Sun beams fill the room as I open my eyes. A sense of calm and comfort. Rolling around to snuggle into Charles, I find the bed is empty. His messed up pillows and sheet pulled off the corner, the clock on his side table catches my eye and it's 12pm - how on earth have I slept this late?! I've wasted half the day. No wonder Charles isn't here, his training began hours ago.
Picking up my phone to check if I'd missed anything given I'd slept for most of the day - I notice 3 messages.
iMessage from Charles
Instagram message from Lando Norris
iMessage from 'maybe Trevor Carlin'
What?! Surely not.
Charles message -
Good morning beautiful, I'll be home from training around 3pm, try not to cause too much chaos while I'm gone 😉
Lando's message -
You can thank me later 😏
What on earth is he talking about?
'Maybe Trevor Carlin' message -
Hi Lilly, we are very interested in talking to you about an open seat for the F2 2021 season here at Carlin. You've been recommended to us by one of our previous drivers and after having watched the footage from your F3 season, we would like to meet and put you through some sim testing and go from there. Please get in touch with my assistant to arrange a meeting time. Thanks, Trevor.
This can't be happening? I had missed the last couple of races of my F3 season due to my injuries and fear, and now I could potentially going to get an F2 seat? I am screaming into the pillow and am so close to losing my mind. This is obviously what Lando was talking about when he said I could thank him later.
He raced in F2 with Carlin, and he's obviously the one who's recommended me to make this happen. Fuck. I'm so grateful for this and I know I need to message him back, but I also need to make it very clear to him that I'm with Charles and there's nothing romantic between him and I.
Instagram message -
Lil: THANK YOU SO MUCH! I actually can't contain how excited I am Lando, I know maybe this might not work out and nothing is guaranteed yet but thank you for vouching for me and putting my name forward, I really appreciate it so much
Lan: Just make sure you give it everything and show them you deserve a seat on that team. Did you sort things out with Charles?
Lil: I will don't worry, and yes I did - were really good now. That doesn't mean I don't want to be friends with you though Lando.
Lan: Understood, anyway I'm training speak soon.
His last message seemed a little blunt and off but I suppose he did tell me he wants me and I've made it clear I want Charles, he doesn't have a reason to be angry with me but I guess he has a reason to be a little annoyed or upset.
Message to Charles -
Can't wait to see you - I have news! Hope training is going well 😘
I also quickly contact Trevor's assistant to arrange a meeting with him. It's happening! I'm meeting with him and a race engineer in 2 days time at 10am. This is beyond exciting, and also completely terrifying, what if I'm actually not good enough? I need to stop doing this, overthinking will be the death of me.
While I'm being remotely productive, which isn't like me at all, I figure I should also call the solicitor who's number I was given to find out who Sara Walker was. I say I'm being productive - id arranged one meeting after waking up at 12pm, so maybe productive was a slight exaggeration.
I call the solicitors number again, after receiving no answer last time I think part of me wasn't expecting the phone to answer this time - but it did.
"Hello, Alex Grinsham speaking."
"Hi Alex, this is Lilly Walker calling - I believe you were my Dads solicitor." I say.
"Ah yes hello Miss Walker, I'm afraid I had no number to contact you on, I've left a few letters at your home address. I was informed you'd like to speak to me - what time is best for us to meet?"
"Any time tomorrow is fine" I respond.
"Ok let's meet at Cassa del caffe for 2pm, does that work for you?"
"That's great, thank you."
I end the call and just sit thinking for a moment, I wasn't brave enough to have this conversation today - I have no plans at all and I could have met with him at any point but i just don't want to face or deal with it - it's been a chaotic couple of days.
Then again, am I making a stupid mistake leaving this until tomorrow? If I get awful news that I'm not emotionally prepared for - is it going to effect my performance and how I am the following day when I have my meeting about the F2 seat. Having that meeting go well is the most important thing right now, I think I need to just meet up with him and get this out the way.
Reluctantly I pick up the phone and call Alex back.
"Hi Alex, this is Lilly Walker calling again, somethings actually came up tomorrow and I'm unable to meet - can we do today instead if it's not too short notice?" I ask.
"Hi Miss Walker, thats no problem - let's meet at the same place, 3pm today?"
"Great see you then, thank you." I put the phone down and there's no going back now. I'm finally going to find out what all this is about.
I sit in the shower, I've not even washed yet I've just sat here on the floor of the shower, slumped over letting the water splash down on me. It's like a steam room in here, water dripping from the wall tiles. I have 2 hours before I need to meet up with the solicitor so I should probably get up and actually get washed and ready.
An hour and a half later and I'm Dressed and ready to go, I take a deep breath as I head out of Charles' apartment to walk to the caffe. It's only a 15 minute walk from here and I think I'd like to arrive before he does so I can have a coffee and settle the nerves I currently feel.
Now sitting at the caffe, drinking a coffee passing the time by while I calm my nerves, it hits 3pm. What does he even look like? How am I going to know who he is - I haven't thought this through at all.
"Hi, is it Miss Walker?" A tall man with a whispy grey beard, speckled with ginger hairs and thin framed circular glasses reaches out to shake my hand.
"Hi you must be Alex, would you like a coffee?" I ask.
"No thank you, I'm very sorry but I only have 15 minutes before I have to leave, if we need longer we can arrange a second meeting, but for now let's get into things - I presume this is about Sara Walkers involvement in your fathers will?"
He's extremely direct.
"Yes please what can you tell me about her? I don't know who she is?"
"The information I have stating the relationship of recipients on the will shows Sara Walker as the child of James Walker."
What? His child? I have a sister?
"Are you sure?"
He must be mistaken, there's no way I have a sister and my dad didn't tell me about her, why would he? None of this makes any sense.
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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.
