Chapter Text
He had arrived in Maranello that morning on a private flight with a carry-on, the rest of his things had been shipped a few days earlier and were already set up in the house he would be living in during his time in Italy.
He still didn’t know how he would divide his life between Monte Carlo and Italy, but moving there for now wasn’t a problem for him, he wanted to invest everything in that Ferrari experience, the most famous team in the world, the one he had wanted himself.
It was a cold and sunny day at the beginning of January, everything in that town screamed Cavallino, as if it were a religion the entire population was devoted to.
The car waiting for him at the airport to take him to HQ was, of course, a red Ferrari, a dream to drive, a machine that glided along the road perfectly.
Ahead of him, two team cars led the way toward his new life in red.
He drove into the enormous factory parking lot with a smile, slowing down and making his way through the crowd of journalists that had gathered there for him.
He waved to fans, to the press, he had never in his entire career seen a crowd like that gathered just for him.
A moment later he parked and got out with a smile he couldn’t quite turn off, as the same people who had welcomed him at the airport approached again to guide him inside.
There was the press conference, an endless round of photographs, handshakes, everything you would expect on the first day of a job like that.
After two hours of smiles and formalities, they finally took him to meet the team, smiling faces, enthusiastic, eager to shake his hand and introduce themselves.
“Giorgio De Marchi,” a man in his fifties introduced himself with a reassuring smile and the air of someone who knows exactly what he’s doing, “Head of the F1 division, Scuderia Ferrari engineer, we’ll be working together quite a lot,” he continued.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Fernando replied.
He had thought he would feel more out of place, more intimidated.
Instead, that welcome had made him feel at ease right away, had made him understand that he would be fine there.
“This is Andrea Stella, he’ll be your shadow, your race engineer, if you need anything, ask him,” Giorgio smiled, introducing a man who looked about ten years older than him, with the gaze of someone who wanted to win, no matter what.
“Fernando,” the Spaniard said, shaking his hand, “So you’re the one I’m going to win with,” he joked, making the Italian engineer laugh.
“You can bet on it,” Andrea replied, returning the firm handshake.
An endless series of meetings, briefings and presentations followed.
Fernando followed everything carefully, he didn’t want to miss anything, he wanted to start immediately, understand everything, be ready for that incredible season.
It was already five in the afternoon when Giorgio approached him. “I’d say that’s enough for today, I can take you to see your apartment if you want, it’s close by, we had it set up and I hope you’ll like it,” the man said. “It’s a nice area, it’s actually the same building where my daughter lives, I know it well,” he added, gesturing for him to follow.
The drive to the apartment was short, the roads were empty, the darkness in the Romagna countryside pitch black.
Giorgio parked in front of a new, elegant, well-lit building.
“There’s a housekeeper who will take care of everything for you, groceries, cleaning, laundry, cooking, her name is Ornella and anything you need you can ask her,” Giorgio began, leading the way inside. “You also have a driver, Filippo, you can call whenever you want, and you have Michela’s number, your assistant here in Maranello, you can ask her anything,” he continued as they stepped out of the elevator on the top floor. “And for any emergency, my daughter lives right there with…” he started, pointing at the door across from Fernando’s.
At that exact moment, the door opened and a girl stepped out, not very tall, her hair tied up in a messy bun, a light blue backpack over her shoulder and a jacket carelessly thrown on.
“Martina!” Giorgio said when he saw her.
“Dad…” she replied, surprised. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m bringing your new neighbor home, I told you I’d placed a world champion in your building, didn’t I?” Giorgio said with a smile. “Fernando, this is my daughter Martina,” he added, as the driver reached out to shake her hand.
“An honor,” she said, looking at him.
She had a small face, a restrained smile and the eyes of someone a little too tired, lacking the kind of light someone her age should have.
“Are you heading to the hospital?” Giorgio asked, and Martina nodded. “She’s an ER doctor,” he explained to Fernando, just before the elevator doors opened again and a man stepped out, roughly Fernando’s age, tall, very tall, ash-blond hair and dark eyes.
“Leonardo! Here’s the real star of the couple!” Giorgio laughed, greeting him with a pat on the shoulder.
Fernando paused for a moment, asking himself if because of his still uncertain Italian he hadn’t quite understood what Giorgio just said.
“Fernando, let me introduce you to Leonardo, my daughter’s boyfriend, a top-level researcher, he has publications in all the most important international journals,” Giorgio continued, having the two men shake hands.
Fernando smiled politely, unable to stop himself from glancing briefly at Martina, who had remained silent, saying nothing, barely even greeting the man who was supposed to be her boyfriend.
“Giorgio exaggerates,” Leonardo smiled. “I think the real star here is you,” he added, turning to Fernando.
“I hope to be this year with Ferrari,” the Spaniard replied simply, shrugging.
The Italian then shifted his gaze to Martina. “Working tonight?” he asked.
“Yes, I’ve got night shifts this week,” she replied, and Leonardo let out a small laugh that didn’t sound particularly polite.
“Well, at least they’re easy shifts, so you won’t get too tired,” he commented, though there was little irony in his tone, it sounded more sharp than joking.
Fernando would have expected a response from her father, but none came, the man simply let out a similarly irritating chuckle. “The local ER doesn’t exactly offer much excitement,” Giorgio added.
And she remained silent, offering only the faintest smile.
“Well, I guess you still save a few lives every now and then,” Fernando said without thinking, he didn’t like that atmosphere, he didn’t like the way that girl had been pushed into a corner not only by her boyfriend but also by her own father.
“A few,” she smiled.
