Counterpoints: Book 2 Read online

  “Why here? Why not London?” Isabella had wondered, while the conversation had gone back to Christopher’s drivers’ academy.

  He had explained to her that he had chosen that part of England to build the academy for a reason. It wasn’t just for its position – close enough to London- it was also a tribute to his father.

  “He was brought up here” Christopher had said to her while walking up a dirt road, his hands in his pockets. “You see that house at the end of the road?” he had asked and Isabella had followed his stare and nodded. “That was his family’s country house. It belongs to my mother now, she inherited it after his death but she never comes down here”

  He then told her how he had bought the old go-kart track of the academy and built the new structure there.

  “Because that was where my father took me as a kid. That’s where I drove a go-kart for the first time. It happened there, on that tarmac. The place had been abandoned for years. It had to be mine. I had to bring it back to life” he had explained.

  Isabella had listened to the story – and laughed about baby Christopher, running laps and leaving skid marks with his go kart- until it was time to head back to London. It was getting late.

  When Isabella pulled into Christopher’s driveway, her foot slipped on the gas a little and she pushed on the brake rather hastily, scared of hitting the garage door. She turned and grinned at Christopher, outrage written all over his face.

  “Oops” she smiled, angel faced.

  “Please, remind me why you don’t want ME to drive but it’s okay If YOU drive?” he smirked.

  “My foot slipped, I’m wearing flats. Your foot slips on the gas, all the time! What’s your excuse?”

  “I don’t need one. I like it”

  He then leaned forward, his hand travelling up her thigh. He touched her chin and pulled her in for a kiss, blocking Isabella’s thoughts.

  She reached for his face and embraced him, her arms wrapped around his neck. Isabella shifted in her seat, moving towards him.

  Christopher’s grip became tighter around her thighs and he lifted her up, only to guide her down on his lap.

  Hands were everywhere. In his hair, in her hair, on her legs, on his chest. Isabella moaned against his lips, when she felt his hands go under her shirt.

  “Let’s go inside” he whispered.

  Isabella nodded and didn’t say a single word.

  If he hadn’t said anything then, they would have done it. They would have had sex there in the driveway, the pull towards each other so strong.

  Her breathing had quickened and so had her pulse. The whole afternoon had felt like foreplay.

  They had laughed so hard at one point, while talking about their first dates, their first kiss- Christopher having the best story ever, about how he had freaked out and ran away from this twelve year old that wanted to make out with him so badly.

  Ironic for a ladies man like him!

  He took her hand and led her through the garden, all the way up his porch. The lights were on inside.

  “Rita’s probably cooking something for us to have later” he said.

  Christopher slipped in his key but Rita opened the door, in that precise moment.

  “Hello” she smiled warmly and Isabella did the same, almost like a reflex.

  Christopher held on tight to her hand and Isabella watched Rita’s eyes travel down to their hands and then up again to smile at Christopher.

  “Your mother is here” she informed him, after he had patted her shoulder.

  “My mother?” Christopher looked surprised.

  Rita nodded and gestured towards the living room.

  They all walked to the fireplace and noticed Carmen sitting on the couch, drink in hand, wearing linen brown pants and a white shirt. His mother’s serious face broke into a smile, as soon as she saw the two step forward.

  Christopher’s mother looked at Isabella with kind eyes.

  “Hello, Isabella. It’s nice to see you again” she stood to shake her hand.

  It hadn’t occurred to Isabella that Christopher was still holding her hand.

  Now I am blushing, for real.

  Carmen looked at Christopher and smirked.

  He kept his face serious, still a little surprised to see Carmen in his living room.

  “Nice to see you again, Mrs. Taylor” Isabella took her hand and then looked back at Christopher, who was oddly quiet.

  “I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow” he reached for his mom and let her kiss him on the cheeks.

  “I was already in England for business, when you texted me this morning. You said it was important”

  “Yeah” he mumbled and then hugged his mother tight. “So good to see you”

  Isabella stood in silence, wondering what would be the best thing to do. It was obvious that Christopher and his mother needed some time alone, to talk about personal things and the last thing she wanted to do was intrude.

  When did he text his mother this morning? I wonder what is so important…

  Was it because the race in Germany was only a week away? Was it because of the anniversary it reminded them, of James’ death? Or did this have to do with Christopher being blackmailed?

  He and only he will decide when to tell me what is going on. BUGGER OFF!

  “I’ll leave you two alone” Isabella smiled and held her hand out to Mrs. Taylor once again. The woman looked at her briefly and then moved closer to kiss her on the cheeks.

  “I hope to see you soon, maybe we could have dinner together next time” she said and Isabella nodded.

  Then Isabella turned to Christopher “I’ll probably see you tomorrow at the headquarters”

  “I’ll walk you to the door” he said and Isabella nearly rolled her eyes.

  Such a movie thing to say…She knew exactly where the door was, precisely where Christopher had kissed her, several times already.

  They reached the door in silence, feeling Carmen’s stare behind their necks. It was obvious that she was very curious about their relationship.

