Lost and Found

Chapter 14

Sara tugged on the hem of her little red dress. She was nervous. While it was just a simple dinner, she was nervous. At any moment, Carlos could knock on the door and Sara didn't know whether she was ready. Suddenly, it felt like Carlos did have other intentions than she had. He was taking her on an actual date, not just a friendly dinner.

She started bouncing her leg and blinked a couple of times. She had to try and get her act back together before Carlos would knock on the door. She took her phone and dialled David's number. She just needed some mental support to calm down again.

"Pick up, pick up." The phone went to voicemail. "Shoot." She started blinking even faster. The next one she could come up with to help her calm down was either Anthoine or Pierre. But then again, Pierre would first make it worse by teasing her before realising she was actually freaking out. Anthoine would be the better choice in this instance.

"Sara, what is up? You have timed it perfectly, we are just done with the debriefing."

"I need you to make some sense out of me."

"Out of you?" Sara nodded. "Chéri, if you are nodding, I can't see you."

"Yeah." She swallowed. "Please."

"You have the dinner with Carlos right?"

"Yeah."

"Is that why you are freaking out?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I don't know Thoine! I just am." Anthoine remained silent. "I think Carlos might have other intentions than I do."

"See, you did know, but don't worry about it. If he makes advances, just tell him the truth. You're not ready for anything, you just got out of a serious relationship and you'd like to remain single for a while. At least until you are ready to commit again."

"Do you think he'll understand?"

"I do, as far as I know, Carlos is a very reasonable guy. I got to meet him a couple of times last year, he's a good guy that won't do anything unless you are a hundred per cent sure of it." Sara stopped rapidly blinking as her heartbeat slowed down.

"Thank you Thoine."

"Don't thank me. You know I've got your back."

"Same." Someone knocked on Sara's door. "He's got impeccable timing." She chuckled. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"I do expect a full report of tonight."

"Thoine."

"Right, have fun!" Sara ended the call and walked towards her door. When she opened, it, Carlos stood there, his hand in the air. He had been ready to knock again, just in case Sara hadn't heard him knock the first time. "Someone is a bit impatient." Sara laughed as Carlos lowered his hand.

"Someone took long enough."

"Touché." Sara smiled as she quickly grabbed her purse from the floor beside the door. "I had Anthoine on the phone. Couldn't exactly just hang up on him." Carlos laughed.

"Really? You can't? That explains why Lando keeps yelling at me when we first see each other again after a conversation where I did that." Sara chuckled and shook her head. "Ready?" He held out his arm and Sara hesitantly hooked hers through it. "There is this little restaurant, just a block away, I thought we could go there."

"Sure, I'm not a picky eater, so I don't really care." Carlos laughed.

"Good to know." They walked for five minutes until they got to the hotel Carlos was referring to. It small and cosy, but the smell made Sara's mouth water. It smelled amazing. It was an Italian restaurant – which became apparent because of the several Italian flags throughout the restaurant. They were given a table and they sat down. "So-" Carlos placed his phone face down on the table. "Tell me more about you. You are somehow friends with two drivers, but you have no affinity with the sport itself. How did you do that?" Sara laughed.