Mary just graduated from law school and is setting out for a journey through Europe.
Charles is a F1 driver for Scuderia Ferrari.
How will their lives change when their paths cross?
Storyline starts in 2020, COVID does not exist.
I slipped my last dress from its hanger in the cupboard on the wall of my dorm room at Christ Church College in Oxford to put it in one of my already very crammed suitcases. Four years of law school flew by, four years full of studying, but also finding wonderful new friends and growing up, as well as a lot of partying. It's really true when people say that uni is the best time of your life.
Our graduation ceremony had already taken place two days before and I took out my phone to scroll through the pictures taken that day. Looking at them filled me with so much joy and pride again, so I decided to post one on Instagram to commemorate this big day.
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📍 Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK Tagged: val.the.great, anniewoods mary.wright98 Graduated from the best law school in the world. Thank you Oxford for the best four years of my life. Now ready for my big girl job, but first: summer!! 🌞
beabea.wright So proud of my big girl 🥹 val.the.great ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ oli_wright_one_and_only Smartass
After putting away my phone, I had to scramble through my suitcases again, as I had forgotten to leave out an outfit for tonight. Me and my closest uni friends were going out for one last hooray before having to flock out into the big, real world.
At 6pm sharp my best friend Valerie knocked on my room door. "Hey girl, how are we... Oh my gosh, what the hell happened to your room?" she asked, a bit shocked, as she looked around the place we had spent so much time together studying or mostly... procrastinating. It looked very different now. The decor had gone, and left was an ugly grey-ish, blank wall. "I've already packed up everything... I'm leaving early tomorrow to spend some time at home before our trip." I replied as a smile started playing on my lips.
This trip has been our dream since we started our master's degree 10 months ago. And the week before our final exams, as a sort of motivation, we booked our tickets to mainland Europe in the prospect of spending the whole of July there. And now that we had graduated, I really couldn't wait. I had gotten great marks on my finals and had already pulled a traineeship in one of London's biggest and most renowned law firms, so I deserved a little break in between that.
Val and I chatted a bit while putting on some make-up and our clothes. "Whoa, you look on a mission!" I teased her as she put on a tight black body that made her boobs pop up on everyone's display. "It's my last chance!" she defended herself and I knew immediately what this was about. "Please tell me you're joking! I thought you were over your crush!" I whined. Val had swooned over Christian Green since our second year at uni, and he somehow liked her too, because they kept flirting with each other, yet nothing had ever happened. Apparently, she wanted to change that tonight. "One last hook-up, then we leave Oxford behind for good" she told me, as if she was offering me a deal. "Whatever" I just chuckled and shook my head as I grinned.
At 8pm we entered our favourite pub, the Cricketers Arms, to find already our fellow law student friend Anne, who was with some guy, Tania, Charlotte and... Christian sitting at our usual table in the back left corner.
We greeted our friends and Val quickly slipped onto the bench next to Christian as she started talking to him animatedly while I sat myself on a chair between Tania and Charlotte. The two girls both had studied finance and we met in second year in a finance law class we had taken together.
"Nah Mary, I'm so jealous! I start my job on Monday and have not even had a day in peace to relax from exams!" Tania whined as we talked about mine and Val's upcoming euro trip. Poor Tania, she was going to start at a Big Four company in Manchester already in a few days. She had tried to postpone her starting day to August, as to have some few holidays, but they had threatened to give the post to another contestant, so she had taken their offer as it was. Finance was really tough. Again, I reminded myself how lucky I was that most law traineeships started in September and I had two months of freedom until becoming a slave to the corporate world.
The rest of the night was filled with laughter, drinks, lots of drinks, reminiscing in memories... and Val finally going home with Christian.
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📍 Cricketers Arms Tagged: val.the.great mary.wright98 Last evening in Oxford 😢
anniewoods 😭😭😭😭😭😭 oli_wright_one_and_only Buy me that blazer pls
The next day I woke up surprisingly fit, considering the amount of alcohol I had consumed last night. Before getting up I checked my phone for any possibility of having sent a risky message to someone. But who was I joking, my last relationship was in first year with a guy I had met at lunch. We had gone out for two months but then he ghosted me all of a sudden. I saw him once again in third year in a corridor but as soon as he saw me too, he changed his direction and ran away. Up until today, I still didn't know what I had done wrong. Since then, I had gone on a few dates, but a relationship never blossomed. So, I continued concentrating on my studies and on rowing instead.
After going to the bathroom and washing my teeth I put on a comfortable outfit for traveling, closed my suitcases and left my room without looking back. I was ready for the real life. I loaded all my suitcases and other stuff I had, in my mum's car which she had kindly left here after my graduation ceremony, while my family had gone back home by train. I connected my phone to my car, started my Roadtrip Bangers playlist on Spotify and took on the 3 1/2 hour drive to my family's summer home in Salcombe, Cornwall.