  I wonder how many women she has seen Christopher with…Stop, Isabella you know exactly how many women he has had. Enough!

  “I’m sorry we were interrupted” he said, once he had opened the door.

  He took her in his arms and looked down at her, her honey brown eyes looking into his. “I’ll make it up to you” and smirked.

  Isabella smiled and kissed him goodbye.

  “Do you need a ride home?” he asked.

  “Why? Do you want to lend me your car?” she teased.

  “I was thinking more along the lines of a cab” he raised his eyebrow at her “I’m still trying to recover from the heart attack you almost gave me, when you were about to hit the garage door”

  “It’s not a heart attack. It’s called adrenaline rush” she shook her head and gave him a quick peck on the lips, a look of mischief on her face.

  Going to work in the same city every morning was definitely something new for Isabella.

  After months of travelling nonstop, It felt strange to wake up in the same place for an entire week.

  Not that she was complaining about it, Isabella was getting the rest she deserved.

  No working outside regular hours, no jet lag, no running around all day and eating out all the time.

  No matter how exciting her job was- and no matter how she loved every second of it- after only a week spent in London, Isabella had discovered the beauty of having a normal life.

  Even though I am seeing someone famous, without the rest of the world knowing about it, Isabella thought.

  As normal as life can be, when it involved sneaking around.

  A whole week of hiding, of seeing each other secretly, Isabella and Christopher were living a double life.

  They practically ignored each other at work and then spent most nights together in the privacy of their homes.

  And it’s starting to kill me, she sighed, unable to hold back her frustration.

&
nbsp; Isabella hated lying and she was lying, lying to everyone. To Hillary every time she asked her about what she had done the night before. To the rest of the guys at MB.

  Isabella’s fingers started to tap on the glass table in the meeting room. She stopped herself immediately.

  Stop with the tapping, she fidgeted in her seat.

  Stop fidgeting.

  Isabella looked outside the window and her eyes were completely absorbed by the apparent calmness, that reigned in the city skyline from the twentieth floor of the MB building.

  London was anything but calm. It was loud, busy, crowded just like any other city but Isabella was shocked to see the organization, the order and the total lack of chaos that was typical of a city like Rome.

  She had never queued to enter the tube in an ordinate manner, like she had done over the past week. She had never found herself in a train full of people, not one of them talking. It felt odd, surreal at times.

  A group of Italian tourists had made her smile one morning- as she headed to a photo shoot in Holborn to meet with Hillary and Noah- when she had overheard them say how spooky it was, to be surrounded by thirty silent people in such a small space.

  The living dead, one of them had said and she had laughed. They had turned to smile back at her, feeling a little more at ease.

  Another loud Italian that brakes the silence.

  The door of the meeting room opened and Isabella stood up instantly, as in walked Hillary and Mr. Johnson.

  “Hi” he gestured for her to take a seat and Isabella nodded. “I am sorry we had to reschedule this a few times but I’ve been busy at the factory with the development of the car. Race is just five days away and you are all flying out tonight. We need to talk about Noah” he took his phone out of his pocket and placed it on the table.

  Hillary did the same with hers and listened very carefully to Mr. Johnson’s words.

  “I’ve talked to him several times after what happened in Toronto. His attitude was unacceptable during and after the race” Mr. Johnson took in a breath and put his hands in his hair. “Let’s face it, through closed doors we can safely say it wasn’t a race incident, what happened between him and Christopher. He closed on him, he wanted to push him out”

  Hillary and Isabella looked at each other, as Mr. Johnson carried on.

  “He caused the collision and then he left without talking to anyone, he didn’t attend his sponsor events. I told him he cannot do that again, penalty will be exclusion from the championship” he looked from Isabella to Hillary “He knows I am not kidding. We have another driver ready to step in for him. I am sure he won’t do it again”

  Good, she thought but the thought of another driver hanging on Noah’s head made her cringe.

  Chances were high that Noah already knew about the third driver, waiting for him to get the boot.

  That could be why he was so upset and edgy the other day, during the interviews.

  Isabella simply nodded and didn’t interrupt him.

  “What about the interview, when he talked about privileged drivers?” Hillary tilted her head to the side.

  “He said it wasn’t about Christopher but he won’t lash out like that anymore”

  The hell it was. Isabella crossed her arms and did her best to keep her face straight.

  “Excellent” Hillary put her hand on the table “I am happy you were able to talk some sense into him. I’ve been onto Noah since Toronto” she shook her head. “He was out of control”

  “Out of order” Mr. Johnson corrected her. “He gave me his word, it won’t happen again”

  The glimpse of a move caught Isabella’s eye.

  It was more like a reflection, an instant when the glass window that led to the corridor changed color, but she looked up and spotted Christopher, right behind Mr. Johnson, walking in the corridor with his track engineer.

  They were deep in conversation, Robert moving his hands a lot, as if to explain a certain physical aspect of his observation, and Christopher nodded, completely focused on the issue.

  Isabella stared at him, a lump forming in her throat.

