sweet escape [c.l.]

chapter nine

 Charles and Aurora walked hand in hand into his garage to leave Charles things so then they could move to Rory's office. Behind them the murmurs and whispers had begun, moving at rapid speed throughout the paddock. The paparazzi's cameras had flashed incessantly, capturing every interaction between the couple.

Pictures of the two of them were already being posted all over social media and aware of this, Charles knew he would have to talk with his PR team as soon as he left Rory in her office.

"Mon Amour?"

Rory looked up at Charles, "Yeah?"

He tucked a piece of hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear, "I think I will need to talk to my PR team."

"About us?"

"Yeah, the fans will start to see us together and photos from today will start to circle around the internet and it is better to get ahead of it before it becomes something we can't control."

Rory sighed, gripping his hand, "Will you tell them that this is...", she didn't need to say the word, they both knew what she meant.

"No. To the public eye we are a real couple and my team should treat it as that, nothing else."

She nodded. It was weird for her to see this business side of Charles, during their time together there hadn't been the chance to do so.

"Do you want me to bring you ..."

Rory quickly shaked her head, "No need. Do what you have to do before the day starts. I know the way. Don't worry." she punctuated her statement with a sweet smile.

Charles returned her smile and softly kissed her forehead before they went their separate ways.

As Rory walked the short distance to her office she could feel everyone's eyes on her and the whispers that followed every single of her steps. It wasn't an exactly new feeling, the eyes on her, but she hadn't felt it since she moved from her parents house.

Someone cleared their throat behind her. Rory slowly turned around with a crooked eyebrow but a smile quickly made its way into her face when she saw who was behind her.

"Matteo!" Aurora's arms quickly wrapped around her brother's shoulders, pulling him into her. "What are you doing here?" her words came out muffled from her face pressed against his shoulder.

"Can't I visit my baby sister?" he kissed her forehead and pulled away with a more serious look.

"What 's wrong?"

"Dad called."

Shit. "Matteo, I didn't want you to find out like that..."

"Hey," he grabbed her shoulders, steading her into place. "Don't worry about it principessa, it doesn't matter the way I found out. I just want to know if you are okay. I know what it feels like to be ambushed by dad..."

"I'm good. His visit was unexpected in a way but somehow expected."

A sad smile made its way to Rory's face and Matteo gave her one back before pulling her back to his arms.

"So, when do I get to meet this boyfriend?"

On the other side of the paddock, Charles sat in a meeting room filled with all the people that were responsible for his and Ferrari's image. No one said a word and they all just waited for him to start.

"Well," Charles cleared his throat after his voice came out weirdly, "As you all must have seen I came into the paddock today, with Aurora. She works with the medical team for FIA, which I assume some of you may already know. The truth is we are dating and have been since the summer, the fact that photos of us haven't leaked yet is kind of a miracle. I really like her and I don't care what any of you have to say, I won't keep it private, me and her agreed that we want everyone to see the real us and our real relationship in a spontaneous way, what we feel like sharing we will share and what we don't want to share we won't share. I'm only sorry for the way we came today to the paddock, but in our defense it wasn't planned and it was mainly my idea in the end and Rory only followed my lead." Charles stopped rambling and looked at everyone whose facial expressions hadn't changed for a second. "Don't you have anything to say?"