following the whirlwind summer after graduating from her undergraduate degree, charlottes father had decided it was time for her to settle down with the man of his choosing. an arranged marriage? simple
well it was supposed to be..
As soon as we stepped off the plane all I could feel was hot, dry air. This weekend was the first of many races for the f1 calendar. As the season was delayed it was even hotter than usual here in Bahrain and damn was I feeling it. Taking off my clothes wouldn't be enough to soothe from the heat I'd have to take off my skin.
The air conditioning in the airport was a godsend.
//thursday
We had planned to spend our day seeing the sights but as soon as we entered that hotel room there was no way we were leaving. The journey from the U.K. to Bahrain was long and draining and Oscar would have to be up early the next day for media day so we just decided to take it slow and chill in our room. I say room but the hotel was more of a small apartment.
Media day was by all regards a success. Lando and Oscar were able to be civil, I'm unsure of how but it's not my place to ask the details. If they wanted to tell me they would and quite clearly they don't want to. Although the coverage of our recent marriage had died down Oscar was still pretty hot on the press.
//friday
I attended Friday practice, mostly in Oscar's garage but disappearing to George's from time to time to catch up with Toto and Lewis. Lewis was like an older brother to me he's always been someone I respect very highly. Toto is more like the fun doting uncle. Him and my father actually attended university together so he's been seen me grow up you could say. This was a high point of controversy when George joined the Mercedes young driver academy, they called him a nepo baby. It was quite funny once the whole lance stroll Aston Martin thing happened. Whilst the practice was underway I had time to sit with Toto and talk during the off laps.
"Charlotte, you're a smart girl I won't lecture you but be careful of men. Even the ones you marry." He put his headphones back on and that was the end of our conversation session. It stuck with me. Practice was coming to an end and I headed back to the McLaren garage to not miss Oscar before the post session briefing.
As I reach the garage I see his car pull in from the pit lane. He climbs out and takes his helmet off, unplugging his radio. He looks around the garage and upon seeing me his scowl turns into a small smile.
"Honey I think it's best if you head back to the hotel, it's quite late and I think we'll be here a while. A lot to tweak before quali." He purses his lips.
"I can wait." I show him a small smile and fiddle with my ring. It's still not natural for me to have it on. I've never been a ring girl really.
"Wait in the room, who knows what might happen to you out here on your own," he looks around the garage and spots his manager Mark, "Mark will take you back okay?" I sigh and nod in response. Pick your battles.
"I'll let you know whether or not to wait up okay?" I nod again. Mark shows me to his car and drops me to the hotel room.
It's lonely, such a big hotel room all by myself. I wash up and flick through what's on TV. Everything is in Arabic and I can't understand a word. Luckily I have my laptop with me and can watch some Netflix. Drive to survive is a favourite of mine of course. Mostly I like to see how they manage to twist things. I've featured a few times, usually in reaction clips from the Mercedes garage but also during the driver interviews. They even had me on my own one but it didn't air apart from a few parts speaking about George. All of the Netflix people have been really nice to me recently which I'm happy about although no one can be safe from the evil editing of drive to survive.
//tweet
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