The story is one we are all familiar with.

You know two people. They'd make a great couple. However they both swear that they have no interest in the other and that a relationship would never work.

Yet, he can't stop staring at her ass while she confides that she doesn't know how it is that his shirts always fit so well. As they both stick their fingers down their respective throats when the subject of dating is brought up.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks," as that Shakespeare guy wrote in Hamlet.

The internet is on fire today with the unconfirmed rumor that Marc Marquez will move to the factory Ducati MotoGP team in 2025. This after a weekend of both parties playing their typical game of hard to get with one another.

What do we know for sure?

WDWKFS That if the possibility exists for Marc Marquez to replace Enea Bastianini on the factory Ducati team then there is no reason, all due respect, to keep Enea Bastianini on the factory team.

WDWKFS That Marc can't yet over-ride the spec Ducati he currently is given to race on the Gresini MotoGP team enough to win races. The final lap of the Mugello GP yesterday illustrated perfectly the difference between a Gresini Ducati and a factory Ducati. After he was seemingly dropped with ease by Bastianini, MM93 said via press release: "I couldn’t overtake Bastianini and when he passed me with (two laps to go), it seemed as though he was on fresh tires."

WDWKFS That Ducati has changed a great deal internally if the command center at Ducati Corse is now going to welcome Marc Marquez into the factory team. Initially Ducati did not want Marquez on any Ducati. Why? Because they've already been to the dance with big name, big money, big drama factory riders from other teams—Rossi, Crutchlow and Lorenzo—and had no interest in returning to the place where they pay Lorenzo $13 million dollars a season and have no clue at all which version of Lorenzo is going to show up on race day. If you know Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali at all, and I have since the 1980s when he was a race engineer fresh from Bologna university, then you know that is exactly the kind of bullshit that drives him insane. If you are a factory worker on the line at Borgo Panigale, and you demand big money, then call in sick twice a week, you will be gone. Same rule applies on the factory race team.

WDWKFS This is why a post-Lorenzo system was designed and put in place by Paolo Ciabatti where Ducati riders don't make the big bucks just because they have the potential to win. The riders who do win, races and the championship, are rewarded with eight-digit wire transfers into their bank account. They have to win.

WDWKFS That Marc Marquez's potential is too great for Ducati to ignore. Look at the situation from a much wider perspective: with reference to the Grand Prix All Time Win List:

Agostini: 122
Rossi: 115
Nieto: 90
MM93: 85

WDWKFS It's not too late for Marquez, 31, with a winning motorcycle under him, to possibly eclipse Agostini's number. Unlikely but possible. To do so he would need a factory bike that is capable of winning every weekend, and right now that is Ducati. Even Ducati cannot ignore this.

Ultimately, whether it's the undeniable chemistry between two seemingly disinterested people or the strategic maneuvers of top-tier MotoGP teams, some things are inevitable. Just as he can't help but admire her figure and she marvels at the fit of his shirts, the attraction between Marc Marquez and Ducati is equally inescapable.