Fairly Local → Pierre Gasly

Vi| Navigating

给我一些建议

(If you have no internet and cannot read the
picture in this chapter, I'll place it in the comments)

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ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : Navigating

"Give me some advice

I am wasting all this time."

She had always viewed the world through a lens of cautious realism, attributing her lack of optimism to a series of heartbreaks and the false promises depicted in romantic movies. With four relationships under her belt (albeit two of them being teenage flings), she had never experienced a happy ending.

Her first serious relationship was with an Italian man called Benito, whom she met while playing in his band when she was first starting out. Mai warned him of her health issues and he always waved them off, saying they weren't a problem. He had his issues with drinking but he was kind to Mai.

Then one day, he realised that her health issues were inconvenient to him and he didn't want to deal with them. He wanted to spend all day drinking in loud bars while dancing around with Mai, to going to theme parks or driving on his motorbike. Mai didn't want nor could she do any of that.

That's where the lack of interest in relationships really started. She wanted to give up right then and there because Mai wasn't emotionally strong.

Her second relationship had ended in a better way but her ex-girlfriend had still left her when she needed her the most. Annabella just had strong dreams and not even Mai would make her put them on hold, but Mai could up and leave her own dreams either nor could she physically uproot all her medical necessities. Hence, her second broken heart.

So Mai gave up.

She only accepted Pierre's coffee offer in the form of thanking him for their...incident.

Mai didn't sit waiting for his message, she didn't really think about it at all. She had things to be doing and she got along with them just fine. Sadly, Mai found that Milan was busy for the weekend, more than usual, no doubt from the race in Monza.

"That is all for today," Mai spoke to her students in fluent Italian.  "If you need help with practice, you can email me or I'm in room 2 on Tuesdays at 3pm. Ciao."

"Ciao, Signorina Chen!" The student thanked her as they left the room.

She enjoyed her weekly lessons with the small group. There were only around ten of them, who were a little more behind than others but wanted to try. They were some of the most hardworking people that she knew and they deserved all of the help.

As the final student was packing up their things, Popcorn began to sit in front of Mai and place his paw out like he was trained to do. If Mai didn't listen, he would jump up her but Mai would always listen — there was no point in risking an episode.

By now, the final student had left the room so Mai sat down on the floor while Popcorn lay over her legs. She hated that it happened but there was nothing she could do at current times apart from let it happen. This time, she was only out for just over a minute.

"Thanks, Popcorn, good boy," Mai praised once she gained function back, giving him a treat.

Mai carefully and slowly stood up again, thankful no one else was using the room for another ten minutes. She began to pack all her things despite the slightly sick feeling and made her way out of the building.

Mai found herself a reasonable distance from her house, unable to drive for obvious reasons, and had to rely on taking the bus home. As she settled into her seat, she gazed out the window, observing the world roll by in a mesmerizing blur. The only interruption to her thoughts was the buzzing of her phone, alerting her to a new message.

Mai bit her lip so hard she thought she nearly drew blood. If she was honest, she never messaged people over normal text let alone social media. She wasn't sure if she was being too abrupt and she stuck to the phrases she knew would come out a certain way since she still was learning the languages every day.

"This is our stop," Mai mumbled to her service dog as she stood up to leave the bus.

This was stupid. She shouldn't be having coffee with him — she didn't know his true intentions and May didn't want to lead the poor guy on. That would be wrong and Mai didn't want to cause any problems for the man.

Then again, Mai did need more friends.

Perhaps one coffee couldn't hurt and she'd just have to make her intentions very clear. Surely, friend-zoning someone couldn't be that difficult?

Wait, was that too forward when they'd only met once? Maybe she should wait if he asks her to coffee a second time...or would that be leading him on even more.

Mai didn't know what she was supposed to be doing anymore.

She hated it. She hated all the overthinking was causing her more stress than needed and in the back of her mind, Mai Chen was aware that's all it was — overthinking.

It's just coffee. She thought. Just coffee.