SO AMERICAN charles leclerc

★. . . seven

STEVIE DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD EVER BE possible to fit ten hours of work into one morning, but Hannah and Julio were miracle workers. With Carlos's press conference out of the way, four interviews and a game for social media done with, along with two fan meet ups, Stevie couldn't possibly fathom having anymore work to do.

One upside, was that Stevie quickly learned the layout of the paddock. She had to, or else she'd be wandering around aimless by now. Her and Mia had already gotten lost once, looking for a concessions stand, and one of the Ferrari mechanics had to walk them back towards the media pen.

"Can you believe we still have eight more slots on this itinerary?" Mia said in disbelief, scrolling through her phone, zooming in on the highlighted times throughout the schedule.

"I literally cannot. They seriously have you workin' like a horse all day." Stevie whined, the two plopping down at a pair of lounge chairs on the patio outside Ferrari.

"Mia!" Carlos walked over, startling Stevie and Mia. They both had yet to get used to Carlos Sainz casually walking up to them and asking for his next meeting time.

"I can't find Julio, do you know where that signing session is at?" The Spanish driver leaned against the back of Stevie's chair, patting her shoulder, while Stevie gave him a nervous smile.

"Oh, of course!" Mia shot up, gathering her things. She opened her notebook, her eyes frantically searching the itinerary, before waving Carlos to follow her.

"It's down near hospitality on turn one. I'll head over there with you. Julio might be there already, anyways." Stevie watched the two head off down the paddock, Mia's steps giddy and nervous, Carlos following her like a lost puppy.

"Finally. I feel like I've been on a wild goose chase all day." Stevie looked up and saw Arthur walking over on the other side of the fence. She grinned at him, waving him over, and he sat down in the chair left empty by Mia.

"How are you liking it?" He pulled his hat off, running a hand through his hair. Stevie didn't mean to gawk at him as he did this, and quickly tried to fill the awkward silence.

"Oh, it's been great. I feel like I've barely had any time to breathe, but in a good way. I'm exactly where I've wanted to be for so long, ya know?" Arthur nodded, smiling at her as she filled him in on everything she'd been assigned with that day. Getting VIPs to where they need to go, keeping Charles in line, going through conference questions, and so much more but her mouth couldn't move fast enough to keep up with her brain.

Arthur sat through her jumble of words, listening intently, his eyes never leaving hers, even though she wasn't even looking at him half the time. He couldn't look away, even if he wanted to.

Stevie's sentence slowly faded away as she saw Charles walk over, clapping his brother on the back as he walked around to stand in front of him. He gave Stevie a kurt nod, and she sank back in her chair, looking down at her nails.

Their conversation was fuzzy for her, her ears burning with embarrassment at Charles's not so subtle silent treatment. It'd been like this all day, limited eye contact, one word replies, never walking beside her, but at least ten feet away like she was a walking infection. She knew he wasn't normally like this, he'd always seemed so warm and welcoming in every video and post she'd ever seen of him online. What had she done wrong?

"Hannah said you were going to fill in for her at the conference this afternoon. She has a staff meeting at the same time. She said she texted you all you would need to know." Stevie didn't even process that he had been speaking to her until a few seconds after when he was still looking at her, waiting for a response.