lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

~ otto ~

Switzerland, May 2019

It was a hot afternoon, and Pia watched Joanna and Daniel playing with her younger siblings. She couldn't help but wonder how this afternoon would look if she had Charles next to her side.

"Theo, love, come here," Joanna called for one of the boys. Sebastian thought that she would be the voice of reason and said to him that they stop beating each other, but she just took the sword into her hands.

"See, you have to hold the sword like this, honey," she explained to the young boy in front of her. "Here, take it and go win some battles," the Austrian returned Theo the sword and encouraged him to go fight his brother. The German just snorted when he heard that.

The ringing of her phone brought her back to reality. She looked at the name of the caller. She felt weird when she saw the ID - Lando, the phone stated. Ever since she kissed him in that restaurant, Lando probably took her as his girlfriend. She wasn't sure if she wanted something like that.

"Hey," Pia said and got up from the table, which caught Seb's attention. She wanted to make this phone call private. It was something rare.

"Hello, how are you doing?" the Briton asked. He was excited to hear her.

"Not bad," she gave him the typical British answer. "What about you?" she asked him as she made her way around the corner of their house.

"I have just finished my sim preparation for Spain," he said proudly. "How is Switzerland treating you?" the Briton asked her when there was a way too long silence.

"Yeah, I'm enjoying it. You know, it's family time. You have to enjoy it," she said with a smile on her face. She loved being back home.

"I'm sure I would enjoy it as well."

"Oh, you would hate it here," she laughed. "Seb would probably chase you with a garden hose just like he did with Daniel." Pia closed her eyes and recalled the memory of Daniel running for his life. She had to laugh.

"Daniel is there?" Lando asked her. His tone wasn't really a happy one. He seemed to be annoyed by the fact that the older Australian driver was with Pia. The Italian realised that Lando was probably jealous, but she had nothing to tell him. She couldn't possibly disclose Daniel's orientation to him, and to be honest, she didn't even want. Why should she justify herself?

"Yeah, he tagged along with Joanna," Pia explained without going into too much detail.

"Oh, I see," he just let it be. He knew there wasn't anything he could do about it anyway. "Is there any chance I could see you in Spain? Perhaps take you on a dinner?" the youngster asked his girlfriend. Well, at least, he thought she was his girlfriend.

"Actually, I think I'm not coming to Spain," she confessed. This news made Lando furrow his eyebrows. He needed to change his plans then. He wanted to ask her to be his girlfriend there, but now it looked like he would have to postpone everything to Monaco.

"Really? Why?" Pia sighed. Lando and all his questions. He was always so curious.

"I feel like I should spend some time with my mum and little brothers." Of course, she couldn't admit that she just needed some time off to think about everything.

"I understand," he let out. "How are they like?" It was probably the first time someone asked her about her brothers. It was nice to see that Lando was trying to get to know her and her family. Maybe it was nice to see that he was trying or showed interest.

"Theo is playful, full of life, and the room is always filled with him. He's so lively that it's annoying sometimes. He has so much energy. God, he could run around the house for hours, and he wouldn't be tired. Theo is that child who asks you the same question until you reply. He would also ask you 'and why?' like million times," Pia gave Lando a short description of one of her younger brothers. "Nicky, on the other hand, is just Nicky. He doesn't speak that much. He taught me his secret sign language a year ago, so now we can talk together and yet be silent. He is just afraid to speak because nobody would listen to him because Theo is always in the centre of attention. He's a sweet boy that loves cuddles and sleep. A half year ago, he asked my mum for piano lessons. Would you believe that?" the Italian asked Lando with a smile on her face.

"I would. It sounds like they are amazing. Actually, they are you, just split into two personalities, do you think?" Lando called her out a little.

"Well, maybe. I'm just not so stubborn as Theo. He surely has that from Seb," she laughed. Maybe it was nice talking to him. Somehow it felt peaceful and careless, but was that love? "As much as I love talking to you, I'm afraid I'll have to go," the Italian said when she realised, she was away for too long.

"I have to go anyway, too. I'll call you tomorrow, hm?"

"Yeah, tomorrow, caro." The Italian pet name just slipped from Pia's mouth. She didn't have any intentions to say that. She used to call Charles like that. Well, it was one of the many pet names they used.

"Tomorrow, love," Lando used a pet name like Pia before hanging up. He wanted to call her that anyway. He just didn't want to be the first to use pet names.

"Well, it seems like there's someone in your life. Care to share with your ma?" Gianna asked her daughter. She didn't want to eavesdrop on her conversation, but when Pia described the boys, she couldn't stop listening.

"It's just complicated, mum," she sighed. Was she really about to tell her mum about her messy love life?

"Love is always complicated, cara mia," Gianna caressed Pia's hair. The older Italian how messy, complicated, and hurtful can love be. She lived with a husband who didn't give a fuck about her for years. Whatever was happening with Pia's love life - it wasn't as bad as that.

"The press think I'm with Daniel, which I'm obviously not. I mean, that's okay. Who cares about that fucking stupid press anyways?" Gianna wanted to say something like: seems like you care, but she decided to keep it quiet.

"There's this boy. He's really nice, kind, and everything you would ever want from a boy, but..." Pia didn't finish the sentence because she didn't know what the but was. Or maybe she knew, but she didn't want to admit it out loud.

"But he's not Charles," her mum finished the sentence for her. Pia knew somewhere deep down that she was right.

"Let's not talk about Charles. He's making me do things I regret later." The annoyance in her voice was more than hearable.

"Like what?"

"Like kissing Lando on our first date," Pia exclaimed.

"You what?" Seb shouted when he heard that. Pia was taken aback by his presence. He wasn't there twenty seconds ago. The older Italian just looked at him with visible disapproval. When he saw the facial expression of his wife, he backed out because he didn't want to upset her even more.

"I will deal with him later, P. Just tell me what happened,"

"I don't know. I just agreed to go with him to dinner, right? I know he wanted it to be a date, and I was like: okay, let's give it a try. I wanted to take it slow, but then we arrived at the restaurant. It was a really nice place, and it just felt... I don't know. Right, I guess. We had that typical small talk and all that, but then... Charles came with Charlotte. They looked so perfect and delighted, on cloud nine, and I thought to myself: what am I even doing here?" Pia let out. She felt a bit relieved after talking to someone. "I don't know how things got out of hand that much. I guess we just wanted to make each other more jealous. It started with Charles' hand on Charlotte's thigh, and it ended up with me kissing Lando. We were just challenging each other more and more. I just kissed Lando because I saw him kissing Charlotte and that hurt. I wanted to hurt him back." Gianna heard how close Pia was to crying. Her voice cracked during that last sentence. She struggled with seeing her daughter like that.