Counterpoints Read online

  “Then you won’t object to me moving a little closer…”

  They were now face to face, only inches away, their lips so close they were almost touching. Isabella shook her head a little, her eyes half closed, already tasting the pleasure of his lips on hers.

  Christopher gently kissed her, moving his hand from her cheek to her hair and placing his other hand on her face. Isabella tightened her grip on Christopher’s chest and wrapped one arm around his neck. The kiss was slow, deep and intense, like anything that involved Christopher.

  “I thought you said you wanted to be just friends, when we were in Valencia” he murmured against her lips, when they had stopped kissing. His eyes were now open and he was taking a good look at her. He had a wicked smile on his face.

  “I never said ‘just’ friends…I said I wanted us to be friends. I don’t want things to get weird” Isabella said after a moment, her eyes still half closed from the kiss.

  She couldn’t help but smile cheekily at him. Somehow, she had managed to twist the situation around. She never said she didn’t want things to get intimate, not openly anyway. Complications on the job, was what Isabella dreaded.

  Christopher gazed at her in silence for a moment.

  “Damn, you are good with words” he teased her “I guess this shows who’s the writer”

  He moved closer and kissed her again. He bit her lower lip gently and then said:

  “Does this look like a friendly kiss to you?” he gave her that wicked smile of his.

  Isabella bit her lip, right where he had bit her moments before, and smiled. She shook her head slowly.

  “So, is this how you relax? Rollercoaster rides, mad hatter and hare tea cup madness, horror house…Is this your idea of chilling out?” she teased him.

  They spoke to each other only inches apart, as if they would start kissing again any minute. Isabella just couldn’t move, she was mesmerized by his deep green eyes, by this incredibly exciting man by her side.

  I am losing my mind.

  “Yes but bungee jumping is more my style. This is just foreplay” he laughed seeing her shocked face. “I am very much into extreme sports”

  “No kidding” she murmured.

  “I told you, I just can’t stand still. I like my adrenaline shots” he smiled again at her. “What about you? What’s your idea of a break?”

  Isabella looked down at her milkshake and fiddled with her straw a little, while thinking it through.

  “A walk on the beach, a visit to the Aquarium, shopping…”

  “The Aquarium?” he enquired, curious to know more.

  Isabella nodded “There is a nice one in Rome. I used to go there every week, more or less. I’d have my lunch break there, on a bench in front of the Red Sea Wildlife”

  “Why the Aquarium?”

  “It’s just so peaceful. Fishes are so colorful and elegant, the way they glide in the water. It calms me down, helps me think” she looked down again a little embarrassed.

  The truth was, the Aquarium was so silent, so different from the rest of the city. It hadn’t been easy, working in Rome all those years. Hours of her life lost in traffic jams, transport strikes… Inside the Aquarium, Isabella had found a same place, where she could listen to her own thoughts, far, far away from any distraction, from the chaos that was Rome. And her old office.

  “We are very different” she added, realizing how opposite their thinking was.

  It was almost like she needed a safe place to reason, elaborate some of her thoughts and feelings, while Christopher needed something powerful, like a strong emotion to wash away his ideas, his worries.

  “Yes and it’s fantastic” he simply said.

  Christopher searched her eyes, making sure she got the message this time. He didn’t want to be friends. He couldn’t even imagine being friends with Isabella. Whatever it was that he wanted, he wanted more than that.

  Isabella stared at him- suppressing a big smile- and tried to think of why he seemed to like her, why was he so interested. She was so normal, so common. There was nothing special about her. She wasn’t even popular or famous.

  Why, of all the women he could have, of all the women he met every day, was Christopher so interested in her?

  “So what do we do now? Mirror house?” she changed the subject.

  “We have to leave soon. I have to go eat something and then get some rest” he told her, apologetically.

  “Of course, I am sorry. I am already distracting you as it is. Let’s go” she got up and went to trash her milkshake and the small box with her half eaten waffle.

  After kissing Christopher, she had realized that she didn’t need comfort food after all.

  Christopher gave her a sly look and took her hand. He didn’t want to part, not now that he could get to know Isabella better.

  “I’ll tell you what: we’ll go for a quick tour of the mirror house. We’ll play hide and seek and every time I find you, I get to touch you…wherever I want”

  Isabella raised an eyebrow and smiled.

  “You mean IF you find me” she flirted back.

  All she could see was people in uniforms running one way, then others running the other way, journalists trying to push through or to get words out of very silent and concentrated drivers.

  Fans were screaming, cheering. It was madness. It was pure excitement. It was the day of the first race. The First Category racing championship was about to begin.

  The stands were packed with fans, showing their t-shirts for support, waving their flags, clapping hands, as the drivers walked on the track.

  In the MB boxes, Noah was sitting in his corner, listening to music, alone and very focused on the race. His girlfriend was strangely nowhere to be seen.

  Maybe she got held up by the photographers, Isabella thought.

  Christopher was somewhere around the track, walking with his headphones on.

  Isabella had seen him arrive, but a part from a very brief –very formal- greeting, they had gone separate ways.

