Page 6 of Retrograde
She was in London with Faith, Bea and Esme not even forty-eight hours after the first race of the IEC season had finished at Spa. They had abandoned the post-race celebrations at Julien and Faith’s house in Malmedy, having celebrated enough Revolution race wins in the last few years to last a lifetime. The drivers, however, had insisted they could squeeze it all in as long as De Luca, the most sensible of the three, stayed sober.
So now the girls were at their brand-new London office, stringing up balloons and decorating the foyer for their launch party without their promised help, and berating their friends’ lack of time management when it came to anything except their careers.
‘I should have confiscated Julien’s house key,’ Faith laughed. ‘They wouldn’t have gotten very far without it.’
‘Of course they would.’ Lucie handed her the finished balloon. ‘Your property sits on acres of land. They’d have climbed the fences, taken their beers and sat in the grass until the sun came up. Honestly, I don’t know who’s the worst influence, Jules or Brett.’
‘Ha, that’s easy! It’s Brett. No doubt,’ Bea chimed in, shuffling the custom cocktail menus in her hands.
‘Yeah, I’ve got to back her up there,’ Esme shrugged. ‘He’s a bit of a wild card.’
Lucie sighed, annoyed that their event hadn’t taken priority with the guys. Then again, they were the ones who had scheduled the launch for tonight of all nights. They had to choose a day when most female team principals across the industry could make it, and that meant inconveniencing a handful of people in the IEC for the sake of a hundred-plus key guests they’d been desperate to snag for the launch.
Still, Brett and the guys could have celebrated in London rather than staying in Belgium for ‘tradition’. They didn’t need every male driver on the grid in attendance. Most of the female drivers were here, supporting them, but their best friends had opted to nurse their hangovers on the Calais-to-Dover ferry with six hours until they cut the ribbon. A very big, very pink sparkly ribbon– Bea’s choice, of course. It may not have been the obvious choice for women in a motorsport company, but damn Beatrix Miller and her stereotypes. She even had a matching one in her hair.
‘Jada Scott has confirmed she can make it last minute!’ Faith waved her phone around, showing them the email she had received from a sports journalist. ‘Things are shaping up very nicely, ladies,’ she grinned.
It was mostly thanks to Faith’s career prior to joining the IEC. They had been slowly working on building the business up and doing the occasional workshop overthe last season, but it was joining forces with Faith’s motorsport podcast that had been the final factor and given them the boost they needed to take things to the next level.
Girls Off Track had taken over the podcast and its merchandise business and rebranded accordingly, and they were starting to get huge numbers of women involved. Female drivers, team principals, engineers, mechanics, journalists, social media crews. The sky was the limit, but it had all happened so fast that they needed this London office as a base. It was a capital city which made it easy for people to travel to from all over the place, and a lot of racing teams had offices here, too. Or at least were based in the UK, a short drive away. Silverstone was a mere couple of hours from them.
Pop-up workshops across the globe were still going to be a key goal, but the UK was their starting point and their waiting list was already a mile long. The days of motorsport being known as a ‘man’s sport’ were numbered.
Having said that, the men of Revolution Racing played a huge part in this, too. They were silent partners and had helped the girls financially, emotionally, verbally, you name it. Daily social media shoutouts were Brett’s favourite thing and there wasn’t a single post of theirs that the guys hadn’t hyped up, but the daily running of Girls Off Track was all them.
Bringing Esme on board had been a risk, given they didn’t know her too well outside of work, but she had slotted into the team perfectly and splitting the workbetween four instead of three had been a big positive, allowing them to work more efficiently and maintain this alongside their commitments to the IEC.
‘My darling husband has just sent me a selfie and I have to say, he doesn’t look too hung-over. Maybe he’ll be able to handle “Faith’s Jungle Juice”?’ she snorted.
‘Excuse me!’ Lucie turned her nose up. ‘We don’t need to bring your bedroom antics into this conversation. Not again.’
‘It’s the name of one of the cocktails!’ Faith gestured at the menu.
‘Oh dear, I knew we should’ve asked to approve that list.’ Esme grimaced in Lucie’s direction, peering over Faith’s shoulder at the names.
‘We’ve also got the “Lucie Sunrise”, “Long Island Iced Bea”, and the “Esme Fizz”.’ Bea smiled proudly, fanning herself with one of the menus.
‘Of course you get the best name.’
‘Jealousy is an ugly trait, Luce!’ Bea placed the final menu on the top of the bar and flounced off across the room, heels clacking across the floor.
The four of them carried on with the finishing touches to the décor and let the caterers in before they scarpered off to the bathrooms to change into their outfits for the night. They hadn’t stopped working since they had arrived in London, which had resulted in each of them looking a state, and Bea would never allow them to look anything but their best on such a big night. She had made calls to get a last-minute makeup artist, but even with all her connections, the plan had fallen through. So, whenBrett video-called Lucie right in the middle of her using her phone camera to do her mascara, she cursed.
‘Fu— Hey, Anderson!’
‘Sunny! Whatcha doing?’
‘Making myself look pretty.’
He replied with, ‘You always look pretty,’ at the same time as Julien said, ‘Should we notify your guests that you need another six hours, then?’
‘Julien Moretz, marrying my best friend is the worst thing you’ve ever done.’
‘What?!’ Faith gaped at her, lip gloss in hand.
‘The sass! Since meeting you, he has becomesosarcastic.’
‘I taught him well.’
