Mirrorball - Charles Leclerc

one - the meeting

Olivia

"Hello! My name is Olivia Adler, I have a meeting with Mr. Vasseur," I tell the lady at the front desk when I approach her.

"Yes," She says after tapping something in her computer. "Follow me please."

I follow her through Ferrari's headquarters, my mouth slightly open. This place is huge and beautiful, I can't believe this is my job now. Ever since I finished university, I only wanted to be in contact with this type of work. And being in the racing world? That's just the cherry on top of the cake.

Formula 1 was always present in my house growing up, so when anyone asks me who my childhood heroes are, my only response is Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. You can imagine the thrill it was for my German father and my Italian mother when both of them passed through Ferrari. Being in these headquarters feels like I'm connecting with my heroes.

We pass through a big room full of desks and I try to keep up with the woman's pace as she leads me to a door at the end of the room. She knocks twice and then opens it.

"Olivia Adler is here," She says and I fix my shirt.

"Oh, tell her to come in," I hear a strong French accent coming from the other side and automatically assume it's Vasseur. I thank the lady and enter his office.

"Hi, I'm Olivia. It's very nice to meet you, sir," I say, shaking his hand. He motions me to sit down and I do.

"The pleasure is all mine, and please, call me Fred," He says with a smile and I instantly feel less nervous. "So, as we talked on the phone, we need a PR agent with some urgency. As you may know, the new season is starting and we were having some difficulties filling the spot."

That makes me feel a little uneasy and I can't help but think if it's a certain driver's fault. I don't care, there is nothing that could make me turn down this job.

"You would be the team's PR, but your main focus would be Charles Leclerc," He says and I nod. He sighs, his eyes showing me a little worry. "I'm going to be very honest with you, Olivia. We've been having some trouble with Charles. He is a great driver, of course, but in this industry that's not all that matters, unfortunately. Him and Carlos are the faces of Scuderia Ferrari and Charles hasn't exactly been very easy."

"I understand. Image is important, too, considering they represent a whole team. I assure you I can be on top of the situation and make sure Charles doesn't denigrate the team's image," I say and he smiles, making me feel like I said the right thing.

"Very good, that's exactly what we need," He says and I smile back. "I'm going to call Charles in now, so that you guys can meet."

"Alright," I say and straighten in my chair. This could either go ok or really bad, there's no in between.

"Maria, can you tell Charles to come in?" Fred says to the phone on his desk. We wait not even a minute and the door opens.

"Charles, this is Olivia, your new PR agent," Fred introduces me and I stand up, reaching my hand out.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," I say as he shakes my hand, a forced smile on his face. I already feel like we are going to bite each other's heads off.

"I need a babysitter now?" Charles asks, as he sits down on the chair next to mine. I sit back too, observing their exchange.

"Yes, you need a babysitter. Do I need to remind you what happened last year?" Fred says, clearly angry.

I remember reading about what happened. Apparently, at the end of last year's season, a journalist made a very rude comment about Charles's dad and he lost it. They had to hold him back so that he didn't hit the man. I heard he got in a lot of trouble with FIA and could have lost his Championship title, but because he didn't actually hit the guy, they let him keep it. I have a journalist friend that was close by that day, she says she's never seen such anger in a person's eyes.

"Because you don't remind me enough times already," Charles says, crossing his arms over his chest. Fred sighs, clearly tired of always having the same conversation. He turns to me and smiles.

"I can't wait for you to work with us. Thank you for coming, we will email you all the information," Fred says, getting up and reaching out his hand.

"Thank you for the opportunity," I shake his hand smiling at me. I look at Charles, but his eyes are locked on Fred's desk. I leave the office.

Outside, I find the car they sent for me ready to take me back to my hotel. The ride isn't long and I can only think how my life is going to be from now on. It was obvious, from the meet with Charles, that my job isn't going to be exactly easy. But I get to travel around the world, doing the job I love, for a team I've spent my life supporting.

When we get to my hotel, I thank the driver and go inside, ready to take a nap since they're not going to need me for now. I sleep for 2 hours, which absolutely revives me. I grab my phone and open my email, registering all the information the team sent me.

We leave on Wednesday, which is in two days, for the pre-season testing before the season officially starts. I'll be flying with them and I'm supposed to work on something for the first interviews, for Charles. Nothing too fancy or too big, just some important points, which I'll have another meeting with them so that I know what are the important points they want to share.

I smile and lock my phone. I can do this. And there's nothing stopping me from conquering all of my dreams.

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Hello beautiful people!
This is a bit of a boring and introductory chapter, just so you know the characters and the base of the story.

I hope you enjoy this story, leave comments!

See you soon,
xoxo