  Her stomach knotted up, just thinking of the night before. She thought about the crazy funfair rides, the festival, their chat on the grass and their goodbye in the car in front of her hotel. He had kissed her passionately again and had wished her good night, but she hadn’t been able to close her eyes, not until one o’clock. She just hoped he had gone to sleep early, like planned. The last thing she wanted was to be the cause of his lack of concentration.

  Just like the last couple of days, Hillary was all over the place. She was calm and professional as always. She had everything under control.

  The team was all set. It was time to roll.

  Since Isabella had been working since nine in the morning, she had had little time to look around and check out all the attractions that were part of the race. Still, between a post and a briefing with Hillary and Mr. Jenkins, she noticed that there was so much more happening besides the championship on track that day. There were dance performances, First category cars’ simulators that fan could try out –although the queue was incredibly long. Isabella even got a glimpse of a few eccentric fans, who were singing and for some reason dressed like army soldier.

  The race began at noon with a roar of excitement: Christopher had a great start and overtook Noah at the first turn and five cars went out because of an accident at the very beginning. The people cheered and applauded as the drivers sped before their eyes.

  For the first ten minutes, Isabella watched the battle on screen. Then, she rushed to take some pictures on the track with Phil and bumped into Camilla, who acknowledged her with a smile, as the two worked side by side.

  When Hillary called for her over the radio, Isabella rushed back to the box and waited for her instructions.

  Christopher came back in to change tires. It had started raining, raining heavily. It was an unexpected variable. The forecast had said sunny all day, but now the track was getting wetter by the minute and the cars began skidding on the tarmac and going off track.
/>   As he left, Noah rushed back to the boxes and changed his tires, too.

  It was all so intense. The teams were all rethinking their strategies, while Christopher was dwelling with Chiellini’s number one driver, doing everything he could to take back his first position.

  When he pushed hard on his brakes a second later than usual – in order to pass the Chiellini driver at the second turn- Isabella’s heart stopped for a second, only to start beating fast again as a roar of excitement sounded in the MB box. Christopher had risked going out at the curve, but thanks to that hazardous move, he was now first again.

  Unexpectedly, the season had started off as a tough one.

  After several incidents and unexpected strategies, the race ended with Christopher winning the race in Australia, followed by Noah and by a young French driver, a debutant.

  Chiellini’s drivers were fourth and fifth and everyone at the MB boxes seemed pleased with the results. Especially seeing Chiellini having difficulties on wet tarmac.

  The MB cars had performed beautifully. They had been fast, the engineers had done a fantastic job with the tire strategies.

  Despite the rain showers and the loss of speed at some point due to the tarmac conditions, the first race was over and MB had set the pace of the championship.

  The best part of the day, was when Christopher jumped on the podium and lifted his cup, so happy and proud to begin the season with his first success.

  Noah waved at the crowd with an almost imperceptible smile on his lips, the confident look on his face promised there would be more. It was just the first race.

  When interviewed, he had said that he had been a little unlucky. He had lost time due to the rain and also because he had changed his tires a lap too late.

  The three drivers on the podium posed for the ritual photograph and Isabella, who was standing right below, took pictures too.

  “Cover the camera, darling” Hillary turned to tell her and, luckily for Isabella, she did so immediately because champagne began to rain on them.

  Ten seconds later she was soaked in it. As she tasted and smelled the bitterness of it, she recalled the first time she had spoken to Christopher, when they had flirted over Prosecco and Champagne.

  She took a deep breath. It had all been so intense. He was intense. His life was intense. He had just risked his life for something he loved so much, not even his father’s death had stopped him.

  Isabella still wasn’t sure if he was brave, passionate or a little crazy. Maybe it takes a little bit of everything to be like him.

  When she looked up, she saw Christopher, bottle in hand, smiling and waving to his fans. He drank from the bottle and cheered with the other two drivers on the podium.

  Christopher was a sight for sore eyes.

  Chapter 16

  Maybe it had been the excitement, the thrill to watch MB win the race, to see Christopher so happy on the podium. Isabella wasn’t sure what had made her lose her mind and go against Mr. Jenkins’ rules. She hadn’t really meant to, she had just done what she thoughts was right.

  Half an hour after the race, the pictures and the blog entries were online, without Mr. Jenkins approval, but with Hillary’s consent.

  The two had both agreed that he had looked very busy on track. Some new sponsor wanted to discuss business with him and Christopher, so Hillary had taken the situation in her hands and given Isabella’s permission to post online.

  Following her bosses approval, she had then posted a summary of the race, major events of the day, who went out, who was disappointed, who had technical problems and so on. Then she posted a behind the scene entry, with pictures of Noah and Christopher and their teams and their opinions about the race.

  The blog entries were an immediate hit and fans began commenting and sharing the pictures on social networks.

  The ones that had most hits were one of Christopher’s walking after the race, white background behind him, his suit lowered to his hips, sunglasses on.

  Phil had taken that one and it was one of the best pictures she had ever seen in her life. The light was just perfect. And the subject of the picture is god…

  The other picture was of Noah laughing – a rare event, which was probably why people liked it, because it showed how he was human, deep down - while waiting to get on the podium.

