My memory from the plane soon faded. That was probably because I passed out in a plane seat due to tiredness and my overall alcohol intake. One of the flight attendants tapped my shoulder and woke me up, saying that we would be landing in 15 minutes. The rest of the plane was asleep, except for Charles who sat next to me reading a book.
He was relaxed in the the luxurious plane seats, his hand in a fist supporting his cheek as he focused on the words in front of him. Pierre sat across from us with his face leaned against the wall almost snoring. The window to my left showed the approaching horizon as we made our descent. The sun shone brightly in the sky, illuminating the landscape which I could not identify as any particular country.
I groaned in my seat as I sat up straighter.
"Morning sleepyhead." Charles said, peering up at my from his book. A soft smile graced his face full of stubble.
"Where the hell is this plane landing?" I demanded as I rubbed my eyes. Charles just laughed and looked out the window.
He responded, "Paris."
-
I took a step down the stairs, following all the other drivers getting off the plane. My skirt and short top were not sufficient in the chilly weather and I shivered.
"What are we doing here?" I asked Daniel who walked in front of me.
He turned back and said, "Whatever you want to do. I just thought it would be a good place to go. If you have other places to be its easy to get a flight out, and if you want to stay there are plenty of things to do here."
I responded to him with a mhm and grabbed my suitcases from the pile.
"Toto wants us back in Brackley." Lewis announced as he grabbed his own suitcase next to me.
My heart sunk, the next two weeks of free time and fun were now off the table. I just sighed.
"Theres a train we can take to get there fastest, I nodded. A car pulled up and Lewis pointed to it saying something about it being ours. I was only half listening as I looked back and found Charles in the crowd. I should have said goodbye.
-
The next week was spent at the office. We made improvements to the car and drove on the simulators. Toto still looked at me like I was some foreign thing. I would pass him in the hall and he would only give me a glance over as he walked, then he would look away like I was never there.
Wasn't third place good enough for him? It seemed like nothing made the man happy. I would catch him complaining about Red Bull and some of the other teams like we weren't doing great so far, that's if we didn't count my DNF in Bahrain.
But maybe I was just getting ahead of myself and becoming unfocused. I just knew that after scoring a podium and celebrating on the plane my mood had decreased from Sunday due to the fact that I was back at the Mercedes headquarters.
The only highlight of my week is that me and Lewis made a video for the fans where we raced junky cars around the practice track. Soon I was to face the jet lag going to Australia. We were leaving tonight on a private plane. That was what I thought until someone knocked on my door.
"Come in."
Toto opened the door, just my luck.
"Hey just wanted to let you know that the flights got switched. Yours leaves in a couple hours." He threw a plane ticked on my desk. I looked it over. Departing at 8:00 pm and it was 5:30 now.
"Crap, then I have to go!" I got up and grabbed my bag. Thankfully all of my luggage was already in my car.
"See you in Melbourne!" I said to Toto as he grinned at me running out the door. What was his problem?
YOU ARE READING
the pursuit
Romance"Stop following me," she paused, "This was never supposed to happen." "What if I want this to happen?" - #5 in Charles 05/23
