CAPACITY FOR WONDER. | alex albon

i. what happens in monaco

            Juniper Maddox expected nothing less of her best friends concerning her arrival back to Monaco. They'd make some huge deal out of it like they always did, and she'd greet them with a hug as if they'd been separated for years before looking around in false awe, as she always did. This had been an act built on years of perfection like many things were.

Like Charles' career had been, to get him to Ferrari and like Charlotte's passion had been, to allow her to design in any way she wanted. Both of them had personas built on perfection. It wasn't only Juniper who knew she was destined to combine with forces of perfection, because if you put someone perfect next to someone average, the norm may as well be the discarded.

Yet, the smile plastered on her face as she collided into hugs with those she cared for most could've fooled anyone, and did fool most.

It's not that she wasn't happy, she was just too close to mere satisfaction, contentment, closer to contained than anything else.

"I can't believe you dared to stay away for so long, it's sacrilegious Juniper!" Charlotte said to them, both Juniper and Charles as recipients of her words.

Juniper had known Charles longer than she had known Charlotte, longer than the two of them had known each other. She was friends with them as individuals first and foremost, and whilst their relationship came as no shock, it did mean Juniper's interactions with them alone became few and far between. They were the only picture she had of a stable relationship and whilst the psychologists would say her internal working model might've been screwed from her relationship with her mother, Juniper would always argue she had her model in them.

Understanding that two people who could exist happily without her meant so much to her was hard for many people. They'd had numerous additions to their trio over the years, different alterations of Charles' and Charlotte's friends but none ever stuck. It didn't take a genius to figure out it was likely Juniper's interaction, or lack of, that made them leave.

With what could only ever be described as an exhausted sigh, Juniper, too tired from a transatlantic flight and a drastic time zone change, hauled herself into the back of Charles' car. A taunt gracing at her lips.

"Wow, you got the four-seater car out?" Her eyes looked up to meet his, easily matching his height. "Just for me?"

"Who else is going to sit in the back seat of this car?" Charles responded to her, and the question he posed was a fair one. Charles' past teammates, from what she had gathered when she had been bored enough to listen to his explanations and details about his F1 career, either preferred to cycle or drive themselves and other than that, she had only heard ghosts of names, belonging to drivers she rarely had the energy to remember or the lack of care to meet.

On this particular New Year, Juniper's found out in the car that her usual luck with this lack of care ran out. Joined later by a group of Charlotte's friends, Charles and Juniper excused themselves - the room too close to combustion with topics of architecture and music and art, all things the pair of them appreciated, but not enough to hold an entire conversation on.

"You have to come with us to Lewis' party, J. It's non-negotiable," he had explained to her at first, an explanation prepared for an expected inevitable protest that never seemingly came, "it's next week and it's not even just going to be drivers. That guy is one of the highest paying sportsmen in the world, he knows more than just the bubble he's racing in."

"That and the fact he's like 40." She deadpanned. Juniper rarely backed down from a fight she knew she could win, but when she knew she'd never get out of this with Charles, it was a waste of breath to even try to wiggle her way out of his plan.