Mon Amour | 𝑪.𝑳

Part 18

Arden stood next to his younger sister in the Alpha Tauri garage. The Accardi siblings both had the same expression on their face as they watched the tv screens in the back of the garage.

The initials 'GAS' and 'LEC' kept darting around in the Q3 standings of qualifying.

Arden had just missed out, with Esteban Ocon making a brilliant last-minute flying lap and jumping up into P6 which knocked Arden from his P10 position and therefore out of Q3.

"Come on, Charles." Lyla mutters to herself.

She kept biting down hard on her bottom lip to the point she had made it bleed and could taste the metallic taste in her mouth. Her fingers were gripped around the L and C charms which sat on the necklace hanging around her neck out of habit, eyes glued to nothing other than the screens before her. Arden was in the same state next to her but was praying for another man - his teammate, Pierre. The Italian had his fingers playing with the old and tattered bracelet around his wrist (one which Pierre had an identical copy of on his own wrist outside of race weekends).

Lyla's smile grew when she saw Charles jump from P8 to P4, Carlos not long behind him going from P10 to P5. As the timer ticked down, the drivers out on track started their final flying laps. Pierre crossed the line and jumped to P7 whilst Esteban was knocked from P9 to P10 when his teammate, Fernando Alonso boosted himself up to P8.

The Alpha Tauri garage erupted into loud cheers, Lyla and Arden both joining and hugging each other for the success of their French friend. It wasn't long before Pierre had returned to the garage and jumped from the car, being patted on the shoulder by everyone he passed as he removed his helmet and balaclava. The minute he had placed them both down, Lyla had bounced onto his back, laughing loudly before jumping down and embracing him properly.

"I'm going to go see Charles." Lyla whispers to him.

"Lyla!" Pierre huffs, watching her walk off.

"Have fun!" She calls out, turning to face Arden who was glaring at her.

"Go get your man." She mouths to him, making him stick his middle finger up at her.

She rushed out of the celebrating garage before Arden or Pierre could run after her. Darting into the Ferrari garage - shooting a very firm glare at Mattia Binotto as she passed.

"CARLOS!" She shouts, rushing up to the Spaniard. "Well done!"

"Thanks Lyla." Carlos smiles, pulling away from her hug.

"You deserve that so much." Lyla chuckles.

"The whole team does." Carlos nods in agreement. "Looking for a certain someone?"

"How did you know?" She asks with a smirk.

Carlos rolls his eyes, nodding his head towards his teammate who was talking with his trainer, Andrea. Lyla smiled gratefully at the Spaniard, congratulating him again before separating from him and heading towards Charles. The mechanics all smiled at her, patting her shoulders or arms and greeting her in Italian as she passed them.

Hearing her name being echoed through the garage, Andrea broke away from Charles to leave the two lovebirds to themselves.

Charles grinned, opening his arms as Lyla run over to him and threw her body into his embrace. Charles spun her around, smiling widely, dimples on show. When he placed her back on the floor, Lyla pushed her fingers into his dimples, nose wrinkled from how big her smile was as Charles pouted at her and shook his head to make her drop her fingers from his cheeks.

"You don't know how proud I am." Lyla smiles, French words dripping from her tongue.

"My lucky charm was here," Charles smirks. "Not directly here but at the track."