LOVE OR RIDE | LESTAPPEN

Chapter thirty-seven - the home race

A few weeks later
Max

"How are the tires, Max?"

"They're ok." I say, glancing at the front tires.

The check-up visit with my condition was a dang long time ago, and it turned out that I'm fine now. Charles has already stopped being overly protective since then, and today we have the race in Monaco, which is damn important for the boy. He cried yesterday after qualifying in my embrace, as he only took P5. I consoled him as much as I could, but I'm the one with the P1, not him, so he took a bit of a weak person to console. Even though it's been a long time since his birthday, I still feel guilty about how it ended, so there's been a perfect plan in my head since this morning. Currently, there are a few laps to go. Charles is a few seconds behind me because he managed to catch up. Even once when I went down to the box, he was first, but I easily made up for it, and he went down to change tires, and then he dropped from first place again.

"Something is wrong." I say suddenly, feeling that I should fry in hell for it.

"We're checking it, Max." I hear the engineer's voice.

Lando finally talked to Carlos and now it's been two weeks since they've officially been together. I knew it would end like this, but I still stressed about their conversation. They don't tell anyone but their friends for now. Or rather, we found out ourselves when Lando invited us to a house party, and we all arrived later than Carlos and found them half-naked, kissing in the living room. Well, memories guaranteed.

"We continue to look." I hear on the radio.

I started to slow down, and after only two turns, Charles easily overtakes me. I glance in the mirrors, and when I see another bolt, I accelerate slightly. No one will suspect that there is something wrong, that I let him pass and that I wanted him to win, because the whole race I was trying to be first and I was saying on the radio all the time some complaint and that I wanted to win. The perfect actor.

"I think it's okay." I say into the radio, returning to the race.

Not for long, because after two laps the race is over. I ended up in P2, and Charles ended up in P1. I watch as he gets out of the car and runs toward his team. He throws himself in their direction, and they hug him and shout with happiness. When the boy takes off his helmet, he has tears in his eyes and smiles broadly as he is congratulated by Carlos, who is in P3.

I get out of the car and take off my helmet, walking up to the Red Bull mechanics. I talk to them about the incident until they ask me for an interview. As I turn to go to give him a hand, suddenly Charles runs toward me and hugs me. Confused, I embrace him, not knowing what is just happening.

"Thank you." He whispers near my ear. "I know what you did." He adds quietly and moves away with a wide smile, returning to Carlos.

The interviews pass fairly quickly. Nothing strange happens on the podium either, except for a tear in Charles' eyes as he hears his anthem in the home race and receives the cup, holding back tears. Of course, Carlos and I douse him with champagne, and he laughs, trying to defend himself and run away, which he does moderately well. Eventually he waits until we're done and suddenly splashes champagne in my face and the next one in Carlos', leaving us without time to react.

Laughing, we walk off the podium, and Charles and Carlos go to the Ferrari, celebrating the victory. I, on the other hand, spend almost two hours listening to various theories about the car until I suddenly come up with something that should work. I slowly slide my hand down and slip one shoelace out of my shoe more.

"Maybe the shoelace got stuck and the gas pedal didn't reach the end." I say, and they suddenly fall silent. After a moment of silence, each in turn admits I'm right, and I'm finally able to go home.