❥𝑹𝒆𝒅 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆

Chapter 19

Narrator POV

It was early morning when Charles came out of the bathroom, only a towel around his waist.
He wanted to head back to Valerie's room and get changed.

Unfortunately, his teammate - who is also the brother of the girl he spent the night with - came towards him, having a skeptic look on his face.
»You had a fun night?«, he just asked and stopped in front of him. He held some papers in his hand.
Charles actually tried to avoid the conversation. How should he explain to Carlos that he just had the most wonderful night with his best friend's sister?
He went nervously through his hair.
»You could say that.«
Carlos chuckled. »I figured when I came back earlier and saw your car still parking in front of our house.«
Charles put on an edgy smile and searched for ways to escape this situation.
»Were you two serious last evening? Are you together again?...«, Carlos wanted to know hesitantly. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.
Charles shook his head and looked down on his hands. »Not really, no.«
Carlos sighed. »Well, I know there's still something between you two. But it's not my thing to figure out. I just want her to be happy. And I hope in the end it's with you.«
With that, Carlos patted his friend on the shoulder and passed him, headed to his office down the hall.

Charles took a deep breath and entered Valerie's room quietly to not wake her up.
He sneaked around the bed to go look for his clothes. As he stood at the other side of the bed, he could look Valerie straight in the face.

She looks so peaceful when she sleeps.
And so beautiful.

»Heyy, what you doin' there?« Valerie moved under her blanket and faced Charles with sleepy eyes.
»I'm gonna get changed now.«, he replied, but not moving from his spot.
Valerie straightened up and observed him from from top to bottom, his only cloth a towel around his waist. »You sure you wanna get changed? I like the view.«
Charles chuckled. His hair still wet from the shower he took.

Valerie smiled at his happy face and sat up.
»Can you hand me my bag, please?«, she asked and pointed to her desk, where her bag was placed.
»Sure.« Charles went over and grabbed the bag.
»Thanks.«
Valerie rummaged around in it and finally pulled out her tablets.
She took the glass of water besides her bed and swallowed down the little medication.

Charles just watched her with a resting face like he would gaze at a beautiful landscape.
»Are we going to talk about this?«, he mentioned while leaning on the desk.
»What do you mean?«
»Us.« His eyes went uncertainly at the floor.

Valerie sighed. »Can we discuss this later, please?«
Charles got that disappointed, but understanding look.
»Of course.«
He took one last longing look at her, then went out of the room to get changed.

Valerie got ready quickly because she got some meetings at work. They would talk about some design things and decide which merch they will bring out soon.
She also had to prepare a presentation about some of her own ideas and she was very optimistic about it.

When she entered the paddock, she took a moment to look around. She has never been in the Ferrari paddock of Monaco and it was quite beautiful.
She headed to the design office but stopped as she heard a clinking. She turned around to find her keys on the floor.

God damn Imma loose those keys one day.

Valerie wanted to pick them up as she acknowledged the presence of someone else across her, bending down and handing her the keys.
As she straightened up again and took them, she looked at an unfamiliar, but friendly face.
It was a tall, black haired guy with a cute smile.
»Thank you.«, Valerie said and put the keys in her bag.
»Your welcome.« The man in front of her had a deep, but soft voice and his brown eyes gazed at her.
He reached out a hand. »I'm Raphael, by the way.«
»Valerie.«, she replied and shook his hand.

»How come I never saw you around here?«, Valerie asked further and looked at his face like she was trying to recognize him from somewhere.

»Oh, I'm actually not working in this part of the paddock.«, he mentioned and pointed at the sign on the entry, where "Social Media&Design office" was standing.
Valerie followed his finger. »Yeah that makes sense.«, she chuckled.
»I am employed at security.«, he explained further and put on a proud smile.

»That's nice! If I ever come into trouble, I know who to call now.«, she said sarcastically and headed to the office, looking behind her to
say goodbye to Raphael.
He just stood there and watched Valerie disappearing into her office. 

Later that day
Charles POV

I got out of the meeting room together with Fred and exchanged some more words with him.
We discussed some work stuff about the car and he reminded me of the autograph session I would have in the next few days together with Carlos.

I took a look at my watch and wondered if Valerie was still working.
Either way, I decided to go have a look for myself and took the stairs up to the design office.
We had to talk about this.
Mixed feelings rumored inside of me. Carlos was right. There was something between us. And that night was more than amazing.
But can we just forget the past and start over? I knew that Valerie had problems with processing our fights back then. And I haven't forgotten them too.
But for this woman, I would sacrifice everything.
I knew how much I wanted her.
And I knew that was the only thing that counted in that moment.

I walked around the corner to enter the office, but stopped as I got a straight look through the glass doors.
Valerie was sitting at her desk at the front.
But not alone.
My heart skipped a beat as I saw some random guy standing besides her. They were laughing about something and they seemed to have fun.
They didn't even notice me standing there.
Suddenly, my chest felt like thousands of stones falling down at once.
I just looked at her and this guy having a happy conversation with each other and raging anger rose up inside of me.

How could she?
Or was I overreacting?
Maybe it's just a normal chat with a colleague.

But then I remembered the day at the club. When I found her with some other guy having more fun than she should've had.
And all that feelings came up again and I just couldn't bare it to look at them for one more second.
I turned around and left the paddock, deciding not to bother her with my feelings.