Faded Love - Charles Leclerc

Chapter 21: Cupboards

🎶 The Night We Met — Lord Huron 🎶

"But please, just help me get it upstairs, here are 100€, I'm not able to drag this huge-ass thing alone even to the lift" I whined.
The delivery guy just looked at me and scoffed.
"Miss, I have 54 other parcels to drop off today, I have no time for you" he said sternly. "Now, your signature here please."
I gave up and signed where he told me to and then he drove off immediately again, leaving me on the curb with 300kg of parcels containing my cupboards. I was so angry: the website had explicitly said that delivery into your home and assembly were included in the price. They were getting one hell of an e-mail from me.

I was evaluating my options of who to call to help me: George was occupied enough with his baby as was Riccardo with his family, Lando would be of absolutely no help, Joris was in England visiting Alice and I didn't want to call any others. But fate found its way to mock me, by sending me Charles Leclerc who just turned around the corner. He stopped in his tracks when he saw me blocking the whole curb with my parcels.
"Went overboard with shopping at Barbour again?" he said and then proceeded laughing at his "hilarious" joke.
"What are you doing today?" I asked him.
"Depends on what you're doing" he said and grinned. What a flirt.
"Assembling cupboards with you. Come on, pick this up there" I said seriously, trying hard to not grin.

We had stuffed the first two parcels in the lift and I thought that we were both going to fit too, but that was a bad, bad idea. Our bodies were pushed closely to each other and I could feel his hot breath on my ear. It was the longest ride upstairs I had had in five months. For the next ones I obliged him to ride upstairs alone and I took all the thirteen floors of stairs four times up and down by foot, just to not repeat that episode.

When everything was laid out in my living room, we opened the first one and started assembling the pieces. As we both weren't the brightest when it came to DIY-ing, it took us probably double the time than normally.
"How was the start of the season?" I asked him as I knew that he had just returned from Saudi after the second race of the season there.
"Car didn't disappoint. Happy with my P2 in Bahrain and my win a few days ago. It's amazing how Red Bull has now managed to stay at the top for so many years, but my teammate Liam is getting quite impatient, he's not happy with being the #2 driver..." Charles blabbered.
"What do you think of the first female driver on the grid?" I asked curiously.
"Honestly, she's shit. There are two or three really good girls out there who weren't chosen. But Ferrari went with her as she has the looks, the charisma and the sponsors. I think they'll regret it at the end of the season..." he explained.
"Do you think Lando will hook up with her?" I chuckled.
"He would be really, really stupid to do so - but then again it's Lando" he said and laughed.

We had finished the first cupboard in the meantime and my stomach was growling, so we decided to order in some sushi.
"How are you? And please be honest" Charles asked while we were chewing on our Makis.
"Some days may be good, some days may be shit" I said, imitating the video I had seen on TikTok so often.
Charles laughed. "But, are you holding up or is it getting too much?" he asked again concernedly. "I just want to check in to make sure you're talking to someone about it" he added.
"That's very kind of you, thank you. I will pull through." I replied and smiled.
"Can I ask you a question?" he said and I nodded.
"You don't have to answer, but, what is harder to process? Bobby's or the baby's loss?" he asked.
I gulped. No one had ever asked me that and to be honest, I hadn't even asked myself that.
"Definitely Bobby. I didn't even know I was pregnant or about a possibility I might be. It still hurts to know that we could have been a family of three by now though." I replied.
He nodded. "You would have been a great mother. And I'm sure you will be one day." he said and caressed my upper arm.

"Ok, enough dilly-dally, we need to get back to work" I said and clapped my hands together. Now that we had gotten the hang of it the other three cupboards were up quicker and we all secured them to my dressing room wall.
"I could help you fill them too. Just show me where your underwear box is" he said jokingly and that earned him a slap on his arm.
"Hey!" he shouted and took a pillow he had found somewhere to hit me.
"Ouch!" I shouted and laughed.

"Come on. It's late, let's go for a walk to get some fresh air after having been inside all day" Charles said and walked towards the door.
I was a bit sad that he was already going as the apartment was so huge and way too big for me alone - it did get lonely at times.
We calmed down from our small fight and were now walking slowly and silently next to each other. At this time, the inhabitants of the Principality were either asleep or out partying, meaning that the streets were mostly empty and there was a comfortable silence around.

Suddenly, it began to thunder and shortly after, raindrops were falling onto our jackets. The rain got heavier and we quickly ran, looking for shelter somewhere. We found one under a bar awning and waited for the storm to pass.

But suddenly, I heard a melody and I ran out onto the street, not caring if I was getting drenched.
"What are you doing?! You'll get sick!" Charles shouted still under our shelter.
"Can't you hear it?" I shouted with a big smile on my face.
"Hear what?" he shouted back.
"It must be coming from Sass Café over there" I said and continued running for a few meters. Charles had now also left the shelter and was standing a few feet away from me.
"You love this song, don't you?" he asked.
"It reminds me of us dancing to it in that club in Mykonos. It's like a core memory from our relationship I never managed to shake off" I replied.

Suddenly, he took my hand and spun me around. I almost slipped and that made us laugh hard together. We were already soaked and my boots were ready to be thrown away as soon as I got back home but dancing here in the rain with a wonderfully handsome Charles were definitely worth it. He was very careful not to push it, as it was a very romantic moment and I knew that, but I was thankful for the respect he was having towards me.