Gasoline - [Charles Leclerc]

1.9

Edrice has never felt this hurt before. She returned to her flat after the heated argument with Jomana as she needed to be alone and think. She had shut down her phone completely not wanting to talk to her or see something pop up on her screen that had something to do with the things she was dealing with now. Edrice was never one to express her feelings by crying, but at the moment she was seated on the edge of her bed and hot tears flowed down her cheeks, sobs shaking her shoulders. She had to choose between the two things she cherished the most and she knew she wouldn't be able to choose without breaking the heart of one of the two. ECG meant so much to her. It was the start of her life as a strong woman who strived her dreams.

It was the reason why she could buy an expensive car and live the life she always wanted. But now Maserati seemed to spit her out as well, Audi hadn't been complaining yet. The video with Rosberg was over and it seemed like everything slipped out of her hands that she had managed to arrange before she flew to Shanghai with Charles. There has to be a way that she could combine it all, however she felt like she already had an answer to that. ECG needed a lot of her attention and it would only be possible to see Charles every once in a while, too less. Edrice stood up and moved her hand over her face, her tears had tried by now, but the corners of her eyes were still wet. She cleared her throat and sat down behind her desk. She opened her laptop, assuming she owed Maserati an apology. Edrice clicked on their email address and started typing, yet the words she put there just seemed pathetic and desperate.

She decided to think about it later, to come up with a better excuse why she had neglected their brand. God, it almost seemed as if she was an instagram influencer who was desperate to stay on the PR list. Edrice turned her phone back on and saw that she had missed a call from Charles and some whatsapp notifications from him. She placed her phone on the desk in front of her, taking a deep breath as she thought of how much of a rollercoaster this morning was. She had laid in bed with Charles, cuddling while the sun came up and barely three hours later she was in a heated argument with Jomana. Edrice jumped from the sound of her phone ringing again, Charles' caller ID showed up on her screen and she looked at it for a moment before picking it up. "Hi". She said. "Hey, mon ange". Edrice squeezed her eyes closed at what he said, swallowing the lump in her throat that was still there. "I didn't receive a text or call when you landed, so I just wanted to make sure".

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, I came home to a lot of work". Edrice apologized, the worst one ever. "Oh, it's okay. How was Jomana?". Charles asked. "She was good, just frustrated because she felt like I left all the work for her to do. But she's good at over exaggerating". Edrice said next, her teeth digging into her lower lip. "You're back to help her now". Charles chuckled. "I have to get to Andrea in a bit". He sighed next. "Will we meet next week? I can fly over to London". Edrice her heart felt heavy in her chest. "My inbox is full of new things, Charles. I'm afraid we'll have to keep it to phone calls for a little while. I'm visiting my family next week too". Edrice lied and she wanted to cry again when it was silent for a moment. "Oh, yeah, yeah. I understand. I'll see you whenever you have time for me". Fuck, he was so sweet. Edrice would rather want him to be mad at her than so sweet and understanding at the moment.

"I love you, Charles". Edrice said next. "I love you". Charles spoke before they ended the call. Wow, she hated her life now more than ever. She opened her laptop again, she couldn't do anything about the cancelled video with Nico Rosberg, as it was something Jomana had arranged. It was only her fault that it was cancelled now. Edrice decided not to worry about making up to her by apologizing or arranging something else. Doing her work was more important at the moment. She was busy the rest of the afternoon with office work, making things in order and making sure to reply to emails that were in her inbox, to not miss anything like the email of Maserati she hadn't even noticed. She tried to block it out of her mind that she had to choose between Charles and her love for filming and uploading the content about cars, like she did now. He had no idea what was going on and it wasn't fair to lie to him or to keep him in the dark like that.