Racing hearts

Part 6 - Disbelief

My mouth opened in disbelief, I met his gaze, his expression was blank and meaningless like he didn't care about what he had just agreed to.

"What do you mean?" I basically shouted across at him, the emptiness of his gaze sent a shiver down my spine.

"You heard me," he muttered almost inaudibly expressing his annoyance in his tone, he turned to Fred and his manager, "Can I go?" Both of them nodded and within seconds he was out of his seat and making his way to the door.

Before he left, Fred called out his name forcing him to turn back, "don't tell anyone about this, if this goes ahead we don't want anyone, including the drivers, to know that it is a PR stunt," Charles nodded in understanding and then walked out of the door without another word.

"Same goes for you, Madelyn. No one can know," I nodded hesitantly as my mind flashed to Max and Lando. I don't want to lie to them, I don't want to hide anything from them. "We will give you until Japan for you to give us your answer," Fred spoke in a serious tone as he began packing and standing up, Charles' manager following his actions.

~

I sat in my hotel room the following night, on call with Sarah who had already been informed on the situation by a rather opinionated Emily. "As much as I hate putting you in difficult situations, I have to agree with Emily on this one. It will resolve the problem quickly."

"I'd be fine with almost anything else but why does it have to be fake dating Charles fucking Leclerc," I grumbled down the phone before placing my head in my hands. "As much as you may not like it, he's the one involved in this mess with you," Sarah relied, her voice firm but empathetic. "I know it wouldn't be ideal but it would only be temporary, you would just need to play along for a bit."

I let out a frustrated sigh, "it just feels wrong, you know? Pretending to date someone and Charles.... He's the last person I want to fake anything with right now." I let my gaze fall to the ground as my mind raced.

"I get it, Maddie, I do," Sarah spoke softly, "but sometimes we have to do somethings we don't like for the sake of our careers. This will blow over and then you could go back to normal," sometimes I wish I had chosen a different path in life, one that didn't involve all of the camera and difficulty of living a normal life.

I rubbed my temples as I tried to process everything, "What if it backfires? What if people see through it and we end up back at square one?"

"You will have us all guiding you both into this and as for your friends.. they will understand especially when you are doing it for the sake of your career," her words provided some comfort but the situation still gnawed at me.

I took a deep breath, trying to get past the overwhelming emotions I felt, "all I'm asking is for you to think about it and not make a rash decision," her words bounced off the plain white walls surrounding me.

"I promise that I will think about it," I guaranteed, to her before we said our goodbye and ended the call. I sat back in my seat, staring at the ceiling thinking deep in my mind.

The idea of fake dating Charles felt like it would be a heavy burden but maybe Sarah was right, it maybe the only way to resolve this quickly.

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A/N I still can't believe it, what an emotional roller coaster. Charles won in Monaco and it was amazing. So proud of him and hope that he can get some more wins this season.