Driving Miss Catherine

“You shouldn’t have to prove yourself; you’re four time world champion Sebastian Vettel, that should be enough.” Cat stood behind him at the desk and rubbed his shoulders.

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean anything any more; my reputation has been tainted. I can’t buy my way onto a team because I don’t have money anymore. I need to find sponsors, but nobody wants me to be the face of their product.” He sighed and hung his head, closing the laptop on the many rejection emails he had received about sponsorship.

“They just don’t know how awesome you are now. New and improved, Vettel 2.0,” Cat smirked, and drew a slight smile out of Seb.

“Improved? I’m not sure about that…”

“Hey, if they don’t want to sponsor, you, I will.”

He raised an eyebrow and waited for her to say ‘just kidding’ or to burst out laughing, but she was serious. “Cat…”

“Seb, are you forgetting why Heikki tried to knock me up this summer? Because I’m filthy rich,” she smiled.

“Cat…. I couldn’t ask you to waste all your money on me. You may not even get half of it back, no matter how well I do,” he looked at her skeptically, though he couldn’t hide that spark of hope from his eyes.

She looked at him seriously, and very business like, said “If I lost half of my money, I would still be a multimillionaire…..and then there’s daddy, of course. He could practically own an F1 team, probably.”

Seb chuckled at they way Cat sarcastically talked about her dad and his money. “Yeah, but he wouldn’t give me a penny if he knew….wait, he doesn’t know we’re dating, right?”

Cat shook her head. “Are you serious? I can’t tell him; he’d probably think I was being stupid or rebellious.”

“Rebellious?” Seb laughed again, this time pulling her into his arms. “So you think I have a ‘bad boy’ image.?” He joked and tried to put on his best ‘tough guy’ face, sending Cat into peels of laughter.

“No, sorry,” she sat up and caught her breath. “I don’t know, I just think he wouldn’t like it. Although he seems to like you enough, I just think he wouldn’t be happy if we dated.”

“You mean, if he knew we were dating,” Seb corrected, and eyed her.

“Right, that’s what I meant.” Cat kissed him on the cheek and stood up, pulling him with her. “Why don’t we take a break from this for a while and watch a movie or something. You’ve been so tense lately.”

Seb was tense, and it wasn’t just because he couldn’t sponsors to back him next season. Technically, that was part of it. They day he’d spent at Spa was quite eye-opening. Not only did it reignite his love for racing and motivate him to drive next season, he realized he’d changed. He was more careful, less fast into the corners and slower; he was rusty, and rusty is not good. The car he drove was a not the Red Bull cars he had been used to, but even with that factored into his times, he was still too slow. He needed to practice, but he couldn’t do that until he signed with a team. Even using the simulator would help him a lot, but where could he get his hands on one of those?

Vettel needed to sign with a team.

Red Bull: Absolutely out of the question. Even if they wanted him, he would be too embarrassed to go back.

McLaren: Changing up drivers, might be able to sneak into one of the vacant spots.

Ferrari: Not pleased the the ‘Kimi replacement’ driver, and Alonso is out. Many openings and changes means they might be willing to take a chance with Seb.

And the list continues; Seb prioritized which teams would be the best to drive for, which ones he had a chance of signing with, and started weighing the pros and cons. By the end of the week, he was starting to think it would be easier just to make his own team with Albert’s money. But the likeliness of that actually happening was so slim, he didn’t let himself get distracted by such prospects.

“Guess what?!” Cat glimmered with happiness as she hopped into the car after class.

“You got an ‘A’ on that essay you’ve been working on for the past few weeks?” Seb guessed, and Cat shook her head.

“No, but that would be awesome if I did. I got you a meeting!!” Cat smiled, proud of her achievement.

“With…?”

“Ferrari. I go to school with a lot of important/influential people’s kids, grandchildren, and you know that annoying girl I’ve been hanging out with lately? Her dad works closely with the Ferrari F1 team, and I casually mentioned that you were looking for a team to drive for next year. You should have seen his face,” Cat smiled. “I thought he was going to have a heart attack.”

“Really? This is excellent, Cat. When?”

“This weekend.”

This weekend? That was only a few days away; Seb was not ready for that. But the season had ended, and teams were finalizing their drivers for the 2015 season, so he had to act quickly. He had to get into shape and practice, a lot, if he wanted to drive next season.

Cat tagged along to the meeting for moral support, and since she had arranged the meeting. After some initial introductions, Seb and the Ferrari officials left to discuss things in an office, leaving Cat near the reception/waiting area. She’d brought her notes and a textbook so she could study for exams, since the meeting might take a while.

Twenty minutes in, and well into chapter two of her environmental engineering book, a young guy came in and said something to the receptionist before sitting down in the seating area across from Cat. She barely noticed him, but gave a polite nod. A few minutes later, Cat failed at balancing her notebook and textbook on her lap and dropped them.

She reached to pick them up and ended up crossing hands with the guy across from her as he reached for them too.

“Sorry,” she smiled and withdrew her hands. Cat really hadn’t noticed him, but he was about her age, blond, and probably European.

“That’s okay,” he smiled politely. “This is a heavy book, what are you reading?” He looked at the cover with a confused expression. “Environmental engineering?” He guessed.

“Yeah, I’m about to take finals,” Cat said as he handed her books back.

“Wow, that’s impressive. That can’t be an easy subject to study.”

“No, it’s pretty hard, but I like a challenge,” Cat smiled back at him.

“So you’re here for the consulting position?”

“An environmental engineer consulting position?” Cat raised her eyebrows. Why hadn’t her friend mentioned that to her? Not that she was qualified, she didn’t even have a degree, yet.

“Yeah. I assumed that was why you were here….” He said quietly, slightly embarrassed.

“I’m just waiting for a friend, actually.”

He looked surprised, like he was going to say something, when someone came out of the office and called his name quietly, quiet enough that Cat didn’t catch it.

He smiled politely before disappearing into an office, leaving Cat alone again. She went back to her studies and didn’t think much of the occurrence, except that maybe he was a little cute.

She’d lost track of time when Seb emerged from an office with a few other guys, a smile on his face. He shook hands with them and nodded before returning to Cat.

“I can’t believe this, but I think they’re actually going to sign me,” he looked surprised, genuinely bewildered. Cat stood up and gathered her books before following Seb out to the car. “Cat,” he laughed, “We did it. I think we actually did it.”

“We did it? No, this is all you; you are an amazing driver, no matter what happened this season. I barely had a part in this, dear,” Cat kissed him on the cheek before slipping into the car.

“No, darling, I owe this entirely to you,” Seb grinned. “And we’re going out tonight to celebrate.”