Mon Amour | 𝑪.𝑳

Part 58

Time Skip (3 weeks) - 2021 British Grand Prix:

Lyla was on fire.

Not literally - that was reserved for Carlos' Ferrari.

But with the added addition of Lyla, another engineer named Henry, and upgrades in Austria. The papaya team was flying.

France had been a decent race compared to the rest of the season for McLaren. Austria a week later had been even better and Austria the week before had been top 6 competitiveness.

Lyla still managed to spilt her time during race weekends. She would get to spend time with Pierre and Charles whenever she could or have lunch with Kimi and Sebastian. With her schedule being more filled than it used to have been, it meant that less chaos causing went on - much to the liking of Lewis Hamilton who could now enjoy his naps in peace unless Valtteri and Toto got bored enough to bug him.

It was strange for everyone to see Lyla walking around the paddock in a McLaren shirt. It had always been expected for her to begin working at Ferrari or Mercedes.

Although, their was the slight issue of her entanglement with Charles.

The engineer and driver had been forced to let their bosses know. Zac had been slightly sceptical at first until he noticed Lando and Daniel listening in outside and had called them into the office only for the both of them to tell him that Lyla and Charles had been something everyone was waiting to happen for years and that they were genuinely in love - much to the embarrassment of Lyla who buried her head in her hands. Zac did eventually accept it, with the terms that he didn't find Charles inside the McLaren garage or motorhome and that she wasn't found within the Ferrari motorhome or garage at any point during race weekends.

Charles' side of the story was a lot more difficult. The new deputy team principal for Ferrari was a right dick and Lyla hadn't even bothered to learn his name because she knew he wouldn't be sticking around with the rumours of Fred Vassuer taking his place after summer.

The man filling in for Binotto had not liked the fact one of his drivers was entangled with a now McLaren engineer. Despite the fact it had actually happened long before Lyla was even offered a job for the British racing team. When Charles blatantly refused to end things with Lyla, the blonde found herself receiving emails from the team principal informing her to stay well away from Charles during race weekends and to make sure she wasn't spotted anywhere near the Ferrari motorhome or garage or the situation wouldn't end well.

When Daniel and Lando had seen the rather threatening emails sent through after that they went straight with the laptop to Zac who sorted the situation quickly.

It was safe to say that Lyla and Charles' relationship wasn't in any peril or danger.

Lyla had become this big bubble of happiness ever since returning from Surrey before the French Grand Prix. For drivers such as Sebastian, Kimi, Fernando and Lewis they were seeing that perfectly imperfect soul Lyla had been as a child returning to the surface and breaking through the chains that had forced it back down. You could just tell from one glance that she was becoming a completely different person now - both mentally and physically.

Lyla was healing from her past trauma, slowly but surely.

Charles always found himself trying to spot her whenever he could. If he was walking past the McLaren garage he would wink at her if she caught his eye or if he had a good race he would make sure to go and give her a hug after celebrating with his team. With Lyla's mentality changing significantly since getting her job, he couldn't help but be amazed.

And every single day he fell more and more in love with her.

"We should tell everyone."

Lyla's gaze moved away from the bracelets on Charles' wrist that she had found herself playing with and up to his eyes, tilting her head to the side slightly.