Stay with me ● Charles Leclerc

Chapter 24

Elena's POV

"What do you mean everything is out of stock?" I said on the phone in utter disbelief. "It means you did your job perfectly" I heard Kelly, the woman in charge of Marketing of APM Monaco. "Thank you" I said the smile clearly visible in my voice "No thank you, and thank Charles on behalf of the team" she said before hanging up.

I haven't talked to Charles since the photoshoot and I didn't go to the race when he asked me to come; honestly I just decided to come up with some excuse to not be there. He's been seen with his new girl on so many occasions, whether she's in his car or they're just out on a date that I was actually starting to doubt that it's a fling as he said.

I texted Joris the updates on the campaign telling him to thank Charles for us. There were no races for the moment and frankly, every time I open social media I see videos of him with his new girl and I can't help but feel that burning jealousy even though I shouldn't. He was never mine to begin with.

And he called me a fling.

The thing is, I think I like him. Yes, I was confused, yes I may have pushed him away, but so did he. My whole situation with Charles is so complicated, but every minute I spent with Charles I felt like I just wanted to stop time, live in the moment. With him. Until he decides to say something stupid and fuck it up like call me a fling. Who even says that?

I got dressed into something comfortable and went to get my morning coffee just like every morning, but today something was different. There were a bunch people crowded around a certain car, I couldn't see clearly because of all the people but if I had to guess, I'd say they were huddled around Charles. I ignored the group of people, and Charles, making my way inside of the coffee shop as I made my way to the counter placing my order. A few minutes later, Charles entered the coffee shop placing his own order, he was looking at his phone while placing his order and someone else's order. I was silently praying he wouldn't notice my existence and we can just both move on with our day. It pulled out my phone and just went through my contacts scrolling for what felt like hours trying to bury myself in my phone trying to escape the situation. "Elena" I heard the barista call out as he placed my drink on the counter for me to take. I was silently cursing hoping Charles didn't notice but I literally saw him from the corner of my eyes look up from his phone at me. I reached out for my drink and immediately turned to walk away before I heard his familiar French accent say "so no hello?" I stopped in my tracks, not sure whether to turn around and talk - possibly making a scene - or just leave. 

I plastered on a fake smile and turned to face him. "Hello Charles" I said "I'm sorry I didn't notice it was you earlier I was-" he said before I cut him off "busy, yeah no it's fine" I said before looking at the time on my phone "I have to go I'm running late" I said "Um, yeah sure it was nice to see you" he said as I nodded "I'll see you around" I said before turning around and out the café doors.

Charles' POV

"I'll see you around" I said as she disappeared from my eye sight.

She didn't care. It's like, whatever was between us is there but not there at the same time. She never came to the races, even though I had Joris reach out more than once. My first instinct was to follow her out of the coffee shop to talk and understand why she didn't come, why she chooses every time to talk to Joris giving him the updates about the campaign and not talk to me, why she's avoiding me.

"Leclerc" I heard the barista call out snapping me out of my thoughts "Thanks" I said as I took the drinks. The second I walked outside, I was bombarded with fans asking for photos and autographs. Don't get me wrong, I love my fans, it's just sometimes I need a second to breath and they're so fast with the posting and finding out exactly where I am. It's both impressive and scary if I'm being honest.