Double Fault

Chapter 42

FLORENCE'S POV:

With everything that had happened over the last few months, Monaco still felt like the right place to be. I always knew it was a racers hub, but I quickly realized how many tennis players lived here as well the longer I trained.

There were top players ready to practice hit all the time, and once my ankle fully healed, I wanted to submerse myself in tennis. I quickly found a group spending more time with my tennis friends as we bounced around Monaco when we weren't playing.

It continued to fascinate me how you could run into anyone on a given day here. I continued to see Max and Kelly to hang out, mostly going to dinners at their place. I also ran into Alex and Lily a handful of times over the last three months. Laurie came to visit me once, I had to apologize for ditching her in Australia. She of course told me never to worry and let me third wheel on a few dates with Lando.

All the drivers remained good friends, but it did feel a bit different. There was always a story that would have to be cut short if the conversation surrounded Charles. Or there were texts in group chats saying they were hanging with someone but we be over later, that someone being Charles.

Three months had gone by at this point, and while had a pretty terrible argument that night, we both agreed this didn't mean we couldn't see each other and handle it maturely. Charles was just the only person I haven't run into yet. Closest thing to it was when I ran into Arthur at a restaurant while I was leaving. He immediately gave me a hug and asked how everything has been. When I pulled away on my bike, a body flashed by on their bike, and I realized it was Charles going to meet Arthur.

I missed him and messed up massively the night we broke up, but I had coped the last 3 months by going virtually dark and diving into tennis. All my socials were disabled after Australia, and I continued to enjoy not having them. The only features on my phone being chat and calling.

My dad and I managed to call each other a handful of times over the last two months. We never talked about what happened, but we would check in about tennis or what was going on that weekend. There was a slow build returning to our relationship, but I decided to train without him for the upcoming French Open.

The only other change, I was managing one of the new residents to Monaco taking interest in me. Gabriel Finsome, a pro from Sweden, had just moved to Monaco and quickly joined in with our tennis group. He and I had a met a few times in previous years, but he was out with a knee injury for the last year. I barely recognized him the first time he came to the courts, but he quickly managed to shuffle enough people up to play with me that first day.

In the last few weeks he had become my favorite hitting partner, but he was making many efforts to hang out away from tennis. I navigated plenty of excuses but could tell I was ready to maybe accept a coffee outing as a friend.

As for Charles, that was interesting. Maybe a month after the break up, a little after Bahrain, there was a magazine cover that caught my eye on a stand. While I was secretly keeping a very close eye on the races at home, it looked like a statement on his last weekend. When I looked closer, it was a paparazzi shot of Charles with a girl beside him. You couldn't see much of her but the shot looked more friendly than strangers interacting. Scared that someone would see me looking at the newsstand, I quickly turned away and did my best to forget about it.

My attempts proved pretty successful until Kelly mentioned something to Lily a week ago at a party. I don't think she realized I was in the room when she told Lily she had met some quiet girl with Charles a few times now and wasn't sure how to feel about her.

Now the biggest week in Monaco was here, the one everyone talked about since I moved here. It was race week for the Monaco Grand Prix, and I definitely wasn't prepared. Formula 1 was the only thing going on in the city, and you couldn't go anywhere without hearing people talk about it.