GRIDLOCK - Lando Norris [BOOK 1 Gridlock Series]

16

"CA ne va pas, toi" (you're a mess) Charles laughs as he observes me struggle to crack open the next lobster.

"Leave me alone, this is hard" just as the lobster cracker slips from the claw and the lobster comes crashing down onto my plate. This fuelling the cackle coming from Charles.

"un sur un million" (one in a million) he mumbles under his breath, not for the first time during our interactions over the years.

Charles reaches across the table and takes my plate from in front of me, placing it in front of himself to finish taking apart the crustacean.

Even in this very moment where I feel like my reality doesn't exist, I can't help but have my thoughts saturates my thoughts.

"It really isn't all that difficult to do these, I really don't understand why..."

"Why do you think he did it?" I cut off  his teasing rambling and his face immediately drops.

"Evelyn, I"

"Please, Charles. Why?" I beg.

Charles puts down the lobster cracker and settles his hands on either side of his plate, expelling a staggered breath.

"I don't know what to tell you, Evelyn. Lewis and I were talking with Carlos and we think it may have been a strategic move on Lando's part. To cause, tension"

The very thing I feared.

He continues "competition with them has been strong and the championship is tight. What better way to throw Max off his game?"

I shake the thoughts away, not wanting them to sit true "but Max wasn't bothered. He didn't have a problem with us being together, he, he, he said so himself" I struggle to remember our conversation on track that day.

"Being together, yes. But what about when Lando hurts his baby sister? What then?"

I contemplate it over for a moment. Was that all this was? A game? A ploy to get ahead?

But then I start to think, if that really was it, why didn't it last long? Surely, if that was the plan, he would get me to fall completely for him and then pull the rug. He barely left us anytime for that.

What we had was hard and fast, and intense. But if the motif really was just to throw Max off, wouldn't he have made it a public thing and then call it off?

"It doesn't make any sense" I mutter to him.

His eyes look at me with nothing but complete sympathy. "I'm sorry, Evelyn"

Once we got back to my hotel room and we parted ways with a friendly kiss to my cheek, I couldn't stop over analysing what Charles had said. If this was as a scheme, he didn't carry it out to its full potential.

If it were a game, you didn't give me enough time to be a player. Tell me something, Lando. Was it a game? - Evelyn

My text message, I know is pointless, but I felt overcome with the need to know. To figure it all out. To get to the bottom of it.

Game, set, match - Lando

That son of a bitch.

I don't believe you. I don't believe any of this - Evelyn

I had to get a grip. I was letting my emotion take over and for all I know, he's sitting back laughing at how pathetic I am with Maddie.

That's the point - Lando

He is so infuriating. Something is missing. I'm missing something. The punch line. The point. There's some tiny detail that isn't adding up and I can feel it. It's on the tip of my tongue.