Another Love

28 Back Again

You arrived at the circuit together in Charles's SF90 Spider.

I told Charles that I would be going straight and would wait for him at the paddock entrance before we got out of the car.

The clicks of cameras were heard as soon as we both got out of the car and I walked straight to the paddock entrance while Charles walked towards the fans to sign caps, shirts and the like and take pictures with them.

I scanned my pass as Mia walked towards me, looking me up and down before chuckling which made me roll my eyes. Kym Illman who was at the side called my name asking if he could take a photo of me to which I happily obliged. My phone then pinged a few minutes later notifying that I was tagged along with Charles and the Scuderia Ferrari account in a post made by Kym, which I immediately opened while Mia did the same as she was helping Charles manage his account only to see a photo of me with the caption:

'Yes everyone, unsurprisingly, she's wearing Nike. I'm sorry Puma, she just loves her Nike more than anything or anyone even...Charles.'

This made Mia and I laugh as I said "Oh c'mon" just as I felt a hand circle around my waist and Charles asked what me and Mia were laughing about so I showed him what Kym posted.

"If Puma gets mad and whines, you better be volunteering to appease them because you caused it." He said chuckling making me pout which made the 2 laugh along with Andrea before we all walked towards the motorhome so Charles could get ready for the race.

I headed to the garage first as he was busy warming up, to talk to the members of the Shell team.

We shared our observations during the qualifying and discussed more with the others at the garage about the cars' performance and opinions whether the car is up to pace along with the bulls now with upgrades and the like.

I then excused myself to go grab a bottle of water at the lounge.

When I came down, Charles and Carlos were already in the garage after their warm-ups, I also saw Charlotte from my peripheral view but chose to ignore her and went to greet Carlos, kissing him on the cheek and saying "Good luck" before I went to stand in front of Charles who was sitting down scanning his notebook filled with data and other notes.

He looked up when I was in front of him, smiled and stood up to give me a peck on my lips which earned a gasp from the friend that Charlotte brought with her, which we pretended to not have heard as I proceeded to ask Charles how he was feeling.

"How does the car feel so far this weekend?"

"It feels better this weekend. I feel like today will be the start of us getting back on the podium, I just hope they won't fuck up the strategy coz I'm tired of covering up for them and answering the same questions from the press." He said while running his hand on his hair.

"Don't let the doubts of others get to your head, love, because we nailed the upgrades so you and Carlos could finally drive to your potential and not have to deal with questions that doubt whether you or the team can get closer to winning this year."

"I love you, mon amour. You're amazing, stay by my side forever." He said while smiling at me.

"Are you proposing to me right now, Lord Perceval?" I said chuckling.

"Maybe? Would you say yes if I was?" He said wiggling his eyebrows teasing me.

"Maybe? Guess we won't know then coz you're not down on your knees with an open ring box." I said jokingly before giving him a peck on his lips. "Good luck."

I then left him to his pre-race ritual of reading data and headed to the team's office smirking at Charlotte who was glaring at me as I passed by.

I moved towards the upstairs office with a headphone tuned to Charles' radio.

My heart soared when Charles took the lead at lap 25 as the Ferrari garage roared with shouts of delight.

I remained quiet, silently praying that the team would not screw him over.

Everyone groaned when Max passed Charles with the help of DRS on lap 34 but thankfully, Charles continued in P2 for the rest of the race while Carlos battled with Checo for P3 place before eventually crossing the line in P4 but Checo was given a 10-second time penalty for exceeding track limits which led him to drop down to P6 so Carlos became P3, making it a 2-podium finish for the team.

As the race ended and the cars were making their way to parc ferme.

Charles went to hug the mechanics lined up against the barrier still with his helmet on before realizing that it was Charlotte who was there along with the mechanics and turned around and removed his helmet, balaclava and ear plugs before looking around like he was looking for someone before he said something to Andrea.

Andrea didn't say anything but just pointed to where I was along with my team and Charles looked at me and smiled before blowing a kiss which made me chuckle and the others to swoon and tease me.

He then proceeded to go weigh himself and went to the cool down room with Max and Carlos before the podium and the press conference.

Charles then went to fulfill his media duties while I helped the team pack the essentials and other things in the mobile lab securely before it was to be transported to another location for another race weekend.

I then went to Charles's driver room afterwards but he was not there yet so I laid down on my side on the massage bed in the room and opened Instagram and posted a photo of Charles and Carlos on the parc ferme, which was sent to me by Mia, with the caption

'Who you doubting people? You better think about that again coz you'll be seeing red on the top for the rest of the season.'

Charles entered a few minutes after I posted on Instagram while I was now laughing at an edit of him and the other drivers to the song Secret Love Song by Little Mix on TikTok featuring the fans' love for each pair of drivers' bromance.

He looked at me weirdly as I couldn't stop laughing while he was removing his track suit so I showed it to him and he said that that might be the 5th video he has seen of that kind which made me laugh even more.

He then proceeded to change into what he wore to the paddock this morning before we left the motor home and headed back to the hotel to freshen up and get ready as we were told by Carlos that Lando called him to tell him that he, being the party animal that he is, reserved an entire VIP lounge at the same club we went to last night for all the drivers and their girlfriends or any girl they felt like bringing to party at for the night.