Love Always Wins

70

Sunday August 2nd.
Switzerland.

Chloe opened her eyes and rolled over to check on Luis only to find his Next-To-Me crib wasn't there. "Oh no! No!" She gasped and quickly sat up as panic started to set in until she remembered that he'd spent the night in her mum and dads room after her mum had offered to have him in with them so that she could catch up on some much needed sleep. Now that she was interspersing breast feeding with occasional bottles of formula milk (after Seb had suggested it), she had accepted her mum's offer of help and let Luis stay with them last night knowing that his nighttime feed would be taken care of and she had to admit, last night had been one of the best night's sleep she'd had since his birth. She'd been so tired that she'd even slept well without Seb beside her. Thinking of her husband, she reached for her phone on the nightstand and smiled as soon as she saw that he'd already sent her a message this morning.

Seb: morning beautiful, I hope you had a good night's sleep and have woken up feeling refreshed xx

Looking at the time stamp (6.09am) it was clear that he'd probably sent her that message the moment he'd woken up. She quickly typed a reply and they began to message each other.

Chloe: hey gorgeous, yeah I had a decent night thanks. Nearly gave myself a panic attack a couple of mins ago when I woke up and had forgotten Luis was in mum and dad's room though. How are you feeling today? It's going to be a tough one and I'm worried about you xx

Seb: You're right, it will be a long race and a long day. I'm not expecting a miracle with the car. Please don't worry about me, I'm ok. It's you I worry about xx

Reading his last message, she decided to FaceTime him and he quickly accepted her call.

"You look better." He smiled, looking relieved to see her.

"I feel better." She agreed.

"I'm so glad you let your parents and mine help you. I was so worried about you when I left on Wednesday."

"Yeah, I shouldn't have said what I did. I'm glad you've talked some more with Lawrence Stroll and Otmar though because the moment I'd said that I didn't want you to go, I regretted it and I'd have felt so awful if you'd pulled out of talks with them just because of me." She shuffled back so that she could lean against the headboard of the bed.

"I knew that some of how you were on Wednesday was to do with you just being over tired and hormonal and I know you've always said that you don't want to sway my decision. Can I just ask you, because they're interested and I mean really interested, how would you feel about me signing for them?"

"Seb...." She paused and looked at him, she could see that he really needed to know her opinion on this.

"It's just that obviously if I decide to sign then it affects you and Luis...."

"And the girls." She pointed out, interrupting him.

"Not so much the girls, they won't really notice the difference. I'd just be in the UK instead of Italy but for you and Luis, I'd want you with me as much as possible, I'd look at renting somewhere like I'd said I would when we first talked about this. Maybe we could even buy a place. Think of all the time you could get to spend with your family." He pressed, really needing to know how she felt.

She could tell by the tone of his voice that he wanted her to say something, anything that would give him a clue as to how she felt but also his last words, telling her to think about she'd be able to spend more time with her family, told her that he'd pretty much made his choice. "Like I've told you before, if you're happy then I'm happy."