It was a nerve wracking race. Laura wouldn't have been so nervous, but the tension radiating from the entire Leclerc family and all the Ferrari staff was contagious.
It had been a textbook race for Charles, who had been so far in front he'd been making jokes with his engineers and trying to work out his own lap times until they'd politely told him to shut up and just stick to driving. Laura had been unable to hold back a laugh at how offended Charles had sounded over the radio.
When he finally crossed the finish line to take the win, there was an auditable sigh of relief from the whole garage. Then, the celebrations really began as his teammate followed behind him in P2. Laura found herself swept up in a hug by Arthur and Pascale, Arthur picking her up off the floor and spinning her around to the point her sunglasses went flying off the back of her head and landed on the floor.
"Come on." He grinned, grabbing her by the hand as the Ferrari staff began to spill out into the pit lane ready for the celebrations to begin.
"Where are we going?" Laura asked, running along beside him with no idea where Arthur was actually talking her.
"To find Charles. Something tells me he'll want to see you there when he gets out of the car." Arthur smirked.
Laura was blushing, but didn't have a chance to even deny it, as Arthur continued to drag her through the crowd that was forming until the two of them were stood right by the barrier, sandwiched in by the Ferrari crew.
The cheer as the two scarlet red cars pulled in behind their respective one and two signs was absolutely deafening and she watched with a huge smile on her face as Charles jumped out of the car, pausing quickly to hug Carlos, before he made a beeline for where they were standing.
He made his way along the line, hugging the mechanics, his mum and his brother before he reached her. She could only just see his eyes through the gap in the visor, but she could see he'd quite clearly been crying, and so had most of the people around her she'd take a guess.
"Well done." She grinned as he pulled her into a hug tight enough it felt like he might break something. "We all knew you could do it."
"I can't fucking believe that just happened." He laughed. "It doesn't feel real."
"It's real, I promise." She laughed.
"You know what this means." The smirk was audible in his voice. "Now we get to celebrate."
"It's going to be such a good night out, I can't wait!" Arthur agreed, patting them both on the shoulder. It made Laura jump, she'd all but forgotten that they weren't alone.
"Yeah, it is." She agreed.
There was a flurry of celebrations as Charles headed up on to the podium, champagne flying around everywhere as Ferrari continued to celebrate. Laura could only think that if this was an omen for how the rest of the night was going to go, it really might be the biggest party that Monaco had ever seen.
She was at a bit of a loss as to what to do as Charles did his interviews, team photos and generally made his way around the garage celebrating. She felt like a bit of a spare part, standing at the back of the garage waiting for him.
She was just about to go and see if she could find Anna, making her excuses to Arthur about going to find her friend, but a strong pair of hands caught her waist and stopped her as she went to leave.
"And where exactly do you think that you're going?" Charles asked, his voice low in her ear.
"I was going to go and catch up with Anna." Laura said uncertainly. "If we're going out to celebrate I need to get changed and-"
"I don't think you need clothes for the celebrations I have planned." He smirked as she turned around to face him.
Laura couldn't help but blush, the way he was looking at her made it very, very clear what he was thinking.
"I hate to break it to you, but I think there's a lot of other people who want to party with you tonight. You might have to put those plans on hold for the night."
Charles shook his head. "I won the race, I can celebrate however I like."
"You did." Laura smirked.
"Why don't you go back with Anna now and get your clothes, and I'll pick you up from hers on my way back home?" He suggested. "You can get ready at mine and then we will go to the party together?"
"Okay." Laura nodded. "Sounds good. I'll text you the address?"
"Okay." Charles grinned back at her. "I'll see you soon?"
"Soon." Laura agreed.
As she went to turn and walk away, his grip on her waist stopped her in her tracks, and he leaned in to kiss her passionately, with apparently no regard for the huge crowd of people around them looking at them.
If Laura thought she was blushing earlier, it was nothing compared to how red she had gone when he eventually get go of her.
"Go get ready." He chuckled, giving her one last squeeze before he released her. "I'll be there as soon as I can, I promise. Tell Anna and Josh they should come out with us later?"
Laura scurried through the paddock, pulling her phone out to call Anna and see if they'd left yet, managing to catch her friend just as they were leaving and catch a lift back with them much to her relief.
"Thanks for waiting guys." She thanked them as she climbed into the back of the car. "Oh, Charles said to tell you two that you should come out with us tonight to celebrate!"
"Are you kidding?" Anna squealed. "This is so exciting. Count us in!"
"Great." Laura grinned. "I need a favour though... can you lend me a dress to wear? I don't think I have anything that's Monaco GP after party appropriate."
"Of course!" Anna grinned. "This is so exciting! I can't believe we're going."
"I can't believe he actually won." Laura laughed. "Well I can, but he was so sure it was going to go wrong I started to believe him."
"Maybe you're his lucky charm." Anna smirked. "We saw you two on tv in the garage, by the way... don't even try and tell me that there's nothing going on there."
"I...." Laura stopped, not knowing what to say. "I met his family today." She admitted.
"Oh my god!" Anna squealed in such a high pitched way it made Josh cringe. "That's like some serious stuff!"
"I know." Laura admitted. "I don't know how I feel about it... they're really nice though. You'll meet his brother tonight."
"Where are we going?" Anna asked.
"I don't actually know." Laura realised. "I'll find out, Charles said he'd come and pick me up from yours so that I could go back to his with him and then we could go from there."
"Oh he's got other plans for celebrating, wants to get you alone." Anna smirked.
"I-" Laura stammered, but she knew the blush had given her away as Anna started cackling with laughter. "Let's just say some promises were made about how we might be celebrating if he won."
"Say no more." Anna laughed. "Just tell me where we're going before you two get too busy celebrating I don't want to miss the party while you two are doing that."
YOU ARE READING
Escapism (CL 16)
Fanfiction"Just a heart broke bitch High heels six inch In the back of the nightclub, sippin' champagne Drunk calls, drunk texts, drunk tears, drunk sex I was lookin' for a man who was on the same page"
