Valeria was walking through the paddock in Barcelona. Her heart was racing even faster than it did on her first day in Maranello. She put her sunglasses down, as she zigzagged through the crowd. She loved her new uniform. Sure, the red trousers were a bit bright, but you don't have Ferrari without the red. She walked into the motorhome to find Pietro. He was in charge of the marketing, whilst Valeria was dealing with the PR. Her job was to make sure that Seb and Charles didn't destroy Ferrari's image during interviews and briefings.

'I am absolutely shitting myself' she told him, grabbing the coffee he had got her.

'you'll be fine. F1 is here to talk to you' he told her. Valeria walked over to the lady he had pointed to.

'hi, I'm sure we have spoken via email' she started. 'I'm Valeria'

'oh sure, I'm Lucy' they shook hands. Lucy gave her a timetable of available slots for their drivers to fit into and walked out again. Valeria looked around for Silvia and Britta.

'morning ladies! I have an f1 timetable. Can we work on getting Sebastian and Charles in any of these?' she asked them. The girls gave her some options that Valeria emailed over to f1. 'I'll ping them over to your calendars' she added, as her phone buzzed for a call.

Damn it was going to be a busy couple of weeks.

Valeria walked out of the motorhome, her clipboard under her arm, following Seb, Charles and their Pas to the first driver's conference of the week.

'I forgot to say, you look good in red' Charles told her, as he walked next to her.

'Thanks' she smiled. 'These trousers though'

'absolutely unflattering, babe' he joked. 'I need details off you, by the way. You went karting?' he whispered.

'Carlo! Inappropriate!' She kind of shrieked, making Sebastian turn around curious. 'I'll tell you later.' She whispered, so the German couldn't hear.

They walked in the conference room. Britta, Silvia and Valeria stood at the back with the other press officers. Valeria looked at her phone to silence it for the session.

'no fucking way, what are you doing here in a Ferrari outfit?' an Australian voice made her look up. 'Valeria?'

'Mr. Ricciardo' she smiled. 'I work for Ferrari?' she joked.

'no way. We need a catch up. This is mind blowing.' He told her. 'I'll come find you after this, alright?' he hugged her. Valeria could feel a few prying eyes on them as she tried to shrug them off. Seb was sitting at the table, already, and had watched the interaction curiously. He shook hands with Dan and started catching up. Valeria looked back at her phone, trying to distract herself.

They walked out what felt like days after. This was only her first one and she was already wondering how many more journalists were going to ask Seb if he had a chance at the championship that year.

'I'll catch you guys in a minute' she told the group. 'I'll see you back at the motorhome'

She waited for Dan to come out of the room too.

'Jesus. It's like a blast from the past. I haven't seen you since...' he started.

'Jules' funeral' she concluded, instinctively touching her wrist. She had flown to Monaco from London for Jules' last few days. She remembered it like it was yesterday. The pain of losing such a close friend had destroyed her.

'is this for Jules?' he asked, gently touching her wrist. 'am I wrong or you hate needles?'

'how do you remember so much?' she joked. 'yeah. I had to do it though, for him' she told him.

'so... press for Ferrari, uh? You didn't want to be a racer, but you can't stay away from it' he asked her.

'yeah, i guess it's still in me? How's the new team? Don't think I haven't kept up with you through the years'

'Yeah, good. Thanks for keeping an eye on me! Hopefully it'll be a good one'

'Well, good luck, Dan. It was so nice to see you again.' She hugged him, hearing a click from behind her.

'jee, day one on the paddock and you're starting rumours. You haven't changed a bit' he joked, passing her a piece of paper. 'see you around' he smiled.

Valeria walked back to the Ferrari motorhome and looked at the paper. Dan had quickly scribbled his number on it. She saved and sent him a text so he could have hers. She jumped on twitter to see her picture hugging Dan being tweeted already.

'Cazzo' she whispered. 'on day 1'

She checked her schedule. Seb was due to do a piece for Drive to survive 2. She double checked the room and walked towards it. He was getting micked up and gave her a small smile, as she sat next to Britta.

'My name is Sebastian Vettel and I'm a driver for Scuderia Ferrari'

Even after all the years of struggle with the prancing horse, you could see how proud Seb was to be a part of the history.

She stood in the back of the room, catching up with work emails and pinging them over to Britta or Silvia, according to the sought after driver. They hadn't even started testing and they already had too much on their plate.

They walked out of the room, Valeria could sense a weird vibe from Seb, but she tried to brush it off, he never liked to share much with the media, so he was probably not excited about being on Drive to survive.

She felt her phone buzz. Daniel had just sent her a picture of them with Jules from years before. Dan and Jules had met in Viareggio, when they were 17. Valeria was 16 at the time and used to travel there from Rome to visit her friend. She smiled at Dan's afro, Jules' baby face and her weird undercut.

