An Impossible Love

XVI

SATURDAY, QUALIFYING DAY , ZANDVOORT

Qualifying day had finally arrived, I woke up with great difficulty that morning, because after the chat with Charlotte I was left thinking about what she had told me, but I tried to remove strange ideas from my head, and try to focus only on the qualifying and the race.

I changed into my usual Redbull t-shirt and a pair of jeans. I would have kept my skirt for race day, but I put on an orange Redbull hat to honor the home race. I left a little later than usual, since Max and Checo were going to have a short interview before qualifying, and I immediately went to get my bike to head to the circuit. As soon as I arrived, I stopped at the paddock bar to have breakfast, since I had forgotten that morning, I sat down and had a cappuccino with an empty croissant.

While I was waiting for breakfast, I saw two red figures arriving from afar, causing the whole bar to murmur with excitement, and even though I tried to pretend not to see them, they still approached my table.

"Pequeña, are you pretending not to see us?"

"Mh? What?" I said when I turned to look at them

"No, I hadn't seen you at all" I lied shamelessly

"Hi Lilys, how are you?" Charles greeted me, coming closer to give me two kisses on the cheeks

"Everything ok, you guys?"

"Us too, a little anxious about the race, but that's the normal routine" Carlos responded

"Yeah, I can understand" I said to him, raising my head for looking at him, just to find his brown eyes waiting for me to look at them

"Ehmm, so can we sit down or are you waiting for someone?" Charles asked braking the silence

"Yes, of course, I just ordered a coffee and a croissant, because this morning I didn't even had the time to have breakfast"

"Yes, neither do we, and so we agreed to meet here and eat something. Carlos, do you want the usual?" asked Charles, leaving to go and order

"Yes, thanks Charles" Carlos replied

"The usual?" I told him as soon as Charles walked away

"Yes, I usually have a coffee and a brioche with jam" he told me

"Well, I imagined you having a breakfast like this..." I said with a teasing tone

"Like what?" He asked me curious

"So monotonous" I told him, provoking him and I didn't even know why I was provoking him, but it was fun, because now that had become our little game.

"Oh yes?" he asked me with a grin "well if you knew me a little better, you would know that I'm anything but monotonous" he whispered to me in a low voice, provoking me in turn

I blushed at the statement he had just made, hoping that he wouldn't noticed it.

"What's the matter, speechless little verstappen?" he asked me with a smirk

"Yes, I'm lost of words for how big your ego is, Sainz" I told him with a grin

"You are.." he started, but then he had to stop because Charles arrived with their breakfast

Carlos and Charles sat down in front of me and we started eating, and all the while, I felt Carlos' gaze on me, watching me as if he were studying me. And every time I looked up he promptly took it away, pretending to be disinterested.

"So Lily, this is your first home race as Max's engineer, how do you feel?" Charles asked me, biting into his croissant

"Actually, I'm quite calm, obviously I'm a bit anxious, but I know that he'll be fine, Max is a very good driver, who knows how to concentrate and give his all even in difficult situations" I replied.