undercover | charles leclerc

6 | ciao, italy

—🎨—

By the time Sunday came, she couldn't really wait for the afternoon, the time when her flight was.
She didn't wake up early, or at least, not the kind of early that was usual when flying at least, but with enough time to make sure to not miss the flight.

But the day went out in a blur, making the finishing touches to the bags that were in her room. The same bags that, on the given time, were back on the floor and her back, ready to go to the airport, with one destination: Italy.

Again, she had the luck of having someone that took her to the airport, instead, she would have had to get out from home around an hour earlier to arrive there with the same amount of time to spare, to pass all the security checks.

Perhaps with the nerves, she still might have arrived two hours earlier than her departure time. But it is not everyday that you have a meeting with a Formula One team. The only thing that seemed to keep her grounded were the old tunes that came out from her headphones, keeping those old manics from her past life alive, as well as killing all the time that was left before her plane departed.

If something was for sure, was that life was feeling really weird at the moment, one day, she was at home back in Malaga, finishing the end of degree dissertation, and now she found herself in the lobby of the airport going to Italy, for a meeting that was sure to create on her mind a retelling of her own past memories.

—🎨—

Except for the crying kid on the seat behind her, the flight had been somewhat decent, and now she found herself in the airport in Milan, where, on behalf of the team, a man that held an electronic display with her name on it led her to a car, which, after taking her to her hotel, in the city of Faenza, left her as well with the keys, as that would be the car that she could use during the whole trip.

So after leaving all her stuff on the hotel room, and changing from the crusty clothes she had worn for the trip itself, she used the time to spare before night set in Italy to leave everything out of the suitcase, and the other backpack, to avoid wrinkling any further the suit she managed to find at the back of her closet back home, in hopes of looking somewhat professional.
At least, the following day was not nearly as stressful as either today or the day of the meeting, luckily.

—🎨—

Italy was as mesmerizing as she really remembered, but maybe, and only maybe the experience of coming back, and the lack of many memories from the last time made up for it.

But to her, no matter the countless times, Italy kept a small piece of her heart trapped amongst the streets and landscapes around.
Italy saw her the happiest she had ever been.
But that was a long time ago. Too long for her own liking.

At least she could drown the memories in pasta and gelato for the whole day, which, to her at that moment, seemed like the best idea ever, along with touring for the rest of the day those streets of not only Faenza, but Milan as well. 

By the time night came, she had already gone back to the hotel, finding herself in a room, prepping everything that could be useful for the actual meeting itself.

Taking out everything from the wardrobe, because there wasn't much more to do after the meeting, more than coming home to finish university, she only picked out the tracksuit, something that felt more appropriate for a meeting like that, leaving it inside the wardrobe, fully steamed and wrinkle free.

Along that, the backpack, which contained the laptop and her electronics, she also left inside a plasticky folder, filled with the printed designs she had done but hadn't seen the light, at least after being evaluated, chucked into the attic afterwards.
That was all she needed for the meeting itself, the rest, she started packing away inside the suitcase, along with the newer stuff that she ended up buying from the visit around Milan, but after that, it was all done.