4. Riley
Riley
Exhaling as I slowly drag out my last rep, my arms shaky and noodley, I hit the bottom mark and am relieved to rack the weights. The crew are all here at the Training Facility site.
Fleur steps up to the weight rack and replaces the dumbbells she was using with a puff. “Hamish, this workout is brutal. I love it!” She nods to our trainer, Hamish, as he supervises Cole’s set.
“Don’t encourage him! I only just got through it,” I sputter out.
She squints her eyes and looks me up and down. “You look like a grownup, but you are still just a cream puff.”
Javi’s burst of laughter erupts while he’s mid-rep, and he all but drops his weights.
Patting my stomach, I say in mock-offense, “Ham, Fleur is saying your routines aren’t making me buff like her.”
“If you put as much effort into my routines as you do running your mouth, you’d be jacked,” Hamish throws out.
I pout as Javi adds, “Just drop it, hotshot. You’re not going to win. ”
Shaking off their playful ribbing with a wide smile back and a gentle tap on Fleur’s shoulder, I grab my towel and move over to a treadmill with Javi and Fleur.
“What’s everyone up to after this?” Fleur asks as she, insanely, cools down with a run.
“Sophia wants to get some lunch with Dave and Nikki,” Javi answers.
“What about you, Fleur?” I ask.
“I have someone coming in to fix the spa out the back of the property,” she replies, never breaking her stride.
“How about you, Riley?” Javi continues.
“Not sure. Mabel is working in the hotel room. I don’t want to get into her space while she's working,” I reply.
Javi pipes up, “She’s been doing a great job the last few weeks. Feels like she’s always been part of the team.”
“Sophia has been saying the same thing,” Fleur adds.
“If she can put up with your crap, she must be a keeper,” Cole puffs as he comes over to us on the treadmills, grateful Hamish has taken a phone call.
Finishing up our session, we part ways with Fleur and Cole as she offers to drive him back to the track where his motorhome is parked. Javi and I split a cab back to the hotel in the other direction.
“Oh hey, can we stop off and grab some food?” I query. “I want to take it back to the hotel.”
“Yeah, sure. Pizza?”
“I could go for that. ”
We give the cabbie new directions.
“How have things been going?” Javi asks, concerned.
“Actually okay. Like, there are hard days. But it needs time, right? Kobs sent through some therapist names, but I don’t think I'm ready to talk to a stranger about it all yet.”
“It’s not too much having Mabel with you? Sophia mentioned now that Mabel has gotten to know her more, she was happy to swap around so the girls were in a double room together. If you needed the space, that is. We could work out a room swap.”
“I appreciate the thought from both of you, but I’ve actually been enjoying Mabel sharing the hotel room with me during this time. I was worried it would feel too soon to share my space, but it’s been fun getting to know her and helping when she has questions while working on her PR schedules.”
Exiting out of the cab when we reach the pizza shop, we walk up to the packed restaurant.
“I'm going to pop over to the supermarket over there. I’ll be right back.” Javi claps my back before I can confirm or deny his request.
Mabel has spent the last few weeks really focusing on getting up to speed with her role and what we do around the track.
I’ve done what I can, including sorting out meals for us, bringing her snacks when I can see she’s been on her laptop for ages or getting stressed about something, and making sure she has enough time on her own in the hotel room to focus.
I try to stay out of her hair, but be available when she needs some help.
The thought of her rooming with Sophia doesn’t make me relieved; I actually hate the feeling of not seeing her.
The crew has been caught up in their own lives this preseason, as well.
Javi and Sophia have been inseparable when they don’t have work to do.
Fleur has been spending her time at her property she bought down here a few years ago—which I don’t blame her for.
It’s stunning. I would be there as much as I could if it were mine.
Cole’s been a little aloof this preseason.
He has been staying at the track as much as he can, and only catching us for our preseason training sessions.
Seeing Mabel in distress on her first day made me want to watch out for her. She reminded me of Kiara, putting her emotions up behind a mask that slipped slightly, but I still caught it. I needed to make sure she was okay. Keep her close and safe.
We have even fallen into a comfortable routine of dinner, chatting, and watching 90s sitcoms. We’ve been mixing up dinners between room service, the hotel restaurant, or out boosting the local economy and hitting different food joints.
