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"Morning my love!" Lando beamed on the facetime call.
"What are you doing up at 4am?" Claire asked.
"On my way to the airport! Done with all of this it's time to come home before we head to Abu Dhabi." He smiled, "How is my nerd doing?"
"I'm stressed, finals start in a few hours I still haven't figured out if I should take Ophelia with me, write my test and come back."
"You focus on the study bit, I'll be home tomorrow and then I can take care of her!"
"But what about today? I have to leave in an hour if I want to get to London in time?"
"What's Emma up to?"
"She's sick, she doesn't want to pass it to the baby. I'm freaking out!"
"Deep breaths Claire! Deep breaths!-"
"I'm going to text Cindy, she'll know something for sure. Talk to you in a bit, I love you!" She ended the call.
You: Cindy! Crisis!
Cindy: did you forget to study? I'll let you cheat off of me ;)
You: Thanks for the offer😂 but no, Emma called in sick and now I have no one to look after her while I write the test!
Cindy: Give me a minute, you get her bundled up and ready for the day.
Claire did as she was instructed, she got Ophelia's diaper bag ready and bundled her up. December was here and the weather was getting really cold. Ophelia was awake, she was cooing as Claire got things done.
Cindy: it's settled! My mum said that she can look after her for a few hours!
You: THANK YOU SO MUCH I OWE YOU BIGGGG TIME
She grabbed everything, loaded the car and hit the highways, the drive was not at all relaxing. It was filled with traffic, Ophelia's weils and her own nerves. After what felt like forever, she was finally driving through very familiar streets.
She pulled into the driveway of Cindy's house, she could Cindy looking out of the window. Claire hurried to the door with Ophelia and her bag.
"Morning Blondie!" Cindy greeted her.
"Morning to you too platinum blondie!" Claire laughed at her own joke.
A woman about her mother's age smiled at them as they walked into the living room.
"Thank you so much for this Mrs. Wilson it means the world." Claire thanked her.
"My pleasure Dear, and call me Jackie!" She smiled.
"But really, thank you so much, I really didn't know what I would have done."
"I miss having someone around the house now that even CeeCee moved out-"
"GOODBYE MUM WE HAVE TO GO NOW!" Cindy interrupted grabbing Claire's arms.
"Oh! And before we leave! She's been fed and changed, so she should just sleep, she won't be too much of work."
"Oh no worries Claire, both of you go ace your finals!" She waved at them.
They hopped into her car and drove straight to university, much to Claire's delight they were early and still had some time.
She got a lot of glances and heard a few whispers, But Cindy reassured her, it wasn't that big of a deal, they were here to write their exams and be done with it.
After a couple of very nerve wracking hours, where each minute felt like an eternity, they were done with their exams. Claire walked out of the lecture hall with a sigh of relief, one down, four more to go.
"Martin! Claire!" She heard professor Barker call.
"Prof! How are you doing?" She greeted him.
"I'm doing great! I love seeing stressed young adults March around campus." He joked, "how have you been?"
"I've been managing, having a baby and pursuing education is much harder than I thought." She admitted.
"The baby! How is your baby doing Claire?"
"Oh she's wonderful," Claire smiled pulling her phone out to show him pictures, "we named her Ophelia."
"That's a beautiful name," he looked at the photos "oh- wait!" He looked at her. "Claire Martin, what secrets are you hiding?"
"What's the matter?" She asked him in confusion.
"The young man, holding the baby in this photo, who is he ?" He asked pointing to the picture.
"That's my boyfriend." She replied.
"You've been seeing...a Formula One driver? That's his child?"
"Yes Ophelia is my baby with him." She laughed.
The surprise on his face was giving her life, he joked about how if she got him tickets to the next race at Silverstone, he'd make sure she graduated with great scores.
After more small talk, she picked up Ophelia from Cindy's and headed back to Woking. Lando was going to be back in a few hours and she wanted to be done with revision and everything that was on her agenda for the evening.
She wanted to celebrate his birthday with him, even almost a month later because of the travelling and races but it didn't matter. He still deserved to have a great evening.
***
"I'm hoommmeee." She heard him holler.
"Happy extremely belated birthday!" She kissed him the minute he walked in.
"Oh!" He laughed, "but thank you, you may continue." He smirked.
"With Jon's permission, I've stocked the fridge with milk, lots of it. It took me quite a while and I'm still not sure about how good it tastes but we've got Mexican food for dinner, I had your gaming room cleaned and redecorated."
"I don't think I'll be tired of saying this, but you are what I've dreamt of, in all my 22 years of existence." He smiled tiredly.
"How corny! Now take a shower and clean up."
After dinner, Lando was too tired to even have a good look at his redecorated room. He was jet lagged and exhausted.
"Let's head to sleep." He yawned.
"Alright, but give me a minute I have to call a new sitter and see if her timings match my schedule."
"I told you I'll look after Little Worm when you're gone."
"Yeah but you're tired and sleepy, I'm pretty sure you're going to want to spend the whole day just lying down."
"Like she spends her day any differently, in fact it's perfect! We'll both spend 90% of our day sleeping!"
"Okay, that sounds interesting but I'm afraid that either one or both of you will have at least two meltdowns by the time I'm back." She laughed.
"Have some faith in me Claire! I'm not scared of a baby, especially not someone as adorable and harmless as Ophelia."
