Romeo and Juliet || Carlos Sainz

The ghost of you

"One café macchiato and one with oat milk" Checo ordered for both of them, then turned to Y/n and winked at her. He knew Y/n was lactose intolerant and she felt pampered.
They both sat down at a table overlooking the street, opposite the hospital. They had left there immediately after saying goodbye to Max. Checo would return when Christian could receive visitors, after his cardiologist's visits.
The two remained silent for a while, sipping their coffees. Y/n had destroyed the sachet containing the sugar poured into the coffee. She had shattered it into a thousand pieces all scattered in front of her, on the table. Checo watched her in silence, waiting for her to start talking; he had time to wait for her, but not an eternity, so he tried to speed up the process.

"Sorry for writing so late last night"
"That's okay, I took the train from Monaco"
"Ah ok" Checo nodded, not paying much attention to the situation. Y/n was already embarrassed.
"Yes, I was with Charles..." she mumbled his name, almost ashamed. Yet for anyone else it was normal for the two of them to be together, even for Checo, who in fact was not surprised at all and continued drinking his coffee.
"Yeah, I mean..." Y/n kept talking, as if she felt obliged to explain her being in Monaco last night. Checo didn't care, tbh "...We took a tour around Monaco."
Checo nodded, but he was beginning to suspect that there was something going on. He raised his eyebrows, as if to accentuate his last sentence.
"Did you have fun?" at this point he tried to probe deeper. A few seconds passed before Y/n answered the question, so much so that Checo wondered if she had heard the question. He was about to ask it again when Y/n finally answered.
"Yeah" she didn't sound very convinced
"Are you sure?"
"Yes...well...I mean..."
"You mean?...oh" the two looked into each other's eyes. Y/n wanted to sink down, she smiled embarrassedly. It was as if a daughter had just told her father she was with a guy.

That moment of terrible embarrassment and silence was accentuated by the fact that the boy had been his daughter's best friend until a few moments before. What to do? What to say? Checo thought about how he would react when it happened with his real little girl. It was the dress rehearsal of his real life. He was looking at a girl whom he had seen grow up and whom he really loved as a daughter. He knew how unfit Christian was to be her father and so he felt all the embarrassment of a real father. So he was surprised, very much so, as it would be for his daughter one day in the future.

"Charles?! Wow... I mean I thought you guys were just best friends" Maybe he could have said it better, but what could he do? He hadn't really expected that.
"It's weird, isn't it?" Y/n laughed nervously, she was embarrassed "...maybe a little too weird" she glared at the coffee cup, she didn't have the courage to look at Checo and see in his eyes the judgement of an adult.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know...Charles is perfect...I'm the one who feels confused" she threw out the words as a release for herself first and foremost.
"Maybe you should talk to him about it, right?"
"I don't know, if I did I might destroy our friendship and lose him" suddenly the worst of situations, where she and Charles would end up fighting, hating each other and never speaking to each other again, was in front of her. She would lose her best friend, her safe haven, her reference point in that world.

As the thoughts were about to suffocate her, a message arrived to her. She looked at it. It was from Charles. She read it. While she caught her breath for a moment, she did not know what to reply.
"It's him," she said aloud to Checo
"What does he say?" he was also in agitation
"he asked me if I want to go to the Miami gp"
"Oh beautiful! So you can see each other and talk about it calmly face to face"
"Yeah..." Y/n kept looking at that message. Cold, minimal, he didn't even sound like himself anymore.
Y/n looked up, looked at Checo who smiled silently at her.
I "I have to go now" she got up from the table and he got up in turn. The two of them hugged each other tightly.
"If you need anything, I'm here, okay?"
Y/n nodded, then walked out of the café and disappeared from Checo's sight, who realised he was not ready for such discussions. He prayed that his daughter would never get engaged, or that at least this talk would never have to happen again.