My Formula 1 System-Chapter 616: Lovers
Before attending to the real reason he’d come to London, Luca visited the other side of the city.
Dulwich was a quiet settlement in the southeast, detached like a village with a lot of green spaces and a strong educational heritage. He expected to find Isabella here because she was on a brief summer break and had taken the chance to spend a few days looking after old Mr. Schafer, who had settled in the area.
When Luca arrived, Isabella tried to act as if she hardly knew him, greeting him like a stranger and avoiding his gaze, as if they hadn’t spoken on the phone the same morning. However, her performance was terrible; Luca couldn’t stop laughing in his mind.
Throughout the day, nothing was funnier than Mr. Schafer himself. An aging man who survived a stroke and now lived quietly was bound to become a maestro at crude jokes. He joked about everything that had happened since the last time he saw Luca, while still complaining at the same time. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
Despite it being a happy moment, there was a sad appearance to it, Luca could see as he watched the man talk freely.
It was a wonder what fate had in store for Mr. Schafer over the next five years, if not death itself. Sixty-five years old wasn’t bad; the problem was his only daughter standing alone once he was gone. It was an unkind future, and perhaps, Isabella could sense the narrow years ahead, making her plan early.
After serving both men refreshments, Isabella told them she’d be in her room for a while and that they could call if they needed anything. With that, she turned and walked away. Halfway to her room, she felt like she was being followed, but she didn’t address it.
Once inside her room, she shut the door softly and exhaled. Just to the side, there was her desk with unfinished work, so she leaned onto it, slipped into the chair, and picked up exactly where she had left off.
Several seconds later, the door handle rattled before it opened slowly. Luca was the intruder. The instant he stepped in, their eyes met, and just as quickly, the guard dropped, and the cat-mouse game was over.
"So... how long are you staying?" Isabella asked as Luca glanced around her room.
"Not even a week," Luca answered. Turning back to her, he asked, "What’s on your mind?"
Isabella let the question settle as she tapped on her laptop. When she found the photos she was looking for, she swiveled the laptop toward him. "This," she said, at pictures of a property. "I found a house. A really, really good one."
"It’s in Teddington," Isabella continued as Luca looked at them. "It is just perfect. Very large land. Victorian with perfect climate and greenery. It’s exactly what I want. There are two others I need to choose from as well. So, I wanted if there’s time, we go see them."
Isabella’s determination to build a life with Luca hadn’t paused at all. This was a big step, even though Luca’s agent could handle a house hunt with ease.
But since she put some effort and dedication, hers should take precedence.
Unfortunately, Luca wasn’t interested in any of this for the time being. With only a handful of days in London, he would have preferred to take her out on a date to have moments... not mortgages.
"I like it," he told her. "But we’re still kids. We should be having fun, not house-hunting like we’re in our thirties."
"I suppose so," Isabella whispered before falling silent. Meanwhile, Luca took a few slow steps to the center of the room.
"I’ll be missing your birthday, won’t I?"
"Yeah."
"Let’s have tomorrow night to ourselves. Cool?" Luca asked as he walked back to the door and opened it.
"Cool," Isabella replied.
At the door, he wished her a happy birthday in advance. She said thank you before he left.
~~~~~~~~~
As the young couple planned, the next night belonged to them. They first met at a restaurant for dinner, Luca wearing a white t-shirt and brown chinos, while Isabella dressed in a jean blouse and black culottes.
Their dinner was too brief to be called a date because soon they were in a general engineering museum that Isabella had always wanted to go to. As a very popular F1 driver, Luca’s presence finally gave her entry into the place despite her being an esteemed engineer herself.
Inside, the museum was a cathedral of human ingenuity. All ages and eras of dynamos and automobile history had their place here, a variety that told breakthroughs and even wars. Isabella couldn’t believe she had walked on the aisle next to models she thought didn’t exist, and monocoque frames of accidents.
Since Luca had to attend to fans who approached, they lost track of time in the museum. At the wind-tunnel exhibit, they met the best F1 endurance-series Technical Director and a Senior Powertrain Engineer who had some press popularity earlier this year after a big development in the company he worked for.
Both men were equally partisans of Luca and Isabella, respectively. The technical director was elated to get to meet Luca in person, while the senior engineer admitted it was an honor, and he would like to work with the young lady who innovated the ThunderKat 2.0.
Before the night could turn logical, Luca and Isabella left, getting dessert along the way. On the pavement, Isabella suggested that they participate in the Local Disaster Memorial held every July in remembrance of lives lost to river drowning, especially the catastrophe at North Woolwich Pier seven years ago.
As a ritual, people gathered at night at this time of the year, releasing sky lanterns together.
Luca liked it, so he bought the items needed before they got into the car and drove far to the open fields where others were gathered.
When they arrived, Luca hadn’t expected so many people, all standing in clusters across the open ground, holding lanterns. The river drownings had a lot of casualties and victim families. Luca felt the weight of it even if he didn’t fully share Isabella’s sentiment. He decided to drive farther away to prevent recognition, eventually finding a secluded spot on a wider field.
Happily, the couple performed the ritual and watched their lanterns lift into the night like balloons. It was a loving moment for them. Luca even promised to make inquiries about the Pier. If it still wasn’t safe, he would help so fewer names would ever be remembered this way.
Speaking of remembrance, despite seemingly being here for the first time, Luca thought it was familiar. He scanned the dark fields and road until he recognized that he had been here on two fleeting occasions.
"Enter the car. Let’s go down that valley, there’s something I want to show you."
"What’s that?" Isabella asked with a frown, but Luca was already jogging toward the driver’s seat.
Isabella was worried because Luca had had too much to drink, first at dinner, then at the museum bar. But she still entered the car.
After a three-minute drive, the Jaguar rolled off the tarred road and passed through an open iron gate into what looked like an abandoned mansion in the mist. Gravel crunched beneath the tyres as the headlights swept across broken statues and overgrown hedges. It was so chilling that Isabella turned to her boyfriend for reason, but he looked like he knew what he was doing.
The mansion was massive and dilapidated, making it look haunted. As the car drove around the courtyard, fear fully crept in for the young woman.
"Luca, where is this??" Isabella asked as Luca opened his door to step out.
"Relax," Luca yawned with a Playboy smile. "It’s an old house, going to be demolished soon. I thought it’d be fun to raid it. Y’know that kind of stupid high school fun."
It was the first time Isabella was seeing this side of him, so she didn’t know how to take it.
Once they were outside the car, Luca led the way toward the cracked stone stairs, his back to her as he continued. "It belongs to one of Mrs. Hawthorne’s friends. Divorced years ago, the kids gone. He’s been living in Ireland for almost three decades now, so there’s no reason to keep this place."
"Whenever we pass through Norfolk, my manager asks if I want to buy it. It’s marked for demolition anyway. So—what do you think? Would you like this property?"
Isabella froze at the bottom step, her legs shaky. She wasn’t ready for the question, nor was she prepared for this expedition. The mansion was like a haunted film set, and her petite outfit made her look very innocent compared to the decay.
"Come on," Luca said to fill in her silence. He waved her in. "Let’s check inside."
