Crash

Harry

"Charles!" Penelope called, wheeling her suitcase towards the door as she waited for him to emerge from the back of the hotel room. A quick glance down at her watch told her that if they didn't leave soon, they'd miss their flight. "Are you ready?"

His head popped out from the doorway of the bathroom, giving her a perplexed look. "I can't find my phone. Have you seen it?"

Penelope stifled a yawn as she shook her head. "You had that call this morning with Mattia. Did you leave it on the balcony?"

He clicked his fingers like he'd been struck by a wonderous moment of thought, skipping off to go and check. Penelope sighed, leaning against the doorframe and hoping that at some point this morning they managed to make it to the airport. Suddenly, a steady buzzing sound began to ring out as her own phone vibrated in her back pocket. Her work phone had been ringing all morning but she'd made the firm choice to ignore it. This, however, was her personal cell. She didn't recognise the number, but it was probably a good idea to answer it. 

"Hello?" she said curiously, listening to see if she could figure out who was calling her from the voice on the other end of the line. 

"Hello, Penelope. Do you have a minute to talk?"

For a moment, the call caught her off guard. She didn't expect this at all. "Mattia? I, uh...sure. Okay. Is everything alright?"

"Hm. Charles is with you, yes?"

"Oh, yeah. He's outside but I can get him. Did you want to talk to him, or-"

"No. I want to talk to you. This is a good time?"

"I have five minutes, yeah."

"Okay Penelope. As I'm sure you are aware, Charles missed his media duties yesterday. Not only that, but he also did not attend debrief or team meetings. This is upsetting to me."

At the far end of the suite, Penelope heard the balcony door open and shut, Charles's footsteps growing closer as he walked towards her, holding his phone triumphantly. His happy smile dissolved into a frown as he noticed her expression, pointing to the phone and quietly asking who she was talking to. 

"I thought you would have discussed that with him this morning, Mattia," Penelope said, maintaining eye contact with Charles the whole way through, watching for his reaction. 

"Put him on speaker," Charles mouthed, sitting on the couch. She raised her eyebrows asking if he knew what this was about, but he just shrugged, looking genuinely bewildered. 

"I did discuss with Charles," Mattia continued, still unaware of her boyfriend's presence. She intended for it to stay that way. "But I wanted to discuss with you, also. I'm sure you understand, yesterday was a difficult day for the team. Not only that, but now the media writes that Charles refused to come for interviews. There is a very viral picture of you two running from the paddock. I wanted to brief you on what to say in the event that you are asked about this, because it is almost certain you will be."

Charles rolled his eyes, but Penelope was wary. She didn't like the sound of this very much. "What do you mean, brief me? You want to control what I say?"

"Penelope, you have to understand that this is the team doing you a favour. You were instructed to remain in the garage just as Charles was instructed to go to the media pen. Both of you disobeyed orders, and now there is a mess. You are lucky that I am a patient man."

If this was a cartoon, there would have been smoke pouring from Penelope's ears. She hated this. She hated the fact that Ferrari thought they could control her, or that she owed them anything. Charles, however, looked unbothered. He could sense that she was fuming, and just held out a hand, indicating for her to calm down. A smile danced on his lips - she couldn't believe it, but he seemed to be finding the situation amusing.