Chapter 9
Mark was late for their flight to London.
Erik was starting to wonder if he would even show up after his behaviour the day before.
He messaged him and eventually got a response saying that he was on his way.
Sigrid was still drunk as she’d decided not to get any sleep after her night out with Oliver.
“Sigrid, if you’ve left anything behind, I’m not organising for it to be sent to you,” Erik said, annoyed. He was wondering how Ingrid and Oliver were getting home, but knew it wasn’t his concern.
Mark arrived just in time before they were going to tell him to find his own way back.
“Hello everyone!” He shouted. He was clearly still drunk, like Sigrid.
“Welcome, Mark! It’s about fucking time,” Erik said. “Ok, can we get out of this place now?”
They took off shortly after that, and when they had reached altitude, Erik said, “Let’s get this photo over and done with.”
Mark took off his sunglasses, revealing a black eye.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Mark, what happened?”
“Just a little incident in a bar. Sigrid, you can fix me up, can’t you?”
Erik looked at Sigrid pleadingly, and she went to find her makeup bag. She put some concealer on Mark’s eye, and it managed to hide the worst of it; a filter would have to do the rest. They took the photo and put the caption: ‘Thanks to AeroJet for flying us back to Wentworth Racing with a 1-2.’
“Ok, our job is done. Time to sleep,” Mark said, putting his sunglasses back on and his head on Erik’s shoulder. Erik would have preferred that it were Ingrid there, and she would have preferred to be there instead of putting up with Oliver’s whining.
“You know we could have been on a jet right now with that gorgeous Mark?”
“Yes, now stop your whinging. The cost of that flight would have been my dignity!”
“More like your pride, Sister!” Oliver retorted.
Once Mark was asleep, Erik put his head back and dozed off, thinking about Ingrid and that kiss. A few hours later, he woke up expecting to see her there.
Erik called the flight attendant for some coffee. The others were waking up too. Only two more hours, and then they would land; he could be free of Mark for a day or two. He checked his phone, and there was still no message from Ingrid.
???
As Ingrid was entering her flat in London, Erik was alone in his hotel room flipping through TV channels.
Neither of them was particularly happy at that moment.
There was a long break before the Canadian GP, and Erik knew she wouldn’t be there.
He was hoping she would call before he had to go to the factory the next day.
Instead, he got a call from Mark asking him if he wanted to join him at some party.
“Mate, no chance. It’s late, and we have to drive to Grove tomorrow.”
“God, you’ve become such a bore since you started shagging the Rookie!” Mark was shouting into the phone over the pumping music in the background.
“It’s more than that. Just try not to get yourself too fucked, Mark. You’re already skating on thin ice with Jonny, and we can’t be late tomorrow, or it’s already today,” he responded, looking at his watch.
Erik wondered if he should just ask her for breakfast before he left, but then he remembered she had clients in the morning. He eventually fell asleep with his phone in his hand and a half-typed message to Ingrid.
Ingrid’s body wasn’t going to adjust to the time zone difference, so she took one of her supplements, put on her PJs, and went to bed with an audiobook.
She didn’t struggle nearly as much as Erik did.
It was home for her, after all. She woke up with her alarm at 6 am, put on a sweatshirt, and took Sir Lewis outside.
After lighting her cigarette, she looked up and saw Erik leaning against his car. He walked over to her.
“I know you said…”
“I don’t care what I said.” She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. “How long have you been waiting here?”
“About an hour.” He smiled sheepishly.
“Ok, let’s walk Sir Lewis, quickly, and then we can have coffee.”
She took his hand, and they went for a short walk to the park nearby and back. Erik was relieved that he hadn’t been sent away or that there wasn’t a repeat of Miami.
“I thought you would be working this morning, so that’s why I came so early,” he said as she started making coffee.
“I pushed my clients an hour later because of the travel.”
There was still the elephant in the room of what he had said to her after the race. She handed him his coffee and went to the couch. After they made themselves comfortable, she took his hand again.
“Erik, so much has been said and not said…”
“Ingrid…”
“No, let me finish. I love you too. Those feelings are definitely there. But, at my age, there are other things to consider. We haven’t even discussed them yet.
We’ve just moved from race to race. Hotel to hotel.
Two or three stops at our homes in between.
I know that’s your life. As you keep saying, I’m a rookie to that life.
