The perfect match

“I think it’s better if we walk, otherwise we would have to stop and go the car all the time.” Lando said when they were in the elevator. “And it gives you a chance to see the neighbourhood.” He added before greeting the doorman on their way out.
They made their way down the promenade for a bit before turning into a side street, entering the bank not long after. They were taken to an office pretty quickly, where Lando and the guy from the bank talked about all kinds of accesses and cards, before Lando explained him the two documents he had to sign. His new cards would be sent to the appartement in a couple of days.
They went to the insurance afterwards, getting Oscar on some family plan and Lando changing some things in other insurances.
They entered a big department store next, taking the elevator upstairs to the omega department, where Lando asked for someone named Claire.
“Claire is the lady who shops with Kika, and she says Claire really knows all about clothes.” Lando explained.
“Well, I’m not sure I know all about clothes, but I definitely know a lot., Mr. Norris. Kika told me you were coming these days, this is your new mate, I assume?” she said towards Oscar.
“Yes, Oscar, it is nice to meet you.” Oscar said a little bit shy.
“Alright, I’m Claire, so what are we looking for today?” she then asked and Oscar and Lando exchanged some looks.
“Well, to be honest, Oscar didn’t really have any clothes when he arrived yesterday, so a bit of everything.” Lando then said.
“Alright then, let’s go. Mr. Norris, my colleagues over there will make you some coffee or anything else to drink, feel free to take a seat.” Claire said and guided Oscar away from him.
Lando went over to the little seating area and ordered a water before sitting down and having a look at the magazines laying around. Claire and Oscar showed back up about two hours later, Oscar smiling a little, now wearing a dark blue shirt and beige pants. Claire was pulling a clothes rail behind herself, giving Lando a quick run-through of the clothes. They would get delivered to their appartement building in the next hours. They then made their way down the escalator to the nesting materials, were Lando was happy to watch Oscar go through the different materials, touching and commenting on structures and colours. At the end of their trip, they got Oscar a new phone.
“I’ve never had my own phone before.” Oscar admitted when he unpacked it at home.
“Never?” Lando asked.
“No. My dad had one, but we were only allowed to use it after asking. And he dialled the number I wanted to call.”
“But how did you stay in contact with your friends?”
“Well, at first there was school and then later we met at the market or something and just talked about us meeting later.”
“Okay, right. My friends are more spread to different countries, so phones are kind of essential for us, also for my management and the team.”
“Do you talk a lot to them?” Oscar asked, trying to find out how to attach the charging cable.
“My management not that much, it’s mostly e-mails with itineraries. My team is important because of the scheduling and stuff.” Lando explained quickly, pointing at the charging slot on the phone.
“Oh, okay. You don’t work during the off season at all?” Oscar asked.
“Well, I do some photoshoots, a couple of meetings starting in January. I don’t know if you want to visit your family for Christmas or New Years or something?”
“Visit my family?” Oscar asked confused.
“Yes, why not?” Lando asked, even more confused.
“Well, they are not the people to receive their omega after that omega was given to it’s new alpha. The omega is then part of the alpha’s family.” Oscar explained.
“One thing first, could you please not refer to an omega as it, please? And also, did you think you would not be able to see your family ever again?”
“Well, kind of.” Oscar said, picking at his nails.
“Alright then, we can both spend Christmas and New Years with my parents in England, if it’s getting too much or we just want some time for ourselves, I have a house not far from them, we can just take a little break in between, or go visit London or something. The race in Australia is scheduled for March, if you want to, we can give them a call a couple weeks prior and invite them to it.” Lando said.
“That sounds nice.” Oscar said to him.
“Look, I will have to take a run and then do some lifting in the gym, if you want, you can come with me?”
“Actually, … could I re-organize the kitchen?”
“Of course, feel free. Also make a list with things we still miss.” Lando said, getting up from the kitchen island, giving Oscar a kiss on the forehead and went to change his clothes. Oscar sat a little startled for a moment, then plugged in the phone to charge and made his way to the pantry first. Kika, the omega that helped Lando stock up, must be a little taller than him, so he got a little stepping stool from the laundry room to reach the higher cabinets and sorting everything a little bit lower. The pantry didn’t take too long. The kitchen took longer, some of the things were well placed, cups and mugs close to the coffee machine, for example, but others didn’t make sense to him at all. Especially the fridge looked like Lando had just taken everything and put it in wherever it fit, so he took everything out, cleaned the fridge and started sorting everything back, throwing out a few expired items in the process. He also made that list Lando suggested, adding and scratching out things as he went.
“How is it going?” a sweaty Lando asked after coming out of the home gym.
“Good, I’m done for now, I have some questions about some things later, but I guess those are the ingredients and powders Jon always had in his recipes.” Oscar said, handing Lando a glass of water.
“Thank you and most likely, yes.” Lando said, taking a big gulp. “They come via mail every couple of weeks. I’m going to take a shower really quick.” He added, handing the glass back to Oscar. The doorbell rang just after Lando had turned on the shower and Oscar saw through the peephole that it was their doorman, bringing their shopping from earlier. He placed them in the entryway for Oscar, who needed four trips to get everything to the laundry. He just started the first machine with shirts and some underwear when Lando arrived in the doorway.