“Alright, let me help our champion get settled,” Giorgio said. “Leonardo, you must be exhausted, go get some rest,” he added.
They said goodbye to the couple, he disappeared into the apartment and she slipped silently back into the elevator.
Fernando and Giorgio stepped inside, where the latter gave him a quick tour, showing him everything he thought was necessary, and then finally left him alone.
It had been an endless day and he needed a shower and something to eat.
The fridge was full, the pantry too, and he had the number of anyone who might be useful if he needed anything.
After showering, he dropped onto the couch, turning on the TV with a plate of something he had found in the fridge that smelled incredible, maybe a bit too heavy on carbs, but perfect to celebrate his first night in Italy.
That would be his home for a while, and it didn’t seem bad.
Neither did the people he had met that day.
The next day Edoardo and Fabrizio would arrive too, both happy that their “boss” had found work in their Italy.
Fernando already had a connection to that country, his two most trusted collaborators were Italian, and so was Flavio, his manager, maybe that was why it had taken him so little to feel at home.
He thought back to the day, lingering on the encounter on the landing.
The way Leonardo and Giorgio had treated that girl hadn’t sat right with him, but she hadn’t said anything, she had just lowered her gaze, as if she were used to it.
She was pretty, with that slightly dimmed look, the gentle expression of someone used to staying in the background, but she had a beautiful smile.
In the end he had seen them for no more than five minutes, so his impression could have been completely wrong, he didn’t know anything about her, or about them, not yet.
But he was someone who relied heavily on instinct.
And something, instinctively, hadn’t convinced him.
—
The first days in Maranello had been full, and every evening Fernando came home carrying a kind of exhaustion that made him happy.
His collaborators and the people he had worked with for years had joined him, everything was starting to fall into place, the hours on the simulator, the meetings with engineers and, above all, he was getting to know Andrea Stella better and better, his race engineer, the one he would be working closely with every single day.
He was a determined, competent man, someone he worked well with and got along with on a personal level too, calm, polite, likeable… someone who might become a friend, sooner or later.
Giorgio had remained very present as well, and that day he had invited him for a coffee at the factory bar.
When Fernando arrived, he immediately noticed the man wasn’t alone, Leonardo was there with him, the daughter’s boyfriend he had crossed paths with a couple of times in the elevator.
“Fernando, come!” Giorgio said. “I invited Leo, he had an hour free from his thousand commitments,” he added with a smile.
The Spaniard greeted the man his age, who returned it calmly.
“Leonardo has just come back from a conference in Frankfurt on new cancer treatments… this guy is going to save the entire world,” Giorgio laughed, ordering coffee for everyone.
Leonardo smiled with false modesty.
“Do you also work in the same hospital as your girlfriend?” Fernando asked, just to make some conversation.
“Same building, yes, but completely different fields, obviously,” he replied immediately. “Emergency medicine is too rough for me… you have to improvise, endless shifts, and you get paid like shit,” he added, laughing.
“I had really hoped Martina would choose a different specialization…” Giorgio chimed in.
“She could never have been a researcher,” Leonardo added.
“Why?” Fernando asked, not understanding.
That sentence didn’t sound right when directed at the person you’re supposed to love.
“Marty has this… good samaritan thing,” Leonardo laughed. “And she’s not cut out for the kind of commitment research requires, she does better with broken arms and colds,” he added.
“Unfortunately, yes…” Giorgio commented.
Were they really talking about her like that?
And in front of a complete stranger.
They sounded almost pitying, like she was the one who couldn’t quite measure up, the one who just did what she could.
And they were talking about their daughter, about their girlfriend, with a kind of superficiality and irony that felt deeply wrong.
Fernando said nothing, letting his gaze drift around, only half listening to the conversation.
What could possibly be so wrong with her for her to be treated like that?
—
It was late when Fernando stepped into the elevator, he was about to press his floor when he heard a “wait” from behind him.
Martina hurried in and stepped inside.
“Hi,” she smiled, leaning back against the wall.
“Hi,” he replied, pressing the fourth floor. “Long day?” he asked.
“Extremely, there was a bad accident on the ring road, three injured, one critical, but it turned out fine,” she said. “You?”
Fernando laughed. “I drove a simulator for four hours, not exactly the same as saving three people,” he joked, and she laughed.
“Your job doesn’t seem easy either,” she admitted as they stepped out onto the landing.
“It just takes training and instinct,” he replied.
“Same in my job,” Martina said. “But in the end it’s just a specialization like any other… I don’t spend my days studying incredibly complicated things…” she added, almost as if she had to justify it, as if she shouldn’t make what she did sound too important.
“Your instinct saves people, though, that doesn’t sound easy to me,” he said, tilting his head.
“It tries, and luckily most of the time it works,” she replied softly, pulling her keys out of her pocket.
“Good evening then,” Fernando said, just before opening his door and disappearing inside.
He dropped his bag to the floor and turned on the TV, the news was on, reporting the accident on the ring road, a family, parents and a child, very serious, miraculously saved by doctors, which probably meant also by that girl he had just said goodbye to minutes earlier.
He thought back to what Giorgio and Leonardo had said that morning, as if working in the ER were something insignificant, and he thought of what she had said earlier, as if she had to explain that what she did wasn’t anything difficult, just a simple job, nothing special.
How could saving a life be nothing?
He dropped onto the couch, exhausted, wanting nothing more than a beer and something to eat.
But something kept circling in his mind.
That smile.
Shy.
Guarded.
The kind of smile of someone who doesn’t want to be seen too much.
And yet he hadn’t been able to ignore it.
He had seen her.