.”
“V?lva! Don’t ruin the mood!”
“What? I’m still enjoying myself.” She laughed and lifted her hips, so he went deeper inside her.
“You’re going to make me come if you do that again.”
“Wait, focus on me, look into my eyes, and we’ll do it together.”
Erik did as he was told and held back until they both reached that moment together. It was the only time he let anyone else take control of him.
“I think we need to get you into a race car. We’d make a good endurance pair.” He laughed afterwards.
“You know you would shout at me the whole time!” She laughed.
They got ready for dinner after that. It was going to be the whole gang back together.
Erik was looking forward to it, but he knew that Ingrid still felt uncomfortable about Mark.
She had mentioned some bizarre notion that Mark was in love with him.
He didn’t think it was true. Mark had always been his friend.
Sure, there was some truth to the rumours about him, but nothing between them.
“Congrats, Nico and Carla!” Erik led the toast. They were celebrating their engagement over the summer break.
“Very happy for you!” Antoine added.
“Me too,” Mark said.
“We don’t want to spoil this celebration, but we have some news of our own,” Daniela started, “we’re pregnant!”
“Oh my god!” Ingrid exclaimed. “That’s fantastic news!”
“Yes, we just wanted to tell you because obviously you would notice that Daniela isn’t drinking with us tonight,” Antoine said.
“So, celebrations all around,” Erik said, smiling at Ingrid and thinking about how they could be celebrating all these milestones together.
“What are you two celebrating?” asked Mark.
“Oh, nothing. Just our friends.”
“Come on, out with it. Secretly engaged this time? Pregnant too?” Mark needled.
“No, really nothing,” Ingrid said.
Nico could see there was tension building up from Mark, so he interrupted, “Well, I’m happy for all of us being here together to celebrate.”
“Yes, one big happy family again,” Antoine said, grinning.
They started talking about the upcoming return to travel.
Carla had just finished her degree and was going to travel with Nico while she applied for jobs.
Erik could see that Mark wasn’t really happy for them all.
He wasn’t his usual self, even his usual, sober self.
He tried to change the subject away from the track-talk so that Mark could forget his former life.
“Padel game tomorrow? We haven’t played together in ages.”
“Great idea!” Antoine said.
“Mark, Nico, are you in?”
“Yes, sure,” Mark responded.
It felt good to have the boys back together playing padel. Mark seemed like he was his usual self, hugging Erik after points or patting him on the back. They did their usual beer after padel.
“Remember, Erik, how you asked me at the start of the year about Ingrid at this same bar, and now she’s moving in with you?” Antoine laughed.
“She’s moving in with you?” Mark asked, trying to hide his shock.
“Yes, we decided yesterday,” Erik said coolly.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit soon? I mean, you only started seeing each other a month ago.”
“I’ve been in love with her for months, so not soon enough for me!”
“Oui, mec, you haven’t been around. These two have been so in love with each other that I had to change teams to get her to say yes.” Antoine remembered at this point that the seat he was taking was Mark’s old seat. “Sorry, Mark. I know it was your seat.”
“It’s ok, I fucked that one up myself.”
“I’m happy the two of you are together,” Nico said, “Carla could also see it when she first met Ingrid. She said that you two would be dating before the third race.”
“She was close!” Erik laughed. “Only Ingrid told me to back off after that.”
Mark was looking more depressed. Perhaps Ingrid was right? Erik thought.
“I’m going to leave you guys. I have to go to a meeting. Always fun sitting with the fellow alcoholics. Let’s do padel again when you’re all in town.”
He gave Erik an extra-tight squeeze and a kiss on the cheek.