Hard out here | Carlos Sainz Jr

Chapter 8

Carlos felt like he was going to be sick as he rushed to the hospital. He checked the screen on the dashboard of the Ferrari he rented. It had been ten hours since he last spoke to Giovanna and every second of it was horrible.

He tried calling her when he landed in Bologna but she didn't answer so he assumed she was asleep.

Pulling up into the hospital's parking lot, he found an empty spot and parked the black before quickly rushing out of the car to the entrance of the hospital.

Carlos burst through the glass doors and frantically searched around for the reception. He locked eyes with a woman standing behind a counter staring at him wide-eyed.

"Good morning," he greeted. "I'm here to see Giovanna Di Mezza."

The woman greeted him back before typing on her computer. "She's in the maternity ward. Sir, I have to ask, what is your relationship with the patient?" She asked.

Carlos panicked and said the first thing he could think of, "She's my fiancé."

The receptionist fixed her posture at his words and looked at him with a shocked expression. "Oh umh, please follow the signs to maternity and ask for a nurse to show you to her room."

"Alright, thank you." He said before turning to leave.

Relief washed over Carlos as he stepped in Gio's hospital room. She was fast asleep so the only sound in the room came from the machines next to the bed.

He moved to sit on the chair by her bedside and took her hand in his. Carlos smiled to himself as he rubbed circles on the back of her hand.

Her beauty astounded him, despite being in the hospital she still looked as beautiful as the first time he saw her.

Her curls loosely framed her face and her cheeks shone a rosy pink. Due to the cold winter, her skin was paler than usual so the moles on her face looked darker than usual.

She looked beautiful.

His gaze moved from her face to her bump. "Hi mi princesa. I'm sure you've been lonely for the past few hours but I'm here now. I don't know how to do this, I read somewhere that speaking to you helps."

"I suppose I can tell you about yesterday's race. I finished third which is good but I couldn't stay for the podium. Think I will pay a fine for that."

Carlos spoke in a hush voice careful to not wake Gio up. He didn't know why he was doing what he was doing but it felt right.

He jumped from topic to topic, from speaking about his race to how he spent on spending most of his break in Italy. "I wonder what your mom is going to name you. I think Dolores is a pretty name, don't you think?"

Carlos went on to explain the meaning unaware of the prying eyes of nurses on the other side of the window.

"They are so cute, aren't they?" One of the younger nurses asked. "So cute. Apperently he came in rushing saying he's her fiancé."

"Wait- so they're engaged?"

"That's what we're saying Beatrice."

"Wasn't he dating that one girl a few months back though?"

"Yeah he was, wasn't he. I'm so confused."

They watched as Giovanna shifted in her sleep before she slowly opened her eyes. The nurses melted in place when Carlos pressed a kiss on the back of her hand before they scrambled away when Gio looked out of the window.

"Hi." Gio muttered with a weak smile. "Hey, how are you feeling?" Carlos asked as he reached a hand out to brush off the hair in front of her face. "Tired, I wanna go home."