lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

~ quarantaquattro ~

Monaco, October 2019

Pia was stuck wandering around their apartment after she returned from the nightclub. She tried to call Arthur right away, but of course, he wasn't picking up. He was so stubborn sometimes. So, she messaged him the whole story about how those drugs appeared in her hand, but she doubted Arthur would believe it.

The Italian promised herself she would take care of this in the morning. She was pretty sure Arthur didn't call Charles right away. He wanted him to focus on racing.

Looking at their fridge and noticing how empty it had gotten these past few weeks. She hadn't had time to shop, been too busy moping around that place. Her healing had its ups and downs and right now it felt really down. Well, no wonder when a younger brother of her fiancée was convinced, she was a junky.

She knew she would have to go grocery shopping before Charles came home, but he shouldn't come anytime soon. It was Singapore now, Russia next week and then Japan. It was just one week he was away and three more were ahead. Suddenly, it didn't sound like fun anymore.

3:32 AM, she turned on the TV, hoping it would distract her from everything. She plugged her phone in with the charger right beside her, since her phone was almost dead. She flipped through the shitty channels their provider had. The majority of channels just replay old stuff from the 90s. There were also some cooking shows and quite ironically kid shows.

She scoffed and pressed the Netflix button on the remote control. She didn't even open the app, yet she was already sure she wouldn't find anything there.

3:47 AM, maybe I could call Charles, she thought in her mind. But then again, it was 10:47 AM in Singapore, and Pia wasn't sure if Charles was awake or not. Teams tended to stick to the European time even tho they were kilometres away, but it was necessary because the schedule was tailored to suit European fans. Their schedule started late in the afternoon and ended late in the night. The Italian knew that Charles wouldn't mind if she woke him up, but she didn't want to disturb him.

Feeling restless, she got up from the couch and decided to take a walk around their apartment. As she wandered from room to room, memories of their time together flooded her mind. She smiled as she passed by the bookshelf, remembering the lazy afternoons they spent reading together.

With a sigh, Pia ended up in their bedroom. She glanced at their bed, neatly made, but it looked too big and empty without Charles. She missed the warmth of his embrace, his soft snores, and the way he would pull her close in his sleep.

---

The Italian was awakened by the doorbell. It was five minutes past 8. She had no clue who could it be. She lazily made her way from the bedroom to the door. She ran her fingers through her hair to fix her hair a bit before opening the door.

After she opened the door, Pia was met with the sight of a delivery guy standing there, holding a stunning bouquet of flowers.

The bouquet was carefully handcrafted, showcasing a beautiful blend of wildflowers that seemed to have been plucked straight from a sun-kissed meadow. Pia loved it. She couldn't help but smile because Charles remembered that she didn't like any of those fancy rose bouquets. This was so much more her.

Aromatic lavender sprigs peeked out from between delicate clusters of daisies, while the fiery red poppies stood out against the backdrop of soft blue cornflowers.

"Delivery for missus Leclerc?" the delivery guy asked, his tone friendly. Of course, her cheeky fiancée made her already his wife by using his last name as hers. It made the Italian smile contently. Sometimes she couldn't believe she would actually marry him.