No strings attached

6.

Once again, a couple of days passed. The weekend flew by, I mostly worked and tried to catch up on my classes.
Even though I hated to admit it, I also checked the F1 race, just because I wanted to see how good Lando was, but to my surprise he wasn't fighting in the lead at all. He was at the back of the grid.
I never really followed the sport that much, I only knew Charles Leclerc, but everyone knew about him who lived in Monaco.

"Are we going out tonight? On a Wednesday?" Kara frowned as she looked at the dress I was wearing. "It's Josh's birthday" I explained as I grabbed my heels and sat down on the kitchen counter.
"Oh can I come with you? I need to get drunk" she just found out her long time boyfriend was cheating on her for the past couple of months. She desperately needed to get drunk and get out of the apartment. "Sure" I smiled. Josh wouldn't mind at all, he liked to be the centre of attention.
I was happy she wanted to get out, she refused to come out of the apartment for the last few days. She was afraid she would bump into him. I was hoping for his sake that we wouldn't bump into him tonight.

"This is a fancy club" Kara looked at me as we were both standing in front of it. I knew that look on her face, she was thinking about how we wouldn't be able to buy a drink, not even a little one.
"Then we will find a way to not spend any money" I laughed as I grabbed her hand and walked in the club. It was crazy packed, very unusual for a normal Wednesday night.
After we pushed a few people away, we found Josh and his friends. "Hi Joshy, happy birthday" I said as I wrapped my arms around him and kissed his cheek.
Kara did the same, they knew each other because he crashed at our place for a couple of weeks when he broke up with his boyfriend.
We were all really close since that day.

"It's crazy busy" I yelled in his ear because the music was so loud. "There are some famous people there" he yelled as he pointed at the other side of the club. That part of the club was a little higher than the rest of it so we had a nice view of them.
"Wait.." Josh said as he looked at them. I knew exactly what he was gonna say. "Isn't that the cute guy from the store" he immediately looked at me.
Monaco was a small place, but what are the chances he would be partying here as well, on a Wednesday?
"There is our way to free drinks" Kara laughed as she put her arm around me. I sighed, I used to use guys to get free drinks all the time, I don't know why, but it just felt wrong this time.
"C'mon Aimée" she pushed me a little. "I'm thirsty and he owes you for not using his card" she said as if it was the most normal thing to use a strangers card.
"Okay fine, but you know the plan, right?" I looked at her and she immediately nodded. We used to do this almost every night.
You don't walk to them, you don't talk to them first, you don't look at them. You get close enough, but not too close.
Let them notice you first, or make them think you didn't notice them atleast.

We pushed through the crowd and started dancing just a little bit away from them. Kara was the spotter this time, she used to look at them from time to time to see if they noticed us.
After a little while she danced closer to me. "He's looking" she whispered in my ear. I counted to ten and turned my head to him.
He was indeed looking at us, he smiled as he gestured us to come to them. I grabbed Kara's hand and walked with her to them.

"Fancy seeing you here again" he leaned closer to me as he put his hand on my back. "Yeah, I didn't even notice you were here too" I lied. "How was Australia?" I didn't really mean the race itself, but Australia as a whole.  I'd love to go there someday.
"Let's not talk about that" he shrugged it off. "Hi, I'm Lando" he looked at Kara, who was standing next to me. "Kara, I'm her best friend" she introduced herself.
"So what are you guys drinking?" he asked. Kara immediately looked at me with a smirk on her face.
Our plan worked again.

After he paid for our drinks and we danced a little bit. I put my hand on his shoulder. "We should go back, it's my friends birthday" I said as I pointed somewhere in Josh's direction.
I didn't come here to dance with Lando, I came here to have fun with Josh.
He nodded understandingly. I don't think Kara was very pleased as I grabbed her arm and pulled her after me.
"You could've asked for one more drink" Kara sighed. She was definitely trying to fix her heartbreak by drinking a lot.
"I'll buy you a drink, what do you want?" I asked. I would rather have her happy drunk than sad sober. "Straight vodka pleaseeee" she laughed.

I made my way to the bar and ordered a drink for her and myself as well. Just as I wanted to pay the bartender shook his head. "It's already covered" he pointed at Lando, who was talking and dancing with his friends.
"Thanks" I said as I grabbed my drinks.
Did he really cover our bill for the rest of the night?

I didn't mention it to Kara, but I couldn't stop looking at Lando and he looked at me a few times too.
What were his intentions here?