  All of this she did with Hillary, without contemplating Mr. Jenkins, hoping that he would find them okay.

  You are going to get your ass kicked. She knew that was a possibility, but at the time it did seem like a great waste of time to have to submit every little thing she posted online to Mr. Jenkins scrupulous judgment. No, actually it’s ridiculous.

  She wasn’t unexperienced, she knew what she was doing and she was working on the same team as Christopher’s. She would never do anything to hurt him or his image. How could she damage his image without comprising hers first, anyway? All the post entries had her name on them.

  After press conferences, interviews and so on, they were all free to go. Isabella and Hillary walked into a van with John and Fred from the mechanical team and were driven back to the hotel.

  “I need a shower and a glass of red wine” Hillary said, letting her short hair down. She had tied them up behind her head and was now letting lose. She looked tired but satisfied.

  John and Fred were sort of lying down on the empty seats around them in the van, talking about going out to dinner that night.

  “I’m in” Hillary said, clapping her hands. “What about you, Isabella?” they all turned to look at her and her eyes went up from her laptop.

  “Stop working” Hillary added and nudged her to shut down her pc. “It’s an order” she mocked her.

  Isabella nodded and put her stuff away with a sigh. Then she said:

  “I’m sorry, I was just checking my email. I’m trying to see how long it will take for Mr. Jenkins to notice I’ve posted things without his consent”

  Even though she was sure of what she had done, backed by Hillary’s approval, she couldn’t help but feel a little anxious.

  “Relax. Fans love to see things as they happen and he was busy. He was at a meeting and God knows when that will be over, knowing him” she paused then added “Plus I gave you permission to do so, he won’t be angry with you” Hillary smiled at her. “He really isn’t so unreasonable as he seems”

  “So you say” Isabella made a face. He actually IS unreasonable and stuck up, if only you weren’t in love with him, is what Isabella wanted to tell her.

  It was clear from the past few days that something was up between them.

  Isabella wasn’t judging Hillary- it wasn’t in her style- but she was a little concerned for her sake. It couldn’t end well for her. He was married and the two worked together most of the year. It couldn’t end well, no.

  I am such a hypocrite. Isabella wanted to kick herself. Who was she to judge or give advice about relationship, when she herself was having a fling with a coworker. Christopher might have not been married, but he was a player. A real player.

  “Another reason for coming out with us. If he catches you before going out, you should come to wash off the bitterness of it. If he doesn’t catch you before tonight, you should come out with us anyway, to be as far as possible from him” Fred laughed and Isabella followed.

  Despite his twisted thinking, he was right. Why should she be alone that night? Better to be humiliated in front of everyone, if he found out where they were having dinner.

  He wouldn’t come to the restaurant, just to have a go at me, would he? She secretly wondered. Nah, his wife is here.

  “Christopher is coming too, with a bunch of his friends from Sidney. Noah I’m not sure” John was telling Hillary. Isabella’s head snapped up at the sound of his name.

  Her breathing changed, and a silly secretive smile, washed away the anxiousness she had been feeling since she had posted her material online.

  She couldn’t wait to see Christopher. They had been close to each other all day, b
ut their stares had barely met with all the chaos and the running around of the race.

  Only they wouldn’t be alone, but it was good enough for Isabella. Better see him that way, than see him in ten days or so to the next race.

  Without waiting any longer, Hillary grabbed her phone and booked them a table in an exclusive restaurant in the city center. Apparently there was going to be thirty of them, from mechanics to engineers, in addition to several people from Sidney they befriended over the past two years. It was going to be a blast, Hillary assured them.

  She went on making plans for the night, maybe take it to a club later, but Isabella wasn’t listening, she was thinking of what to wear. She quickly texted Cristina and her sister to let them know she was okay.

  “Hi there” Christopher said, before kissing Hillary and Isabella on the cheeks. He went on shaking hands with the rest of the gang.

  Drinking had begun. John was already chatting some girl up, while Fred and the others were dancing holding glasses in their hands. Noah was already there with his girlfriend, talking to some of his team mates.

  The restaurant was more like a bar. The music was a little too loud for a normal restaurant and there was an upper floor – where they were seated- a ground floor and a lower floor which apparently became a sort of a club after midnight.

  Christopher moved around the room, followed by some friends, who introduced themselves to everyone, Isabella included. She couldn’t remember any of their names but they all seemed nice enough, definitely in a party mood.

  Christopher was all smiles, as he chatted with his friends and team mates around the table. The bar was packed but Isabella had been able to see him through the crowd.

  He had spotted her immediately, as soon as he and his friends had entered the place. Isabella had been standing near the table, with her long hair tied to the side in a braid and with a brown and golden hair band over her head. He couldn’t stop looking at her, she looked beautiful as always.

  By the time he had reached the table, he had figured it would have been hard to keep his eyes off her. She was wearing an open jeans button up shirt and a white tank top underneath, that accentuated her slim waste, and white shorts. Those white shorts were the death of him.