Studying Love

Chapter 12: Coffeestains?

Sabrina Carpenter - Nonsense
"I'll be honest,
Lookin at you got me feeling nonsense,
Cartwheels in my stomach when you walk in,
When you got your arms around me, ooh, it feels so good."

Lilly's pov

We drive on a small mountain road when Charles says we're almost there. The views from the car are amazing, I'm already enjoying myself so much with just this carride. He looks cute in the passenger seat and is an exellent navigator. Idrive up in a parkinglot and see a small restaurant. This looks cute! We enter and go sit on the terrace where I immediately see the view. The coastline and the ocean flow over in eachother flawlessly, it is amazing. "Wow.." I softly say. I decide to order a tea and the boy does the same. "You know, I actually don't drink coffee but I knew you did and thats why I asked you out for coffee." he says after ordering. I chuckle, the thought was cute.

We enjoy being in eachothers company and talk about my childhood. I ask about his and I know I shouldn't have done that. He gets a sad look taking over in his eyes, yet he tries to smile at me. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that and you don't have to say anything about it if you don't want to." He looks up at me and starts telling about all of his happy memories. A bright smile appears on his face and I can't help yourself but you take his hand. He stops talking in the middle of his sentence and turns birght red. Shit, was this too early? He looks at your hands on top of eachother with his mouth open and shifts his eyes back to meet yours. A hesitant feeling is taking over in me, what will he say or do? His face lights up and I see the dimples forming around his smile. He melts his fingers with yours, yess, he does feel the same way I think when I let out an unnoticable gasp of air. After talking for hours you head back, Charles has to do some calls to arrange his travels for the GP in two weeks. As we walk to the car I think about letting him drive, he is a professional driver after all. Before I thought it out well I hear my own voice say something. "I can't believe I'm doing this, but if you want to drive you have my permission.", while holding my keys up to him.

The boy smiles at me and takes the keys. He opens the passenger side door for me and helps me in. He gets in and before he starts the car I remind him "If I see a teeny tiny scratch anywhere on my car, I will personally murder you." He laughs and starts driving off. Where you were trying to impress him, he does even more. But with succes, I am impressed and the adrenaline of him braking extra late makes me love it even more. I try to hide my excitement and see a mischievous grin on his face via the mirror. He is okay, he can drive more often in my car. He has earned my trust to take my temple for a ride sometime. We arrive home and stay seeted, not saying a word. He hands me te keys back "I enjoyed this really much", I open the conversation with a huge smile on my face. "Me too", he says, "What do you do tomorrow?". I had nothing planned yet but maybe wanted to go for a dive somewhere. "We can go together with my yacht?" he offers. I'd really like that, we can spend time together doing what I love the most. This whole yacht, fast cars and jetset life is new for me. As a student I worked a lot in restaurants and didn't earn that much, but I was happy with how things were. I am excited tho to see his yacht, he'll pick me up around noon.

I can sense that the both of us are hesitant to say goodbye. We both know what will happen next. Charles rests his head back in the seat and looks at me while putting his hand on my thigh. I look at him, he is gorgeous. I put my hand on his and give it a soft squeeze, slowly leaning more towards him. He meets me in the middle and I feel the tension building. His breath getting closer to my skin makes me nervous and excited at the same time. Finally, our lips meet.

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Charles' pov

We sit down and she orders tea. TEA? I asked her on a coffee date eventhough I don't even drink coffee and she orders tea? I confess to her that I thought she would order coffee, and she laughs at me while shaking her head. At first we both don't know what to say but than we start talking to eachother for hours.

I ask about her childhood and she begins to tell you. She's glowing while telling how great growing up in the Netherlands has been. Her elderly house was near a small lake so in the winters she would go iceskating with her family or friends. I've never been on ice skates before but she is so enthousiastic about it I want to try it too as soon as possible. She is full of love about her family and I can tell they're very important to her. When her parents decided to move to Spain, her brothers stayed in Holland. She missed them so much but they would often visit. When she went to university she decided to go back to the Netherlands, also because the universities in the Netherlands have a higher ranking but mostly to spend more time with her family there. Her oldest brother became a father and she often spends time with her niece. During her studytime she came back in contact with her old friends from elementary school, the ones I've met already. She also learned how to surf and snowboard at a studentassociation. Ican feel the passion she has for her studies and sports and all the love she has for her close ones. She is the right girl for me and in this moment I know that already. One day we will get married and start our own family.

"Well enough about me, how was your childhood?", she says and I feel sadness taking over. I feel her getting uncomfortable about the question, she probably already knows how much pain the past has been giving me. I start telling about our family holidays and she really listens. As I tell more and more I get back to those good times. A smile appears on my face and actually for once I did like to talk about mypast, eventhough it hurts sometimes. "And than we went on a skitrip to...", she suddenly puts her hand on mine and I fall quiet. Her touch is so soft yet I can feel the weight of her hand. Blood starts pumping to my face as it turns bright red and I look at her. She gives a soft smile but I see in her eyes she is questioning what she did. I slowly open my fingers to let hers fit in the spaces between and hold her hand like this for the rest of the time.

It's already late in the afternoon when we decide to head back. I have to arrange some things before summer break is over. As a suprise I would like Lilly to come to the Belgian and Dutch GP, before she starts to work again. I will try to get her on the private plane. When we walk back she gives me the opportunity to drive back. Don't say that twice to a driver, I think to myself. As she impressed me with her skills, I had to impress her even more. She smiles the whole way back, clearly loving every second of it. When we arrive at her home I don't want to leave. I want to spend more time with her. I ask about her plans tomorrow and she maybe wanted to go diving. Yes, we can do that together! I offer to go with my yacht and will pick her up around 12.

The moment we have to say goodbye starts getting closer. I sigh and rest my head back, looking over at her. She is fidgetting with her fingers. I want to say something but she looks up. Looking into eachothers eyes I feel blood rushing through my veines, getting extremely nervous. She leans in a bit, and I place my hand on her thigh. I feel her body tense up and so does mine. I look her in the eyes and lean forward. Slowly we both lean in and our lips meet. It feels electric and I can feel every part of my body relaxing but also tensing at the same time. I cub her face while kissing her, not wanting to pull away. The kiss becomes more and more passionate, but than my phone rings. I try to ignore it but it keeps ringing. I stop kissing and sigh, looking at her one more second and check who it is. It is someone from Ferrari that I had an appointment with and I answer the call. In fluent Italian I tell I'll call back in five minutes and hang up fast. I look at Lilly, she looks back at me. I give her a quick kiss on the lips and then on her head. "I should go now, but I will see you tomorrow". She nods and we both get out, I walk her to the door and steel one last kiss before leaving. As I walk away I call Ferrari back, still thinking about this amazing day.