MOTH TO A FLAME ☆ CARLOS SAINZ JR

ix. love

MADRID SPAIN
MARCH 2019

song of the chapter:
you're in love - taylor swift

Sofía had gotten the call merely half an hour ago and she was already running down the apartment complex, searching desperately for number 43. Her feet were pounding against the carpeted floors of her boyfriends complex, it was hardly her first time being here but it was the only time she wasn't being lead upstairs by Carlos.

Her knuckles rap incessantly against the wooden door, not letting up for a single second as the man inside rattled off multiple Spanish curse words at whoever it was at his door right now. Her hand was about to make contact with the door for about the hundredth time before it finally swings open and Sofía is met with the sight of her disheveled boyfriend.

Carlos' eyebrows furrow. "Fía?"

But her name barely leaves his mouth before he's getting tackled into a tight hug. Carlos lightly chuckles, still completely confused on why his girlfriend had arrived for their date night two hours before she was supposed to. Her purse and guitar case were thrown carelessly in his entryway as soon as the door swung open.

"Is everything okay?" he asks tentatively, still holding her close as she bounces in his embrace.

"No, everything is definitely not okay!" Sofía exclaims, pulling back with her palms pressed against his cheeks. The bewilderedness within the man in front of her only grows, as the bright smile on her face doesn't twitch, fully contradicting her statement.

Carlos pulls her into his apartment by the waist, shutting the door behind her as she carelessly throws her bag off to the side. "Are you going to explain what's going on or...?"

The question only seems to excite the woman even more, her bouncing turning into full on shaking due to the pure excitement she was feeling at the moment. He had to admit, her emotions were definitely rubbing off on him now, the food preparations he had been making thrown to the furthest corner of his mind.

Sofía takes a deep breath, as though she were grounding herself at the news she was about to break. "Oh my God, okay. Okay. So, I was at Nora's for my morning shift, right? My phone rang, and my phone never rings when I'm at work because who the hell even calls me? Anyways, I pick up and there's this random lady on the other end and...I sold a song! I sold a fucking song!"

A gasp immediately escapes Carlos' lips as he pulls back into a hug, lightly twirling her around due to his own excitement now. "Fía that's amazing!"

"Guess to fucking who?" her hands were now on his shoulders shaking them tightly as he begins to back into his living room.

"Who?" Carlos immediately echoes, the smile on his girlfriends face dropping but only for a minute fraction.

"You're supposed to guess you big party pooper, but oh, my God, I'm too excited to be mad at you for it right now." Sofía lightly giggles, the sight of her pure elation amusing Carlos as her feet keep her bouncing in place. "Selena. Fucking. Gomez!"

Sofía lets out an over exaggerated gasp, putting her hands on her head as she steps away from him slightly, letting him bask in as much of the shock as she had. She truly could not comprehend how her song, her writing, had managed to reach someone so big in the industry.

Her grandmothers prayers were truly doing their job.

"Sofía are you being serious?" Carlos questions, laughing in disbelief.