Romeo and Juliet || Carlos Sainz

The sunglasses

"I'm not hungry, Max, actually I'm very tired so I think I'll come back to the hotel and sleep" y/n was starving, but she didn't want to have a dinner with him. Her father listened to her answer and seemed pissed off about it. 
Max didn't say anything, he went to his resting room and stayed there for a couple of minutes, while y/n decided to sneak out the garagaes and finally return to her hotel room.
When she arrived, she hoped to meet Carlos somewhere around the corridors or the elevator, but she didn't, of course. It was very late and she thought that Carlos was around the city having some fun with other girls. She didn't knew him at all.
She entered in her room, took a long shower and she finally went to sleep.

The day after, she woke up perfectly on time, she had breakfast with her father and talked about the race, it was very important for them to keep the pole position and win the first race of the season. It would have been very important also for y/n as her first win as a track engineer.
After that, y/n entered in the passenger seat of the car and her father drove untill the paddock. There were a lot of paparazzi around the entrance area, it was normal for her, she grew up in  situations like these, but this time it was different. She felt all the pressure on her, she had to guide Max during the race, even if Max was the champion. She had to demonstrate to her father she was good at this, she knew she could have done it, but her hands were shaking. Y/n tried to hide it, but her father saw her, he laughted to minimize her feelings, he always did. 

When y/n arrived, Max looked at her for a moment, than he kept on talking with the other mechanics before moving away from the boxes. They used to talk before every race session but not that day and y/n was glad of this. She had no intention of talking to him even if that day was the most important day of the weekend.

Before the drivers parade begun, she wanted to talk with Carlos. So she took her sunglasses case from her blue backpack and thought to use her sunglasses once arrived in the Ferrari zone. She convinced herself she could have hide only wearing her pair of sunglasses once arrived in the Ferrari boxes, even if she was wearing the Red Bull uniform. Okay girl.
She slipped through the Red Bull mechanics and went to the Ferrari zone. There were a lot of people moving up and down the hospitality and she was afraid to meet somebody that could have kick her out, so it was in that moment that she weared her sunglasses. She entered in the Ferrari hospitality and looked around to find Carlos, when she heard a familiar voice.

"hey, wrong box again" it was Charles smiling at her.
"hey! Have you seen Carlos?" y/n asked looking around nervously. She had to return to Red Bull garages as soon as possible before her father found out where she was.
"I did, he's near his car, he's checking the last stuffs with his engineer" she immediately thought that she had to be with Max, checking his car before the race too. But there she was.
"But I think you should wait for him here at the bar. You can sit here and wait, he'll finish soon"
"Charles, come here a moment" it was his track engineer. Charles winked at y/n than left.

Y/n waited a couple of minutes sitting at the bar, she decided to take off her sunglasses cause she felt like a stupid, or maybe she was even without her sunglasses on. She put them into the case and waited for him to come. Suddenly she saw Carlos entering the bar while chatting with his manager and cousin Carlos (but they call him Caco) and his personal trainer, Rupert. He saw her and said something to the other guys, than they left and Carlos get closer to her while she stood up. His eyes were glowing and for a moment he smiled at her, raising both his eyebrows like he was surprised to see her, than his eyes turned sad. 

"Hey" she said almost whispering. She felt very guilty.
"you're a bit late, uh?" he said in his spanish accent, trying to cover his delusion, but his eyes weren't lie.
"I'm sorry, Carlos. I worked all night long here with Max and the mechanics to fix his car..." 
"It's okay, you don't have to apologize for this" he said but it was a really big lie. She looked at him whitout saying a word, he looked very confident and serious.
"I just wanted to" she replied looking at his shiny black hair.

"I have to go to the parade now" he cut short and joined Charles who was waiting for him outside the exit. Charles waved at y/n while Carlos didn't. Y/n di expect this reaction from Carlos but she felt very bad. 

Y/n left the bar and went back to Red Bull boxes where Checo and Max were talking to her dad; when she arrived the three of them looked at her, Checo was smiling but Max and Christian weren't. 
"Ready for the parade?" asked y/n looking at Checo cause he was the only one who seemed happy to see her.
"yes we are! I love the parade moment, it's the only moment I can see all the crowd, you can't do it while you're going 380km/h" he said smiling with y/n.
"it's time for us to go, Checo" said Max freezing the conversation.

Checo and Max left the Red Bull area, than also Christian left while talking to another engineer. Y/n looked at Max's car before the race, hoping everything would have been good for them, she really needed to win to prove she was worthy. Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.
"hey" that spanish accent was unmistikable.
Immediately, she saw Carlos coming at her kida fast. He wasn't looking at her but all around him, like he was trying not to be seen.

"You forgot your sunglasses on the table of the bar" said Carlos looking at her 
"Thank you, I totally forgot about them" she said almost shaking. He gave to her the sunglasses case and for a moment their hands touched. She felt like a strange sensation of pleasure and fear through her back. His hands were very big and strong and she imagined how he could drive the car, how the fingers could move and touch the wheel, all the buttons and the lateral trasmission. She thought he was very elegant and strong inside that car.

Carlos smiled at her and, for the first time, he looked nervous but she didn't know why.
"You better go now, I don't want you to be seen here" 
"Why? It's not a big deal I'm here" he said looking around again.
"My daughter likes talking a lot today" Christian joined y/n and Carlos, and y/n's blood run cold immediately. Christian smiled at Carlos then looked at y/n with terrible eyes, she felt like when she was just a baby and did something bad so her father used to look at her like this. Anyway he disappeared without saying a word and left Carlos and y/n alone.

"Horner is your father?" asked Carlos whispering and shocked. He had no idea she was a Horner and all of a sudden he understood everything. She smiled at him forced, like she wanted to scream but she couldn't do it. He left and finally went to the parade and y/n run into the engineer office to take a breathe. At that time of the day, that room was always empty, because everybody was around the pitlane or already on their sits. 
She closed the door, leaned her back against it and closed her eyes. After few seconds she opened her eyes again and sat on a chair in silence. She played with the case a bit, moving it from hand to hand when suddenly it fell on the floor and it opened.
She bent over to catch the sunglasses and she saw a little white note folded near the case, it was inside it and came out when it fell.
She took the note and unfolded it, there was written something with a black pen and a very bad calligraphy:

"So you can tell me if you won't come"

Under this text there was a telephone number, Carlos's telephone number. She smiled a lot looking at this piece of paper. She felt like a teenager girl in high school who opens her locker and finds an invitation for the prom.