Chasing Daisy

myself into action again. I hurry behind the table. ‘Have you been waiting long?’
    ‘Only a minute.’
    ‘What can I get you?’ I gaze up at him and try not to jolt at the sight of his blue eyes. They still surprise me every time I look at them.
    ‘Did you go out last night?’ he asks me.
    ‘Yeah. To a bar in the old town.’
    ‘Nice?’
    ‘Brilliant, you should’ve come.’ I know I’ve said this before, but I just can’t help myself. ‘Luis popped in for a couple. Oh, here he is now.’
    Will turns around in time to see Luis join us at the serving table. ‘Alright?’ he says.
    ‘Yep,’ Luis answers bluntly, looking at me. ‘Good morning, Daisy.’
    My mouth falls open.
    ‘What?’ Luis asks.
    ‘You just called me Daisy.’
    ‘Isn’t that your name?’ He sounds wary.
    ‘Yes, but . . . Oh, never mind.’ I shake my head. ‘What are you having?’
    I get on with Luis’s order before noticing Will tapping his foot impatiently.
    ‘Oh, sorry, Will,’ I apologise, awkwardly realising I should have served him first.
    ‘He can wait,’ Luis chips in. ‘He’s used to coming second.’ Luis winks at me, but when I glance at Will, he’s not looking amused. Luis qualified on pole yesterday. Will, brilliantly, although clearly not brilliantly enough for him, qualified second.
    ‘Sorry about that,’ I say to Will as Luis heads off and plonks himself down at a table next to one of the team’s engineers. ‘What can I get you?’
    He gives me a hard stare before answering. ‘Same.’
    It’s then that I realise Luis opted for a rare healthy breakfast, right down to Will’s favourite choice of protein shake.
    Flustered, I hurry up and put Will’s order together.
    Luis shouts, ‘Snap!’ as Will walks past his table, but Will ignores him, heading towards the stairs to retreat to his room.
    I sigh, deflated, and start to tidy up the serving table.
    ‘Get me some bacon and eggs, will you, bun tart?’ I look up to see Luis there, his bowl still half-full of muesli. ‘And you can take this crap, too.’ He passes over his glass. ‘I don’t know how Will drinks it.’
    ‘It doesn’t do his racing any harm,’ I comment.
    ‘It doesn’t do it any good, either,’ Luis says. ‘Coffee, black.’ He nods at the jug. I pour him one and hand it over. ‘Mmm, that’s better,’ he says, slurping some. At that moment his personal trainer walks through the doors.
    ‘Oh, merda !’ I think that means ‘shit’. ‘Shake! Shake!’ Luis waves his hands at me for the glass of liquid I’m just about to dispose of. ‘Whoops, sorry,’ I say innocently, pouring it down the drain. I try not to laugh as João spies Luis’s bacon and starts going off on one in Portuguese.
    Half an hour later I dismiss myself and head upstairs to Will’s room. I knock on the door.
    ‘Yep?’ Will calls.
    ‘Hi,’ I say, poking my head around the door. ‘Can I clear those away?’ I point to the breakfast plates on the table.
    ‘Sure.’ He gets up and hands them to me.
    ‘Sorry about that earlier,’ I say uneasily, as he sits back down on his chair.
    ‘What? Oh, Luis,’ he says. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
    ‘He’s just trying to psyche you out before the race.’
    ‘I know. He’s a bit of a prick like that.’
    I laugh and his face breaks into a smile. ‘Do you want to sit down a minute?’ He indicates the chair next to him. I pause, then put his breakfast plates down again on the table.
    He’s wearing a white short-sleeve team shirt and not for the first time I notice how tanned his arms are, presumably from all that working out in the sun in the last three countries we’ve been to.
    ‘Are you staying on tonight?’ he asks.
    ‘Yes. We fly out tomorrow afternoon. You?’
    ‘Supposed to be going back straight after the race.’
    ‘Supposed to be?’
    ‘Mmm.’
    ‘You don’t sound too sure?’ He doesn’t look too sure, either. He sighs. ‘You sound fed up, Will.’
    He slides down and rests his head on the back of the chair, looking at me through half-closed eyes. ‘I am a bit,’ he answers, truthfully.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘I could do with a night off.’
    I sit up in my seat. ‘So why don’t you change your flight? Stay another night? Come out with us after the race?’
    He doesn’t answer, just continues to regard me, calmly. I look away.
    ‘Might do.’ He leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees.
    I try to focus. ‘How are you feeling about today? Is the car performing