Shelby Manning (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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muserevival2015-10-21 11:35 am
shelbycobra) wrote in muserevival2015-10-21 11:35 am
105.3.1 - diary
Starting over
I went to see Shane this morning. As it turns out - and it says something that I didn't know this already - he lives in North Carolina in the offseason. So as Frank and I are in the middle of our road trip from Indianapolis to Talladega for the NASCAR Eliminator Round finale, I made a little detour. Okay, a big detour.
Shane owns a penthouse condo in a very nice suburb of Charlotte. It cost more than I paid two months ago for my house, and it's the same type of place as the apartment I'd still be living in if I hadn't gotten married. The kind of big, slightly empty place that says you have no intent to get married or even live with anyone any time soon. But with Shane, I expected that. He's never even mentioned a girlfriend, or family, in the year that I've known him. He obviously didn't expect me calling him and asking if he wanted to meet for coffee.
He met me at the Coffee Bean around the corner from his building. The most dressed down I've ever seen him - jeans, a grey cashmere sweater and Converse - which took a second to process because we sort of had a bet going in the shop that all he owned were dress shirts. But that's why I was here, because I was aware how little I knew about Shane Worthington.
I won't admit this if you ask me about it, but I was worried about him. No one on the team had heard anything from him since August. That was strange in a community where even though we live all over the place, there are still social dates, phone calls, texts and Instagram updates. Just in the last two months, several of my friends had been at my housewarming, we'd gotten together at the Wheldon Memorial Pro-Am in New Castle, and I'd seen Terry at the supermarket. Shane had been at the Championship Celebration, and then just kind of disappeared.
"I can't believe you came all the way out here," he told me, sipping at his latte like he was sizing me up.
"You weren't returning my calls," I said with a slight shrug. "And I was in the city. I'm going to see Will and Liz this afternoon."
"You don't need to be hearing from me," he replied. "The season's over. Both of us should be enjoying living the rest of our lives, and not talking about Road America or what we're going to do in St. Petersburg."
"I might not need to, but I want to," I corrected gently. "If you want to keep to yourself, that's fine. I can respect that. But you should know that you're welcome to be part of our family. I don't stop caring about you because you're not yelling in my ear."
That made him laugh out loud. "I wasn't yelling."
"You were kind of yelling," I said, but teasingly so. I wasn't here to fight with him, not anymore. We'd definitely grown beyond that over the last seven months. "There isn't anybody else I'd want to do this with," I told him. "So can we look at this new contract for what it is, a chance to start our relationship over?"
I actually saw him smile at me after that. The relationship I have with my strategist is probably always going to be complicated. We're two assertive people who have lived our whole lives in racing and there's nothing else we do better, so of course we're going to butt heads. But this is also the same man who guided me to a championship, and more than that, was there for me when I needed a shoulder to lean on. I'm going to care about him whether he wants me to or not, and I'm looking forward to spending the next three years with him by my side.
--
Shelby Manning Martin
Need For Speed OC
653 words
I went to see Shane this morning. As it turns out - and it says something that I didn't know this already - he lives in North Carolina in the offseason. So as Frank and I are in the middle of our road trip from Indianapolis to Talladega for the NASCAR Eliminator Round finale, I made a little detour. Okay, a big detour.
Shane owns a penthouse condo in a very nice suburb of Charlotte. It cost more than I paid two months ago for my house, and it's the same type of place as the apartment I'd still be living in if I hadn't gotten married. The kind of big, slightly empty place that says you have no intent to get married or even live with anyone any time soon. But with Shane, I expected that. He's never even mentioned a girlfriend, or family, in the year that I've known him. He obviously didn't expect me calling him and asking if he wanted to meet for coffee.
He met me at the Coffee Bean around the corner from his building. The most dressed down I've ever seen him - jeans, a grey cashmere sweater and Converse - which took a second to process because we sort of had a bet going in the shop that all he owned were dress shirts. But that's why I was here, because I was aware how little I knew about Shane Worthington.
I won't admit this if you ask me about it, but I was worried about him. No one on the team had heard anything from him since August. That was strange in a community where even though we live all over the place, there are still social dates, phone calls, texts and Instagram updates. Just in the last two months, several of my friends had been at my housewarming, we'd gotten together at the Wheldon Memorial Pro-Am in New Castle, and I'd seen Terry at the supermarket. Shane had been at the Championship Celebration, and then just kind of disappeared.
"I can't believe you came all the way out here," he told me, sipping at his latte like he was sizing me up.
"You weren't returning my calls," I said with a slight shrug. "And I was in the city. I'm going to see Will and Liz this afternoon."
"You don't need to be hearing from me," he replied. "The season's over. Both of us should be enjoying living the rest of our lives, and not talking about Road America or what we're going to do in St. Petersburg."
"I might not need to, but I want to," I corrected gently. "If you want to keep to yourself, that's fine. I can respect that. But you should know that you're welcome to be part of our family. I don't stop caring about you because you're not yelling in my ear."
That made him laugh out loud. "I wasn't yelling."
"You were kind of yelling," I said, but teasingly so. I wasn't here to fight with him, not anymore. We'd definitely grown beyond that over the last seven months. "There isn't anybody else I'd want to do this with," I told him. "So can we look at this new contract for what it is, a chance to start our relationship over?"
I actually saw him smile at me after that. The relationship I have with my strategist is probably always going to be complicated. We're two assertive people who have lived our whole lives in racing and there's nothing else we do better, so of course we're going to butt heads. But this is also the same man who guided me to a championship, and more than that, was there for me when I needed a shoulder to lean on. I'm going to care about him whether he wants me to or not, and I'm looking forward to spending the next three years with him by my side.
--
Shelby Manning Martin
Need For Speed OC
653 words