Bound To You // LN4

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Sophia's POV

20th March

I was so confused. So freaking confused and also freaking tired because despite knowing what I was meant to do to avoid jet lag, I had been emotionally drained by the time I got home and so I hadn't followed the usual protocol. Therefore, over a week later I was still totally fucked up and only in part due to why I had left in such a hurry?

"Did I do the right thing?" I ask Dufus who is currently fast asleep in my lap, my living room lit up only by soft lights because it was pitch black outside despite me being wide awake. I stroke my hand through his fur, the dog much smarter and settled than me as he snores lightly. I was asking him because I really didn't know and I had no one else to talk to about it. I didn't want to put Flo in an awkward position by asking her, even if she knew something was up but I couldn't figure out how to move forward from this.

I really didn't know if I could.

Lando seemed so confused and upset by the sudden change of plans and I couldn't lie, I was too but I knew it would be irresponsible to stay there and continue when he had so much on the line. What was worse was I couldn't even properly explain all those reasons to him, they were stuck in my mind and I couldn't get the words out and so I was alone in this once more. Not that that aspect was new. I was used to it for the most part now, even if the last few months had been unusually busy.

I go back to scrolling pointlessly through Instagram, knowing that I wasn't going to fall asleep anytime soon and I'd run out of interesting shows to watch on TV, or at least, I just didn't want to. I was restless but I had no idea what was going to fulfil me. I'm only scrolling for a couple of minutes when a notification of a message from someone I wasn't expecting - but also one I can't stop myself from answering

LandoNorris

Why are you awake?
Isn't it like 4am there?
Er... hello?

Jet lag still
What time is it for you?

11

The tightness in my chest doesn't disappear, the awkwardness is felt even behind the message and I just replay everything in my head again, going back to the conversation with Matt, then the one with Lando and finally to the party. To the seriously confusing party.

The look of surprise on both Matt and Flo's faces when they walked into the club and all the sparklers went off was hilarious. It took them a couple of moments before realising that it wasn't just Lando and I who were waiting for them but all of both of their families and many of their friends. It wasn't everyone - that would have been a lot for Lando and I to organise but it was the rest of their wedding party and their immediate families who greeted and congratulated the couple all at once.

"You're crazy! What the heck?" Flo cried out as she wrapped her arms around me and I just shrugged, the music pumping back through the club as it was filled with many people outside of just our group - although we did seem to take up a good amount of those there.

"It was nothing," I say nonchalantly, as though it hadn't been a total pain in the ass to co-ordinate and keep undercover even though it absolutely had been. I'd do it again in a heart beat and at the end of the day, Lando had helped an awful lot given he was the one that had links on both sides and so I'd been more of an ideas person and left to organise accommodation and flights instead.

"It is certainly not nothing! I will prove it to you when it's your turn," she yells, barely getting to plant a kiss on my cheek but just about managing before she's pulled away by Matt towards members of his family. I smile as I watch her go, turning back to the conversation I was having with her sister Cisca, who similarly was talking about the effort it had taken to organise this. The club was filled with a lot of people we didn't know because Lando and I had agreed it didn't needed to be a private event given it is in a nightclub and directly following the grands prix.