𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗹 | 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗰

Chapter 53

Do you know that feeling where you want to avoid potential disappointment?

That feeling was all I could feel whilst I was waiting for Charles to return to the room. I wanted him to turn up because I wanted to know that he had got back safely but I also didn't want him to show up in case he came with bad news.

Two hours after I'd woken up was when I heard a knock at the hotel door. Before that knock, I'd been staring at a show playing on the television for that whole two hours, preparing myself for what conversation I had to come. There's a lot of scenarios you can go through in two hours; I wasn't excited for any of the ones I'd thought of.

To my disappointment, it wasn't Charles behind the door when I opened it, instead it was Daniel. He didn't come into the room, instead he invited me out of it. Apparently everyone was planning to have breakfast downstairs and most of them were already down there. A few had tried messaging me, according to Daniel, and when I looked at my phone I did see some missed calls but I must've knocked the silence button by mistake as I never heard the notifications.

I was already dressed so after i'd put on a pair of trainers I went into the hallway, making sure the door was locked behind me. We made our way towards the elevator that we then got into, Daniel pressing the ground button floor once we were no longer in the way of the doors.

As the elevator lowered, it stopped at the second floor and as the doors parted a scent filled the air that I was so familiar with. I looked up, meeting his eyes straight away as he was staring straight back at me. Those green eyes were the eyes I had been dreading to see since I'd woke up and realised he wasn't beside me. He was on his own though.

"Look at me third wheeling in an elevator," Daniel joked as Charles stepped in, merely standing centimetres away from me. I laughed it off but I had thought about making a sarcastic comment. The only reason I avoided making the comment was so that the next few seconds in here until we got to the ground floor didn't feel any more awkward than it already felt.

Charles' eyes didn't move off me for the small time we were in there but I avoided eye contact, I avoided looking at him altogether. I didn't want to look in case he smiled at me or initiated some type of communication that wasn't verbal because I wouldn't have given anything back in response. Even when walking into the hotel lobby, I still felt the presence of his eyes on me.

Just before I went to follow Daniel into the bar, that had now been set up for breakfast, I heard him say my name. The tone of voice he used was normal, I heard nothing in it that suggested to me that he was regretting anything, he just said my name normally. For a moment I was going to turn around and see what he wanted to say but I also needed food and if anything bad was to come out of the conversation, then I didn't want it to affect my appetite for the day. I did feel bad for ignoring him but I also didn't think it was fair for us to everyone else waiting.

I thought that the tables were going to be separate but when entering, I saw that multiple had been moved together in the corner to make one long one for all of us. The worst thing about it was the only two seats left were at the end, in front of each other. It made sense that they left us seats near each other but it meant I couldn't steer clear of a conversation that would include him.

He sat next to Pierre, whilst I sat next to Carlos and I was sure that both of the drivers could feel the tension between us themselves as they shot us funny looks, completely oblivious as to why we weren't speaking. There was a chance that I was over reacting slightly by not talking or looking at him at all but I couldn't make excuses for people lying, it was something that mattered to me fro many reasons and I didn't want to just brush it off.

"Is everything okay?" Carlos asked, the g not being fully pronounced because of the strong Spanish accent he had. When he asked, he made it clear that he was on about things being okay between me and Charles as he subtly pointed at Charles. Charles seemed to be in a deep conversation of his own with Pierre, so didn't seem to notice Carlos' gesture.