She’s even jumped on some of my video calls with my parents.
I've enjoyed spending the one-on-one time with her.
The line at the pizza place is progressing smoothly, and it’s almost my turn to order when Javi messages to ask me to place an order for him. I wait to the side for our pizzas. By the time Javi rejoins me, I have our two boxes in hand.
Full shopping bag in tow, he raises it. “Sorry! Got caught up. Didn’t realise how many things I needed. ”
“Gotta get that stuff down on a list. You’re easily distracted by shiny things.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re one to talk. Let’s get back.”
We jump back into a cab and head for the hotel.
I open the door of the hotel room, and Mabel is where I left her this morning—sitting at the dining table, working on her laptop.
“Please tell me you had a little break?” I ask, entering further into the room.
“Yes. But it was just a tiny one.” She laughs.
“Well, have a break now. I brought pizza.”
“Just what I needed!” She gets up, but I wave her to sit back down. “I’ll get drinks.”
She sits back down, closes her laptop, and moves it to the side.
“How was your training session?”
“Great. Hamish really loves punishing us for something we didn’t do,” I jest.
“And you pay him for the privilege.”
“That we do! He is great, though. Kept us in line last year.”
“You lot need someone to keep you in line that much?”
I laugh. “Well, we figured the strength and condition training would help keep us at optimum weight for the year.”
“You all have to be at a particular weight?” She sounds shocked.
“Yeah. If we are too heavy for the bikes, it goes through too much fuel and the tyres get worn out too quickly. Everything has to be balanced. And then it could all change at the next track because it’s longer, or newer tarmac has been laid recently.
Or, the track also has cars using it and it wears differently, so we need to ride the bikes slightly different.
We need to be resilient and strong enough for anything. ”
“Wow, so it’s a real engineering kinda thing on the bikes.”
“Absolutely. I’m sure the same goes for rally, or any motorsport. These are just some possible scenarios and impacts for us.”
“Interesting,” she ponders out loud.
“Got through heaps of work today?” I ask, setting down glasses of water for us.
“So much, but I'm really happy with the progress. Rayna got me into a bunch of sponsor meetings today, so it was great to put faces to names over video calls. I’m ready for when I meet them at their respective tracks.”
“Smashing it!”
“Time will tell when the season starts and the first media start rolling, through.”
“Media are great. They are all here for the same thing and don’t want to piss anyone off. You could wing it and they will go with the flow.”
“I’ll use that to my advantage!”
Finishing the last slice, I take the box into the kitchen.
“I’m going to hit the shower,” I call over my shoulder.
“No worries. And I should be finished up by the time you're done. We can keep binging that new TV show. ”
“Deal,” I remark, heading to my room to collect some clothes from my room before heading into the bathroom.
“What are we feeling tonight?” I open with as we enter the hotel room, returning from a long day on track. “Pizza? Fried chicken? Tacos?”
Mabel twists her mouth around, considering. “Why don’t we make dinner here? Something simple. We can head to the supermarket and decide what to make on the way?”
“Sure, that sounds like a nice change,” I agree.
“I’ll just change, and we can head out.” She ducks into her room.
I look down at my clothes and decide against changing.
There’s no need. I've been in my leathers today and hardly in these clothes. Looking around the room, I smile at some of Mabel’s things she's left around the hotel room, happy she feels comfortable enough to leave evidence of herself around in our shared space. I pick up one of her coiled hair ties and realise it’s plastic as I play with it in my hands.
Mabel reappears from her room in pink and black activewear shorts, a black tee, and sneakers in hand.
Holding up the hair tie in my hand, I ask, “Doesn’t this rip your hair out?!”
She laughs as she pulls her sneakers on. “Not at all. It’s actually comfortable. ”
“I don’t believe you.” I shake my head with an unconvinced look on my face.
She stands and walks in front of me, her face close to mine, her eyes looking at the top of my head as she runs her fingers through my hair.
Nails dragging across my skull, it sends goosebumps down my neck and arms. I’ve been growing out my hair for fun, and the top reaches my ears, so it’s a little long.
I’ve not been this close to her face to admire her from such a short distance.
Her hazel eyes sparkle under the overhead lighting.
Her lips are a soft shade of pink. I can see a small scar near her hairline, indented but the same colour as her skin, indicating she got the scar at a young age.