rich heart.

thirteen.

Present day.

I spend most of my time in the store lately. I couldn't deal with all the stores at once, so I decided to focus on one store at a time.

My dad went on a vacation, as if his life wasn't one big vacation already. He treated this like a joke right now.

"Noa?" A soft voice asked, walking in and resting her hands on the door. "We are gonna close the store" Alexis said as she looked at me.

I nodded as I looked up at her. She looked worried, but I couldn't see a reason why.
I deposited their wages, made their schedules and fixed their damn coffee. "Thank you Alexis"

"You should go home too" she said, still with that worried look on her face. She was worried about me, not about the store.

I smiled at her. "I will, I just have to fix this" I pointed at my laptop.

She nodded, probably not believing I would leave any time soon before closing the door behind her.

I sighed as I put my head on the keyboard of my laptop. I was tired, exhausted even.

Alexis was right, I should go home, get a shower and sleep. That's all I needed right now.

And that's exactly what I did.

I liked walking through the streets of Monaco, especially when it started to get a little dark. The lights gave this country a beautiful aesthetic.

'Oh no' I mumbled to myself as I saw Charles leaning against his car in front of my building. He was looking at something on his phone but he was clearly waiting for me.

"Didn't expect to see you here" I said as I walked to him. He quickly looked up, putting his phone back in his pocket.

He cleared his throat, he was caught of guard. "Noa I-" he stopped, he wasn't prepared for this. He sighed as he looked down. "I just wanted to see you" he confessed.

Seeing him leaning against his car, in front of my building was bringing back memories.
Memories I was desperately trying to forget.

"You wanna come upstairs?" I asked. I could see how he was thinking about it, something was holding him back and I knew exactly what it was.
"My dad is away" I quickly said.

"Okay" he quickly said and locked his car before following me upstairs.

The elevator ride was awkward, we were both leaning against the wall of the elevator.
Also too many memories.

He was busy looking around as he walked inside the penthouse. His eyes were scanning the room as if it was the first time he walked inside.

"Congratulations by the way, you did a great job in Baku" I said as I put my laptop and purse on the kitchen counter.
He ended in P4 with Lando just right behind him.

"Thanks" he put his arms on the counter and looked at me. "Way better than I did previous weekend"

"Yeah but it couldn't get much worse though" I laughed - I was the only one laughing.

He was biting the inside of his cheek. Something was bothering him, but it wasn't my stupid joke.
"Since when are you close with Lando?"

"Sorry?" I said. Was I close to Lando? Not at all, we just hung out a few times and I never texted him.

Because I didn't want to get close to him.
Because of the guy who was leaning against my kitchen counter right now.
Because he broke me.

"Are you gonna have sex with everyone your daddy sponsors now?" His voice was rough, low but he looked straight in my eyes.

I couldn't believe he actually said that. I was nailed to the ground. "Get out" I said calmly, I couldn't even look at him.

He just chuckled. He chuckled. "Get the fuck out" I said louder, angrier and this time I was looking straight at him.

He got up and walked to the door. Not saying another word, no apology, nothing.

I grabbed the first thing I could and slammed it to the ground. "Fucking asshole" ironically it was a Ferrari mug I got a couple of years ago.

I realized I still liked him, even after all these years, even after everything he put me through.