𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙚 𝙁𝙞𝙚𝙡𝙙 - Charles Leclerc (CL16) [Book 1]

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚢-𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚛

"Thank you," I give the man from room service his tip before I close the door behind him and push the cart with the ordered food inside the room.

Raegan has already made herself comfortable on my bed and is scrolling through Netflix to find a movie for us.

"It's unbelievable. I feel like I know every movie on Netflix." she moans theatrically, making me laugh.

"Is it not going well between you and Lando anymore? Why are you watching so much Netflix?" I joke. In response, one of the soft pillows is thrown at my head. But neither of us can hold back our laughter.

"You're so funny." Raegan replies sarcastically before taking a bite of her cheeseburger.

I collapse onto the bed next to her and reach for my burger too. We enjoy our food in comfortable silence before Raegan speaks up.

"Have you talked to Charles much?" Her focus is still on the food in front of her, so she doesn't see my eyebrows raise in question.

"About what?"

Now she turns her head towards me. "About you? You want to try making it work right? Did you tell him that as well or only me?" Her voice is soft and I know she means well, but it still kind of annoys me. I told her I wanted to take it slow with Charles and now she's questioning me again.

"No, I didn't tell him. As I said, I want to slowly see how it goes and I don't think that telling him that would help us with 'taking it slowly'. You know what Charles is like."

And I don't mean that in a bad way but Charles is an all or nothing guy and I don't think the definition of 'taking it slow' is identical for both of us.

"It didn't look like taking it slowly to me, when you were on the plane." the corner of her lips move up to a teasing smile.

I don't give her an answer and an uncomfortable feeling arises within me. Is she right? Falling asleep on Charles isn't the kind of 'taking it slow' I was talking about. Panic starts to overcome me. What if everything goes down the drain again because we rush things. I mean, you can't call it hasty when things between us have been going on for over half a year now. I feel like we're just getting back on safe and steady ground.

What he did for me on my birthday was just incredibly sweet and thinking back... even though D and I dated for 6 years, he never did anything close as nice to what Charles did for me. I don't mean the presents and stuff but just organising a birthday party for me because he knew how happy it would make me, is something I appreciate so much but with everything happening I think maybe I gave him the wrong idea.

I like him but I don't think I am fully ready to commit myself to Charles all the way. I am scared that I will end up with the same heartbreak I had after D and I think it might even be worse because what I am feeling for Charles is so much stronger than what I have ever felt.

Letting out a big sigh I let myself fall back into the pillows which causes Raegan to look at me worryingly.

"What's going through your brain?" she asks.

"Nothing." I lie. I can feel by the way her body shifts that she doesn't believe me one bit, but she doesn't question it any more and I am grateful for that. I know that the decision I just made for myself wouldn't make her happy. I need to stay away from Charles. For the sake of my own feelings. And as much as this will hurt me, it will be the best for us.

Rae and I spend the rest of the evening watching rom-coms before we fall asleep cuddled up.

✧·: *✧·:

I wake up at 6am with an arm over my face. Raegan made herself way too comfortable during the night, it's a wonder how I'm even still in bed. How can Lando handle this all the time?