Freefall

Part 18

Charles

Claire had just called me to inform me that Alora had apparently decided she would sign the contract and be apart of this ridiculous plan. It surprised me, I hadn't seen this coming at all. She seemed to hate, or at least greatly dislike me. So why the hell would she agree. If it were trouble with money I highly doubt she wouldn't go to Pierre for that instead of resorting to this. So maybe I was right all along and she is a fan of mine. Maybe she orchestrated this whole thing to get close to me.

Okay Charles calm the fuck down. She most definitely didn't do that. She would've needed to know I would screw up with my sponsors and know that Claire was going to suggest this.

I went to the Ferrari office confused and agitated that I had to resort to a fake relationship to salvage my contract. My racing performance had never been the problem and it sometimes seemed like this sport was less and less about the sport itself and more about every other thing surrounding it, like sponsors. They wanted every driver to be this likeable guy so they could sell him and attract even more sponsors and thus money.

Before stepping inside the Ferrari office, I decided to smoke a cigarette to buy myself a few minutes and calm myself. It's not that I was a regular smoker. But it had become more frequent since having the pressure of almost being kicked off the team hanging over me. The team would have my head if they saw me smoking so I hid behind a corner. Just as I had almost finished my cigarette, I saw a cab approach. I waited a little longer so that it's passenger wouldn't see me smoking and tattle to my bosses about it. However when I saw it was Alora getting out I stepped around the corner, knowing she had already seen me smoke a few times, so it wouldn't matter anyway.

She looked around anxiously as if she was planning her escape route. Why the hell she would want to escape, I had no idea. It wasn't like she was forced into this unlike me. "Planning on escaping?" I questioned. She jumped a bit after hearing my voice. I asked her why she looked like she was planning some big escape plan if she chose for this herself but instead of answering she changed the subject and questioned why I was smoking, in the hopes that I would forget I asked her a question. Nice try, but that wouldn't work on me. I practically invented that move and used it all the time during interviews.

I threw my cigarette on the ground, being done with the conversation already and wanting to leave. But of course she had something to say about that too. I knew she was deflecting but it pissed me off even more than I already was. I left her behind and walked inside, immediately getting greeted by an agitated Claire. That couldn't be good. She was literally getting her way, so what was she going to whine about now?

"Charles, why do you smell like cigarettes?" Okay one small detail about cigarettes I may have forgotten about was their smell. But I had been so stressed, who could blame me? Dumb question, Claire would. "Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to." "Just spray some deodorant and change your clothes before meeting Alora and me in my office. Your reputation is already bad enough and if you smell like cigarettes she might reconsider and we'd have to start this whole process again." Although Alora already knew I smoke sometimes and it would be unnecessary for me to change I didn't feel like explaining my run-ins with her to Claire, so I just walked away frustrated with the whole situation.

When I sat down in Claire's office, Alora seemed extremely uncomfortable. And when she asked me if this contract was actually what I wanted, I was completely thrown off. I wasn't used to people asking me about what I wanted anymore. Usually people just wanted things from me and if I didn't give it to them, they would just take it.

I thought back to the way my mother had raised me to always know I was in charge of my own life, and got filled with sorrow and sadness. I tried to cover it up immediately, but judging the way Alora was looking at me she had already seen it in my eyes. Maybe not exactly which emotion, but she had seen my mask slip for a second. That couldn't happen again. It was already going to be hard enough seeing her as often as needed to be, to make people believe we were in a relationship. I had to keep her at a distance, because I sure as hell didn't want her poking in my personal life.

Unfortunately for me our first appearance together would already be tomorrow, while we were still in Monaco.  To make our relationship believable we had to make sure our first appearance together was low-key and seemed really spontaneous. Claire had decided the best idea would be for us to get photographed in the same space, but separate from each other. Claire claimed that this would bring lots of attention to us and get people talking and speculating about me in a positive light for once.

Luckily for Claire, her plan had worked immediately. She had tipped off some photographers where I would be and how late and told them to keep their eyes peeled for some girl who might or might not be there around the same time. Of course she had let on off the other people on the pr team call so they couldn't trace it back to her. Because if people were to find out this whole thing was orchestrated, I wouldn't be the only one no longer working for Ferrari. But for now, Claire's plan seemed to be working perfectly. Everyone was speculating about whether I had finally settled down with someone, leaving my partying-ways in the past.

Claire had also ordered me to slowly start posting some things on Instagram, so it would be easier to sell this relationship when the time came.

Sponsors were really happy to be hearing of this new progress and supposedly 'new me'. Which got me a pat on my back from Fred Vasseur. I was however still mainly focusing on the next race which would be in a week. Two days after the photographs I got on a plane headed towards Australia for the next race. Normally I would only take a flight a few days before, but this time I wanted to make sure the jetlag wouldn't impact my performance on the grid. I wanted to be sharp and ready for the first free practice session. So if that meant having to fly a few days earlier, I would happily do it. I needed to start showing the team that I would do anything to keep my seat this season and all the next ones.

Unfortunately for me, Claire had heard about my plan to fly to Australia a few days earlier than was usual, and decided it would be the perfect opportunity to have another photographed outing with Alora. She made Alora fly in a few days earlier as well and decided it would be time for us to be actually be photographed together.

She had planned the whole thing to the minute.
We would be getting on a yacht nearby the Albert park circuit, but Alora would wear something so it wasn't totally obvious that it was her. Because according to Claire the speculation was one of the most important things to make a pr relationship believable. As much as I hated that woman, she did seem to know what se was talking about when it came to how things would be perceived by the internet.

I actually hadn't seen Alora since the signing of the contract and I was glad about it. I dreaded spending a whole afternoon on a boat with her. There would be no way of escaping her. We would literally be surrounded by water, so unless I felt like swiping all the way to the port and thus screwing up this whole pr stunt I would be stuck with her for a few hours. That wasn't even the worst thing. Claire apparently told the both of us to make it seem we were having a great time. Impossible if you asked me.

I took a cab to the port where Alora would already be waiting. I got dropped off at the back of a building to draw as little attention as possible before we got on the boat. As I got out of the car I saw a shady looking figure stand in the shadow. I doubted this was the right place, but the cabdriver had already driven off.

When I took a closer look at the figure I realized it was Alora. "You look absolutely ridiculous. Why the hell are you wearing a black hoodie in this weather?" "Don't whine. I'm the one who has to wear this deathtrap. Claire told me to be inconspicuous, so here I am." "Doesn't wearing a black hoodie with the hood up and those ridiculously big sunglasses in this weather literally only draw more attention?" "Look I didn't come up with this plan. If you don't agree with my fashion choices, you can take it up with Claire." Well this was going to be fun.

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Hi lovely people! Another update for you guys <3
I just heard I got accepted to study at my dream university and so I'm really excited :) but this makes graduating even more important so I'm anxiously waiting for the results which I'll receive next week hehe
I would love to hear about what's going on in your guy's life <3