Sequel of "Come Back...Be Here - Charles Leclerc"
Four years later, Mary and Charles inevitably cross paths again.
Will they rekindle their love? Or are the scars too deep?
"I'm telling you mate - she's the love of my life, I'm ready to propose" Joris said to me, daydreaming about Alice. "Jojo, you spent 2 days with her. And by the way, she just got out of a relationship, how do you know you're not just a rebound?" I replied, trying to bring him back down to earth. "Nah, we already told each other 'I love you', she's just as into me as I'm into her" he said with the biggest smile on his face. "I invited her along to training camp, by the way" he added. "WHAT? Are you crazy? This is a high-performance training for me to get ready for the season, not a holiday place for everyone to bring the girlfriends along!" I said and put my head in my hands. "Ah, trust me, you'll barely notice her!" he said and made a weird hand gesture.
We were walking around the streets of Monaco and thankfully, we bumped into my manager Nicolas and I faked having to talk to him about something very important, so that I could escape this conversation. "I've heard you're seeing Mary again" Nicolas told me and raised an eyebrow. "We're friends" I shrugged. "Does that girl have short-term memory to even talk to you again?" Nicolas chuckled. I shot him a glare. "We've grown up, she has moved on." I simply said. "Yeah, I figure. She'll never go back to you after having had a Kennedy." he chuckled. I know, fuck you. "Anyways, I got to go, see you" he said and sent me a wave.
I took out my phone to text Mary, I needed to do something about Joris.
Charles Leclerc Mary, we need to talk urgently, can we meet up somewhere?
Mary Wright I'm not in Monaco. You can call me if it's that urgent
Urgh. I tapped the phone icon next to her name and waited a few rings until she finally picked up. "Hey, where are you?" I asked. "None of your business. What is it?" she replied. She was still pissed apparently about how things were left on New Year's Eve. "Have you heard from Alice?" I asked. "Yes, she's completely infatuated with Joris, she wants to quit her job and move here, but I guess he'll grow tired of her bombarding him with hundreds of texts in a few days" she sighed. "What, nononono, he wants to propose. He is madly in love. He invited her along to my training camp next week." I said and stopped. This whole thing was getting worse. "He what?! Oh my God" she said annoyedly. "I mean, I'd be really happy for them but I don't want them to rush this. They come from two completely different worlds!" I said. "And what do you reckon we should do?" she asked. "I don't know, maybe you could come along too, spend time with Alice just so she isn't glued to him 24/7..." I replied. It definitely wasn't the best solution, Andrea would be pissed as hell, but I definitely didn't want Joris to have a failed marriage in just a few months. "You mean, I have to babysit her?!" she asked. "Well... I wouldn't call it that, I mean, she's your friend, right?" I asked. "You owe me a HUGE one after this, Leclerc" she said and hung up. I grinned. Somehow, I was happy that she was now coming along too so that we could spend some time together, but the I was reminded of Nicolas' words from before and my smile immediately disappeared.
———————————————
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
📍 DolomitiSki mary.wright98 Nothing beats a good Austrian beer and Kaiserschmarrn 🍺
oli_wright_one_and_only Hey what are you doing in the Dolomites?? Replying to oli_wright_one_and_only: henry_scott Bold guess: skiing ⛷️ virginia.kennedy Would you be up for a week of skiing in St Moritz in Feb? Replying to virginia.kennedy: mary.wright98 YES text me the details!
"What on earth are you wearing?" Andrea laughed when Mary joined the group for dinner. "A Dirndl! I bought it today across the border in Austria, it looks cool, doesn't it?" she said and grinned widely. It was one of those Austrian typical folk dresses with a puffy blouse blouse under and an apron over the dress. It made her whole boobs pop up at display for everyone - I had to really force myself to look at her face and not a few centimetres below. "You look like you're ready to milk the cows!" my friend Antonio weighed in. Her face fell a bit and I was quick to straighten everything out: "You look lovely, the blue suits you." Everyone at the table made gagging noises and faked as if they were vomiting, but she sent me a small smile and mouthed a thank you. Others 0 - Charles 1. Take that.
Mary had snatched away Alice for skiing for most of the time, which separated her a bit from Joris and that made them calm down a bit with their electric love, or so we hoped. We had arranged to go out just us four tonight and Mary was already sitting at our table in a restaurant in the center of the little town. Unfortunately she was wearing a turtleneck dress tonight, showing absolutely no cleavage. "Hey, the others not here yet?" I asked as I took a seat in front of her. She shook her head and continued studying the menu. Alice and Joris arrived a few minutes later all giggly and touchy with each other. I had never seen him like this. "Guys!!!!! We are engaged!!!" Alice shrieked when they had sat down, making all the heads in the restaurant turn. Mary's and my jaw fell to the floor and we didn't know what to say for a minute. "Erm- since when?" I tried to ask, but Mary was quick to cut me off and slammed her hands on the table. "An engagement is not a joke! A couple decides to get married in order to spend the rest of their lives together after careful evaluation if your views of life align! You guys know nothing! Have you talked about how you want to split up finances, in which faith you want to raise your children, where to live, have you met the families?! Have you thought about your brother at all, Alice? It's not something you do in the spur of a moment!" she shouted, stood up and left.
Joris and Alice looked at each other and kind of knew she was right, but Mary just completely overreacted. It made me realise how attached she still was to Bobby, something she hadn't really shown in the past few weeks. "Guys, you could have been a bit more considerate with her just having lost Bobby and the prospect of marriage..." I said quietly. Alice looked to the floor: "I had hoped for her to be happy for me..." "And she certainly is, that you found Joris, but guys, you barely know each other, it's obvious that you aren't met with complete ecstasy from everyone around you. I'm going to find Mary." I said and stood up too.
She wasn't outside, so I took the route back to the hotel, in hopes to find her there. And then I found her, in front of a jeweller. In front of the Van Cleef & Arpels display. And there was a small poster of her engagement ring with something written below that I couldn't read from afar. My feet automatically moved and I softly grabbed her shoulders with my hands from behind. At first, she stiffened, but then she relaxed and leaned her head back, so that I now put mine on top of hers - I loved our height difference. "Everyone around me is getting engaged and celebrating and I'm just here, ending up as the drunk aunt who got no man" she sniffled. "Still better than being a hyped-up helicopter mum" I chuckled, hoping to cheer her up, and she did crack a small smile. Charles 2 - others 0.
