Just Drive (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 57: Awkward Conversations

Caitlin jumped awake the next morning, sitting bolt upright in shock as if sleeping had been a bad thing.

It took her a moment to place herself into her surroundings, but she then settled back into the soft pillows of the bed with a smile, allowing herself a few moments to shed the sleep from her brain and letting her dreamy memories slip away into morning consciousness. Giving a yawn and a stretch, she rubbed the remainders of sleep from her eyes and peered around the room.

Just as she realised there was no sign of Seb anywhere, she heard a clinking sound from the adjoining room. "Hey, sort me a coffee?" she trilled happily in the general direction of the open door, "I'm just hopping in the shower."

Twenty minutes later Caitlin emerged from the shower room feeling fresher, and sporting a red and yellow floral top, and black denim shorts. Scraping her hair up into a tight knot on the top of her head as she walked, Caitlin sauntered next door.

She searched the room subconsciously expecting to find her coffee, but couldn't see it anywhere. The double French doors were open, long white cotton curtains framing the doorway flapping in the breeze. Caitlin couldn't see Seb, in fact there were no signs anyone had been here in quite some while. Caitlin turned slowly on the spot, her eyes scanning every part of the hotel suite.

She was completely alone.

Caitlin wasn't sure whether to feel dejected, worried, or annoyed. Dejected that she hadn't been able to wake up next to him, worried that she didn't know where he'd gone, and annoyed that he'd disappeared without a word.

Caitlin pulled her laptop out of her work rucksack and plonked herself down at the small leather topped desk.

It was then that she noticed Sebastian's always recognisable scribbly handwriting on the hotel's branded notepad in front of her.

Had some bits to sort out this morning. Let me know where you are around 5ish and I'll come find you.

CAITLIN: Hey, I've just seen your note, everything ok?

SEBASTIAN: Yeh fine, sorry, can't talk much now. I'll catch you later.

Caitlin was immediately struck by how unlike Seb this was. It was out of character of him to be so brief with his replies, and it was especially strange after yesterday evening. But even despite that, Caitlin found herself surprisingly content on hearing this news. It had been a long while since she'd had space and time to herself, and a feeling of calm serenity washed over her as she settled back into the chair, realising she had the morning to do whatever she pleased.

Caitlin powered her laptop up, reminding herself that Seb had loads going on in his life that she wasn't privy to, and probably did have something important he needed to get done.

Her hands hovered over her keyboard for a few seconds, before she typed "Japan holiday tours" into Google and hit return.

~*~

After a couple of very productive hours Caitlin felt she had researched every inch of Japan's geography, and she had drawn up quite an extensive itinerary detailing all the places the two of them should visit, and in what order.

She'd been working on the assumption that they had a four times world champion sized budget, and had been looking at quite smart places to stay as a result. She cringed inwardly with a bit of a giggle – Caitlin had promised herself a long time ago that she would never assume Seb's money was hers to spend, but equally their trip to Lake Como, and the place they'd stayed in Monaco demonstrated he wouldn't accept anything less than the best when he was trying to spoil her. This whole trip had been his idea and had been shortly preceded by something very close to a declaration of undying love, so she felt quite confident in her decision to not even bother looking at the more accessibly priced options.