'mate that is a blast from the past!' she texted. 'Jesus, that hair. What was I thinking?'

'What were YOU thinking? What was I thinking? Look at that mess.' Valeria smiled, she had always liked Dan. He was a funny man, she always used to take the piss out of her and Jules for being so in love with each other and doing nothing about it. She had followed his career, cheering him on as he started off at RedBull.

'if you have any more pictures, please send them my way. I have lost so many.'

'Will do, Taz.' She smiled at the nickname. He did remember a lot. Jules had always called her that, he said she reminded him of the looney tunes character, always bringing chaos wherever she went. She had even got it tattooed on her right ankle. She felt a tear come out and quickly dried it, thanking her sunglasses for having hidden it.

They walked back into the motorhome. Valeria left the German and his pa, joining Charles and his to give them an updated afternoon schedule.

'So, how was the karting?' Charles asked her, as she grabbed a sandwich to have a quick lunch break.

'it was good. I think he let me win' she told him. 'i missed it, to be honest.'

'And that was it? Nothing else?' he smirked.

'whatever you're implying, Leclerc, keep it for yourself.' She told him, trying not to blush. 'Charlie, what a fucking mess. What am I doing? I can't think straight' she confessed.

'For what it's worth, I think he likes you too' he whispered.

'that makes it even worse' she said, trying to hide a smile 'I'm going for a smoke. I can't deal with it right now' she picked up her tray and brought it back, walking out quickly.

She sat on a bench, behind the motorhome, where she couldn't be seen by fans and cameras. She needed to sort herself out. She was in charge of Ferraris PR, she couldn't afford to crush on one of their drivers. She was already going to cause a lot of stress with her picture with Dan, she couldn't afford anything else. And she was pretty sure it would be seen as a conflict of interest if anything were to happen, not that it would. Yes, Charles said that he thought Seb liked her too, but she wasn't sure. She needed to stop. She inhaled deeply from her cigarette and touched her left wrist. He would have known what to do. She let a couple tears out.

'Are you alright?' Seb had just appeared, with Riccardo. They were probably looking for a quiet place.

'Yes, yes of course. Allergies' she blew her nose.

Seb looked at her unsure, she smiled feebly. 'I'll let you guys have a private conversation' she excused herself, walking back into the motorhome, then through it. She grabbed her work phone and checked the schedule again. She had a good 20 minutes before she had to be with Charles for his Drive to survive bits. She walked out of the motorhome, not sure on where she was going. She walked down, looking around at tje different places and people.

'excuse me?' she heard, as someone touched her shoulder. 'can I ask you a couple of questions?'

'What would that be regarding to?' her training kicked in, she tried to sound as professional as she could.

'Your relationship with Daniel Ricciardo' the journalist replied.

Valeria tried not to roll her eyes too visibly under her polarised lenses.

'what have I done this time?' Daniel had appeared next to her, as he heard his name.

'Nothing, we were just curious...' the journalist seemed to have lost her mojo.

'I met Valeria ages ago, back in Italy. She's a friend of a friend and she used to come watch him race. I hadn't seen her in about five years, I didn't know she worked at Ferrari, so we had a catch up. No news story, I'm afraid. We are friends' Dan saved her. He didn't even mention Jules, good. People could speculate about the common friend. The journalist left, probably feeling annoyed at the absence of gossip.

'Thank you, Dan. This day is going from bad to worse' she whispered.

'chin up, Taz. It's your first day. Everyone loves a new face. Don't worry, there will be some more drama this year that will overpower our hug.' He smiled. 'stop frowning, you'll get wrinkles'

Valeria finally laughed. 'if I do, I'll come find you for a loan for botox, yeah?' she joked.

'Sorry can't hear?! The line is disturbed' he joked, making crackling noises and walking away.

Valeria shook her head, the goofy Australian had always had a power of making her feel better. She checked the schedule again and realised she had taken way too long with the random journalist. She walked quickly to the media area and arrived just in time for Charles' bit.

The day had finally drawn to and end. Valeria was ready to get back to her hotel room, pour herself the largest drink possible and lay in the bathtub for a while. She checked up on her last email, collected all of her stuff and walked out. The warm Spanish sun still shining, she enjoyed the feeling on her skin, longing for a tan. She walked back to the hotel, stopping at a supermarket just before. She walked into her room, kicked off her red trainers, folded her uniform on a chair and poured a large amount of whiskey in a cup. She turned her music on and filled the tub with water. She entered, letting the worries and the stress of the day finally get to her. She quietly sobbed, she wasn't sad, but tears were the way she reset herself. She always felt better after a good cry.

