Studying Love

chapter 40: Improvement

Lilly's pov

After saying bye to all our friends Charles and I were left alone, just the two of us. I am so tired and wait for him to go home. Charles walks to the dj booth and I hear our favorite song starts playing. The same song I heard the pianist playing when we were meeting up with Carmen and George. I smile and Charles comes over to me. He stands before me and puts his hand out for me to take "May I have this last dance of the night my lady?" I smile and happily take his hand. He leads me to the dancefloor and places his hands around my waist and I place mine around his neck. I look into his eyes as we sway on the empty dancefloor. "Thank you. No only for today but also for choosing me." He kisses me gently "I will forever choose you, never forget that mi amor." He softly places his forehead against mine. We completely get lost in the moment and have been dancing even after the music has stopped. Charles kisses me gently "Let's go home my love". We both immediately fall asleep when we lay on our pillows.

Charles unfortunately leaves a few days later. I drop him off at the airport. I'm really really going to miss him, even though it's only for a little longer than a week. I park the car and walk him untill I can't join anymore. "So, see you in ten days. Don't miss me too much." Charles jokes and strokes my cheek. My eyes start to water "Oh no baby I'm sorry, I was joking! Don't cry." He pulls me in for a hug and I bury my face in his chest "I love you too" he softly kisses my head. "Oh my god this is so stupid, I don't even know why I'm crying." I laugh it off. I just felt so gratefull the past week to spend time together, and how thoughtfull he organized my birthday. I wish this week could last a little longer. "Okay you need to leave now, one last kiss." He kisses me, soft and long, before walking off and giving me a wink. 

I drive back to Monaco to go straight to work. We had another conversation about combining work and our relationship and we agreed I tried for at least one year before deciding something. The week goes by fast and Charles and I try to facetime but it's difficult due to the time difference. It's the day before qualifying and Carmen came over to watch the race with me. We talked a lot and I asked her how she does it, working and being supportive of George. "You're also a supportive partner if you're not with him every race. He knows that as well." "But how do you cope with being away from eachother for like half of the year?" "Trust, 100% trust. And we enjoy the time together even more. Join on maybe half of the races if work lets you. It takes enormous planning skills but if you really want to, you can make it work. And I think you both really want to." She smiles encouraging at me. This really helped me, I think we can make that work. Let's just get to the end off the season while working normally. 

We go out for dinner and have a little too much to drink. It's already morning in Australia and I figured Charles' alarm goes off around now. I text him if he is awake and he facetimes me immediately. "Hello, look Car, it's my gorgeous boyfriend with his morning hair." I turn the camera to her and she says hi to him. I bring the phone closer to me and whisper "You look literally so hot right now, if you were here..." I bite my lip and see him blush "Lilly, how much wine did you drink?" he laughs "Just right enough to-" "Okay ew you two, get a room." Carmen yells from behind me. "I gotta make ready for track now and you need to get to bed, the race starts in 5 hours and I have to hurry love." I have the hiccups and tell him to have fun today and we hang up.

I wake up by my alarm at 6.30. "Oh my god, why are these races so early, I physically can't get up." Carmen groans at me. "Why did we finish the whole bottle of wine, we could've had a glass and were fine." My head hates me right now but I do get up and make some coffee for us. In the meantime I quickly call Charles to wish him luck. He's still in his drivers room, making ready to go. He gets called to get to the garage and we say goodbye. Carmen comes walking out of the bedroom, covered in blankets like a huge roulade. I die from laughter when I see her. "Come on, I think formation lap is almost starting." I am so nervous, what if something happens again? He is on the other side of the world, it would at least take a day to get to him... Carmen notices my leg is bouncing and takes my hands. "He will be just fine, okay?" I vagely smile at her and nod. I so hope he will be okay today...