The Last Chicane

Parents

Today was January 22nd. I still had a couple of days before my birthday and about a week until I flew back home.

The thought of going back home sent me into a wave of sadness. I didn't want to go home, not yet anyways. I hadn't spent enough time with him yet. The one that completely changed my vacation for the better. The one that I could see myself falling.... No, Blake. We won't talk about that yet. It's too soon. You shouldn't be having those feelings yet.

Charles had picked me up from the hotel and wanted to show me something.

What I didn't know was that the something was his apartment. It was stunning.

In the living room, a white upright piano caught my attention.

"You play piano?" I asked, walking up to it and running my fingers over the keys. I didn't know how to play it, but I loved listening music.

Charles walked up behind me, wrapping his arms around me and kissing my temple.

"I do play. I'm not the best, but I've gotten better at it over the past couple of years. It has become therapy for me." He rested his chin on my shoulder as he peered over me. "Do have any hidden talents that I don't know about?"

Embarrassment creeped up. I secretly loved to sing, but no one knew about that. Even Tatum. I debated for half a second if I should tell him or not, before finally deciding.

"I love to sing... but no one has ever heard me before." Heat rose into my face. "I'm not sure why that embarrassed me so much to say that. Other than my parents never allowed any extracurricular things besides focussing on school..." I stopped talking.

I hadn't really told him that much about my parents, other than we didn't have much of a relationship now.

"Why did they not allow anything other than school?" He asked curiously. I knew this conversation would come up eventually. And I wanted him to know everything about me, so I took a deep breath and began.

"My parents are Lydia and Henry Rivers. They are some of the best lawyers in the States. You can actually google them if you'd like. They have their own law firm, and they are extremely successful." I walked over to the couch and laid down. He followed, sitting down and letting me rest my head in his lap while he played with my hair and listened. "They... are very difficult to please, to say the least. Unforgiving in the courtroom and unforgiving at home as well. I was never abused or anything like that, at least not physically. They were set on me and my younger brother becoming lawyers and joining their law firm. Only, I decided to become a nurse while my brother became the lawyer they always wanted."

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and continued.

"The day that I told them I was not going to be a lawyer was one of the worst days I've ever experienced. They were livid. I think they were even more angry that I was wanted to be 'just a nurse', and not a doctor. That was the day they kicked me out of the house. So I took out a loan, put myself through nursing school, bought myself a car and an apartment, and haven't talked to them since." I trailed off.

I looked up at him. His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth drawn slightly into a frown.

"Okay. What's that face for?"

"I cannot believe your parents did that to you." he stated. Waves of anger rolled off of him.

"New rule- I can't tell you things about my past if you you are going to get angry about them. Because trust me, there's a lot. And you would just be angry from here on out." I said jokingly.

He was still angry, but I could tell he was trying to work through his frustrations.

"So, tell me about your parents. What are they like? Tell me about your siblings." I asked, attempting to change the subject.

His face faltered before forming a small smile.

"My parents are Herve and Pascale Leclerc. My father passed away back in 2017 from cancer." His hand stilled in my hair for a moment before continuing. "My mum is a.... coiffeuse. I am not sure how you call it in English. She works at a hair cutting place. She cuts my hair." His cheeks reddened.

"A hairdresser?" I asked, smiling at him being embarrassed over something so minimal.

"Ah yes. A hairdresser. And I have two brothers, Lorenzo is older and Arthur is younger."

I reached up and grabbed his hand, kissing his palm.

Smirking, he asked, "What was that for?"

I smiled up at him. "Thank you for letting me into your life... I'm sorry to hear about your father."

"It's alright. I went to therapy and learned to properly grieve him. I didn't go to therapy until after I started having panic attacks. It was in the middle of the season, and the pressure was too much. Thats when my therapist taught me the Grounding Technique, the one that we used on the boat the other day."

Gratitude grew in my chest. "Thank you for that."

He just smiled in response.

"So. Your birthday is coming up in a few days. I was thinking.." he started.

I put my hand over my forehead. "I was kinda hoping you had forgotten about it..."

"How could I forget? Anyways, I was wanting to do something special. How would you like to go on an official date?" Charles grinned at me.

A date? A real date? Excitement washed over me. But then I realized something.

How would dating an F1 driver affect my job?

My smile faltered. I was still enjoying just being with him. I wasnt ready to have the hard conversations yet. The ones where we figured out how this would work. Or when we would see each other again- how we would see each other. I knew we needed to have these conversations since I had less than a week here. But I really just wanted to spend time with him right now.

As if he read my thoughts, "We can go on a date without the media finding out. Don't worry, there's a restaurant that is super private. It'll be just us. Promise." He held out his pinky, knowing that I took pinky promises seriously. I linked my pinky with his, trusting him.

"So tomorrow night... I have a dinner for work. We can bring a plus one. And I would really like it if you went with me. You would get to meet some of the other drivers. We all try to get together and have dinner before the season starts, it's kind of a tradition. Not every driver can make it, but the majority of them are going. And don't worry, everyone respects privacy. No one outside of the dinner would know you were there."

I would be meeting all of the other drivers on the grid? Is it too early for that? What would they think of me?

I decided to push all of the negative thoughts aside. Charles was asking me to be there for him. I wanted to be there for him. Having made up my mind, I replied.

"I'd love to go with you."