effloresce » c. leclerc

chapter three

30th of april 2019 » charles' apartment, monaco

it was late in the evening when charles decided to check his phone one more time, before going to bed. he glanced over his mentions, until his gaze halted at a certain new follower. he couldn't remember her name back in baku, but seeing it now he was almost certain that it was the mystery girl that he ran into two times already. he clicked on her username to check if it was really her. luckily for him, she had an open account and he could freely watch her photos. it definitely was here.

charles realized that he had been looking at her pictures a bit too long, when he saw a picture that originated from february 2016. he scrolled back up to her profile and tapped the follow button. he was hoping that she'd be at the next grand prix as well, so he could maybe finally have a real conversation with her. he couldn't resist logging into twitter to check if she was on there as well. maybe he'd find out if she was going to barcelona. he didn't have much luck, as it appeared that she didn't have a twitter account.

he connected his phone to the charger and finally went to sleep.

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9th of may 2019 » spanish grand prix

the wind blew a couple of strands out of flora's ponytail. they partly blocked her view of the questions she had to ask later that morning. flora was ecstatic when her previous interview was well received. so well, that she had gotten the chance to interview home hero carlos sainz. they had met during the previous race weekends and carlos never failed to make flora laugh. she had grown fond of the spaniard and she was looking forward to the interview.

while repeating the questions in her head like a trance, she was listening to the soothing ticking of the clock. the silence in the room was calming. when that silence was suddenly broken by carlos entering the room, flora flinched.

"sorry, i didn't mean to scare you." carlos said apologetically. they shook hands and carlos took a seat in front of flora, his pr-assistant sitting next to him. 

"it's okay. i am kinda always on edge, so it wasn't your fault." flora assured him.

carlos was surprisingly good at forming answers. flora immediately got ideas for her article when he started giving answers. flora had never expected to like interviewing this much. the fact that she knew both of her interviewees to some extend helped the calming of her nerves. it was a bummer that flora didn't know more drivers that she could interview.

"do you want to come and eat lunch with me and lando?" the spaniard asked with a kind smile.

"yeah, that's fine by me."

the trip to the mclaren canteen had been one in which flora had made an impulse decision. she had debated it a little bit, but a sudden wave of bravery quickly pulled the trigger. as soon as she greeted lando, the idea slipped out of her mouth.

"lando, i need to meet new drivers. help me please?" flora asked with a puppy face.

"wait what? hold on, i need a minute to process what you just said. did you, flora wilson, just say that you want to meet new people?" lando said dramatically. flora blushed at his response, realizing that this was totally out of character for her.

"i-i just want to be able to interview more drivers. i've realized that i really like writing those articles. and i know that if i would get the assignment to interview someone that i don't really know, i would completely mess it up. please?" a silence followed.

"let me eat my lunch first, okay?" flora instantly threw her arms around lando's neck and was bouncing up and down from excitement.

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