Red | Charles Leclerc

Chapter 5

Today had been surreal. I was sat, cross legged on Charles' floor, staring out at the Monegasque harbour. He had invited me over to figure out how the 'relationship' would work and find out the basic details about each others lives.

I checked my phone. 22:30 already? I realised how easily I got caught up in the whole idea. My mind was flooded with thoughts that I shouldn't be thinking, I didn't want a relationship and neither did he.

Charles walked back from the kitchen, in his hand there were two glasses of wine. The room was dark and the only light cam from the street lights below us. Charles' face was illuminated focussing all my attention on him. My heart hammered. He sat down on the sofa and put the glasses in the coffee table in front of us.

The room was silent. But not the awkward silence you had between people you don't know, the kind of silence that you knew something was going to happen, but weren't quite sure what.

A loud thundering sound came from the door. I jumped out of my skin before Charles shot up.

"CHARLES! Y/N! I KNOW YOUR IN THERE!" Caitlin's voiced yelled from the hallway.

I relaxed and rolled by eyes as Caitlin kept banging on the door.

Charles looked at me. "Remember, we started going out a week ago, we've just had dinner together, that's it."

I nodded and sat myself down on the couch. I looked at the wine glass in my hand. It's like all of a sudden I had forgotten how to act like a normal person. But then again, none of this was normal.

"Hey Caitlin, what's up?" Charles said, he sounded relaxed as he opened the door. How was he so ok about this?

"Are you two gonna tell me what the hell this is?" Caitlin walked into the apartment, her phone in her hand, open on an Instagram account.

"Cait it's half ten at night, why are you here? Where's Lando?" I asked trying to distract her attention away from the elephant in the room.

"I only just saw this and Lando's in London, his sister in law has just had her baby," Caitlin smiled at this but immediately shook her head and walked towards me, Charles followed giving me the thumbs up. "Don't you try and distract me!"

Caitlin shoved the phone in my face. It was a screenshot of an Instagram account. The accounts name was 'Charlesandy/nlove'. I laughed at the pictures of me and Charles in the posts. The account already had 2,000 followers. Charles looked over my shoulder and chuckled.

"They move fast don't they?" He sat down next to me and put his arm round the back of the chair. I leant back into him.

"Ok ok, it's true?" Caitlin exclaimed, drawing multiple circles around me and Charles. I felt the rhythmic breathing as I leant against his chest.

I nodded at Caitlin who's jaw dropped open.

"You're kidding?"

"No, it's only very recent. About a week," Charles said, his hand moving onto my shoulder. I inhaled sharply.

"So you're telling me, I had to find out about this through an Instagram account?" Caitlin looked at us in disbelief.

"Yeah, sorry, we weren't ready to announce it yet," I shrugged, trying to act it was nothing.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for you!" Caitlin leapt up, her mood quickly changing. "I probably should get back now, but tomorrow, you tell me everything. I'll leave you to it."

She winked and walked out the door.

"Well, that went better than expected," I looked up at Charles, who's hand was still on my shoulder.

"She's definitely convinced he nodded," Charles laughed. "Stage 1 complete, now we just have to convince the rest of the world."

"That shouldn't be too hard," I said sarcastically, standing up and grabbing my bag. "It's late I should head off."

"Oh yeah," was that disappointment in his voice? "Do you want me to walk you home?"

I blushed at his offer, he was one of the sweetest people I had ever met. "I think I'll be ok," I smiled at him. "Thank you though."

"Ok, if you're sure," he opened the door and I stepped outside. "Bonne nuit."

"Good night."