secrecy

x.

The next day, Carlos was called into a livingroom, which wasn't expected by him. Adora went on a walk a few minutes before, wanting some time alone, so he couldn't even ask her, what was going on.

So there he was, sitting in a room, full of historic paintings on the walls, waiting for someone to come in. After a few minutes, he got a bit bored just sitting around, so he wandered around the room, looking at some of the paintings and the photos on the fireplace.

"What are your intentions with my daughter?" A voice asked. Carlos turned quickly around, searching from where the voice came. "Your majesty." he sid, immediately lowering his head for a few seconds.

Felipe nodded and repeated his question. "What are your intentions with my daughter?" Making his way over to him and extending his hand for a formal handshake.

"Only good ones. I am very happy and I hope that she is too. Obvioulsy not right now, but in the right circumstances."

"We can see that. But what is your intention? What do you want from the relationship?"

"Commitment. I want a something forever, and I can, seriously imagen that, if she wants that, of course. I wouldn't ever think about something else. I want that, if she wants that too. If she doesn't, I will have to accept that and try to move on."

The father nodded, before asking if the athlete would like something to drink, who asked for a glass of water.

"Carlos, are you okay, with answering some questions? We, especially, my wife, as you may know, are worried." Adora had told her boyfriend more than once, how worried her parents and especially her mother is, so he immediately agreed.

"Why did you and your former girlfriend broke up after, how many years?" Carlos was taken aback and surprised that this was his first question, but answered anyway.

"Officially after 6 years, unofficially after 5 1/2 years. It's a very long story, in the end we weren't right for each other. Looking back, I question how I thought it ever was." Carlos answered truthfully, looking out of the window. It would've felt weird to him, talking to the Father of his girlfriend, the King of Spain, his country, about his Ex and looking him in the eye, while doing so.

"We have some time. Please, explain."

"Okay, so it started with Covid, 20202. We couldn't race in Melbourne, so we traveled back as soon as we could. Then I was still with McLaren, who are based in the UK, so the team took a plane all together there. We thought that we can continue the season as normal, so I stayed in the UK and went to the MTC to go in the simulator. And then the Quaratine came, no work and barely any travel. It was only allowed for work and given that my work was in Woking, I wasn't allowed to leave for a few weeks. It wasn't unnormal, that I wasn't home for a few weeks, so we were used to not see each other for long." Carlos paused, drinking some of his water.