Hope is a dangerous thing for a Woman like me to have

Chapter 18

I woke up early to get a run in before the sprint. This was my first ever sprint weekend in F1 and I knew how full on it was going to be, so I wanted to go on a run to clear my head.

I was exiting the lobby when I was stopped by a familiar voice.

"Mind if I join?" Charles Leclerc said, bending down to do up the laces on his trainers.

For fucks sake. Why does he have to ruin everything.

"If you think you can keep up." I smirked at him. He smiled sarcastically back at me. We set off at a fairly quick jog, in silence.

"You always go for early morning runs?" I couldn't help but ask after a while.

"Yeah," Charles answered between breaths "You?"

"Not normally but,-

"It helps clear my head" we both said at the same time. I chuckled between heavy pants and we returned back to silence.

I could feel myself tiring, I didn't normally run this quick, but I didn't want to show Charles that. However, I could feel my legs starting to slow and Charles started to slightly pull away until he was a meter or so in-front of me. He looked back at me.

"Can't keep up Hakimi?" He smirked. I was too out of breath to reply so I just shook my head, but I could feel how red my face was.

"It's just like on track, I'm always ahead of you," He laughed at me. I couldn't help but slightly speed up at that.

"Shut it Leclerc." I managed to get out. At this point I hoped he would run off so I wouldn't have to be with him anymore. Unfortunately, he did the opposite and slowed so that we were running side by side again.

I could tell this was slower than his normal pace but I chose to ignore him. The rising Azerbaijan sun was beating down on me, making the run much harder and I could feel the sweat dripping down my face. I tried to concentrate on keeping going. Charles clearly felt the sun just like I did and slightly slowed down. I continued at my pace, smug that I was doing better than him and laughing to myself that I had thought he was finding this easy.

That was until he caught back up with me, holding his shirt in his hand. He must've felt the sun but not in the same way I did and slowed down just to take his top off. I looked him up and down, his abs slightly contracting as we ran and for a second I couldn't take my eyes off them.

"Enjoying the view huh?" Charles raised his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes.

"Just ruined it actually," I lied "I'm sure the poor people of Azerbaijan don't want that to be their first sight when they wake up this morning," I was completely out of breath at that. Or maybe it was the view of his perfect body.

I heard Charles chuckle and we continued running. After what felt like a marathon (we ran 8k) we finally returned to the hotel. I nearly collapsed when we stopped but Charles put my arm around his shoulder to support me. At first I was thankful, then remembered who Charles was and ripped my arm away.

"I don't need you." I said bluntly. He looked slightly hurt suddenly but his expression turned back to his normal distasteful one he usually looked at me with.

"Sorry, just trying to help. Not my fault I'm way faster and fitter than you." I was too tired to respond so I rolled my eyes again before getting a lift up to my room.

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I arrived at the paddock on time and immediately got into the car, ready for the sprint shootout. I had managed to recover from the earlier run and was determined to prove Charles wrong about him always being ahead of me.