Her phone buzzed.

'hey, I know it's not my place to say anything, but if you need a chat, or a vent, or anything, you know where to find me' Seb had texted her.

'thank you. Can I ask where this is coming from?'

'it's February. You must be pretty unlucky to suffer from allergies right now.'

Valeria smiled. 'thanks for not saying anything, I would have proper sobbed in front of you then. I'm all better, though. I just had a cry and a whiskey, all is good'

'there's no need to cry. If you're worried about work, you're doing well. If you're worried about yourself, you're a pretty sound person, you can fix anything that happened. If you're worried about anything else and need a friend, you have me. And Charles, Dan, Domenico, Pietro... do i need to carry on? You don't have to deal with anything alone, ok?'

Valeria smiled. She really was falling for the man, even if she knew it was wrong.

'I could do with a friendly shoulder to cry on' she typed.

'I can come over, or call someone?'

Valeria took a deep breath. What was she doing? She got out of the tub and dried herself, changing into a pair of jeans and a hoodie. 'room 204' she replied.

She sat on the bed, her heart pounding out of her chest. Why did she invite Sebastian Vettel into her room? What did she think it could happen?

She heard a knock and she jumped up from the bed. She walked to the door, damning every single decision she had made that took her up to that moment. She saw Seb in the peephole and opened up.

'hey, come in' she told him. 'Thanks for popping by' she added.

'anytime' he told her. She looked so tired, her eyes red and puffed out by the cry she had had in the bathtub. Sebastian just wanted to pull her close and hug her tight. 'what's up with you? You haven't been yourself since we went karting' he started.

'Just a lot on my mind. I love my job but it seems like I'm doing everything to sabotage it. First day and I get everyone to talk about me, going around to hug Dan; then I have a silly crush on a driver and can't seem to shake it off. It's my job to make sure you guys don't jeopardise your careers or Ferrari, and I go and do that on day 1.' She blurted out. She realised what she had just told Sebastian and blushed. Seb looked at her.

 'listen, this is formula1, there will always be gossip on who's dating who. You know better than i do that the media is there to make our lives a bit harder, but they don't get to dictate who you are and who you get silly crushes on. You have been around  motorsports before, you know some people and this shouldn't make you act any differently around them because you're worried about the press. It was only day 1, i was as stressed on my first day in formula1. It does get better'

Valeria smiled feebly. He was right. She had let the first day nerves take hold of her a bit too much. 'Thanks Seb. I need someone, sometimes, to tell me I'm being an idiot.'

'I'll gladly take that job, Kleiner' he told her, pulling her into a hug.

A slow song by Rammstein had started playing out of Valeria's speakers.

'Du bist so schön, so wunderschön
Ich will nur dich
Immer nur dich ansehen
Lässt die Welt um mich verblassen
Kann den Blick nicht von dir lassen

Und dieses Funkeln deiner Augen
Will die Seele aus mir saugen'

Valeria was resting her head on Sebastian's shoulder, her heart still trying to make its way out of her chest. She quietly sang along to the lyrics.

'Your German is terrible' Seb joked. 'but I guess you can't speak every language fluently'

She looked up to him, his blue eyes piercing through her light brown irises, a small smile forming on her lips as he watched Seb's curve upwards too.

'so that driver you were crushing on... do I know him?' he whispered.

'you might. Probably better than anyone else' she whispered in response.

'Is it Kimi?' he joked.

'You guessed it first try! Unbelievable' she laughed. 'but you know... it'd be too awkward for me to pursue anything with him. You know, I work for Ferrari, it would be a PR nightmare'

'no offence, but fuck PR' he said, pulling her towards him. His lips met with hers. She could feel his light stubble tickle her face. She wrapped her hand behind his head, letting their tongues dance together.

'now, i hope you don't do this with Charles, Domenico, Pietro and especially Dan' he joked, as they separated.

'They like me for a reason, Seb' she teased him. 'but no. No, I don't'

The two stayed up chatting for a while. Before they could realise it, it was 2 am.

'it's so late. You need to sleep.' Valeria told Seb. 'you have a practice session tomorrow and I don't want to be asked why you look like you haven't slept'

'I don't want to go... but I know I should. We'll talk about this tomorrow, alright?'

'sure. No pressure, Seb. I'll see you tomorrow, 8 am, sharp.' She tried to sound professional.

'see you in a few hours, Kleiner' he stamped a kiss on her lips. He opened the door, turned around to look at her and closed the door again. Valeria was leaning on the wall, a small smile on her face. Seb walked towards her a kissed her again. 'I'll see you tomorrow, beautiful.' he whispered, playfully biting her lip.

'Bye, Seb' she replied, as he looked out of the door to check nobody was around and walked out, giving her a last smile.