❥𝑹𝒆𝒅 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆

Chapter 6

Saturday

Narrator POV

The drivers were getting ready for the qualifying.
The FP's were looking good for Ferrari, Carlos drove twice to P3 and in the third practice he scored P4.
Charles on the other hand was P2 every practice. He was right behind Max and they competed the whole time.
Even though Valerie was working at Ferrari, that didn't mean she could watch every race.
Today she had enough to do with a design for an article that had to be done by the evening.
So she sat in the office with some others and worked the whole afternoon while the qualifying was going. Sometimes when it was quiet in the office, she could hear the engineers cheering downstairs.
Every time that happened, a big smile came across her face. She hoped Carlos was doing good.
And somewhere inside her chaos of old feelings she hoped Charles would score great too.

She finished at the right time, uploaded her work to her boss and ran down the stairs quickly. As she arrived, the drivers were just going back in the garage.
»How did go?!«, she asked the engineers that were cheering together.
»Carlos got P3 for tomorrow, and Charles P2!«, they shouted almost in reunion
Valerie smiled.
The drivers would cool down first so she waited until they got changed and stuff.
When Carlos finally came upstairs, followed by Charles, Valerie almost jumped into a hug.
»I'm so happy for you, Carlos.«, she said and made the hug tighter.
»Let me drive the race tomorrow, then we can celebrate.«, he answered jokingly.
When they broke off the hug, Valerie saw Charles standing there watching them.
»You also did good out there, Leclerc. Congrats«, she said to him. At first he didn't expected that he was talked to but then it seemed like his gaze softened at her words.
But then his face straightened up like he clicked a button.
»Yeah thank you.«, he just said coldly.
»Are we throwing a party or something?«, Valerie suggested.
»I don't know... it was only the qualifying.«, Carlos replied unsure.
»Come on, just something small. I know a good
club in town. Let's invite the other boys and have some fun, pleasee.«
Carlos looked at his sister. »You already got everything you wanted as a child.«, he said laughing.
Valerie got a big smile on her face.
»So, we'll meet at 8 p.m. then. I'll text you the address.« Valerie hugged her brother one more time and wanted to leave again, when she turned around for a second.
»You are also invited, Leclerc.«

He nodded without any face expressions.
Valerie left the room.
»Did my sister just invite you to a party?«, Carlos asked unbelieving.
»Yeah whatever.« Charles went off to speak to his engineers.

8:15 p.m.

Valerie entered the club and observed the room for familiar faces.
»Heyy, you must be Carlos' sister, no?«, a voice behind her asked. When she turned around, a man stood there with a drink in his hand.
»Yeah I am. And you are...?«
»Oh, Pierre Gasly, pleasure.« He reached out his hand and Valerie shook it.
»Where are the others?«, She asked him looking around. »Come on, I'll show you.«
Valerie followed Pierre to a back corner of the bar, where Carlos, Charles, Lando, Alex and Max were sitting.
When they noticed her, all heads went up.
»You look very pretty, Val.«, Carlos mentioned.
She smiled.
Valerie wore a knee-long black dress with blank shoulders. »Yeah I wanted to say the same.«, Pierre said and sat next to Lando.
The boys could barely take his eyes off of her.
Expect Charles, he looked at his drink and stayed quiet.

»Don't you think, mate?« Carlos pushed his friend a little into his side.
Charles raised his head and gazed at Valerie, who was talking to Pierre and didn't hear their conversation.
»Yeah sure.«, Charles just said and took a sip of his drink. Everything was alcohol-free, of course. The race tomorrow was very important.

»Guys, I gotta go. I still have to make some calls before tomorrow.«, Carlos suddenly mentioned and stood up. »Already?«, Valerie asked.
»Yeah. Some of the team are waiting for me to call them back. See you all tomorrow at the race!«
The boys said goodbye to Carlos and went on in their conversations.
Max talked with Charles every now and then. Since they knew each other for a pretty long time, they seemed to have fun.
Valerie ordered another drink and when she wanted to sit down again, she made an inappropriate move. She could hear her dress rip on her side.
»Ohh, this can't be happening right now.«, she said to herself.
She hold her hands above the part that ripped and walked past the boys to the bathroom.
No one really seemed to notice her absence, since they were so deep in conversations with one another.

»Gotta go to the bathroom real quick.«, Charles informed the boys and made his way to the toilet.
When he entered the hallway where the women's and men's bathrooms were, he stopped for a moment.
He could hear someone talking angrily on the WC across him.
»No no no. Why is this happening to me?«
»Fuck!«

»Valerie?«, he said quietly asking himself as he recognized her voice.
»What am I supposed to do now?«, she continued, not knowing he listened outside.

»Are you always taking to yourself?«, Charles said, still standing in front of the women's door.
»Charles? Oh this is just getting better...«
»You've got a problem in there?«, he almost laughed through the door.
»You could say that.«. She replied.
Charles slowly opened the door.
»No, no, no what are you doing?«, Valerie began, but Charles was already looking at her standing in front of the big mirror in the bathroom
»Wasn't I supposed to come in? Sorry I disrespected your privacy but I heard a woman in need.«
»This is just really embarrassing.« Valerie fumbled on her dress and tried to turn away from Charles.
»What's the matter with your dress?«
»Just leave already, you're not even supposed to be here.« Valerie gestured him the way out but Charles didn't move a meter. Instead he tried to figure out what she was doing by staring at her fingers.
»For god's sake, Charles. Just leave me alone I don't need anyone to humiliate me.«
»I'm not doing anything.«, he said in his classy French accent and made an offended gesture with his hand.
»But I still don't understand what your problem is though.«, he continued and leaned in the doorframe.
»Hell, my f^cking dress ripped! Isn't that obvious? Now go and drink another one with your buddies and tell them I went back to the hotel because I didn't feel good.«, Valerie explained and looked Charles in the face. She took a moment to gaze at him leaning there. But then she broke off and tried to hold the ripped part together with her fingers.
»Here.« Charles took off his jacket and reached it to Valerie.
She ignored it and continued with whatever she was doing.
»Just take the damn jacket, Valerie.«
»Fine.«, she ripped the jacket out of Charles' hand and put it on. It was long enough to cover up the ripped part of the dress.
She looked relieved and sighed.
»But I'm still going home now. Can't let this evening get worse.«, she just said and walked past him out of the bathroom.
»You have a car with you?«, Charles asked while following her through the back exit.
»No, came her by taxi. You want to take me with you again?«, she said sarcastically while rolling her eyes.
»I'm afraid I can't. Carlos took me with him earlier.«
»And he's already gone, yeah.«, Valerie mentioned and just continued walking.
»You have a thing with walking back to this hotel, don't you?«
»Got a problem with that, Leclerc?«
»No.« Charles just kept walking besides her.