The Last Chicane

Welcome To The Game

We were waiting for Tessa at Eddie V's Prime Seafood restaurant, tucked into a corner booth away from the hustle and bustle of everyone.

I was sipping on my Ferrari Rosé when I decided to open up Instagram to pass the time. I hadn't gotten on it since I had posted the picture of C and I. So I was a tad nervous to see what had been posted about it since.

My eyebrows instantly shot up as I let out a small gasp.

Charles whipped his head towards me. "Everything alright?"

I stared at my phone before showing it to him. He looked at it before looking back up at me.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

My mouth fell open. "What's wrong? Technically nothing is wrong. But look at how many followers I have now. How did they find me so fast?"

He just shrugged. "I mean. You did tag me in it didn't you...? That's how they found you. Isn't this what you wanted?"

"Well. Yes. No? I don't know. I wanted to take matters into my own hands, and I did that. But. What do I even do with almost 54,000 followers? Why do they follow me just because I'm dating you?"

I turned the phone back to me and kept scrolling. I had so many new private messages. Some from fans. Some from brands offering me things.

I looked back over at Charles, who was smiling with amusement at me.

"What's funny?" I asked.

"Welcome to the game." Was all he said.

I clicked on the picture of us. It had a little over 30,000 likes.

"I mean. Look at how many people liked our photo. It's literally just a photo of us... it's nothing special." I commented.

"Well. Fans like to see what happens off the track just as much as they do on the track." He said as he sipped his Old Fashioned. "Plus, there will be some fans that are there to see what you do when we aren't together."

I scrolled through the couple thousand comments on the photo. At the top I saw some familiar people.

@taydelacruz OMG it's about time. So happy for you <3
@pierregasly finally :)
@tessmartin like I said, just out of a movie <3
@maxverstappen1 so proud of you. Congrats!

The comments from our friends made my heart warm. I kept scrolling, skimming the comments left by fans. Some were over the moon excited, others... didn't have the nicest of things to say. I chose to ignore those comments.

"Should I even look at my private messages?" I looked up at Charles.

He tilted his head from side to side, debating. "Maybe not right now. I think the followers and comments are overwhelming enough right now."

Trusting his judgement, I clicked out of Instagram and put my phone up at the same time as Tessa walked up.

"Sorry I'm late guys. Traffic was crazy." She explained. She slid into the booth across from us, setting her phone down face up on the table.

"It's okay. We were just looking at my Instagram." I said.

"Omg. Can you believe that you gained that many followers?! In less than a week too. That's crazy." She said as she picked up the menu to start looking at.

The waiter came over and she ordered a Riesling and water.

"So what have you guys been u-" Tessa started, but her phone buzzed and the screen lit up. She quickly reached over and turned the screen off.