When we first met [Charles Leclerc]

7 - Caroline

'If you change one more time, we'll be inexcusably late. Besides you looked amazing in the last three outfits, Care. And by what you've told me, he'll be smitten with you no matter what you wear' Victoria rolled her eyes at me. We've been at this for an hour and I still don't feel like I've found the right outfit for the occasion.
'You're probably right but I just want everything to be perfect. Charles seems like exactly what I need and I just don't want to screw it up' my best friend stared at me and took a big sip of her coffee.
'Please tell me you're kidding, Caroline. That man is all over you and that's not gonna change because the zipper of your dress is silver but your necklace is gold' we both bursted out in laughter. Vic was right, this was nonsense. Men don't care about that kind of stuff, probably because they wouldn't even notice the difference. I finally decided for dark red paper bag shorts and a black crop top and finished the look with the golden Aries necklace my mom gave me. My fingers remained on the necklace and I stopped breathing for a moment. It were moments like this that I wished my mother would still be with me so I could tell her all about Charles and ask for her advice. Besides that she would freak out because her favorite thing to do was watch formula 1. The fact that her daughter was getting ready for a track walk with not one but at least three drivers would've been a lot for her. She has gotten used to Max being around at some points because of Victoria but she always kept her distance to the F1 stuff when Max was around. Wearing that necklace made me feel like my mom was still close, even if it wasn't physically.
Victoria noticed the look on my face and pulled me into a tight hug.
'You got this, Care' she whispered in my ear and I knew I got this. We shared one last look on the mirror and finally left my apartment.

Being the two drama queens that we are, we decided to take my Audi R8 to go to Zandvoort. This car was so unnecessary in the Netherlands but I always had the most fun when visiting my family in Germany.

We arrived at the track just in time. Charles being Charles reserved us a parking space directly at the track next to his Portofino. Being valued is just so nice sometimes. We made our way to the Alpha Tauri garage and I was getting more and more nervous. In the last couple of days I've been so involved in the world of Formula 1 that you could think this wouldn't bother me but this was different. It wasn't just Charles and me. I was about to meet his best friend, officially. And Vic and Danny finally got a chance to meet in public for the first time without worrying about Max. Overall this was a big deal for me and my best friend. Victoria noticed me playing with my necklace. I always did that when I didn't know how to deal with a situation and I just wanted my mom with me.
My best friend grabbed my hand and just smiled. She was the one person besides my mom who could always calm me down. If it wouldn't have been for her I never would have made it after my mom's passing. I had to hold back a tear because it were moments like this that made me miss her the most.

10 minutes later we arrived at the garage, Charles, Pierre and Daniel already waiting for us. The boys were chatting, probably about the race but all stopped when they saw us. Daniel stared at Victoria in what I believed was disbelief. Disbelief that she actually showed up despite all the drama before. Pierre whispered something to Charles which made him giggle. Our eyes locked and he winked. Suddenly my nervousness from before was gone. His look made me feel safe. Like I could do anything as long as he's with me. Never would I have imagined this happing after knowing a person for such a short time. He pulled me into a tight hug and kissed both my cheeks.
"You look good, amour" he whispered in my ear. Apparently Vic was right. He doesn't care that my zipper was silver but my necklace golden.
"Yeah, sure just don't mind me. Glad I'm here for third wheeling" Pierre said in the most sarcastic way.
"Oh stop whining, you know I'm happy to see you!" Victoria gave Pierre a slight punch on his right arm. Sometimes I forget that my best friend knows most of the drivers because of Max. No wonder that she is close to all his ex teammates.
"Shall we get going then? Our teams are not really keen on us doing our track walks together in the first place, so we shouldn't make them wait" Charles declared, took my hand, crossed our fingers and together we made our way to meet the teams.

I was happy I chose rather less clothing because the sun was so strong. It was only around 25 degrees but with the sun it felt like 37 at least. To make it even worse no one remembered to bring water, so we were all kinda relived when we were finally back in the pit lane. We went to the Ferrari garage to grab some water. Sadly we didn't make it that far because Max stopped us on our way there. I could feel Vic tightening next to me, Daniel was nervously looking at Vic and Max back and forth. Charles was probably already sick of their drama and now we would drag Pierre right in the middle of it. You gotta love the RedBull family, right?

"I just wanna say that I'm sorry. I overreacted, it was just a lot for me to take in. Of course I'm happy when the two of you are happy. We're talking about my sister and my best friend dating. It could be worse" Vic closed the last few inches to her brother and pulled him into a tight hug.
"I told you he would come around. But I gotta admit I never thought this was happen so soon" Daniel said with his typical big smile on his lips. I could help but smile. I loved to see this for my best friend. We said our goodbyes so Max, Daniel and Victoria could talk about the past few years.

"Do you wanna grab a coffee, amour?" Charles asked after Pierre also left. I smiled because I still didn't believe all of this was really happening after the horrible months I had. My smile grew bigger and bigger and then it happened. I locked my eyes with Charles' and he started to smirk, knowing exactly what was about to happen. Our bodies collided and so did our lips.

A/n: the bitch is finally back with an update. I just spent the last couple of days at the côté d'azure with my roommate. It was truly magical. We also went to Monaco of course, only a few days after the race. Fernando Alonso jogged next to us and we saw Charles Leclerc on a yacht. And May and Kelly partying. We wondered the track and I just wanna go back and never leave again. That's it.