Closer

Rory’s POV

After the picture Aurora apologized and asked no to publish the picture until the end of the event, “I’m working with Silverlane and I wouldn’t like to, you know, betray them” she explained and the drivers nodded.

The model continued talking with the Monoposto boys and so did Mauro. It must have been a while before the engineers called for Côme and Marcos’s attention. After a couple goodbyes, the Mexicans left the red garage to continue exploring the paddock. It was funny how many famous people they had encountered, how many couples roamed the place, and the chaos of all the engineers, press people and more rushed around trying to get by.

It was Saturday afternoon. Aurora wore a sun-dress in light pinks, she had not picked her outfit that day. After a long chat with Sal, her lovely manager, her friend told her that she had sent her one of the dresses that she had modeled just weeks before the Monaco trip. The store, Monique Lhuillier, had offered to gift Rory with the dress in exchange for the publicity that she would attract by wearing it in Monaco.

The dress was beautiful, it was a tulle dress, bubblegum pink colored with tiny dots in another different shade of pink. It matched against the model’s golden kissed skin. Rory matched the dress with a pair of pink colored flats, which she had to buy specifically for the dress. There was no way in hell she would match the dress with her Nikes or wear heels.

“Damn” whispered Mauro looking at one of the many TVs in the Silverlane garage, “Wicho just crashed” just as Rory turn towards the tv, Marcos crashed into Wicho, “Ooh”

“Fuck” added Aurora seeing how the two cars blocked the entrance to the renowed Monaco tunnel, “What happens now?” she asked Mauro who stood beside her, his arms crossed over his chest.

“That’s the end of qualifying, I guess,” he shrugged, “Pole for Côme, then Salazar, third Wicho and fourth Visser,” After that Mauro proceeded to explain how Monaco was a dangerous circuit and much more stuff that Aurora had not asked for, however she remained there listening to what her companion had to say.

“Jean,” Said one of the engineers, “Box, that’s the end of qualy.”

“Fuck!” was the French driver’s response, “Fuck!” The driver’s anger was understandable, he had managed to position himself on seventeenth place whilst his teammate, lovely Yuki, had gotten a nice eleventh place. “How’s Yori?”

“Just come back to the garage”

“Fuck” this was a bit more of a whisper, “Alright”

Aurora dropped her head against Mauro’s shoulder, she was super excited for Wicho’s position, and hopefully he’ld win, but Jean had managed to get the blonde’s heart to squeeze. She felt sad for the driver, and hopefully he’ll do better tomorrow in the race. Yori on the other hand arrived at the garage pretty content with himself, the japanese driver greeted the couple before going back to his driver room to rest, shower and be out of there as soon as possible.

“I like Yori,” spoke Aurora leaning once again over Mauro’s shoulder

“No kidding,” said Mauro rolling his eyes.

Aurora lightly smacked the guy’s arm, “What’s that supposed to mean?” she stared up at him as he slowly turned to meet her gaze, “Huh”

“You like everyone, Rory” he chuckled, “We met Wicho, you liked him.”

“He is likable.”

“We met Gervais, you liked him.”

“I had a wrong impression.”

“We met Côme and Marcos and you liked them”

“Well, of course I liked them, they are Marcos and Côme,” she huffed, “I don’t like Chris Honnor

“But you like Saenz”

Saenz was the only American driver in the grid. Though many disliked him because it was inferred that he was in the F1 because of his father’s money, Saenz had been really polite when Rory bumped into him earlier that day.

“I don’t see why you don’t,” she said, “He seemed nice”

“Daddy’s money,” coughed Mauro, Aurora raised an eyebrow at him, was he aware that he was also a Daddy’s money kid? “Don’t look at me like that, I ain’t like him.”

“If you say so”

Jean and Mauro were chatting back at the driver’s room, meanwhile Aurora was with Yori playing video games. It had been a while since she played video games. She remembered playing with her brother and cousins but that had been around the time that Rory started modeling.

“No Yori! No!” she shouted as he killed her, “You, little shit!”

The guy laughed and continued playing trying not to be phased by Rory shaking him in revenge, “Stop” Yori laughed, “It was a fair kill!”

