Misery | Charles Leclerc [Abandoned]

𝚃𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚢-𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎.

Why is he here, of all places. Fayen lays the clipboard she is holding onto a box to her right and takes out the elastic holding her hair together, so she can massage her head for a second.

Now is not the time she wants to be dealing with Charles. She briefly wonders if he had come here to confront her about her disappearing act. She had been purposefully ignoring him the past days, and she was planning to continue to do so for a little longer, but he is here now, so she would use him to her advantage if he offers.

Because, even though her pride riots in her chest, she does need help. Or the all the work she had put into the event would be for nothing. She reties her hair, while staring Charles down. To his credit, the man just stands with his hands in his pockets, patiently waiting for her to explain the situation.

"So, I lost a model," Fayen sighs when she finishes fixing her hair back into the thigh ponytail.

Charles' eyebrows lift into his hairline, and he is visibly struggling to contain a mocking laugh. It's only a second, before he straightens his face and clears his throat before asking, "how do you lose a model?"

Fayen groans and starts walking to the exit of the backstage, looking at her phone again. Still no word from the team outside. She starts explaining. "This big name guy would close the show and it was a real struggle to even get him to commit to the show. I don't even know why we needed him specifically but fine." She rambles while rounding the corner and stops to read something. After another quick sigh of annoyance, she looks up at Charles and continues. "He is a very difficult, entitled piece of shit who thought it was okay to dash off just before the show starts. He was here, but we can't find him anywhere, and he is not answering calls or messages."

She looks up at Charles, who is looking at her with a look of concentration and admiration. She is thrown off by it and furrows her brows. "What's with the look?"

Charles blinks two times and then smiles at her. The warmth of it calms her stressing blood in a second, and the bubble that starts in her chest is hard to ignore. She tries though and averts her gaze as Charles answer. "Nothing, just seeing you, so professional is impressive."

She rolls her eyes at him and looks back at her phone. Not that it tells her new information, but it gives her a good excuse to not look at the man in front of her.

"Okay, it will be fine," Charles starts. Fayen's head snaps up and she interrupts him with a glare.

"How is this going to be fine?! The show will be ruined and I'll get sacked for mucking it up. Tell me, Percy, how is that fine?"

He looks around like the answer can be found in the walls. Fayen just keeps glaring at him, concluding that he doesn't have the solution as well. Just as she wants to let out another frustrated groan, Charles looks back at her, and the light in his eyes ignites a spark in Fayen that gets smothered by the bubble that was already going on in her chest. The two start a tugging war and the woman feels her rational mind slipping away from her. She needs to focus.

"Tell me," she demands.

"What if you have one of the other models walk again, then you don't need the guy."

Fayen is already shaking her head before he gets his sentence out. "Not possible, we can't change that fast, because of the length of the runway. Also, the whole point was to have someone famous close the show, so that is not the solution."

He sighs and looks down for a second. "Okay," he says with a tone of determination in his voice. "You will find anyone available to search for this guy." She wants to interrupt him, but he holds up a hand to signal that he isn't done. "In the meantime, I will go over to the designer who made the final piece and see if he can fit it on me. I've walked shows before, I can walk this one if needed."