Really? What are the chances of bumping into him of all people? Our lips were locked together a few hours ago, chaos ensued, and now here he is again.
"What are you doing here?" I ask.
I assume the same thing as you given we're in a restaurant." My cheeks blush as I immediately realise how stupid my question was.
"This is the best place to come for pizza, it's quiet and only locals really know where it is."
Ok so I'm definitely going to have to try the pizza.
"Has Charles spoken to you?" I ask him, wondering if he's had any contact with him since the blow up earlier, or if Lando even knows I told Charles about the kiss.
"Yeah he has, he called me wanting to know if anything more than a kiss happened between us so I obviously just told him we had sex a couple of times." He laughs. My face drops before I realise he's joking.
"LANDO, don't do that to me please, it's bad enough as it is!"
"I'm joking, I'm joking - I told him nothing else happened and that was pretty much it the end of the conversation. I don't think we're exactly going to be friends again after this but we're going to have to at least be civil with each other."
"ORDER 12" is shouted from behind the restaurant counter. Lando approaches and collects two brown paper bags
Oh good, he's ordered his food out for take out - at least that makes things easier for me, I can sit here alone and eat and head home. Hopefully Charles might respond to me by then.
Or maybe not. He pulls the chair out opposite me and sits down, "do you mind if I join you? You've still not ordered yet have you?"
I think he's answered his own question because he's already sat down with his bag of food, I guess he is joining me.
"Do you want to just share this food with me so you don't have to wait? I ordered 2 pizzas anyway - I couldn't decide what I wanted."
"Yes please, if you don't mind" I reply.
"It's a good job you said yes or you'd be going hungry for much longer." He stands up and points towards the closing sign. Id totally forgot it was quite late now, the restaurant was closing in 5 minutes - no wonder no one came to take my order, there's just a few people in here collecting take out.
He holds his hand out to me - "come on."
"Where are we going Lando?"
"We can eat in my car if you don't want to come to my apartment." He says.
There's absolutely no way I can go back to his apartment, I've caused enough stress by going there the first time. There's also no way we're eating pizza in his car - is he crazy?! That car is not a car you eat pizza in, I couldn't risk a cheese spillage or a greasy hand print tainting the interior.
"We can't eat in your car that's insane, my house is only a 5 minute walk from here if you want to eat there?" I might regret this response, I seem to be doing an awful lot of that lately.
He looks pretty shocked to have received an invite.
"Yeah that sounds good" my car's right outside though so we might aswell drive there."
At this point it's complete darkness outside, a couple of street lamps guide the way down the twisting back road. It really was pointless driving, in I dare say less than a minute - we reach my house.
"Come on in, and please don't even mention the state of the place - I know ok. I haven't been here in so long and it's starting to look like some sort of dirty derelict horror house."
"It's lovely, I mean yeah it could do with a few layers of the dust wiping off but it's generally not a complete crack den." He jokes.
I can't help but smile at him, he seems to always say the right thing to lighten the mood, and I feel so much more comfortable being in this house with company, there's just something awful about being here alone.
We sit and laugh, eating the pizza and talking about racing, we only missed each other by one year in F3 or i'd have had the chance to race him on track. The pizza is delicious and I feel like life is coming back into my body, that was so needed. One plain margarita and one pepperoni - I've managed 5 slices but if I attempt another I'll most likely be sick.
"So am I going to get a tour? It's only fair." He smiles, a cheeky look on his face - I can tell what he's getting at.
"Sure let's go upstairs." I get up from the table guiding him up the stairs to show him around the house. "So here we have some dust, and if you take a look to your right we also have some dust."
He starts laughing but with an actual look of concern on his face.
"You seriously can't stay here you know, this isn't even an attempt to get you into my bed but you'll actually get ill if you sleep here. Just stay in my spare room please, or I'll get you a hotel but you can stay breathing this in all night."
He's honestly probably right. It really is bad in here, I don't know how It's even got this bad so quickly, upstairs seems to be far worse than downstairs. But staying at his apartment isn't an option, I'll have to take a look and see if any hotels have a room available.
"Yeah I think you're right, I'll book a hotel for the night." I say.
"Lando don't go in..." before I can finish speaking he's already turned the door handle and opened the door, thinking he's going into my bedroom - but it's my Dads. I just stand at the doorway looking in - I didn't ever really go in his bedroom, but it's strange to just see it, left exactly how he must have left it the last time he was here, bedding slightly messy, a glass on the side - thankfully an empty one or the next global pandemic would probably have been growing in here by now. It just seems surreal.
He notices the tears beginning to fill my eyes "Lilly I'm sorry, hey come here." He pulls me in for a hug, arms cradling me tightly while he plants a light kiss on my forehead. "Things will get better I promise." I don't know why I believe him but I do, he's just comforting.
As I wipe the tears from my face I notice a photo on my dads desk I'd not noticed before, picking it up to take a closer look - it's me as a child, and another girl I don't recognise. I turn the photograph around, my dad would often write dates and things on the back, maybe a description of where it was.
"Lilly and Sara - Austin 2002"
What? Who is she?!
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YOU ARE READING
DNS
FanfictionThey were drivers, they were best friends. No one was expecting lockdown to happen in 2020, and Lilly and Charles certainly weren't expecting for their story to turn out like this.
