rich heart.

eleven.

Charles' POV

To say I didn't want to be here was an understatement. After the extremely bad weekend in Monaco, I just wanted to disappear for a while but obviously - I couldn't.

I was just sitting in the hospitality, looking at my phone. I wanted to text Noa, I wanted to talk to her, see if she was fine but something stopped me.

I couldn't get too close to her again. Not after everything that happened to her, to us.

My mind started drifting away, to four years ago. I remember how happy I was back then. I had something amazing to look forward to.

A proper date with her.

But this time around, I had nothing to look forward to. I was only left with the memories of that evening.
That amazing evening. It was the first time we had se-

"Don't you have to be at the press conference?" Carlos shook me out of my thoughts. He was standing in front of the table I was sitting on.

Fuck, the press conference. I totally forgot about that. "I-I was just going there" I said as I grabbed my stuff and put my phone back in my pocket.

Why didn't my PR manager come and get me?
I almost ran through the paddock, trying to find her.

I shook my head in frustration. 'Whatever' I scoffed. I would go on my own, maybe she was there already.

I quickly walked in the conference room, I was late, way too late. I took a seat next to Lando who chuckled a little.

"Thank you for joining us Charles, immediately a question for you.. how do you feel after your bad weekend in Monaco?" I didn't even have the time to grab the mic. I sighed a little as I started looking for it.

Lando pointed under my chair. Of course, it was always laying there.
What was wrong with me lately?

"U-uh, yes it was unfortunate what happened, obviously we were hoping for a better result - or even start the race at all but we will just focus on this race instead" I nodded and smiled at the journalist, thinking it would be the only question. Silly me.

"You don't have a great track record in Baku either, how do you feel about that?" Another reporter asked.

I looked at him for a while, trying to figure out what he was actually asking. "I don't know what you expect me to feel, but we will definitely try to get the best result possible."

It probably wasn't the best answer, or the answer Ferrari wanted me to give but I didn't care. He just wanted to get under my skin.

"You okay?" Lando whispered as he put his head closer to mine. I just nodded at him, forcing a little smile.

Fortunately, Max was sitting in our press conference as well, so most of the questions were directed to him as he was fighting for the championship with Lewis.

I put the mic on my chair as I walked out of the conference room, I was so happy that was over.

"Mate, have you heard from Noa? How is she doing?" Lando ran up next to me.

I furrowed my eyebrows. Since when were they close like this? "U-uh sorry?" I stammered. I was not expecting his question at all.

"She told me she had some business to handle so maybe you knew how she was doing?" He said casually. I actually didn't know how she was doing. I didn't even know she had to handle things. What kind of things did she have to handle?

And why did she tell those things to Lando and not to me? "Hello? Earth to Charles" Lando shook me out of my thoughts. "I don't know, I haven't heard from her"

He nodded, wanting to walk away but I had still too many questions for him. "How do you know Noa?" I blurted out.

"I've met her at an event and we hung out a couple of times last weekend" he explained casually. An event? Probably another sponsor event her dad dragged her to.

I nodded trying not to look bothered by it. Did she tell him everything? Everything that happened between us? "You guys are good friends?" His question was a direct answer to mine.

She didn't tell him.

"We are" I confirmed. If she didn't tell him, then I sure as hell wasn't gonna tell him either and maybe he would back off a little if he knew we were close. 

We were back at our hospitality, just standing in the middle of both of them when Charlotte walked up to me.

She looked stunning as always, I was lucky to have her. "What are you two talking about?" she smiled at the both of us.

"Nothi-"

"Noa" Lando said at the same time. He looked at me quickly, realizing I didn't really intend to tell her. "Oh" Charlotte nodded. Her smile vanished.

Lando probably noticed that as well. "Oh, Zak calls me, I should-" he didn't even finish his sentence, he was already walking to his hospitality, giving me a thumbs up.

"So.. Noa huh" she was annoyed.

I just said the first thing that came to mind. "Lando is dating her"

Why did I say this? Why was this the first thing that popped into my mind?