Under the helmet | Charles Leclerc

~Chapter 42~

Finally, qualifying day, feeling somewhat better than I did during the practice laps yesterday. I drive the car as near to perfect as I can around the corners of the track and by the end I get a radio message from Albert.

"Superb lap there, Maeve, that puts you on pole position, well done. This is definitely an improvement from yesterday at the practice laps."

"Thank you, the car was amazing to drive. Everything felt coordinated." I respond back while driving the car at a slower pace to cool down.

After qualifying I managed to get out of the paddock relatively quickly and go home and workout for race day.

"What are we planning to work on today?" My trainer looking at his phone finding some routines for me.

"Nothing major, don't want to exhaust you before the race now do we?"

I stand in silence for a couple minutes before she suddenly finds something and starts to scroll quickly on her phone.

"I think, we'll do this, nothing too major but should hopefully just keep you going for now, until after the race." She starts typing the routine into the diary and logging it for me, to keep track over what we have done so far.

"Now then... What do you think of this?" She proudly shows me her phone with the routine on it.

"Neck training? Really. Why now, why today, why not tomorrow?" I throw questions at her.

"Shush, we'll get that out the way first." I roll my eyes and she tugs on my arm slightly and takes me towards the front door of my apartment.

My trainer and I arrive at the gym and I instantly look at her with a death stare when she shows me the neck training gear and roll my head back to look at the ceiling.

"Come on, let's get it done." She walks over to a more quiet area in the gym.

I put the gear on my head and my trainer walks a little further away and starts pulling on my neck. Starting off with a lower amount of force I relax a little, which my trainer notices and quickly increases the force she pulls on the gear.

"Are you planning to rip my head off?!" I groan in exhaustion.

"Well, I'm planning to make you stronger. And if that requires ripping your head off so be it." She responds back with a sarcastic tone which only makes me roll my eyes and work harder.

"Alright, alright last one." She says after what feels like forever of my neck being torn off my body from all different angles.

"God finally, can we please move onto something less annoying?" I ask her, my trainer isn't just a fitness trainer, she is also trained to deal with my post-workout attitude, as I'm not always keen on working out, which she's trying to change.

We move over to some arm working out equipment and she sets the weight and tells me the amount to do. I immediately get on with it, wanting this whole thing done.

Eventually, we leave the gym and she drops me back at the apartment while she goes shopping to get some things, I arrive in my apartment feeling as dead as ever and ready to get to bed and go straight to sleep. As I sit down on my bed my phone lights up and I notice I have a few messages I haven't seen while I was in the gym.

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Perceval:
Hey, I wanted to check in and make sure you are feeling okay. x
Let me know when you've left the gym we can watch a movie together x

Maevey❤️:
Back at mine now babe, where are you? x

Perceval:
Don't worry I won't be far behind, can't leave my girl hanging babe x

Maevey❤️:
Such a charmer as per, drive safe babe. I mean it. x
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Charles arrives at my apartment shortly after my text message, taking off his shoes and plopping down on the couch.

"What we watching tonight?" I ask him casually.

"What do you want to watch, you pick, I brought the snacks." Charles smiles and pulls up a bag of popcorn, sweets, crisps and chocolate.

"Hmm... Marvel movie?" I look up at him while he cuddles me closely, one arm wrapped around my shoulder and the other up on the back of the sofa.

"Sounds great." Charles kisses my forehead while I snuggle closer and put a Thor movie on and dig into the popcorn.

We watch the movie in peace, my mind completely drifting from the upcoming race and in fact anything to do with f1, I feel myself truly just spacing out and...

"Maeve. We're 15 minutes into the movie and your falling asleep on me?" Charles groans and pulls me closer.

"I wasn't going to sleep!!" I protest playfully jabbing his arm.

"You had this spaced-out look about you and your eyes were totally trying to close." Charles chuckles.

Although, yes he may be right, I may have been trying to fall asleep, so what? I'm a tired girl who did neck training a few hours ago, of course I want to sleep. But obviously I'm not one to boost men's egos. Not even my boyfriend is an exception to that rule.

"I wasn't falling asleep." I say with a sense of finality.

"Yeah right. Come here you." He chuckles and pulls me closer and kisses my head multiple times and I look up at him "What?" He asks with a smile.

"Can I not admire you?" I ask smirking, challenging him.

"No. Absolutely not." He teases chuckling slightly just enough for me to know he's being sarcastic.

"I'll go back to falling asleep." I tease, causing him to jab my side playfully.

"So you were sleeping on me!" He pipes up.

"Never." I smile up at him teasing him.

Towards the end of the movie, I am well and truly asleep on Charles, which makes him laugh that I didn't even watch the whole movie. He doesn't even stay awake until the end, and ends up falling asleep on the sofa too, with me in his arms and the tv remote in hand, like he was preparing to go up to bed but didn't want to jostle me too much.