Pole Position - a Charles Leclerc love story

Chapter 6

Marlo slipped out of bed as soon as she woke up. The morning light shone trough the window at the back of the house, waving a soft glow over the old light wooden floors and the white , linen bedsheets. As she snuck of out bed, she glanced over at her guest. Charles was laying on his back, the sheets pulled up over his waist. Marlo had to stop herself from grinning when she saw his muscles coming from under the blankets. It's not that she didn't remember touching or kissing his chest last night, (believe her, she did) but rather it'd seemed too good to be true. Clearly, it wasn't. It was just very good. And very true.

Trying not to make a noise, Marlo tiptoed around the bed, trying to avoid any squeaking floorboards as to not wake Charles up. On her way to the door to exit the room, she passed a trail of clothes. Some his, some hers. She stopped at his black T-shirt for a second, contemplating if it would be cute if she put it on, or just plain weird. She decided she'd go with cute as she picked it up. Here was to hoping he wouldn't want to leave as soon as he got up. She shivered at the idea of him asking her to take it off if he wanted to leave right away.

She left the bedroom and crossed the black and white tiled hallway to her walk-in closet. Marlo grabbed a bra and matching panties and put Charles' black shirt on.

Marlo had decided not to shower first since her bathroom was adjacent to the bedroom, and she would definitely wake Charles up. Although she loved this house with every fibre of her being, she had to admit the layout was sometimes less than functional.

As Marlo walked up the stairs barefoot, she tried to focus on the job at hand: getting upstairs to the kitchen and making some coffee. She had a hard time not replaying the previous evening frame per frame so she tried to really apply herself to her one task: make coffee. As she reached the kitchen, she walked straight to the coffee machine, ground some coffee beans and put the them into the machine, making the perfect espresso. Then she steamed some milk and put it in a big ceramic mug where she added the coffee to. It was the perfect cappuccino. Marlo leaned against the kitchen island so she could take in the view from her window. There wasn't much to see from the first floor. Only her small city garden with its single, big tree with coloured lights in it and the small round table with two chairs. The sun shone upon it, basking it in the bright morning glow she first noticed in her bedroom, it had glistened on Charles' skin.

By now she had to face the elephant in the room, or rather, in her head. She had to think about Charles and the previous night. If only to figure out how she had to carry herself once he'd wake up.

Marlo figured she'd allow herself that, but that she'd make pancakes while doing so. As she gathered the ingredients, her mind drifted off to hazy memories of the cocktail bar. She remembered they had talked, a lot. And they also drank, quite a lot. As they had made their way through every topic, from their youths to favourite movies and music, to the people they lost and hobbies and friends, Charles touched her arm a few times. The first time Marlo thought it happened by accident, but when it happened a few more times during the night, she was at least sure he did it on purpose. She had felt a connection with him: they shared a lot of values. Charles had told her he wants to marry some day and become a father. Marlo smiled as she recalled how excited he had been talking about children. This man with his super fast cars obviously still channeled a lot of inner child, but he also was looking ahead to the future and clearly saw himself becoming a dad rather sooner than later. She was surprised by it. She expected famous, handsome athletes to want to gallivant for as long as possible, but the fact that he seemed to want the exact opposite was something she admired. He radiated a feeling of open-mindedness and recklessness, while also being very serious when needed. Especially when he spoke about racing he had been both passionate as very committed. The way he had stared into her eyes over his drink, had made her feel weak. His green eyes were absolutely beautiful and she had caught herself not listening to what he exactly said because she was distracted by them.

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"Marlo?" Charles looked at her from behind his Old Fashioned, and then took a sip. His green eyes didn't leave hers for a second and she had been so mesmerised by them, that she had heard absolutely nothing from what he just said. She gulped. She had no idea how to make it seem as if she knew what was going on. She thought he was talking about... Ferrari? It seemed plausible but also too typical. She dug into her memory for snippets of words he had used, but her mind came up blank.

Charles was still staring at her.

Great, now he probably thinks I'm an idiot, she thought.

"Yes?" she said as her cheeks turned red. She could feel it, which made it even worse. She was suddenly feeling as if someone put the heater on next to her chair.

Charles smiled wickedly at her while also raising one eyebrow. "You weren't listening anymore, were you?"

She shook her head. "I'm so sorry, my mind wandered off." She looked down at her hands. Charles laughed. It sounded warm and genuine and made her feel at ease right away again. "That's fine, it wasn't that interesting anyway."

"Please tell me again, I promise I'll pay full attention." she pleaded, sitting up straight.

"I think you just lost the right to this story." he still smiled and shrugged. He was clearly messing with her.

"But now I want to know even more." she whined playfully.

"Ah, too bad, ma Chérie." he then looked at her and closed both his eyes for a second while still grinning.

Marlo had bursted out laughing, her vodka-soda prickling in her nose.

"What was that?" she asked too loud, still snickering.

"What?" Charles had asked her, completely confused by her sudden laughing-fit.

"That thing with your eyes." Marlo tried to regain her composure, but she was having a difficult time doing so and the alcohol in her blood wasn't making it any easier on her.

"I just winked." Charles said dumbfounded.

"Oh, mon chéri" she mimicked and then paused to take a sip from her drink, "That, was no wink."

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A/N: Thank you all for reading! I hope you enjoyed reading this shorter part. I can announce proudly that the next chapter is also up! It's about twice as long as the previous chapters and it contains 18+ content. 

Please, share, vote and comment whenever you feel like it. Also, don't hesitate to point out any errors, I proofread myself, but mistakes do sometimes seep through (also because English isn't my first language). 

Enjoy the next chapter, we're all in this together, aren't we? ;-)