Petrichor ~ Lewis Hamilton

4

January 5, 2021, Monaco

Ten minutes later Lewis stopped in front of a large building that I had not seen before.

"What is this?" He put his hand on the small of my back as we walked across the street to the entrance.

"This is the oceanographic museum of Monaco" he explained.

"A secret passion for the ocean?" It is something that I did not imagine, he makes a living risking his life but instead of going scuba diving or riding a jet ski, he comes here?

"More like a secret passion for this place, you will see"

When we went to the ticket office and I went to get my bag he stopped me.

"No way, this is my way of paying you, you are not paying for your ticket"

"You already bought me a coffee today, and yesterday" I remind him, still feeling kind of guilty from the arrangement.

"A couple of coffees are not going to ruin me, believe me, I'll pay for your ticket, that's the end of the discussion"

I ended up accepting, realizing that there was going to be no way to convince him otherwise.

"Come this way, this room is so cool" he said, kind of looking like a kid in a candy shop because of his excitement.

We entered the first room which had several aquariums on the walls, the darkness of the room stood out with the bright blue of the aquariums where there were different brightly colored fish.

"This is the tropical fish room"

"Look, Nemo" I took his arm and pulled him closer to the glass where, on the other side, the orange fish swam carelessly between some anemone.

"You know they're not called Nemo right?" He looked down on me with half a smile and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Wow you are the life of the party arent you?" I laughed, taking one last glance at him before looking back at the fish.

"I just like to call things by their name, they're clownfish, Elaine" he gave me a light push with his arm.

"Nemo" I tried to mantain a straight face but the expression on his face wasn't making it easy.

"Clownfish" He whispered by my side once more.

"Nemo" I turned to fully face him but I hadn't realized how close to me he had stayed, leaving us practically a foot away. I couldn't quite make out the look he was giving me until he finally gave a little laugh and looked away.

"Fine, Nemo" He took a step back "And what do you want to call that? Dory?"

I looked at the aquarium he was pointing at, right on the opposite side of where we were.

"That's not Dory silly, that's just a jellyfish"

He rolled his eyes and continued walking towards the next tank.

"So, what made you decide to move here?" He asked after a few minutes looking at a tank with an octopus.

"Work mainly, many more contacts here. A change of scenery too. And you? How long have you been living here? You don't sound from around here" You didn't have to be a genius, I have heard him speak French.

"I'm from the UK but most of the drivers live here, I've been here for almost ten years now"

"Don't you miss home?" He shrugged his shoulders as if it were something inevitable.

"I go back whenever I can to see my family, I have a nephew and a niece that I adore and my brother and sisters there. Of course I miss them but you end up getting used to living here. It's not like I'm living here long anyway, a lot of traveling. And you? Someone to miss back home?" He asked it with a smile but my face hardened, I tried to change the face before he saw it but he was already frowning at me.