sweet escape [c.l.]

chapter three

Now

"Alejandro?" Rory's voice quivers as she addresses him, her heart pounding in her chest as he turns around with a smile, "Can we talk?"

Rory leads Alejandro to the room she had previously been with Charles. After the two talked Rory knew that if she was actually going to talk with Alejandro it had to be soon, she couldn't simply wait or she would end up talking herself out of it.

Rory leaned against a table while Alejandro sat comfortably on the couch, "Why are you here?" Her voice is steady, but there's an underlying tension in her words.

"I needed a job."

"I know," she shook her head, "but you also know that working here has always been my dream. You never wanted this."

"Well," he got up and took a step toward Rory, "you caught me there." He let out a little laugh, "A little bird might have told me that you had gotten this offer and I thought why not?"

"What do you mean?" Rory's brow furrows in confusion.

"Well, you know I kept in contact with your parents right?" Aurora nodded, "You mom might have mentioned that you were going to work here and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to win you back."

Rory started to laugh, her parents, her own parents had told her ex-boyfriend where she was going to work and he wanted to get back together? Alejandro was looking at her like she had just told the sky is pink, why was she laughing?

"Alejandro," she cleaned a tear that was starting to fall from her face, "we are never going to happen again. I don't know what my mother has been telling you but I'm not interested in getting back together with you."

Alejandro took a couple more steps to get close to Rory and cupped her cheek "Darling, you can't deny what still exists between the two of us, I haven't been able to move on since we broke up and I know that you haven't either..."

"I have a boyfriend." She blurred out, not waiting for Alejandro to react and running out of the room.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, Charles was getting ready to start the first practice of the season. Physical Warm-up? Check. Helmet and Racing Gear? Check. Talk with the Engineers? Check. Talk with Race Officials? Check. Radio? Check. Mental Preparation? On Going.

It was the first time he was going to race with all of them after last season and he was certainly feeling the pressure. Last season he had disappointed not only the fans and the people at Ferrari but also himself, and he wanted to make sure that this year it would be different. It had to be, there was no other option.

As Aurora left the room she was in with Alejandro, she walked right into another one and dialed her mother's number.

"Hello?"

"Mom!" Rory sat down on a small couch near the window.

"Sweety, so glad you called. How have you been? How is the new job? Have you run into Alejandro already?"

"That's why I'm calling. Did you tell him I was coming to work here?"

"Of course I did."

Rory scratched one of her eyebrows and leaned her back hitting the back of the couch before taking a deep breath and asking, "Why?"

"I thought that you would want a friend around."

"If I wanted a friend that would 100% not be Alejandro."

"Oh Aurora, don't tell me it's still about what happened two years ago?..."

"Of course it is."

"...You should be over it by now and see how perfect Alejandro is for you..."

"Mom..."

"...you work in the same field, now in the same place..."

"Mom."

"...he's a sweet kid and you shouldn't let a mistake from the past dictate your relationship now, but I still don't see what he did wrong, he was just a worried boyfriend and you..."

"MOM!" Rory took a deep breath, "I don't want to see Alejandro and I don't want a relationship with him. He's part of my past and he was an awful boyfriend and I'm sorry if I have moved on and I don't want to see him again."

"Aurora, he is a family friend, you can't simply ignore his presence."

"Yes I can, and it has worked wonders for me in the past."

"Aurora Delgado, I will not take this kind of disrespect from you to a wonderful boy, call me when you are ready to be reasonable." and her mother hung up the phone.

Aurora let her arms fall to her legs and ran her fingers through her hair. She knew that talking with her parents about Alejandro was a lost battle.

"Bye Aurora, see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow," Aurora gathered the rest of her stuff and walked out of the center to her car when she saw a figure leaning against it. "How did you know that was my car?"

"You would be impressed with the things people tell me chérie." Charles smiled and opened his arms for Aurora to walk into them.

The girl gladly did it and enjoyed the mix of his perfume that he probably had just reapplied, mixed with the smell of the fresh air. Charles leaned his head closer to her cheek and kissed it before letting her go.

"Big plans for this evening?" He asked her as she leaned in the car close to him.

"If drinking wine while watching bad tv is your definition of big plans, then yes I have big plans."

"That bad?"

"Oh, and you don't even know half of it."

"What about you tell me all of it tonight?" She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I could cook for the both of us and you would just have to rant and tell everything that's in your head."

"Sounds good to me."

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