The Last Chicane

Sedici

Today was warm. Well, warm for Monaco. It was 74 degrees.

I hadn't heard from Charles in a couple of days. We exchanged the typical "hey, hope your day is going well" type of texts.

But this morning I got an interesting text from him.

Charles: get dressed. hope you packed a swim suit. be there to pick you up in half an hour :)

Anticipation bloomed in my stomach. I was excited to finally get to hang out with him and see him.

Going through my suitcase, I found that I had only packed one swim suit. A blue bikini with tiny white flowers all over it.

Fantastic. I thought. I wasn't self conscious about my body, but I hated being vulnerable. And in my eyes, a bikini was about as vulnerable as I could get.

Not having any other options, I put it on. I also put on a cream crop top and some jean shorts over it.

Charles text me saying that he was downstairs in the lobby waiting on me, so I made my way downstairs to the lobby.

As I exited the elevator, my phone rang.

"Hey, I just made it to the lobby, where are you?" I asked Charles on the phone.

"Walk outside. I am in my car at the valet." Was the only response I got.

Walking outside, my mouth fell open as I saw the same matte black 488 Pista Ferrari that I saw outside of the book store the first night here. And inside the Ferrari was Charles, grinning ear to ear at me as he rolled the passenger seat window down.

"Hop in." Was all he said.

My mouth flew open. I started laughing hysterically and shook my head. "I can't get in that Charles. Are you insane?"

"Blake. Get. In. You're holding up the valet line." I saw the line of cars filing in behind his Ferrari.

Slowly I made my way to the car, opened the door, and sat down in the passenger seat. After putting my seatbelt on, he sped off into the streets of Monaco.

I was quiet the whole ride, staring out the window. Totally lost in thought, I hadn't realized where we were until he turned the engine off and looked at me. I hated to admit it, bit I felt a tad out of place. I mean, I was in a Ferrari for crying out loud. This was Charles' personal Ferrari.

"Okay, this is the longest that you ever gone without saying anything. Are you okay? Did something happen over the past couple of days?" He asked concerningly.

"Yeah I'm okay." Was all I could say. I wanted to treat him like a regular person. I wanted to be someone who saw the real him and could see past all of the superficial things- including his Ferrari that I was currently sitting in. 

So I went with the best option. I chose to internally freak out while being cool and calm on the outside. I didn't want him to know that I was overwhelmed.

As I got out of the car, I noticed that we were at the marina.

"Don't tell me. We're going to spend the day on your personal yacht." I joked.

Except I realized it wasn't a joke when he nodded his head in confirmation.

He led the way down the docks and stopped in front of this massive yacht.