SO AMERICAN charles leclerc

★. . . nine

THE AIR WAS MORE FORGIVING Friday morning as Stevie made her way from her car to the paddock, feeling a little more confident today. She was lucky for it, too, considering she was supposed to be going on her first date in months in just a couple of hours.

Stevie pressed her key card against the scanner, hearing it ding and pushed through the turnstile, waving at Mia who was coming in next to her.

"How was your first day?" Mia asked, walking up beside Stevie, both in matching Ferrari hats. Mia was wearing a white romper with ruffles, and Stevie complimented her leather sandals, begging for the website she bought them from. They began giggling about their days, and fangirling over the drivers they'd seen.

As the two girls headed towards the Ferrari building, they ran into Carlos, who gave them both a short hug and a soft kiss on the cheek. Stevie still wasn't used to the European greetings and it was obvious to anyone around who was paying attention.

"Stevie, I had a question..." Carlos shoved his hand in his pockets as he begin walking with the bed and Mia. Stevie gave him a nod, pulling her notebook from her backpack and flipping through to the schedule for day two.

"There's a team meeting in 'bout forty minutes." Stevie looked down at her phone, checking the time then back up at Carlos, who seemed to be quite nervy. Yesterday he was cool and collected, and Stevie would notice he more so had an annoyed look on his face than an anxious one.

"... That's not what you wanted to ask, was it?" she cringed at herself, embarrassed that she probably interrupted him. Carlos quickly shook his head, a reassuring hand on her arm.

"Not at all. In fact, I'm happy you reminded me of that. I usually am late to those meetings." The Spanish driver laughed, Stevie chuckling with him. She looked over and saw Mia with a stressed look on her face. A notoriously late driver was all she needed, and Stevie felt a pang of pity for her before turning back to Carlos.

"Anyways. What were you going to ask?" Carlos looked around, then pulled Stevie to the side. Mia came to a stop, almost tripping as he maneuvered through the crowd to follow the two.

"Oh, Mia, you can go ahead. I just had to talk to Stevie." Stevie thought she saw a look of relief on Mia's face as she spun back around and kept walking towards the office. She turned back to Carlos, her body tense as she went through the dozens of reasons he could've stopped her right now.

"This is very awkward... Probably a bit weird, as well... But... I wanted to ask about one of your friends..." Stevie could barely keep a straight face as she nodded, screaming and jumping around inside.

"Oh? Who?" The crack in her voice gave her away completely but she attempted to keep her composure.

"The one you went karting with?" Stevie had to process that sentence for at least thirty seconds. He follows my Instagram? He looks at my posts? He likes Cleo?!

"Oh! Cleo! What about her?" Carlos nervously kicked the gravel, looking around once more before focusing back on Stevie.

"Is she seeing anyone?" He asked softly, and Stevie. couldn't help smiling like an idiot.

"Nope. She's been single for a while." Carlos laughed and gestured for Stevie to start walking with him.

"So it would be okay if I wanted to message her?"

Stevie nodded, biting her lip to keep drop squealing.

"Yep, that be great. Want me to let her know?" Carlos shrugged, opening the glass door of the building and waving Stevie through.

"If you would like. Do you think she'd talk to me?"

"Oh, trust me, you've got nothin' to worry about." Stevie grinned at the driver, who smiled back before walking over to Mia and Julio sitting at a table with coffees and bagels, going over the day's schedule.