“Fair kill?” Rory whined, “You shot me on the back!”

“Fair kill,” he shrugged, “You weren’t paying attention”

“Could you keep it down?” shouted Jean from the other side of the door

Yori and Aurora turned to each other and then at the wall, “No!”

“Amazing, no there’s two of him,” mumbled the blond, “Fuck”

It was getting late, not sun-wise but Aurora was already tired enough to head to their suite and take a quick nap, before going to have dinner with Mauro and some other people who Mauro didn’t want to spoil. So Rory took Mauro’s backpack so that he would get that she was ready to go.

Mauro was quick with that kind of thing, so once he saw Aurora with the bag hanging over her shoulder he knew they were leaving. With short goodbyes with the Silverlane people and a beautiful compliment by the engineers about Rory’s video game skills the Mexicans left the garage ready to leave the paddock and head to their hotel.

“Eh chicos!” Someone called them out and both spun to see Marcos and his girlfriend catching up with them.

“Marcos” greeted Mauro, “How are you? The crash wasn’t bad was it?”

“Nah, it was a small kiss,” the spaniard joked, “Isobela, estos son Aurora y Mauro, son mexicanos”

“Hola” greeted the girl stretching her hand at Aurora, who gladly shook it, “Isobela. Bela”

“Aurora, or Rory, whichever,” smiled the model, “Tengo que decirte que amo tu blog, lo escucho siempre que puedo. Plus I never miss an issue of your magazine” Isobela was Marcos’s girlfriend, they had been together for a while now and though they kept their relationship private, everyone knew about them. Isobela was a beautiful woman with semi long platinum blonde hair and light eyes plus a fashion journalist and if needed sometimes a model. Like Marcos, she was from Spain, Valencia to be precise and did go to every race of the European area.

“I can vouch for that,” spoke Mauro now offering his hand to the driver’s girlfriend, “Un gusto, Mauro Flores”

“I am honored,” said Bela, “Marcos told me you are a model, I can definitely see why. ¡Con esas piernas, mirad nadamas!” Bela gestured to the Mexican’s legs, “One can only wish”

The redness that Rory had battled so much to make it disappear was back, “Thanks”

“Congrats on tomorrow’s position,” added Mauro clapping Marcos on the back, Aurora smiled to the driver then turned back to Isy who made a face, “You’ll win it”

“Aren’t you supposed to cheer for Wicho, not me?” wondered the driver.

Mauro shrugged and ran a hand over his hair, “I think you deserve a win, Wicho too after the stunt they pulled on him last race, but I want you on first place tomorrow, Marcos”

“I will do my best,” the Spaniard sighed.

Aurora didn’t retrieve her gaze from Bela who had a strange expression on her face, was there something happening between the two? If so, Aurora felt for them. It had been a very strange couple of days at the paddock referring to the atmosphere around the drivers and their partners. Rory had even mentioned it to Mauro who brushed it over his shoulder saying that it was probably because of the stress most drivers are under right now.

“Suerte” mused Rory taking Mauro’s arm and pulling him away, “Adiós Bela, fue un placer conocerte”

“Igual a vos,” Bela smiled, waving them away.

“Did you feel it?” Rory asked Mauro once they were out of earshot scooting closer to the brunet.

“Marcos’s stress? Of course I did,” the brunet said and hailed a cab for them both. Once the car stopped before them Mauro told the driver where they would like to go and finally opened the door for Rory.

“No dummy,” growled Aurora as Mauro joined her in the backseat, “Bela was acting weird not as warm as I thought she would be”

“Don’t meet your heroes,” cited Mauro placing a hand over one of Aurora’s, “Don’t worry about that Rory, whatever it is, it is their problem, not ours, not yours.” Even though she knew that Mauro was right, something kept bugging her. Still she pushed the thought to the back of her mind as she walked alongside her friend into the hotel.

They went straight to the elevators, the blonde’s tiredness was starting to pull her eyelids down, threatening to fall to the floor Aurora held on to Mauro’s shoulder, “I am sorry. I just might fall asleep while walking”

“Then just ask”

“Ask what?” As a response Mauro handed the backpack to Aurora, who with confusion, placed it on her back, “What are you doing?”

