Like a moth drawn to a flame

Just admit it

*Luisa*

"What's our position?", Charles was breathing heavily while talking to me over the radio.

My heart was beating so fast that I felt like I was about to fall off my perch.

Qualifying had been incredibly tiring, but I was sure I'd done a good job so far. Nevertheless, a tension now fell from me that I had hardly noticed before.

Fred nodded at me across half the command post.

"Charly, this is P1."

"You've got to be kidding me!"

"No. P1. That was great."

Then there was only cheering from him and a happy smile slid across my lips as well, though it froze there immediately when I could feel Sebastian's gaze.

I couldn't look at him without thinking of that night. We hadn't talked since then. At least not really, and I was avoiding him as best I could, too. We had only talked briefly about Charles' set-up once more before he had started qualifying. But Charles and two other engineers, Claudio and Tim, had also been there. I had no longer been alone with Seb, and that was a good thing.

Because as much as I regretted going to see him, the images were still stuck in my head.

And then there was Charles, who had slept in my bed every night since then. Absolutely nothing had happened and I wasn't eager for anything to happen, but it was nice to sleep next to him. He made me feel good. Somehow he calmed me down.

But my head was in complete chaos. At least until I sat at the command post and could focus on the numbers and data. It was a wonderfully free feeling.

And the fact that we had managed to finish in P1 was even more magnificent.

Charles had deserved it. He had deserved everything.

"Good job."; Fred patted me on the shoulder "You guys are a really good team."

"Thanks."; I smiled, put my headphones aside and then headed out to congratulate Charles.

"That worked out really well. But we will still have to discuss the set-up and strategy for tomorrow. Are you free in a minute?" asked Seb, his voice sounding so official it was almost foreign to me.

"Sure. I just want to talk to Charles for a minute, if that's okay?", I could sound just as formal if I wanted to.

"Of course.", Sebastian smiled and then disappeared towards our container offices.

Maybe I could convince Charles to come along?

I strolled through the pit lane in good spirits up to the parc fermé and was almost knocked down by my driver there. Charles laughed as he lifted me up. He was still wearing his helmet, but had flipped the visor up as high as he could.

His green eyes gleamed at me.

"Shit, that was good!" he laughed at the top of his lungs.

"Calm down, that was just qualifying," I smirked and was set back down on the ground.

"But did you see how far behind the others were? I mean of course you saw that. You read the data. If we go like this tomorrow..."

"Then it looks good for us. But we still have to hope that the engine holds up, the pit stops work, and the car can go the pase for a longer period of time."

Charles puffed through "Man you can really be a buzzkill."

"I'm sorry, mio caro, I just want to play out all the contingencies. I'm excited, believe me!"