sweet escape [c.l.]

chapter eighteen

It was Monday. Sunday night had been a tough one. Charles had gone out to celebrate Lando's first win but his mind wasn't in the celebrations; all he could think about was how awful his weekend had been and in ways to better it.

This morning he had been woken up by a call from his PR team telling him that he had to present himself at the office so they could have an emergency meeting.

To say he was scared would be putting it lightly. He had never been called for an emergency meeting with the PR team, his image had always been good and something he had took particular pride in, but now sitting in the chair in the conference room he wasn't sure that it was the case anymore.

"Charles, you must be wondering why we called in today." Charles nodded and they just continued. "You haven't had a good couple of weekends," Charles eyes turned to the floor, he knew that he didn't need them to tell him about it, "and because of that you have been focusing a lot on training and getting better and not so much on social outings."

"Which is only natural." Brian intervened, staying on Charles' side.

"Yes, but the sponsors don't see it like that." Charles' eyes shoot right up. "Some sponsors are worried that you can't commit to everything you have to do so they are giving us an ultimatum, either you attend more social events this upcoming weeks before the race or they are going to start backing out, and we can't afford that."

"But the next race is Monaco..."

The whole team knew that Charles wanted to get better in time for his home race and make everyone proud. But if they were filling up his calendar with social events we wouldn't have as much time as he wanted to train and go over strategies so he would put out his best performance of the season.

"We know, and that is why we have taken the liberty to make a schedule for your next couple of weeks so you would have time to do everything you have to."

They pulled out a paper from a briefcase and put it in front of him. His eyes quickly looked at the whole thing and what he saw was an almost 24 hour schedule of his next two weeks, with designated times for everything he needed to do. From meetings to social events, and the F1 gala in Monaco just a couple of days before the race.

"And something that would help solidify your image is if you could take Aurora to the social events."

Charles' eyes shot back up. "Rory has a job, she can't just let go of everything to come and be by my side."

"We know, and that is exactly why we already talked with her boss and if she agrees to go to all these places with you Alejandro will take her position and she will work with you and Carlos with anything is needed."

Charles turned his gaze to Brian who just looked at him and shrugged. There was nothing any of them could do at this point.

He took a deep breath. "Has anyone talked to her?"

"No, we were hoping you could do it."

Of course they were. "I will talk to her today, but I can't promise anything."

"That's good, give us an answer until the end of the day."

Charles arrived at his apartment defeated from the whole day. After the meeting he had done some training sessions but all his mind could focus on was the conversation he would need to have with Rory today.

He knew that she wouldn't say no if it was to help his career, but the thought of letting Alejandro stay in her position was not okay with him. He knew how much she had worked to be where she is today and the thought that because of him she could lose it even if it was temporary was not sitting right with him.

As he walked further into the house with the schedule in his hands he found Rory sitting on his couch with a book in her hands.

"Hey," she said as she noticed him and put her book down. "How did the meeting go?"

Charles sat down on the couch beside her, putting her legs on his lap, and handed her the schedule. "It's...going to be a busy few weeks."

Rory glanced over the paper and frowned. "This is insane. How are you supposed to train and prepare for Monaco with all of this?"

Charles shrugged and let his head fall on the couch. "I don't have a choice. The sponsors are threatening to back out if I don't attend these events."

Rory reached out, gently running her hand through his hair to calm him down. "You're going to get through this. We'll figure it out together."

Charles' gaze turned to her and saw the smile that she was adorning and gave her a small one back. He pulled her hand away from his head and held it on his own. "There's something else."

"What?" she asked edging closer to him.

"They want you to attend these events with me. Since you are my girlfriend...in their eyes."

"But I have work..."

"They thought about that too," He let a breath out through his nose. "You would be working with Ferrari and Alejandro would take your position at the medical center."

"Oh." was the only thing she could say. A million thoughts were running through her head right now and she couldn't put any of them into words.

"You don't have to do it." he squeezed her hand and looked her directly in the eye. "You don't have to let go of the job you have fought hard to get so you can be by my side and make me look good. If it was for me I wouldn't even be asking you this but if they think I didn't ask you I will 100% be in more trouble.

"Are you done? Can I talk now?" Charles just nodded and squeezed her hand. She let it go and put both her hands on his cheeks. "I will do it. And don't argue back and let me talk." she shut his mouth once again. "I want to do this for you. You have helped me before and now is my time to do it. Let me do it. And I don't care if Alejandro has my job for two weeks, no one at the medical center likes him so he will probably have hell for two weeks."

Charles just laughed before looking her in the eye lovingly once more. "Thank you. You are amazing, you know that?"

"Have been told that once or twice."

The two stood there looking each other in the eye. The tension was palpable in the air.

Charles knew that they hadn't talked about what they were if everything that had been going on in the past couple of weeks. They have been spending almost every waking moment together and Rory has been basically living with him.

Rory was leaning closer, she knew she shouldn't but her heart was the one commanding her body now and her mind was blank and all she wanted was Charles lips on hers. So surprise overtook her when instead of feeling his lips on hers she felt them on her cheek.

She looked at him with confusion and he just smiled at her, kissed her cheek softly before whispering in her ear. "We need to talk before anything happens and you run away again." Rory looked at him with her mouth opened while he got up and started to walk to the kitchen. "Want anything to eat?" he asked with a smirk.