I need to get up to speed on it all. I also never want to make you feel insecure. ”
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”
“I think I needed to debrief a bit on it.” She laughed.
“Oh, Rookie, you and your debriefs!” He kissed her. “I wish you had shared this debrief with me.”
Ingrid’s calendar alerted her to her first appointment in half an hour.
“And now we don’t have time to discuss this more. I have a client in half an hour, and I’m far from presentable!”
“Come here first.” He kissed her softly. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Erik napped on the couch while she went to her office. He only had to leave for Grove by 11. He was glad he had taken the step of coming over this morning. When Ingrid was done, she came out and woke him by stroking his head. She promised to call him later, and he left for the factory celebrations.
???
Erik was approaching Grove, thinking about what Ingrid had said. He knew what she meant about other things to consider, and he was wondering if he was ready for that, too. He hadn’t thought about it with anyone else, but the idea of a stable family life appealed to him.
He parked his car and walked through the doors. It was slightly earlier than planned, so he went to find Jonathan in his office, greeting everyone on his way up.
“Where’s that menace of a teammate of yours?” Jonathan asked.
“Not sure. I left the hotel early this morning, had some personal matters to attend to.”
“Ingrid?”
Erik just grinned.
“I know when I last spoke to Mark, he was asking me to join him at a party.”
“Oh, for goodness’s sake,” Jonathan muttered. “I hope we won’t be dealing with a mess just now. Let me call Julia and check if there’s anything online.”
Erik sat back in his chair while Jonathan spoke to Julia. It was customary when they had a 1-2 podium to celebrate with the whole staff at Wentworth and take a couple of photos and videos for social media. Mark knew this. He usually loved it.
“Anything Jonny?”
“I was wondering where she was this morning. She’s handling media enquiries about a charming photo of Mark next to lines of coke.”
“What?” Erik exclaimed.
“Yes, that’s my next call.”
Jonathan was trying to reach Mark. Erik texted him and didn’t get a reply. He went online to see if he could find the photo. There it was. Mark sitting next to some of his London friends with lines of coke on the table.
“Mark, where the fuck are you?” Jonathan said calmly enough, but with a tone in his voice that Erik knew all too well. Both Julia and Elizabeth had reached the office by this point.
“Jules, Lizzie.” Erik greeted them.
“Were you out with him?” Julia asked.
“I’m here, on time, clean and sober. What do you think? No, he invited me, though.”
“Thank goodness for that girlfriend of yours. She’s had a calming effect on you,” Elizabeth said. “We’re going to have to talk about that, by the way, the girlfriend.”
“Either way, you wouldn’t have found me with a bunch of cokeheads.” He smiled innocently at Elizabeth, then turned to Jonathan. “Is he coming?”
“Still in his fucking hotel bed. Can you go chat with some of the staff in the meantime while I speak to his manager? I know that they would love to see you.”
Erik left Elizabeth and Jonathan in the office and went downstairs to hang out with the people who made everything in his race life work. Julia followed him because she loved moments like these; they showed the real Erik Svensson.
“Jules, be honest,” he started, “how bad is it?”
“Bad, but there aren’t any videos or photos showing him doing coke. Plus, you all signed up for the anti-doping thing. We can save it.” She put a reassuring hand on his arm.
Erik knew his friend was in trouble, but he couldn’t do anything to save the situation. He would just have to let the team handle it.
???
Ingrid had been busy with clients after Erik left, so she only saw the photos of Mark much later that day. She called Erik immediately.
“Oh my god, darling, what’s going to happen to him? Did he show up to Grove?”
“I still have no idea. When I left, Jonny was still working it out with his manager. The FIA is obviously taking it seriously and has requested a test. The team has agreed to this.”
“Where are you now?”
“I’m hoping on my way back to you?”
“Of course!” She said, quickly starting to tidy up the house as she spoke. “How long until you get here?”
“I’ve hit some London traffic, so another half hour or so.”
“Ok, see you shortly.”
Ingrid ran to the shower and shaved her legs and underarms. With all the travelling, there had been no time for waxing or any type of grooming.
She was looking forward to the long break so she could have time to tend to herself.
Ingrid heard her door open when she was in her bedroom.
Oh, shit, Oliver, she thought. In the time between this morning and now, she hadn’t had the opportunity to tell him everything that happened, and they were supposed to be going for dinner.
“Oli, I’m in my room,” she called out. “I’ll be out in a sec.”