Chapter 13 Callum
callum
I was used to being alone. But all that did was remind me of all the things I wanted to forget. And tonight? That included Callum Fraser. -Aurélie
The paddock had shifted into celebration mode, drivers filtering out to wherever their teams had set up post-race festivities. Shanghai was next, and soon enough, everyone would be hopping on flights to different corners of the world, milking the one weekend off before the next race.
I should have been in a good mood. I won. My season had started exactly the way it needed to—dominant.
And yet, she wasn’t here. I wasn’t looking for her. Not really. I was just… aware that she wasn’t around.
My fingers twitched restless around the whiskey glass in my hand, leaning back against the bar at the private event Red Bull had set up for their usual post-race celebrations. Yet the buzz I typically chased was nowhere to be found.
Marco was beside me, going on about some commentator’s shit take on strategy calls, but my focus wasn’t there.
“Fraser, you good?” Marco’s voice broke into my thoughts.
I exhaled through my nose. “Fine.”
Kimi walked up, fresh beer in hand. He nodded at both of us. “Hell of a race.”
Marco clinked bottles with him. “Not bad for a midfield car, huh?”
Kimi smirked. “Not bad at all.”
The music pulsed through the suite, low and bass-heavy, the kind of beat that usually helped me shut my brain off. The afterparty was in full swing, packed with team members, drivers, VIPs, a handful of F1-adjacent socialites, some pit chasers.
But none of it worked.
Because she wasn’t here.
I didn’t know why the fuck that mattered. It shouldn’t matter. And yet, the second I stepped into the room, my eyes had started looking.
“What’s with the face?” Marco asked, giving me a once-over as I slumped against the counter.
“I don’t have a face,” I muttered, flagging the bartender down.
“You definitely have a face,” Kimi cut in, smirking behind the rim of his glass. “One that looks like it’s missing someone.”
I narrowed my eyes. “The fuck does that mean?”
Kimi only shrugged, tipping his drink toward me. “If you’re looking for Aurélie, you won’t find her here.”
I stilled. It wasn’t what he said. It was how he said it. Casual. Easy. Like he already knew I’d been looking for her.
I should’ve denied it. Should’ve shrugged it off like it didn’t matter. But instead—
“Where is she?” I asked before I could think better of it.
Kimi cleared his throat to hide a snicker, clearly enjoying himself. “Flew home. I figured you knew.”
“Why would I know?”
Then he gave me a look.
One that sent my stomach straight into my fucking feet.
Marco snorted. “Because you’ve been acting like she lives rent-free in your head since the fucking podium.”
Fuck you, I wanted to snap, but he wasn’t wrong.
I turned back to Kimi, something strange curling in my chest. “She just left?”
“She didn’t want to deal with all this,” Kimi said, motioning vaguely at the crowd. “Said she wanted some quiet. The vineyard’s good for that.”
I nodded like it made sense, like it didn’t bother me way more than it should.
Vineyard. Right. That’s where she was headed now. Far from this. Far from me.
I took a long sip of my drink, the burn of the whiskey barely registering as my grip flexed tighter around the glass until my fingertips whitened.
I needed to get my fucking head on straight before Shanghai.
And the fact that Kimi clocked me looking for her? That was a fucking problem, because if she was already in my head like this after one weekend?
Then I was utterly, completely fucked.