Escapism (CL 16)

7. Time Flies

Four Months Later

"I'm so excited you're here!" Anna shrieked, wrapping Laura in a hug as she greeted her in the arrivals hall at Nice airport. "It's been way too long!"

"I know, I've missed you." Laura agreed, struggling to extract herself from the vicelike grip her friend had her in. "I'm sorry I didn't come back sooner. Things have been a bit hectic."

Anna reluctantly released her, shooting a look at Laura that made it clear they were going to be talking later. "Hi Mike, I'm so glad you could join us."

Laura couldn't help but cringe a bit at the sarcastic tone of Anna's voice as she spoke to Mike. Anna hadn't wanted him there, she'd been very clear and Mike hadn't really wanted to come either, but he was making the effort and she supposed she should be grateful, but she had a feeling it was going to be an awkward week and that perhaps she should've left him at home.

The last time she'd been in Monaco with Anna, had been the night she'd run barefoot all the way back from the yacht to Anna's place. She'd packed her bags and been in a taxi on the way to Nice to get a flight back to London by the time her friend had come back from the club.

Mike had picked her up from the airport as promised, full of all kinds of apologised and reassurances that nothing like that would ever happen again. Being without her for those weeks she'd spent in Monaco had been enough for him to realise he didn't want to live his life without her, or at least that was what he said.

Laura had come to the slightly uneasy realisation on the short flight over to France that the reason she had been so desperate to take him to Monaco with her had a lot more to do with not trusting him if she left him alone than really wanting him to be there with her.

"The car's up outside Mike, do you want to go ahead and put the bags in?" Anna suggested, pointing to where her car was parked just outside the doors and handing him the keys.

He nodded, taking the keys from her and pulling the two small suitcases they'd brought along with him.

"I can't believe you brought him here." Anna hissed the second he was out of earshot.

"What was I supposed to do?" Laura asked.

"Dump his ass? Not go back to him in the first place? Leave him at home and come spend the Grand Prix weekend with me and realise you're an idiot and then dump his ass again?" Anna suggested. "Do you want me to go on? I've got hundreds of suggestions and all of them involve getting rid of that absolute waste of space."

"Anna." Laura sighed. "Please don't say things like that. I love him."

"No." Anna shook her head. "You think you love him. There's a difference."

"Whatever. We're back together now and we're happy. He promised it won't happen again. Can you just drop it now?" Laura asked wearily.

"No." Anna said firmly. "Not until you finally wake up and realise what's good for you. And spoiler alert, it's not him."

"If you're going to be like this the whole week then I'm going to just turn around and get on a flight home now." Laura sighed. "I came here to keep you company while Josh does whatever it is Josh does at these things, not have you lecture me endlessly."

"You're actually here because I'm living in hope that you might run into that hottie from the club and see sense." Anna smirked. "I mean you can deny it all you like, but there was clearly something between the two of you. You were like magnets. You just kept finding eachother."

"That's not going to happen." Laura said firmly. "Even if we did run into him, which we won't because the place is going to be so packed because of the race, I'm back with Mike now. I'm not going to cheat on him."

"You should, maybe he'll understand once he knows what it feels like to be on the other side of it." Anna answered sarcastically. "Seriously though, I have a feeling you're going to see him again. I meant what I said. Magnets."

"Shut up." Laura rolled her eyes at her friend. "Come on, Mike is probably wondering what's taking us so long."

"Oh no, how dare we keep the wonderful Mike waiting." Anna asked sarcastically. "Just so we're clear, I said you could bring him but I made absolutely no promises that I'd be nice to him at all. He's staying in my house and I have to look at his stupid face every day for a week. I'm going to be mean to him if I want to, and I want to."

"Anna." Laura sighed. "I know you hate him, okay? He knows you hate him. Please don't make this awkward for all of us."

"Josh is trying to see if he can get him another pass for the race so he can come with us." Anna explained. "I was originally going to just leave him home alone all weekend while we went out as punishment, but Josh said it was petty."

"It is."

"Yeah well, I don't know if Josh will be able to get another one from work anyway. Who knows, maybe my wish will come true after all." Anna joked.

"How has he got involved in this anyway?" Laura asked curiously as the two of them headed towards the door.

"Oh his Dad's company is one of Ferrari's sponsors this year. His dad's on his yacht in the Caribbean I think, some kind of fancy holiday anyway, so he asked if we wanted to go be their guests for the weekend on his behalf."

"We might have to go shopping." Laura grimaced. "You didn't lead with the part where we were being invited as guests by a team. I have not packed for this."

"Don't you worry. We can raid my wardrobe when we get back. I've got about a hundred outfits that are perfect for the occasion." Anna reassured her. "Maybe we'll get you all glammed up and some dashingly handsome formula one driver will fall for you, then you can dump that asshole and move to Monaco to be a WAG and we can hang out all the time like we used to. Think how much fun that would be?!"

"Anna. You've got to let this go." Laura sighed. "I'm with Mike, I love Mike. He's trying okay, he's actually trying this time. I owe it to him to give it a chance. Yeah, the sex with the guy from the club was amazing, but it was just sex. A drunk distraction. You've got to let it go."

"A drunk distraction from the fact Mike is an asshole." Anna pointed out. "You can keep telling me it's all going to be fine as much as you like, but I've seen this enough times before to know he's going to fuck it up again. He always does."

Laura let out an exasperated groan. It was really quite tempting to just get on a flight and head back to London if Anna was going to be like this all week. They hadn't even made it out of the airport yet and she was already in full flow.

"Let's just agree to disagree on this one, shall we?" She suggested diplomatically. "We need to get going, apparently I've got a busy evening trying on half of your wardrobe to make sure I've got something to wear for tomorrow. And we need to make sure we still have time to go shopping if there isn't anything in there."

"There are more clothes in my closet than any normal clothes shop, but always down to go shopping." Anna laughed. "Come on." She linked arms with Laura and the two of them headed out to the car where Mike was waiting impatiently.

"What took you two so long?" He sighed. "I've been waiting ages."

"Oh stop whining, we were just catching up." Anna rolled her eyes at him. "Give me the keys, it's my car I'm driving."