one night?

chapter 17

After the call with Riya and Sofia I knew Charles and I had to address the elephant in the room. We didn't know where we were going. What we wanted to do after the PR contract and serious things like that. We just keep dancing around it, and I'm tired. I loved this two weeks but I don't want to give my all for something that I don't know were it's going.

Charles finally arrived, and as usual, he entered the living room where I was sitting on the couch. He rested his head on my shoulder, his emerald eyes tired.

"Long day?" I asked him stroking my fingers through his hair.

"Long week." He sighed.

"Maybe we can talk about it other time." I said softly. I didn't want to tire him more.

"No, no, no. What did you want to talk about?" He sat up and stared at me.

"Nothing." I said turning away from him.

"Don't give me that bullshit." He said as he pulled me back to look at him. "I'm a bit tired, but not dumb, Camila."

"I just- I want to know where we stand." I confessed nervously.

"Oh, you mean, like our relationship?" He asked, his tone changing.

"Yeah." I muttered.

"I mean we're not that serious yet, but things are heading good? Right?" He said scratching his head.

"They are." I gave him a confused look, this was not reassuring at all.

"We should take things slow, Camila. We just have had two weeks of this, things could change a lot in the duration of the contract. Not to scare you or anything, I'm just trying to be realistic. I don't want you to get hurt." He explained softly, and it broke my heart a bit.

"Yeah, I- I get it." I tried to hide my disappointment. "Well I guess we should try to have a good night sleep. Big day tomorrow."

"Camila." He said with a guilty face.

"It's alright, I can do the dishes don't play guilty." I fake laughed and headed to the kitchen to wash imaginary dishes.

After an awkward goodbye and goodnight, we both went to sleep. I couldn't believe we were in such a situation. I thought we both wanted the same thing but had no clue on how to get it. We both had traumas, fears, and doubts, and neither of us was sure we were ready to deal with that.

In the morning I decided to arrive with Charles to the race. I had a denim jumper, some nice glasses, and a big green purse. We tried to have small talk in the ride, but we both knew it was worthless. Things were weird.

When we finally arrived at the paddock, Charles had a press conference before the race. He told me to stay there and wait for him, so I did. It was weird having all the fans and reporters yelling at me questions.

Charles then finally came back, he guided me through the paddock as usual. We tried to make it look as if things weren't complicated. As if we were on the same page, but we weren't. We reached the garage, and there was Andrea.

"Camila, Charles! Hi!." He greeted us enthusiastically.

"Hello, Andrea. How are you?" I greeted him back.

"Good! How was the trip back?"

"It was fine." Charles muttered.

"Well, I'm glad." Andrea replied with a warm smile.

"Andrea, what's going on?" I asked him suspiciously. "You're too enthusiastic."

"Can't I be happy? Queste persone!" He growled getting into Charles's drivers room.