Mystery in Red

Chapter XLVIII - The change

FP1,FP2 – 16.JUN

And before we know it, it's time for Canadian Grand Prix week. 24 of Le Mans was won by Ferrari, and this gave me hope for the upcoming weekend in Canada. Maybe the whole team needed motivation and hope that we can handle it, be fast on the track and overcome every single challenge that fate throws at us. I was one of the first to contact Giovinazzi to congratulate him, along with the rest of our team there. I even spoke to my sworn enemy - Antonio Fuoco, but the thing that could unite the most disunited teammates was victory.

On the matter of Charles... We've been sending each other a few AM messages again. Recently, he preferred to write to me at that time, and I was always awake... And I answered him. But if I happened to fall asleep, I would quickly send two or three messages during the day but would constantly check to see if I had any new messages from him as well. Our relationship was quite strange, I could not even understand it. He was always interested in how my day was, if everything was okay with me, if I ate and... if Carlos was with me. Never mind he was almost constantly around me.

Speaking of Carlos, things have been slow and easy with him. He took me golfing, on a fancy restaurant, we watched Le Mans together (this guy stayed up the whole day and night because I insisted on watching every moment of the race and he decided to sympathize with my insomnia), and at the beginning of the week the Spaniard sent me to the airport to fly back to Italy.

He offered to come with me, even insisted on doing it, but I wanted to be alone for a while this time, under the pretext that I would mentally prepare for the upcoming Grand Prix. I actually wanted to rethink what was happening to me and how I was going to proceed. Even on my return to Italy I turned off my phone and had absolutely no contact with anyone for about 24 hours. Total detox from people and relationships. And during that time, I reread the princess's diary and Chess' letters to her, while I looked at the bracelet on my arm and the brooch from Carlos. I couldn't believe that Charles came across this bracelet at an antique store and bought it for me. I didn't want to take it down of my hand because I knew it was related to Chess... But also, to Charles. And how the ruby ​​from the brooch had gotten into Carlos was an absolute mystery to me. If we didn't count the one the Princess of Bahrain had, I had already found 4 of the rubies. No one knew about my secret mission, neither Charles nor Carlos, and they were some of the people who unwittingly helped me put together a few of the pieces of my "puzzle". I was beginning to think that Chess Player and I really had some kind of relation, and he was directing me where to go. And I tried more and more to contact him, as if I was really getting answers to my questions. Which was wierd, but a fact - my bracelet flashed, sometimes I felt the warm breeze on my back...

#

On Tuesday afternoon, while I was packing, Carlos surprised me and came to my apartment. The Spaniard had booked tickets for me and him on a direct flight from Milan to Montreal. He wanted us to spend some time together before going to the circuit, so he come all the way to Modena and arrange a direct flight for just the two of us, without Rupert and the rest of 'Team 55'. He had rented a car with which we went to Milan. There we had dinner in a rather fancy restaurant and late in the evening we went to the airport, where of course we stopped for a coffee and a croissant before the flight. We all knew how Sainz fights jet lag but this time luckily it was only an 8-hour flight that we had to endure awake.

#

Wednesday morning, we arrived in Montreal. We checked into the hotel - still in separate rooms - and that was fine for me. I was worried about being together all the time, nothing was completely official yet, even after I agreed to "try", in my heart I still hadn't categorized my feelings, what would happen when Vasseur found out, just I don't think so. Carlos was seething with energy, as if he had an eternal engine inside him, the power of which was inexhaustible. He even went to work out while I stayed in my room to get some sleep and recharge. Still, I was in for a strategic weekend.