“Hop on,” he said, bending his knees en gesturing to his back.

A smile was drawn over Rory’s lips, “Such a gentleman” she thanked, allowing him to give her a piggyback ride. She placed her head on his back comfortably and allowed herself to close her eyes.

Mauro’s POV

It took less than three steps for Rory to fall asleep as he carried her to the room. On the way back Mauro realized she was super tired, so the moment he saw her taking the backpack herself Mauro knew it was time. Aurora was not a very talkative person when it came to her state, however if given the opportunity Mauro was a hundred percent sure that Aurora could and would start talking through her elbows. In this case the simple action of her tired eyes and the backpack holding were enough.

“We are here,” he announced, opening the room’s door even though he knew she probably didn’t even listen to him. “Rory.” She mumbled something and relocated her head over Mauro’s other shoulder. He knew he couldn’t just drop her on bed, but he couldn’t really stay standing with her on his back. After a couple of struggles Mauro did a magnificent job, if he said it himself, of getting the girl off his shoulders and into the bed without waking her up.

Once she was on her bed covered by the thin layers of bedsheets Mauro dropped to her side and started scrolling through his instagram. It was not long when he found one of Killian Indiana’s posts, Ladies in the Paddock. And there were a couple of female engineers, a driver’s girlfriend alongside Isy, and in the third picture there was Rory, wearing her first outfit. The photo really showed how lost she was but with a smile on her face making her look real pretty.

Mauro turned his head to see the back of his friend’s head, “He should have taken a picture of you today,” he said in a low tone as his eyes traveled to the dress’s tulle being wrinkled under Rory’s body. Like every other man who had looked at her in that pink dress Mauro had commented on her look.The guy then returned his attention to his phone and continued scrolling.

The next post that caught his attention was from the Silverlane account, it was a shot taken from the top of the driver room’s which didn’t really have a ceiling. The video showed him and Jean casually chatting while in the other room Yori and Rory were yelling and playing video games. The title on the video said, “You might be cool but not as cool as Rory Lagos and Yori Tsuchida. playing video games after qualy,” the story followed by the moment Jean asked them to keep it down and their response in unison.

On the other hand Rory had uploaded a small blog to her insta stories about the dress she was wearing, several photos of her with the Silverlane team members, and finally one with Mauro. It was a video in selfie mode just in front of the garage, both smiling until Gervais started his engine, scaring the phone off Rory’s hand, Mauro’s laughter the last thing audible.

To hop on the trend of posting Monaco pics Mauro decided to make a photo dump; firstly was him with Wicho on the night of the party with Jean and Yori on the back making faces, then a picture at the beach showing off his mega-sunburn and lastly one with Côme and Marcos, that Aurora kindly offered to take. And some others of the cars and stuff. Soon enough likes and comments showered his post.

“Mauro!” yelled Rory from her room while Mauro was watching TVin the living room, “Mauro!”

“¿Eu?” he shouted back, looking over his shoulder at the girl’s door, “What?”

“I can’t find my shoes,” she sounded like a toddler, probably because she had just woken up, “Where did you put them?”

“Uhm…” Mauro thought for a second, “Probably behind the sofa, I don’t really know.”

Aurora walked out of her room in a fresh outfit with her flats in hand, “What time is it?” she asked, rubbing her eyes, which were puffy.

“It’s kinda early,” said Mauro looking at his watch, “Wanna go get some crepes?”

Yawning Aurora nodded, “Sounds like a solid plan”

The crepes were a nice dinner, but Aurora had had the idea that they were going to have dinner with more people, “I thought we were dining with other people,” she sat on one of the benches just a couple feet away from the crepe stand, "I am not saying I am tired of only seeing your face."

“We were,” nodded and sat beside her, “but Côme and Marcos are having couple problems.”

Aurora elbowed her friend, “I told you!”

“You did”

She straightened herself up, a proud smile on her face, “I am always right.”

“uh huh” said Mauro before biting into his dinner, “Whatever you say”