lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

~ ventitré ~

Great Britain, July 2019

July 17th - that date haunted Pia. It should have been just another summer day, but it wasn't. It couldn't be. She knew she should've been over it. It was already four years since Jules died. To be honest, she was partly over it. She didn't think about him as much as she used to. She stopped hoping that his head would pop up behind some corner. The Italian learnt how to live without him in her life, but that didn't mean she wouldn't want him back. That didn't mean she forgot about him.

Pia sneaked out of the bedroom before Lando was even awake. Their relationship had been weird since the British Grand Prix. Well, how couldn't it be weird? The Italian tried to break up with the Briton and then she slept with her ex-boyfriend. Furthermore, Pia declined the dinner with his parents last minute. Of course, their relationship couldn't be ideal now. It was far away from ideal actually.

The Italian made herself a cup of tea before walking to the garden. She sat down on the still slightly wet grass. It was still wet since there was a storm last night. It didn't bother Pia because the sun shined directly at her. She just looked at how the breeze was playing with the leaves of the tall trees before closing her eyes. She could hear a few birds singing from afar.

After a while, she could hear footsteps that were coming closer to her. Pia didn't even bother to open her eyes. She knew that it was Lando who sat down next to her. The Briton wanted to say something, but he didn't know what, so he kept it quiet.

The Italian just quietly moved closer to the Briton and leaned her head on his shoulder. A few quiet tears escaped from her eyes. It was a mix of emotions that made her cry. She felt happy and hopeful because she and Charles had decided to give their relationship another chance, but there was also sadness and self-hate because she didn't want to hurt Lando. She also missed Jules even though she was pretty sure he would slap her for what she was doing, but then he would hide her in his embrace and tell her what to do next.

"Jon will be here soon," the Briton announced out of nowhere. During summer, they were mainly working out in the garden. "I can reschedule it," Lando offered his girlfriend. She didn't look like she would appreciate another person in the house.

"It's okay. I'll just go inside," the Italian muttered while opening her eyes. She didn't want Lando to change his plan because of her again. It was just unfair. With that, she got up and went inside.

She went to their bedroom and closed the door behind her. She slid down the door on the floor. The Italian decided to pull her phone from her pocket and FaceTime Daniel. She knew he would understand.

"Daniel Joseph Ricciardo," Pia said instead of greeting.

"Pia Chiara Vettel," the Aussie returned her greeting or whatever that was.

"How are you?" she asked him. She wasn't sure if she should ask this question since she didn't want it to seem that she had called to check on him.

"I'm alive and sober if you're interested in that," he said a bit annoyedly. Of course, he took Pia's question badly.

"Oh, come on, Daniel. I didn't mean it like that, and you know it," Pia let out annoyedly. Of course, she wanted to know how he was doing, but she wasn't calling him just because of that.

"I know," he smiled at his friend. She was his partner in the crime, after all. She was the one that was always up to do something crazy with him. "How are you? You don't seem great."

"Yeah, I had better days. Today is tough. Have you- Have you visited his g-" Pia wanted to finish her sentence, but her friend disturbed her.

"Let's just not talk about him, okay?" he asked her. He didn't want to talk about Jules. Of course, he visited Jules' grave. It was a stupid question from the Italian. He went there whenever he could, unlike Pia. He could count her visits to Jules' grave on the fingers of one hand. She didn't like to go there. She never said that to Daniel or anyone else. She was just hoping that no one noticed that she didn't go there. Pia didn't like to go there because she wanted to remember Jules alive and not as a name on the grey gravestone.

"Okay," she nodded. "Do you have any plans for the summer break?" she asked him. She hoped he was planless just like her.

"Well, I don't know. I guess I will be in Monaco." Pia noticed how he refused to call Monaco his home. The last time she heard him say the word home was when he was about to visit his parents.

"So, I can tag along, and we can have like three movie nights in a row?" Movie nights - it was a sweet tradition they invented when Pia was still attending her treatment. Movie nights were those endless nights full of pizza, Maltesers, buttered popcorn and Virgin Mojitos.

"Of course," the Aussie giggled. He loved their movie nights. His trainer probably didn't, but the Aussie always just laughed about it. "But what about Lando? I thought you two would spend the summer together." When Pia thought about it, they didn't really make any plans for the summer. It seemed like neither of them really counted on spending the summer together.

Pia actually planned a few trips for her and Charles in her mind. It was funny. They gave it another chance just a few days ago, and Pia was already planning their summer. On the other side, they had been together with Lando for over three months, and neither of them didn't feel the need to plan something with each other.

"Well," the Italian sighed and looked away.

"Well?" Daniel said.

Pia just looked around her as if she was looking for someone before she whispered: "I don't think that will happen."

"Why? I thought you were doing fine. You looked happy the last time I saw you two." Well, they looked happy to Daniel when he saw them three days earlier. What could possibly change in such a short period of time, right?

"Things changed," she whispered again. She was worried Lando could hear her even tho she could listen to his and Jon's voice from the garden. There was no way the Briton could hear her.

"How did they change?" the Aussie demanded to know.

"I slept with Charles," Pia admitted openly. She had to talk about it with someone. The guilt drove her crazy. She needed to confide in someone, and she knew Daniel would understand. Well, she hoped he would. Pia knew Max wouldn't understand. Maybe he would, but he would definitely also tell her how bad and unacceptable that was. She knew that without him.

"You what?" Daniel exclaimed. "I misheard you. I misheard you, right?" The Italian just weakly smiled into the camera. Daniel knew what this smile meant. He didn't mishear her, and she wasn't joking.

"Well, wow. I'm flabbergasted," Daniel added. "Well, I won't judge you, obviously. It's just shocking. I really thought you like Lando," he said. He wasn't stupid, so of course, he noticed all those little glances Pia and Charles were sharing, but he thought they meant nothing. The way he understood it was that they deeply cared for each other.

"I do. Of course, I do, but..." But. They were a love story filled with buts. I would really love to go out with you, but... I'd really like to fly with you to Austria, but... I'm happy with you, but... You're a really nice guy, but... I love you, but...

"It will break his heart," Daniel said quietly. He knew Lando was a good guy. He didn't deserve something like this.

"I know. You don't even know how much I hate myself for it." When she was a little girl, she didn't expect to be like this - backstabber. She didn't want to be that one to break someone's heart, but now she was breaking two hearts at once. "You don't even know how much I hate myself," the Italian whispered. She planned to break up with Lando that week. She just hoped that Charles was worth it, that giving it another chance was worth these feelings and hurting Lando and Charlotte.