: ̗̀➛ part three of the
one for the road series
SNOWFALL / CL16
in which two childhood friends reunite. a formula one driver wants to learn how to snowboard and it just so happens that the daughter of his mum's be...
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✧ ˚ · . CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX. · ˚✧ cause we made it, underestimated
bahrain, march 2023
Sunday morning, my entire perspective of the world shifted. The bright sun rays outside suddenly dimmed the moment Celine's call pierced through my room service breakfast, bedsheets circled around my waist and Charles' arm still slung lazily around my thighs. That golden glow of happiness bubbling inside of me immediately burst into remnants of ash until the little food I had in my belly turned to stone and I was left feeling speechless.
"I fear there's a little bit of an emergency," Celine had started, her voice trembling slightly in a way I had only ever heard once before—when we lost an important client to an opposing design agency. "I woke up to two hundred emails. Have you checked our page? We've been bombarded with comments... most of them relating to that pretty boyfriend of yours."
Charles, hearing all of what Celine had said, straightened in shock and immediately reached for his own phone lying face down on the bedside table on his side of the king-sized bed. I was too distraught to track his exact movements further than him unlocking his phone, listening to Celine as she continued:
"I did some digging, and apparently people have gotten hold of pictures of you walking in with Charles'... trainer?" The hesitance in her voice told me she didn't know the exact details, "But it seems people have connected the dots and, thanks to Charles' posts at the Beaumont Resort earlier, have found some way to connect our agency's name and you to him. Now our page is filled with people screaming wanting to know more about how you met. Half of the emails have been fake inquiries hoping to gain more unprofessional information from either you, or me."
"Shit," I breathed out the word, but it came out as little more than a wheeze of shock. "I hadn't expected this to blow up like that, Cel. Jesus."
"Oh, and there's an interview of an anonymous source stating you were a VIP guest in Ferrari's hospitality, and that you were seen multiple times with Charles and those close around him. This is going to be a big mess to clean up, A. I'm not saying it's bad publicity, but people will either love or hate the fact that you are in such a public relationship and it's going to affect our projects. You know it's a delicate time, right now..."
Her tone made shivers run up my spine. The last thing I wanted was for my company to suffer from my private life. "I'm going to fix this. I'll talk to Charles, maybe ask for advice from his PR team. I'll get back to you tomorrow morning with an approach to this mess, but I promise I'll fix it. We can spin this into something positive."
"Okay. I'm counting on it. I'll shut off my work emails and everything for today. I shouldn't have been looking anyway, but my work phone was buzzing endlessly and I thought it was a scam caller," Celine joked, already sounding a tad more relieved.
I laughed, and Charles looked up from his phone to smile, placing a comforting hand on my knee. I smiled back at him, apologised once more to Celine and wished her a good rest of the weekend, before ending the call and letting out an incredibly unladylike groan of frustration.
