lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

3.

October 2011

"Hey, Pia," Charles greeted her when she picked up the call.

"Salut, Charles," Pia giggled to the phone. She was so excited to hear him. He was quite busy with racing, so he didn't call that often.

"You're getting better, but we need to practise even more," Charles complimented on her accent. He sometimes called her during his free weekends. He didn't have anything to tell her but wanted to hear her voice, so he said he was calling because they needed to work on her French. They would talk to each other for hours. They were switching between languages because their vocabularies weren't good enough. Gianna sometimes overheard their conversation and had to smile to herself. Pia would start a sentence in French and switch to Italian in the middle, causing Charles didn't understand, so she had to repeat the whole thing in English.

"Of course, I'm getting better. I'm natural, but you must work on your Italian," Pia pointed out. Charles had excellent pronunciation but struggled with vocabulary big time.

"We'll, cara mia," he agreed with her. He adored her when she spoke Italian. It sounded so carefree, and gentle, and he couldn't get enough of it. "But why I called in the first place. I'm on my way from Germany and guess where did I finish?" he asked her excitedly. Charles thought that having a girlfriend would complicate things, but the truth was, that he was more successful since he was with Pia. Maybe it was because he was way calmer. She knew how to make him think about something utterly different from his problems.

"Hmm, I don't know, but I'm sure you're on the podium," she guessed because she noticed that his results were getting better. He looked more relaxed overall than when she met him.

"Yeah, I was second. In the beginning, we struggled a bit, but I overtook five guys and fought for second place until the last corner. I'm just so good driver," Charles praised himself.

"I'm proud of you, Charlie, but don't forget I'm a better driver than you're." Pia was indeed proud of him, but it wasn't surprising for her. Everyone could see that he had tremendous talent. She would swear that he was as talented as Max and was sure that they would race against each other one day in F1.

"Have you forgotten about Faraone already?" he teased her as well. He loved to think about that day. It was one of his favourite days ever. He felt like a normal teenage boy who was enjoying his day with a girl he fancied.

"I let you win on purpose because I wanted that kiss more than ice cream," she revealed the truth to him that he already knew. He was pretty much aware she could've won, but she didn't want to.

"I'd kissed you anyway. Basically, we only raced for the ice cream." It was a piece of information she didn't know, but even if she did, she wouldn't do anything differently.

"Are you trying to suggest that if I didn't let you overtake me, you would buy me ice cream and kiss me?" She tried to sound annoyed, but actually, she was smiling because she found it cute.

"Yeah, pretty much," he confirmed with laughter. "Anyway, did you talk to your father about Ortona?" Charles asked her curiously. He wanted her there because it could be the last opportunity that year to see each other, and he also wanted to celebrate his birthday with her.

"Not really. He's in Japan, and I think he's flying to Korea on Tuesday, so I didn't have a chance." It was usual for her not to talk to her dad for two or three weeks when he was away. She hadn't spoken to him this time since he left for Singapore, almost a month ago.

"Oh, I completely forgot it was a race weekend. How did it end up?" he asked her. He was a big fan of Formula 1, but it was hard to follow it when he was racing.

For Charles, it was refreshing to see how Pia spent her free time. His life always revolved around go-karts, so he didn't have time to have a normal childhood. It was nice to see what his life might be like. He could spend his summer days on the beach with friends or watch cartoons for hours on weekend mornings. But he wouldn't change a thing because, yeah, he was away from home often and didn't have many friends, but he was doing this to achieve his dream.

"Button, Alonso and Seb on the podium, followed by Mark and Hamilton, meaning that Sebastian won another world title, baby," Pia gave Charles a quick summary of today's race. She was so excited about Seb being champion again that she called him immediately after the press conference. He was delighted to hear her as well because her congratulations meant a lot to him, and he was also happy because he could tease her that she had lost another bet. Sometimes he was a child just like Pia.

"Okay, thank you. Well, there's a break for two weeks between Korea and India, no? I assume that he's coming home, so he should have time to take you to the race, right?" Pia noticed that Charles tended to see things easy like this. Maybe that was how his family worked, but it certainly didn't work that way in her household. There were times when Anthonie didn't even come home in between the races. He wasn't home during the summer break as well because of negotiations about contracts. The only time when he was more or less home was during the break between seasons and sometimes not even then.

"Yeah, but it's not that simple. He's trying to get Daniel to Toro Rosso for next season, so he's busy as ever," Pia let out without thinking about it. She avoided telling Charles about her father, but now she had ruined it herself.

"For Daniel Ricciardo? What exactly is your father doing, Pia?" Charles asked, even though he was now almost sure who her father was. It suddenly started to make sense why she was able to attend that many Formula 1 races.

"He's a manager of Seb and Danny. Daniel signed a contract with Red Bull promising that he'd get a seat in Toro Rosso for 2012, but things changed thanks to HRT. I mean, it's nice because he gained some experience already, but my father needs to get him to Toro Rosso in order to get him to Red Bull later." Pia spoke too much, hoping that Charles would be interested in something that she said and forget about her father.

"So your father is Anthonie Teunissen," Charles stated with disbelief.

"Yeah, and I just told you some top-secret information, so keep it to yourself, please," Pia said, but she actually didn't care. Everyone who wasn't stupid was expecting the goal was to get Daniel to Red Bull in a couple of years.

"Why didn't you tell me about him before?" he thought that she trust him, so why wouldn't she tell him a thing like this?

"Because I wanted you to like me for me and not because of my dad, who could potentially get you into single-seaters and then probably even higher." Pia was talking from personal experience. She met one boy a year ago in Sarno. They started to chat, and he even complimented Pia on her dress. She thought she had found a friend, but when he asked her after a while if she'd introduce him to her father, she understood why he talked to her in the first place. Pia didn't mind it that much because she didn't like him that much, but she'd be really hurt if Charles did something like that because she fancied him way more.

"Trust me. I fancy you because of you. Furthermore, he's working with Red Bull, and I like Ferrari better."