Fairly Local → Pierre Gasly

Vi| Chlorine

"The moment is medical"

(If you have no internet and cannot read the picture in this chapter, I'll place it in the comments)

Mai was never particularly optimistic but she blamed that on all of her experiences, broken hearts and . Relationships had never ended well for her and she'd had four of them (admittedly, two had been teenage romances).

Her first serious relationship was with an Italian man called Benito, whom she met while playing in his band when she was first starting out. Mai warned him of her health issues and he always waved them off, saying they weren't a problem. He had his issues with drinking but he was kind to Mai...until he realised that her health issues were a problem and he didn't want to deal with them.

That's where the lack of interest in relationships really started. She wanted to give up right then and there because Mai wasn't emotionally strong.

Annabella had ended in a better way but her ex-girlfriend had still left her when she needed her the most. Annabella just had strong dreams and not even Mai would make her put them on hold. Hence, her second broken heart.

So Mai gave up.

She only accepted Pierre's coffee offer in the form of thanking him for their...incident.

Mai didn't wait on edge for his message, she didn't really think about it at all. She had things to be doing and she did. Sadly, Mai found that Milan was busy for the weekend, more than usual, no doubt from the race in Monza.

"That is all for today," Mai spoke to her students in fluent Italian.  "If you need help with practice, you can email me or I'm in room 2 on Tuesdays at 3pm. Ciao."

"Ciao, Signorina Chen!" The student thanked her as they left the room.

She enjoyed her weekly lessons with the small group. There was only around 10 of them, who were a little more behind than other but wanted to try. Mai understood that she and she was there for them.

As the final student was packing up their things, Popcorn began to sit in front of Mai and place his paw out like he was trained to do. If Mai didn't listen, he would jump up her but Mai would always listen.

By now, the final student had left the room so Mai sat down on the floor while Popcorn lay over her legs. She hated that it happened but there was nothing she could do at current times apart from let it happen. This time, she was only out for just over a minute.

"Thanks Popcorn, good boy," Mai praised once she gained function back, giving him a treat.

Mai carefully and slowly stood up again, thankful no one else was using the room for another ten minutes. She began to pack all her things despite the slight sick feeling and made her way out of the building.

It was a reasonable distance from her house and since Mai was allowed to drive (for obvious reasons), she got the bus home. Sitting down, she noticed her phone making the 'ding' sound, alerting her of the notification.

Mai bit her lip so hard she thought she nearly drew blood. If she was honest, she never messaged people over normal text let alone social media. She wasn't sure if she was being too abrupt and she stuck to the phrases she knew would come out a certain way since she still was learning the languages every day.

"This is our stop," Mai mumbled to her service dog as she stood up to leave the bus.

This was stupid. She shouldn't be having coffee with him — she didn't know his true intentions and May didn't want to lead the poor guy on.

Then again, Mai did need more friends.

Perhaps one coffee couldn't hurt and she'd just have to make her intentions very clear. Surely, friend-zoning someone couldn't be that difficult?

Wait, was that too forward when you'd only met once? Maybe she should wait if he asks her to coffee a second time...

Mai didn't know what she was supposed to be doing anymore.

It's just coffee. She thought. Just coffee.