Us Against My Past

{2} - Charles

"Charles? Charles, are you paying attention to what we're saying?!"

 "yes, yes I agree" - I was not paying attention and I had no idea what I just agreed to because I was too focused on the absolutely breathtaking girl sitting at the table next to us, she had her back to our table but i still couldn't help staring at her. 

"What are you so focused on anyway?" Pierre says. 

"The girl at the table next to us, did you not see them having intense eye contact earlier?" My little brother Arthur says laughing 

"what no that's not true, i'm paying attention to you guys" 

"sure but I think you have a crush on that girl, quelqu'un a le béguin" Arthur teases 

"shut up" I reply slightly annoyed. 

For the rest of the night I was contributing to our conversation and paying attention even though I looked over to her a couple of times. I saw her and her friend stand up and I couldn't take my eyes off her, as she walked past our table she looked at me and our eyes met again. Her eyes were a beautiful rich brown just like her hair, her face beautifully sculpted but what got me was her smile showing all her white teeth. She smiled at me before she continued walking out of the restaurant. That's when I realised I didn't even know her name and I was probably never going to see her again, she might not even live in Monaco. I didn't say much for the rest of the night, I was honestly just mad at myself that I didn't ask for her number or even her name.

A few days passed and I still thought about the girl from the restaurant and hoped she was thinking about me too. I was walking to my car on my way to a meeting with the owner of APM Monaco, a jewellery brand who wanted me as their brand ambassador as I'm a true monegasque. The owner Alexander Albrecht usually doesn't do these kind of meetings personally but insisted he would be the one to do the meeting with his daughter who is supposed to take over the company soon. I was really excited about this meeting as it would be such an honour to be a brand ambassador of a monegasque brand which is doing so well. I walked up to the front desk and told the lady who I was meeting. 

"Hi, my name is Charles Le-" 

"Yes yes i know who you are, follow me to the meeting room please." 

I quietly followed the receptionist to the meeting room where through the glass doors I could see Mr. Albrecht standing next to his daughter with their back to me looking out of the window. For some reason I felt as if I recognized the girl but couldn't wrap my head around from where I knew her from. Once I entered the room both Mr. Albrecht and his daughter turned around. As soon as I saw his daughter I stopped and just looked at her, we both stared at each other in shock.

"Mr. Leclerc? Mr. Leclerc is everything okay?"

"Yes, sorry sir. It's so nice to meet you, and it's such an honour that you personally wanted to meet with me."

"The honour is mine truly, I want you to meet my daughter Kenza"

"Ah, Kenza thats your name."

"Sorry, do you two know each other?"

"Not really we sat next to each other at the Maybourne yesterday, dad." She explained

"Yes well its nice to meet you Kenza"

"Likewise Mr. Leclerc"

"Please call me Charles"

"noted" she replied back and smiled

We sat down and discussed the logistics of us working together and all the boring stuff. My manager would finalise all of the details so I wasn't really paying attention but rather taking a good look at Kenza while she's sitting right in front of me. 

When the meeting was finished Mr. Albrecht left the room as he had another meeting to attend and asked Kenza if she could please take me back downstairs to my car. As soon as he said that, I'm sure you could see my face light up because that would mean I would be alone with Kenza and get to know her.

"So... you'r going to take over APM?"

"Yeah, I'm not too excited about it though"

"What why? I love the brand"

"It's not that, I love APM and I have a passion for Jewellery that's why I'm taking over not my older brother. But, my dad will be telling me what to do and expecting me to do so much with it. It's just a lot of pressure because he does everything so well."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I wish I could help somehow"

"Thank you but there's really nothing you can do. But what about you? How is racing going?"

"I don't even wanna talk about it, 2022 was a good year compared to the past years but in the beginning I actually had a chance of winning the championship and then everything went downhill"

"I'm sorry. But I'll be cheering you on for this year! When is the first race?

"March 5th so soon! I'm excited to get back into the car. I just hope we'll have a better season."

"I believe in you."

"Thank you, I take it you're not into racing?"

"I've watched a couple of grand prix but that was mainly for my dad, I was never really paying attention," she said laughing. "I might want to get into it, who knows?"

"Maybe i'll teach you all the rules one day"

"Yeah maybe."

By now we got to my car and hugged goodbye, I drove off in my custom Ferrari and she stood there waving until I was out of sight.