Escapism (CL 16)

8. Cinderella

"What are you doing?" Anna asked, the two of them had been walking along with their arms linked, up until Laura had ground to a very abrupt halt.

"Oh my god." Laura muttered in disbelief. "We can't... I have to go back."

"What the hell is going on with you? I told you did be nice to Mike, okay? Please don't leave me on my own all day." Anna gave her a pleading look.

"No, Anna. Look!" Laura pointed her finger at one of the flags on display above them, the photo on it she was sure was there to mock her.

"Oh. My. God." Anna gasped. "Is that the guy from the club?!"

As much as Laura would've liked to say no, and maybe he just a bit like him, the longer she looked at the picture the more convinced she was that it was him.

"Charles Leclerc?" Anna cackled, unable to hold back her laughter any more. "This whole time the mystery guy you were fucking was a Ferrari driver... that's hilarious."

"This is not funny." Laura hissed, glancing over her shoulder at where Mike was stood talking to Josh.

"Oh come on it is quite funny." Anna smirked. "I told you that you two are like magnets."

"Anna this isn't funny." Laura cried, her stomach flipping. "I can't be here, especially not with Mike."

"Oh come on, like anyone is going to be paying any attention to us. He's going to be so busy we won't even see him." Anna suggested. "It'll be fine. Maybe he won't even remember you. He's probably going home with a different girl every night of the week. It won't be half as memorable for him as it was for you. It'll be fine."

Anna had linked her arm through hers and continued to drag her along, despite Laura's repeated protests. She was coming up with every kind of excuse she could think of in head to get away with going home early, and not having to come back for the rest of the weekend. The way Anna was looking at her, and the mischievous smirk on her face, suggested that she wasn't going to get away with it.

"Come on you two, we need to get going. We're already late." Josh called, heading towards the Ferrari building ahead of them.

"Anna please, I can't." Laura pleaded with her friend again, trying to keep her voice down so that Mike wouldn't hear her. Although he was so engrossed in his conversation with Josh, she somehow doubted he was actually paying any attention to her.

"You are not leaving me." Anna shook her head. "Let's go. Time to face him. This should be fun."

"I thought you said we weren't even going to see him?!" Laura protested.

Anna laughed again. "I don't think we will, but you can guarantee I'll be spending all weekend trying to make it happen."

"That's it. I'm going home." Laura tried again to wrench her arm away from Anna.

"No chance." Anna laughed, keeping a tight grip on her arm. "Let's go, I want to meet him."

"We are not meeting him." Laura shook her head. "The aim of this weekend is now to stay as far away from Charles Leclerc as physically possible."

"Oh come on, where would be the fun in that." Anna smirked.

****

The plan had started off relatively well. The four of them had made their way into the Ferrari building, grabbed a coffee and sat down. Josh had wandered off, chatting to a few people he apparently knew.

"You could at least try and look like you're enjoying yourself. Josh had to pull a lot of strings to get you these tickets." Anna sighed as Mike sat there, scrolling through his phone. He looked like he wanted to be literally anywhere other than there.