Love in thirds

10.2 Carlos & Marie

You're making your way over to Carlos' garage when a man you've never seen before stops you. "Hello, can I ask you something?" you look at him, nodding with a kind smile while you can only think 'hurry up.' He starts telling you about how this is his first time here, and that he's looking for the Ferrari hospitality because he wants to have a cup of coffee. "Just walk ahead before turning to your right, it's the red one. You can't really miss it" you chuckle, turning your body already to walk towards Carlos' garage. "Ah, thank you. Do you work there?" the man asks. You nod, explaining that you are one of the barista's.

"Oh, then I will definitely come for another coffee again later today. Shall we walk together?" you shake your head, explaining that you need to be at the garage now, smiling and throwing a little wave before walking away from him. "Rie, there you are!" says a smiling Carlos when you walk into the garage. He wraps his arm around you, pulling you against his chest a little tighter after making sure no one is paying attention. "Hi, I was held up by a guy who wanted to know where the hospitality was, sorry. How is it going here?" Carlos frowns a little, before relaxing when you intertwine your fingers, squeezing his hand before pulling it away again. He smiles at you, updating you on what happened in the last free practice of the Friday.

"Shall we have dinner together tonight?" he whispers in your ear. Nodding, you look at him with a smile. "Your room?" he chuckles, agreeing before telling you that he will come to the hospitality when he's finished with the meeting. You nod, waving goodbye before telling everyone that you will bring some beverages to the meeting room in a minute. The man from before is sitting in the hospitality when you walk in, but you don't pay much attention to him, cups of coffee and tea need to be filled here. So you let your colleague do the customers in the hospitality.

"I would like to be helped by your colleague" you hear the man say to the girl you're working with. You sigh, shaking your head at her before grabbing the plates with the drinks for the team. "She's busy right now" you hear your colleague say, before he answers that he will wait for you then. 'What is this guy on about' you think to yourself before making your way to the meeting room, smiling at Carlos whose face seems to light up when you walk into the room. You wave at everyone, looking at Carlos a little longer before you leave the meeting room, picking up some dirty dishes you find on the way back to the hospitality.

"Hey! Can you make me a latte now, please?" says the random man. You nod, asking him what kind of latte he wants before getting to work. "How long have you been working here?" you roll your eyes while your back is to him, turning around slightly to answer him that you've been with the Ferrari hospitality for five years almost. You finish up his latte, half listening to his story while typing in the coffee before asking if he'd like anything else. You can see Carlos walk into the hospitality in the corner of your eyes, so you don't hear what the man is saying until he touches your arm. You pull your hand away, looking at him with a frown. "Sorry, I said that I would like to get your number."

You tell him that you're not interested, looking for Carlos, but he's nowhere to be seen anymore. The guy tries to change your mind, before you tell him that you have a boyfriend, and that no means no. He nods eventually, walking away from the bar to go outside. You send Carlos a text with the question where he is, since he said he would pick you up. You start cleaning up the mess, chatting with your colleague about the man and the other weird people that came in today while you were wrecking your brain over Carlos' sudden disappearance.

The hospitality is closed and you're walking through the paddock, trying to find your boyfriend. He still hasn't replied to your texts, which is not a Carlos thing to do. You halt your steps when you hear two familiar voices, just outside of the McLaren garage. "Mate, just because some random guy asks for her number doesn't mean that she's giving it to him. She's coming home with you; you should know that by now." Daniel's voice sounds a little muffled, since they're probably hiding slightly out of other people's ear shot. "I know that. It's just, I don't know. I got jealous, and now she's going to be upset with me because I haven't responded to her texts" you hear a worried and upset Carlos say.

"Alright, let me tell you something," Daniel says, "stop blaming her for the fact that a guy asks for her number, people do weird things all the time. Marie isn't mad at you when a fan hits on you during a meet & greet, unless you would flirt back, which you don't. You just told me yourself that she said to him that she's not interested, so don't go and ignore her. It's not worth it. She loves you man, it's obvious. Go and pick her up and talk about your insecurities, you need to let her in Carlos." You smile slightly before walking back towards the Ferrari garage. Daniel, Charles, and Carlos had been hanging out a bit more during their breaks, and it was nice to know that Carlos wanted to talk about this with someone. It's just upsetting that it's not with you.

You call Nell while waiting for Carlos in the garage, she's not joining this race weekend since she's not feeling well again. You tell her about the conversation you just heard, without mentioning anyone's name, while looking around for Carlos' face. "I'm happy Dan said that; he's right. I understand Carlos' insecurities, but he should try and communicate about it instead of ignoring you." you hum, twirling a strand of your hair around your finger. "Then again, how hard is it to communicate about things like that!" you chuckle with Nell, asking her how she's feeling. "I'm not sure, I feel weird, I'm waiting for Danny to come home because I'm worried about my health. It will be fine though, maybe all the traveling became too much? I don't know man. Is Carlos back already?" you're about to tell her no when he walks into the garage. "Yeah, he is, I'm going to go now. Will you please keep me updated on how you feel? I'm worried about you too" you tell her, she hums, saying that you should focus on your lover boy before you say goodbye to each other.

"Hi" says Carlos softly when he's standing next to you. "Hey" you say, looking at him with your head cocked. "Let's go to my room for dinner?" you nod at him, grabbing your stuff before waving goodbye to the team members, following Carlos to his car and to the hotel. You look at Carlos who's calling the room service, explaining to them what he would like to order. He hasn't said anything about today yet, driving to the hotel in silence, and you're wondering if he will start about it himself or that he leaves it unless you start that conversation. He puts the phone down, walking towards you before pressing a kiss on your hair. "I'm going to shower and put on some other clothes, dinner will be here in 15 minutes they said so I'll be quick" you nod, looking at his back while he walks out of the room.

You're setting up the table after the dishes arrived, sitting down after you got you both something to drink. Carlos' walks out of the bathroom with damp hair, wearing white shirt and sweatpants, sitting opposite of you with a small smile on his face. "Buen provecho mi amore" he says softly, squeezing your knee under the table before digging in. You eat in silence for a while, the tension in the room is making you nervous, and the food doesn't taste that well to you either. Carlos lays his utensils next to his plate, clearing his throat before looking at you. "I'm sorry that I didn't respond to your texts and left you waiting for so long. I heard the guy in the hospitality ask for your number and I got jealous. I shouldn't have taken that out on you, that was very stupid of me." He fiddles with the tablecloth, looking into your eyes before quickly looking away.

"Okay" you tell him, not really sure what else you should be saying at this point. "I uhm, I talked about it with Daniel. He talked some sense into me. I'm sorry that instead of talking about my insecurities, I did this. I just, it freaked me out when I saw him trying to get your number. My brain just went back to everything that happened instead of telling myself that you are totally different. I'm really sorry, I want to get better at this because I'm hurting both of us and it's not fair." His voice cracks, and you look at him with a sad expression,

"Thank you for telling me this babe, I know it's hard to do that for you. I know I can tell you every day that you have nothing to worry about, but that doesn't take away the worry. I hope that you'll just start seeing for yourself that I would never betray you like that. We're so happy together, I'm not giving you up like that." He nods, rubbing his eyes before standing up and walking towards you, pulling you out of the chair to wrap his arms around you.

You press your face against his chest while he mumbles, "I'm sorry, and I love you. I want to get better at this too, for you, for us. You make me happy." You hum, looking up at him and running your fingers through his damp hair before kissing him softly. "I love you too. Let's finish dinner and watch a movie?"