“Oh, the shopping arrived, good. Can I help you with something?”
“Yes, these two to the bedroom and those are the clean towels for the bath.” Oscar pointed while storing away the laundry basket. “By the way, do you dry your clothes outside in the summer or do you prefer to use the tumbler?”
“Depends on how warm it is, and if I might get visitors. Max and the others don’t mind but if my boss or management are here, I prefer not to have laundry hanging next to the table.” Lando said before picking up the bags and towels, leaving towards the bedroom.
“Lando, can I ask you something?” Oscar asked when he came back.
“You can ask anything.”
“You said the race was in Melbourne and that we could invite my family to it.”
“Yes, it’s okay if you don’t want to as well, you don’t need to decide that today.” Lando said with a smile.
“That was not what I was going for but thank you. You said that we could invite them. Are you planning to take me with you all the time?” Oscar asked.
“Pretty much, yes. Of course, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but I would prefer for you to accompany me.”
“Mhm. How many races are there?”
“Next year we’ve got 24 races. First one at the end of February, but on-site testing starts the week before and there will be meetings and tests I need to go to in January.”
“Okay, what will I do there?”
“What do you mean?”
“I must have some kind of purpose. Or not? I’m not sure what my role would be when you are racing.”
“Well, you don’t have an exact job or anything like that. Kika and the other girls are mostly in the hospitality, eating something, chatting. I don’t expect you to hang around on the grid all day long, if you were scared of that.”
“No, that’s not what I was scared of, I just thought, it’s … you know it’s your work and I just stand there and … watch?”
“More or less. I’m sure Kika or also Penelope’s babysitter can help. Although, the first two races are starting at 8pm, so the babysitter would have already gone back to the hotel with P, so you probably have to settle for Kika or I’m sure Daniel’s mother is going to be there, she is really nice.”
“Daniel?”
“My teammate. His parents are normally coming to the first race and the one to Australia as well, they are from Perth.”
“You want something to eat after all that training?”
“Happily, but nothing too big, are you going to eat as well?”
“I took a break after I finished the pantry, so I already had some.” Oscar said, pulling a bowl of yoghurt with fruit out of the fridge and then topping it with some granola before setting it in front of Lando.
“Did you go shopping as well? We were out of granola this morning.” Lando said while mixing the ingredients together.
“No, I found a couple bags of breakfast cereals with only little left of them, so I just mixed it all with some oats, chia and dried cranberries, added some honey and popped it in the oven. It kind of annoys me to have multiple open bags with just a spoon left in them. Tell me if you like it for next time.”
“Next time? Do you also make granola yourself?” Lando asked, taking a spoon “This is really good.”
“My mom made it herself most of the time. There are a lot of sugars or artificial flavours added in most of them, so she preferred to do it herself.”
“You know, there is this really big supermarket a little out of town, I think that would be a better fit for that shopping trip we apparently have to do. They also have some housewares and other things, how are we with that, anyway, I don’t think I have that many kitchen utensils and stuff.”
“Well, do you have a food processor or a mixer?”
“We have a blender and that swirling thingy for the pancakes.”
“A whisk, okay. So, I would like to buy one, then I can bake more or also prep food quicker.”
“Sure” Lando said while eating.
“They most of the time delivered your food, already prepared, right? I would like to get some smaller boxes or containers and a muffin form.”
“A muffin form?”
“That’s what we called it, it’s to bake muffins in the oven, like a tray. And an additional baking tray.”
“Do you want to go today or tomorrow?”
“Today? I wanted to make chicken for dinner and I am missing some spices. Do you have a cooler bag?” Oscar asked while pulling out their canvas shopping bags.
“No, we don’t, but the store has them.”
Their time at the supermarket was spent with Lando pushing the big cart and helping Oscar with the heavier things, while Oscar made his way through the aisles, ticking off his list. Back at home, Lando started unloading the cooler bag, but apparently – according to Oscar – he did it wrong and was then tasked with unboxing the food processor. For him, it felt like hours until he had all the additional pieces ripped out of the plastic baggies. Somehow this machine apparently was able to cut fruit and vegetables in all kind of different pieces, make juice, whisk, make bread dough and also ground wheat or coffee beans, as well as mince meat. Lando still doubted it, but Oscar was really fascinated when he saw it at the store.
Oscar had already unpacked all the other groceries and now filled the basin with water to give the containers, boxes, and additions for this kitchen miracle a quick scrub. Somehow, he also managed to switch and reload the laundry in the meantime.
“How are you doing so many things at the same time?” Lando asked “I’m feeling lazy as hell over here.”
“I learned it pretty much … my whole life. My mom really wanted us to be able to take care of a household in a time efficient manner.” Oscar explained while transferring the cleaned things onto a towel next to the basin. “Do you have any plans for the next days?”
“A little bit. The day after next, we are invited for lunch by Pierre and Kika as they want to meet you and I have an online meeting tomorrow at 10, should take about an hour. You know what? I’ll just connect our calendars on the phones, then you can see my schedule as well.” Lando said, handing the new phone to Oscar to unlock, before synchronizing their calendars and explaining the general usage of the phone to Oscar.