Full Throttle

Settling In

I took a deep breath, preparing myself for what I was about to see, hoping that it wasn't too bad. Turning the keys in the door, I closed my eyes and stepped inside. I heard the door slam behind me and opened my eyes. The breath that I'd been holding was let out as I looked around me, wide-eyed and truly in love. It needed some work to fully make it my own, but my apartment was beautiful. Polished wooden floorboards paved the way around the layout of my entire living space; bar the bathroom, where the floor, I could see from the slightly open door, was tiled in a dark grey. The living room was spacious: white walls accentuating the light coming from the huge window that made up one of the walls and overlooked the bright blue sea that was inhabited by the extravagant yachts owned by the affluent population that resided here in Monaco. I'd opted not to furnish the apartment yet, and instead to get all of the painting done and get all of the shelves that I want up, but there was the bare minimum that came with the apartment. Walking through a doorway that broke one of the walls, I found myself in the kitchen. The space was big enough to comfortably accommodate everything that I needed and more, and my brain conjured up ways to make it more homely. I wandered back out through the living room and back down the corridor, into the first bedroom. I instantly decided that this would be my room. At the far end of the room were two bay doors that opened out onto a private balcony that held four cushioned chairs and a round table with a large sun umbrella through the middle. There was so much space, more than enough space for my double bed, vanity, wardrobe, drawers, and shelves. I had wanted to put a swing in here, and now I knew that there was definitely enough space to do that. This bedroom had an en suite bathroom, and a second room that I concluded would be my streaming room because of its spaciousness. The en suite was enormous to me; it had a walk-in shower that contained a kind of bench seat, a toilet, and a wide mirror above a sink that sat on top of a set of cabinets. I determined that the bathroom would look even better with lights that I could change the colour and brightness of, and I made a mental note to look into it. I rushed into the second bedroom. It was simpler than the first, no balcony, en suite, or second room, but it was still relatively large and had a beautiful view from the wide windows that splayed out across the furthest wall. The third bedroom was, I had decided, going to be a small gym with a massage table, and would also hold some of my helmets and trophies, and some memoirs from Karting and my time in Formula 4, 3, 2, and eventually 1. It was a nice space, and it felt very cosy, which made it ideal for the intended purpose. The second bathroom with the grey tiles was generously sized, with a shower in the bath, toilet, mirror cabinet and sink. I sighed as I walked slowly back to my living room. This August break was going to be fun.

Dad arrived in Monaco two days after me. I'd set up inflatable beds in my room and the second bedroom, of which he'd be staying in. He took ages to look around, really admiring everything and talking to me about how I could use which space and what colour would go nicely where and how exciting this was all going to be. We'd decided upon getting the bedrooms done first, and I'd picked out a light pink to cover the wall behind where I was planning to put my bed, and I'd decided to get a little bit creative with it: putting Painter's Tape on the wall to create a pattern in the paint when I took it off. We laid a protective cover on the floor and wore our oldest clothes, the ones that we called 'mucky clothes' that I'd usually dye my hair wearing and started painting at 10 o'clock in the morning. We had music playing through my speaker as we worked, and it took us a grand total of two hours to get the first layer done. Whilst that was drying, it would take 6 hours, and after a quick lunch break, dad and I started on the second bedroom. We'd decided upon a light grey with some forest green, a rather neutral colour scheme that suited the area. That took us up to 5 o'clock, and even then, we hadn't gotten one of the walls done yet. We decided to knock it on the head for the day, and I suggested that we go out to one of the restaurants for dinner. He agreed with a smile and went off to have a shower and change into something relatively smart. I did the same, picking out a nice dress and pinning my hair up. Unbeknownst to my dad, I was taking him out to dinner with Charles and his girlfriend Giada, and Max and his girlfriend Dilara. This was the first time that I would be meeting the women of my colleagues' lives, so I was pretty excited. We got to the restaurant at 6pm.
"Hello, we have a reservation: Osbourne," I said in Italian to the host at the door.
"Ah, Miss Osbourne, a pleasure to meet you! Your other guests have arrived and are seated at the table already. This way, please."
"This is a very fancy restaurant," dad whispered to me as we followed the Host, "have you been here bef- oh my God." He didn't finish his sentence as we arrived at the table.
"Dad, I would like you to meet Charles Leclerc, Giada Gianni, Max Verstappen, and Dilara Sanlik," I beamed, happy that I'd surprised him.
"Mr Osbourne, we've heard quite a bit about you," Charles said, shaking my dad's hand, as did Max.
"Oh, just call me Simon," my dad chuckled, trying to talk a bit posher than his normal East London inflection. We sat down; dad next to Max and me next to Giada. Us three women soon got chatting, and I was happy that I got on so well with them. We ordered drinks and started looking over the food menu. I saw dad pulling a face at the prices.
"Dad, I'm paying anyway, so order whatever you want. Don't worry about the money," I whispered as I leant towards him. He looked up at me with an unsure face and nodded, before going back to scanning the contents of the leather-bound book.
"Can you understand what the dishes actually are?" I asked him. He shook his head, and so I discreetly went over everything on the menu, telling him that I'd teach him a bit of Italian at some point. The evening was spent chatting, laughing, and, unfortunately for me, sharing childhood memories.