𝚂𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚂𝚊𝚍𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜

Chapter-33

I woke up to knocks on my door, I checked my phone it was getting close to midnight. I had really just slept away my worries, my first instinct to check the race results but I decided to get the door. I didn't need to check the race results because he was already standing here with a big grin on his face.

"How are you feeling now?" He asked placing a kiss on my forehead.

"Better, much better." I tried to deceive him with a smile.

"Lay down and stop lying to me." He said.

"Also just to like, put it out there I'm definitely not pregnant. I just couldn't bear the heat." I laughed crawling back into bed.

"You can be honest, I know it's more than just the heat."

Why did this man read me like a book? While I admired him for it, it also annoyed me. If he could figure out so much why couldn't he see what the glaring problem was?

"You win. I was actually a little upset." I admitted.

"Upset over what?" He asked.

"I don't want to fight about it, we'll talk about it later."

"Emiko, you can't hide why you're upset from me. How am I supposed to be better at understanding what you want?"

"Why do you make such valid points I can't even stir up drama for shit." I laughed.

"Ma Chérie tell me what's wrong?"

"We're giving each other nicknames now?"

"I've been told by a certain someone that I'm often called Rat when I'm not around." He smiled cheekily.

"I can't believe Kenji betrayed me like that." I said with whatever little composure I had left.

"Now scoot aside." He said plopping into bed. "Don't look at me like that! The weekend is over the rules don't matter anymore and I'm going to ask them to stop with this ridiculous rule."

I would have been more than glad to cozy up and fall asleep in his arms, but this evening had changed a few things for me. I didn't want to talk about them to him right now and I certainly didn't want to be held or touch by him. I loved him, but I didn't have to like him right now.

"Charles I'm sick, I don't want you to catch whatever this is." I said moving away.

"I thought we already established that you were lying about being ill." He propped himself up on his elbows.

I couldn't believe I literally burst into tears, like ugly crying in front of him. He was so confused but he tried to comfort me anyway, the funny thing is his touch was soothing but at the same time I wanted to pull away.

"What's wrong?" He cupped my cheeks, wiping away some of the tears that had trailed down my face.

"Are you embarrassed of me? It's fine, I get it I don't really fit in-"

"Is that what this is about?" He asked suppressing his laughter. "Why do you think I'm embarrassed about you?"

"You didn't tell Pierre, I doubt your mother knows about me and like-" I said catching my breath "I've literally lost all my friends over you. It just. It feels unfair."

"I didn't tell him because well, it's awkward! He had feelings for you- well they weren't sincere but how am I supposed to bring you up to the guy who was pathetic to you?" He explained himself.

"What excuse do you have about your mother?" I narrowed my eyes.

"Look at you being all scary." He laughed, "She knows about you, who else do you think gives me the advice? She wants to meet you but I don't want to rush you into anything."

"So you just decided to never tell me you talk about me to your mom?"

"And let you have the upper hand by letting you know I am actually consumed by the thought of you?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Stop being funny! I'm trying to be angry here. You're embarrassing me, I've literally cried in the middle of the night and all you're doing is making me laugh-"

"Shush! Not another word about feeling embarrassed ." He placed a finger on my lips, "I'm sorry that I had to push you to this extreme." He hugged me.

I literally melted in his arms this time around, he made me feel so safe. I wanted to feel afraid for how vulnerable I had just been with him, but clearly this was what he wanted- honesty. Even if it was crying in the middle of the night.

"Now, let's get some sleep." He gave me a quick peck.

"Good night my rat." I pulled him closer.

***

"I understand your worries Vanessa, we can schedule a meeting when you're free! I may be travelling but I'm certainly working on the project." I assured her over the phone.

Truth be told, I hadn't even opened the emails from her team of editors. I had been having fun in Bahrain, and now in Saudi Arabia I was just spending time exploring the place.

"Alright then, I'll be expecting a video meeting with you in fifteen minutes so we can talk about everything." She shot back.

"Yes! Yes of course! No worries." I beamed.

I ended the call and hurried back to Charles, sadly our exploration for the day had to be cut short. I needed to get back to our hotel room and look like I'd been working really hard, I couldn't help but think I was behaving like a fraud.

"What am I supposed to do now?"

"Didn't your engineers want to discuss something with you? Go work with them!"

"All work and no play makes one a dull person." He pouted.

"Then go have fun! I have to convince this producer that I'm actually committed to the project."

"But aren't you actually?"

"Well I am, but I've been slacking."

"Then start working!"

"Aren't you a genius." I rolled my eyes.

We arrived to the hotel and I rushed to the room, cleaning it a little, setting up my laptop and just making things look more decent than they actually were. A few minutes later, she connected to the call.

"Hope you're doing well, what's the progress like?" She fired right away.

"I hope you're doing well too, I'm still a little stuck with what exactly the editor wants. So, I'm currently taking advice from other writers and I'll work on the scenes they've suggested changes in."

"Okay. I see potential in you alright? I want to get things rolling as soon as possible-oh! Who is that?" She suddenly smiled.

Who's who? I looked at the little window showing me, he had taken a seat on one of the armchairs and was intently listening to my discussion. I turned around and looked at him in confusion, pretend like I'm not even here, he whispered.

"Won't you introduce me to him?" Vanessa spoke again.

"Oh- yeah! Of course." I turned around, "Charles, come here." I smiled.

"This, is my boyfriend Charles." It still felt so weird to actually say the word 'boyfriend' and his name in the same sentence.

"Hi." He awkwardly smiled at the screen.

"It's so nice to finally put a face to the boy who was the start of all this!" She exclaimed. "So tell me Charles, what do you do?"

"I'm a Formula One driver for Scuderia Ferrari." He beamed.

"Wow!" She looked at him, "Quite a catch you've got there Emi." She laughed.

I awkwardly laughed and gently shoved Charles, asking him to go sit down or this call was going to be entirely about him. Which was funny considering this entire thing I was working on was about him.

I ended the call and relaxed into the chair, "when will I get to read the script Ma Chérie?" He asked.

"How about never?"