Rêveries

Chapter 34.

Towards the end of February, Charles took Lucie with him to go to Barcelona for the pre-season testing. For the first time in the Ferrari clothes, in his Ferrari car. He showed off his shirt as soon as he got it. He'd have to go to Maranello for photographs and other preparation for the season as well. Arthur signed into the ADAC Formula 4 championship, but he had to practice for the season. I took one weekend off and went with him to Kerpen in Germany where his team is based.

He introduced me to his teammates Théo, Alessandro and Roman. They were between 2-4 years younger than us but we could hang out whenever they weren't all practicing. They did some media together and I got to watch them take their pictures as a team and individually. Arthur looked horrible, but I'd never tell him that. They told him to pose ridiculously in an attempt to make it look dramatic.

I went home after that weekend to get back into my routines of dancing and exercising. Evie went with Max to pre-season testing, probably to make sure her brother didn't kill her boyfriend, since Pierre had gotten himself a seat in Red Bull for 2019. I saw on social media how Charles walked in everyday with Lucie, holding her hand or an arm around her shoulders. I wouldn't be able to stand being there and seeing all of that right in front of me.

They came back home for a week before the start of the season. Charles was exercising everyday to keep his shape up for the season. He had to think about what he was eating and we stayed on the same diet to make it easier for the both of us.

There was a competition I wanted to sign up for in Italy, March 16th, but Charles practically begged me to join his mum and Arthur for his first race of the season. It was difficult to say no when it was his first race of his first season with Ferrari. So I agreed to fly all the way to Melbourne to attend his race. But I told him that he'd have to be the one to chase any snakes or spiders out of my room if they found a way inside.

Charles picked us up at the airport after a long ass flight and I felt like I wanted to strangle every single person around me. It was so humid and I was dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants because I had completely forgotten about the fact that winter at home is summer down here. He drove us to the hotel the rest of them were staying at, he told me where Evie's room was and then helped me carry my suitcase inside while Arthur helped their mother.

"Si je vois une seule araignée, je rentre directement à la maison," If I see one single spider, I'm going straight home, I told him as he stood up from putting the suitcase on the floor for me. He laughed and shook his head before turning to look at me, still smiling with his totally gross and ugly dimples, that I never notice anymore by the way.

"Merci d'être venu, je sais que tu voulais participer à ce concours," Thank you for coming, I know you wanted to be in that competition, he said sincerely. I shrugged and looked away, anywhere but right at him.

"C'est bien, il n'y a qu'une seule première course Ferrari," It's fine, there's only one first Ferrari race. Maybe I shouldn't have reminded him of the fact that he was about to drive his first race for Ferrari because his face lit up. His eyes almost twinkled and those dimples got even more evident.

Charles was Sebastian's teammate for the season and I loved it. Wherever Charles was, Seb was too. Well, it went the other way too, wherever Seb was, so was Charles. If I wanted to stay away from Charles then I had to stay away from Seb too and I was not too happy about that. So when Charles went to do media, I joined him only to meet Seb. But I was keeping as much distance from Charles as I could just for my own mental state. I asked him to drive us to the less used entrance of the paddock to avoid the big mass of people and he agreed to.

We found Seb, who acted as happy to see me as I was happy to see him. I asked him about his wedding planning and his kids. They were three and four years old and I remember them both being born. He showed me pictures he took of them over the winter and it's crazy seeing them as toddlers instead of big lumps of skin with a pair of eyes.