Shot In the Dark

How Do You Dress for the Rain?

The car door was quickly opened, and he slipped into the passenger seat as his suitcase was placed in the boot by one of the men from earlier. taking a deep breath Mariana turned to her side...

"Hey Lewis, I'm Mariana I don't know if Toto told you much about me but I'm his cleaner, if you need anything just ask me, I'll try to help."

Ice cold the air thawed over the car as the tension emanating from him could be cut with a knife, so Mariana did the one thing she knew how to do even when the world seemed to crumble in around her, she smiled through the silence, the night, the words left unspoken humming along to her favorite song in her head. Through all of it she was smiling, smiling, smiling until the car pulled round the fountain at the front of the mansion stopping just before the wooden door, lifting the handbrake she undid her seatbelt and as her hand reached to touch the door handle Lewis spoke...

"Your shift from 4th to 5th was shabby. Don't worry I know where my room is you don't have to babysit me."

He held his hand out Mari furrowed her eyebrows was she supposed to have paid to be in his presence this was most "KEY" ...bizarre she thought as his command cut through the air. Fumbling nervously in the pocket of her jeans cursing about not emptying them out beforehand god she was stupid sometimes, after 10 seconds of awkward shuffling and fiddling she pulled the key from her jeans handing it to Lewis who closed his hand around it. Sliding out of the car, it was silent again but not an awkward silence a confused one because what the hell had just happened, I mean you would have thought that man had won his championships in being an arsehole the thought of racing finally flickering in her mind Mariana realized she was not the victim right know he was and that was what he fought against not her but the idea of sympathy.

Snapping out of her daze she looked up only to find Lewis's back disappearing into the hallway suitcase in one hand the groceries Mariana had picked up in the other a defeated sigh tumbled from her lips as she realized she know had to wait till tomorrow as he had signaled to her in obvious subtlety stay away from me, so she did. Driving back home her thoughts were with the world she had just been thrown back into and what the hell Toto could possibly say when he found out she of all people had collected his driver from the airport, also her shifts from 4th to 5th which were indeed stuttering at times. She should have driven more during her time in New York, but it would have been pointless the only way you could get anywhere quickly in that city would be by flying as she had discovered, God that city was the embodiment of marmite she simply could not decide.

Pulling up outside her parents' house she noticed the same thing as two weeks ago it was cold the lights were off no smoke puffed in delicate clouds out of the chimney, a stabbing pain piercing through her heart again as she realized there gone both of them, the house was empty the warmth had been sucked out of this place out of Mariana and she had no idea how she could ever possibly get back. As she turned off the light that night however the first though rushing to her head was not the fact her parents were gone but the broken man 5km away locked in that mansion trying to drown out his thoughts and how she so desperately wished she could have helped him in the way she wished someone had helped her.

So as the sun rays pierced through the curtains the next morning the first thought to hit Mariana was 'talk to Lewis not Lewis Hamilton, show him you care' ...