  They hadn’t spent much time together since that day at the drivers’ academy. His mother had been in town for a few days and he had been busy preparing the race ahead.

  Christopher had exercised for three hours each day and then spent many others in the simulator. The nights were all they had.

  Moments like that one, when they would occasionally bump into each other, were the ones that gave her a certain ache, an ache she knew she had to just bare.

  You can’t have it all. Remember Isabella, it’s you that doesn’t want things to be public.

  Christopher looked inside the meeting room, feeling someone staring at him.

  Instantly a smile spread on his face, the dimples hiding behind his beard. It was longer than usual, Isabella noticed.

  He winked and Isabella looked away, an embarrassed smile formed on her lips.

  “Hi everyone” he stuck his head in the room.

  “Christopher, take a seat” Mr. Johnson offered him a chair.

  “No, thanks. I am going to the MB track outside the city. Robert and I are going to run some tests on track and try out something new. Maybe a new strategy for the race in Berlin” he smiled and his eyes locked with Isabella’s again.

  She looked down at her phone, pretending to check something in her email.

  Something important, something very important, something that can save my ass from getting busted.

  “See you, Chris” Hillary waved, as he walked back to the door.

  “Bye” Isabella said, her voice low.

  “Ciao Isabella” and he disappeared in the corridor.

  While her mind was still thinking about Christopher, Isabella couldn’t help but notice Mr. Johnson and Hillary exchange weird looks between them.

  “Isabella” Hillary said “We need to talk to you about something”

  Her heart might as well have stopped beating. Isabella couldn’t feel her extremities. She was numb.

  They know something, they know something. They know about me and Christopher. Here it comes.

  “Yes” she almost whispered.

  The word got stuck in her throat.

  “This is a very delicate week for Christopher” Mr. Johnson began to say and surprisingly his words didn’t give any relief of the sort to Isabella.

  It wasn’t about them two sleeping together, dating outside working hours.

  It was about the race, this particular race and what it marked. It was about Christopher and his father’s death and that didn’t make her feel any better.

  It made her feel worse. Something in her stomach started to jumble up and down.

  “We just want you to know, he’ll be under a lot of stress. He’s not himself around this time” Hillary continued. Her manager bit her lip and then took off her bright coral jacket. “What I am trying to say is that this weekend is going to be hard on him. It always has been and always will, I am afraid. So bear with him, if he’s a bit unreasonable”

  “Of course” Isabella nodded.

  “We need to make him feel as comfortable as possible, at ease and concentrated on the race” Mr. Johnson said “So let’s try to keep his social life, his sponsor events down to a minimum”

  “We can’t avoid the autograph session” Hillary pointed out “He’s a God in Germany. They still haven’t gotten over his father’s spectacular victories”

  “No, that’s okay. He’ll do that of course like everyone. Like he will take part in the drivers’ parade. Let’s just avoid annoying questions, as much as possible. Strictly no tabloids”

  Isabella listened very carefully to their words and waited for them to be over, before asking her question.

  “Is there anything that I shouldn’t do or something that I should do, to make things run smoother?’”

  “There’s nothing you can do, darling. Nobody can” Hillary answered after a few seconds of silence.

&nbs
p; Her manager’s glum face said it all.

  Chapter 14

  Something was wrong. Isabella knew it wasn’t just her imagination.

  The feeling of uneasiness had started a little over a week ago, since before they all left for Germany.

  It’s probably the atmosphere of the team, the tensions between the two drivers, how people speak and behave around Christopher- cautious, like they were walking over broken glass, afraid to say something wrong or disturb his concentration.

  Isabella tried to focus on her job – on how to improve the blog- but she just couldn’t overcome that annoying gut feeling that something was off.

  It wasn’t until the night before the qualifying session that it actually all became clear to her.

  Christopher was distant, he was awfully quiet and completely concentrated on his training.

  It was understandable, he was trying to deal with the pressure.

  And he was avoiding newspapers and social networks, knowing exactly what he would read on them.

  Comparisons between him and his father James, everywhere.

  They hardly got a chance to speak to one another in public –Isabella busy working with Hillary and Noah, while Christopher kept to himself, out of the spotlight, as planned- and it was only at night that Christopher and Isabella could sneak around and be themselves.

  Isabella felt like she was trapped in a cage, forced to be someone that she wasn’t.

  It’s not important what I feel, all attention must be on Christopher, on making HIM feel comfortable, she told herself over and over again all weekend, even the night of the fashion show.

  Christopher’s car arrived in front of the Millenium Building and Isabella set her camera, ready to capture the moment.

  Okay, here we go. Three, two, one… she squinted her eyes a little, knowing what was to come.

  Christopher got out of the car, stepped on the red carpet and raised his hand, to greet the crowd. The screams literally exploded in Isabella’s ears.

  And I am deaf.

  “See? What did I tell you?” Hillary shouted over the sound, while trying to cover her ears.

  Isabella shook her head and made a face, even though all that screaming hadn’t been a total surprise.