𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒 - 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝

❥ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐄𝐍

[𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐍𝐄]

It was already late when I made my way through the paddock to get to my car. The sun was slowly getting down and only a few people were left, preparing everything for practice day tomorrow. The situation with Charles and my team early today took a lot of time, which is why I was leaving the track just now. Since I am not just the right hand of my dad, but also help the strategists and Max' race engineer to prepare everything by doing researches, I don't have the opportunity to just loose time.
I was already leaving the exit when I heard someone calling my name. I knew exactly who it was and when I turned around my suspicions were confirmed. Charles Leclerc ran towards me with big steps, already out of breath because he was trying to catch me. I stopped and waited for him to arrive next to me, looking at him carefully. His chest was moving up and down fast and his hair was a complete mess. And when his eyes met mine, I again knew why I was holding him at a distance for some time already. His eyes were so green and beautiful that you just couldn't stop starring at them.
"Hi..." he whispered out of breath when he finally reached me. "Hi" I responded confused, asking myself what was so important to catch me but our words were followed by silence. Charles looked around, acting some kind of nervous. Was he nervous about me?
After the silence stayed for another few moments, I saw my opportunity and asked: "Did you know it when we first met? Or when we met in Monaco and I slept at your apartment?" Charles' eyes met mine again and you could tell that he was surprised by my question, trying to search for words. "No, Elayne. I didn't know any of this when we spend time together. I didn't even know who you were back then. How should I know that you are Christian's daughter?" He then answered, looking deeply into my eyes like he wants me to understand that all of this is true.
"I don't know, Charles. It's not like I've been working here since yesterday. You could have known, actually but that's not the topic", I let out a heavy sight before continuing, "I believe you but that's not why you were running down the paddock to catch me." Again, Charles looked at me in surprise that I noticed.
He swallowed hard before explaining himself: "I just wanted to talk to you. We had no opportunity to do so earlier and I haven't seen you the whole day so I wanted to ask if you want to drive with me to my place. To talk about our Boundaries and everything." The whole day, I had forgotten about the existence of this situation between us due to the work I had to do but now everything came back to my head. Even though I knew I shouldn't do it, because of the last time we spend time together, but I also knew it was the right decision to talk about everything. We owned this to our teams, so we also needed to this in the right way.
"Okay, I will come with you because I agree. We need to this right, otherwise everyone will know that we are just faking it. And we own it to our teams." I responded to him which he reacted to with a nod before heading to his car, followed by me who already regretted agreeing because my head was saying that this evening won't end very well for me.

After more than 10 minutes, we finally arrived at Charles' hotel which seemed to be very near to the one I was staying in with the team. I looked outside the window, inhaling the environment around me. I've been to Jeddah before in 2021, for the first Saudi Arabian Grand Prix which was held and it's been a really nice experience. I remember, back then, Max and I arrived as soon as possible to the country so we could visit much of the city. So it wasn't a new experience for me but this city still amazed me every time I came here with its big buildings, the lights and the amount of people going around. In the center of Jeddah, everything seemed so big and it always felt like the time stood still. Like you could forget everything here.

The vibrations of my phone brought me back to reality and when I looked at it, I recognized a new message from Max.

"Is everything okay? You wanted to come over afterwards."

Fuck. I totally forgot that I wanted to meet up with my best friend. We had talked about it earlier today.

"I am so sorry, Max. Charles came to me when I walked out and said he wanted to talk about our fake relationship. Boundaries and everything. I agreed because I think we should do this right.
Maybe I could come over afterwards?
Are you sleeping by then because of Practice tomorrow?"

I texted him back, feeling more than bad because I had forgotten our meeting. But I couldn't overthink it more, because when I looked up, the car was already standing in the parking lot. I able to feel Charles' eyes laying on me while he waited. I turned off my phone and put it into the pocket of my jacket before looking in Charles' direction. His eyes were still laying on my face, inhaling every freckle and every fold on my face like he wanted to remind me right.
"Calm down, pretty boy. Should I print you a picture of myself so you can watch at it when you miss me?" I was asking him jokingly with a smile on my face. Charles looked at me amused, while his cheeks turned into light pink because I noticed his starring. "Let's go, my love. Should I open the door for you like a good boyfriend?" he then asked with a smile, alluding to our fake relationship. I couldn't help myself but laugh at him being so unserious about this situation. From Reflex, I immediately put my hand in front of my face so he wouldn't see my laugh. I have been doing this for a long time in public of people I didn't know that well because my laugh was rare. I wasn't laughing much in my life. Now more than I used to 2 to 3 years ago but still it wasn't something I was doing much. And whenever I was laughing to a person, I tried to hide it because I wasn't used to doing it.
Now, it was different. As soon as my hand moved up to my face, as soon it was removed from my face again by Charles. He lifted his own hand, wrapping it around mine and gently moving them down.
"Don't hide your laugh. I like the sound of your happiness." he then whispered, his hand still holding mine while his eyes were starring into mine intensely. I didn't break the eye contact. I looked him deep into the eyes. These beautiful, green eyes. Seeing so much emotions in these but none I could identify.
His hand was still wrapped around mine, gently rubbing over the back of my hand with his thumb. This little gesture made my heart beat really fast but it was also hurting, because after years, where I held every feeling at a distance, it was finally able to feel something again.
I cleared my throat to break the tension between us. A tension I honestly couldn't explain because it felt like he knew me so damn well without actually knowing anything. Slowly, I pulled back my hand, now looking at the floor to just not look back into his intense green eyes.
Charles also cleared his throat before quietly saying: "Let's go upstairs." I just nodded, following him outside the car and still trying to calm down my heavy beating heart which wants nothing more than to feel his hand wrapped around mine again.