Here With Me - A Formula 1 Story

Universe

The following day, we both wake up to massive amount of notifications on our phones. From what I can gather from my texts and social media is that photos of Charles and I were published. We pull up twitter to see what the fuss is and are immediately staring at photo after photo of us from yesterday, at the jewelry store and then in the car. Photos of us kissing, like full on kissing where there is no doubt that we are. I glance at Charles to see how he's reacting but am met with a blank face. He's too busy looking at the comments beneath the thread of photos. I don't bother, I just climb out of bed and head into the bathroom. Just as I'm finishing up in the bathroom, Charles walks in holding my ringing phone.

"Hey baby!" I say happily when I see that it's Ezra. He's been staying with Arthur since we've been in Monaco because he didn't want to be around Charles and I, saying that we're 'too loved up'.

"Mama, are you okay? I just saw the photos." He asks sounding worried and I furrow my brows.

"Of course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" I ask with a laugh.

"Because now everyone knows you're dating Charles?"

"Oh, we decided yesterday to go public! So really this worked out perfectly." I tell him and he laughs.

"Well I'm relieved and happy for you!" He tells me and I smile brightly.      

"Thanks baby. I'm happy for me too." I laugh as Charles wraps his arms around me, having listened to my side of the conversation. He starts kissing my neck and I no longer can hear what Ezra is saying.

"Mama! Mama?" I hear him yell and I snap out of it and push Charles away from me.

"Sorry baby, I was distracted..." I trail off as Charles turns on the shower and starts taking his clothes off.

"Oh god, I know what that means. I'll talk to you later Mama. Love you!" He tells me and hangs up before I can respond.

I set my phone down on the vanity and remove my clothes, joining Charles in the shower. For the next hour, we make sure that we're extra clean and very satisfied. The rest of the morning, we catchup on responding to our friends who have asked us about the photos, letting them all know that we are officially going public. 

Later on in the afternoon, I start curating an Instagram post to officially make it official that we're together but I decide I'm going to have some fun with it. My plan is to have a photo dump of different photos over the last two months that I've taken when we've been together, but with photos where you can't really see our faces and then one of the last photos will be obvious that it's Charles and then the last photo will be us kissing and I'll caption it with song lyrics to Universe by Kelsea Ballerini. Before I post it I show Charles to make sure he's okay with it, because there's no way I'll post anything unless he's fine with it. It's his reputation on the line, not mine. 

"Are you sure you want to post that?" He asks as his eyes furrow. My stomach falls by his reaction and I grab my phone from his hand and stare down at the post. 

"I was sure, but it seems like you don't want me to, so I won't." I tell him as I delete the draft so it can't be posted. He starts to say something but I turn away from him to head to his bedroom. He grabs my arm and pulls me back to him, grabbing my face in his hands. 

"I'm just trying to protect you." He whispers as he tries to get me to look at him. My eyes snap to his then, I see sincerity in them but also something else, trepidation and it's the first time I realize that he may not want people to find out who I am. That he might be ashamed of me and my past. 

"I know." I whisper back with a sad smile, and push away from him once more. This time he lets me go. 

Once inside of his room, I head to his closet where my clothes are now hanging and I can't help but laugh about how I've just made myself at home here. Most of these clothes aren't even mine really, they're ones that he bought me. Beautiful clothes that I absolutely love, and would have chosen for myself but they don't feel like mine because I didn't pay for them. I realize in this very moment why he's probably been buying me so many things...so that the world sees someone who is good enough to be with him, because my wardrobe before him was definitely not up to his standards.