Burning Heart // CL16

Fifty Four

Charles POV

"Hey," I say with a smile as I enter the garage having already done the debrief following my final practice session, glancing across it to see Carlos and Isa just chatting at the side. As I walk over to them to chat I try to push back the the brief pang of jealousy in my chest.

I want to see my people after what has been an extremely long day... but instead of letting myself become bitter, I slip my phone out of my jeans to see that Alessia has sent me a video of Ruby enamoured by me doing one of my practice runs from earlier. What makes my heart even happier though is the evidence of her work on the laptop in front of her, showing me that Ruby is behaving enough for Alessia to get some stuff done.

It's a relief.

"Is good, no?" Carlos asks about the car with a smile and I just nod, typing out an update to Alessia before putting my phone away, resisting the temptation to proudly watch the video again and again and show it to everyone in the garage. "Is everything okay?... with..." he doesn't finish the rest of his question and I just shrug, looking away slightly as the shame fills my chest and I nod after a moment.

"Maybe soon... we had a small chat, it just took us an argument to get there," I confess and Carlos winces, clearly very familiar with the fiery demeanour of Alessia when she was angry. She was quick to anger but she was passionate and being the object of her passion was incredible. It was a long time since it had been me but I let myself relive it like it was yesterday whenever I got the moment. "But Ruby called me papa," I say, changing tune as I stand up straighter, brightening at the memory and I see both Carlos and Isa similarly smile back at me as they say their congratulations.

"Ah that's amazing, congratulations!" Isa says with a smile and I let out a breath of air as I agree. It was nice that she was no longer acting weird with me and I felt relieved that things were moving back towards how they were with both Isa and Carlos before Alessia came into our lives.

"You're both going to be there on Tuesday?" I ask and they nod with smiles and words to confirm it before Sylvia taps my elbow and I remember why I'm still here and not in a car back to the hotel already. "Right, one more interview and then I'm headed straight back to them - thanks for covering with Armani," I tell the pair who held off our sponsors at the dinner last night and watch as they wave it off and say goodbye as I jog to catch-up with Sylvia and head to the motorhome across the very extravagant paddock that is Bahrain.

"You are ready for this?" She asks and I nod silently as I pull my phone out my pocket, the screensaver a photo of Alessia holding Ruby and laughing at something I'd said on the day that we'd had Max and my mum around. Good days.

"As I'll ever be," I mutter before locking the phone screen once more and slipping it back into my pocket, ignoring Sylvia's hard stare that is meant to get me to give my phone back to her. I don't want to though, it's got an extensive collection of photos of Ruby and I don't trust anyone with them, not even Sylvia. "Hey," I say to Natalie as I walk away from her and instead great the Sky presenter I feel is most likely to give me an easy feature interview and be sensitive when talking about the news.

"Charles, hi," she greets me warmly and I give her a quick hug as I resist the urge to run a hand through my hair, instead shifting from foot to foot to get the anxious energy out of my body. "Just checking that I'm right on the message I got earlier today?" She asks, showing me the piece of paper in her hand and I scanned it quickly, seeing that it had written very clearly that I was now willing to talk on 'personal matters'.

"Yes... minimal if possible but there are things that need clear air," I tell her and she smiles as she taps my arm with the papers folded and nods as a silent agreement before motioning for me to take a seat across the table from her, which I do quickly, eager to get this done so that I can return to where I should be.