Come Back...Be Here - Charles Leclerc

Chapter 146: End of the season

🎶 Lonely (with benny blanco) — Justin Bieber, benny blanco 🎶

Charles POV

The end of the season was finally near and I was just counting down the days for it to be over. It had been, frankly said, the worst year of my life, and that means a lot given how many bad things I already had had to endure in my lifetime. But being so close to a championship and losing out was just horrible, but what was even worse was losing the love of my life over that. I had tried to reach out a few times, but apparently she had changed her phone number. Her socials had all disappeared too and from the people she was close to in the Paddock also no one seemed to have heard from her. I was devastated, I couldn't even find the words for how shitty I had treated her, my Mum was so disappointed when I had to tell her how we had broken up.

My life was just spiralling, I tried to distract myself with the company of other girls, not that it worked, so I just went out with new ones. It was easy to find a girl to spend two or three hours with, as most of them were throwing themselves at me, but I was embarrassed to admit that I had even hired escorts at some points. I was away most of the time anyways, but when I was in my apartment in Monaco, depression hit me and I didn't want to be alone. Not like I ever did more than talking to them, I couldn't get it up anymore, except for when I was alone in a room, thinking about my beautiful ex girlfriend.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Pierre continued talking to me about his amazing new girlfriend Kika, with whom he had gone public in the Paddock this weekend. We were waiting for the driver's parade to start before the last race here in Abu Dhabi and I couldn't care less about it, but I still acted interested as I had nothing better to do anyways. Suddenly Max walked up to us and fist bumped Pierre before turning to me, saying: "Ha! You little rascal, you were keeping her hidden from all of us!!"
I looked at him confusedly: "Sorry, what?"
"Mary, mate! I'm so happy you guys got back together, Heaven knows she is the best thing that ever happened to you" Max said and hit my arm.
Now also Pierre looked confused.
"Erm, why would you think we have gotten back together?" I asked.
"Oh, don't be shy! Kelly met her on Friday before flying out here at the supermarket!"
Mary? In Monaco? Grocery shopping? Suddenly, it dawned on me and I asked Max: "Which supermarket?"
"At Marché U, why are you acting so strange?" he replied.

Marché U. Just a few blocks away from Lando's apartment. Lando, who had broken up with Luisa just shortly after I had broken up with Mary. Lando, who had always had a crush on her, as far as I could tell. When I saw him smugly smiling in his ugly orange polo just a few feet away from me, I saw red, and by that, I didn't mean Carlos who was standing next to him, but my rage taking over.

"You asshole!!" I shouted and went over to him to push him.
"Whoa, what the fuck is wrong with you?" he dared to ask me.
"You have been fucking the love of my life behind my back and acted always so innocent when her name dropped. I knew you were fucking immature, but going after your mate's girl is just tasteless." I said angrily, trying not to cause too much of a scene as a lot of cameras were around. Netflix would love this kind of drama.
"I don't even know what the heck you are talking about but to still talk about Mary in this way shows that you're the immature one, for letting her go the way you did" he snarled and went away, making sure to bump my shoulder.

Third Person POV

Lando, still confused about Charles' behaviour, walked up to George who was chatting with his ex-teammate Nicky and Valtteri Bottas.
"Ok, you know more than you want to admit, so why the fuck is Charles walking up to me, asking me why I'm sleeping with Mary?" Lando asked George.
"Hey, why are you sleeping with Mary? Charles is back with her, I thought?" Max asked, having heard what the conversation was about and promptly turning around to participate in it.
George put his head in his hands and sighed before saying: "Mary moved to Monaco in September, she took up a job at a consulting firm that was offered to her just a few days after the break-up. She has been trying to live off-the-radar as much as possible, but I guess her secret's out now..."
"Mary lives in Monaco? Why didn't she say anything?" Lando asked disappointedly. He had grown very fond of Mary over the time, but a romantic thought had never crossed his mind as she was clearly Charles' girl.
"She just wasn't ready. She's still coping with the breakup and has a lot of responsibility at work and didn't want to have some extra personal problems loaded on her plate... The firm is putting out a press statement about her work next week, she would have told you then." George explained.
"Wow. That's really brave of her to move to a country where her ex-boyfriend is basically the starboy. And to deliver at work. She's a really great person." Max said, deep in thought.
"Definitely more mature than that knobhead over there" Valtteri stated, pointing over to Charles.

Mary POV

George Russell
Your secret's out. Be prepared for Lando to knock on every door in Monaco, ready to find you after he's come back from Abu.

I sighed, but also smiled, when I read George's message. In some way, I was relieved that it was out now and I could start living a normal life. I hoped that Lando, Max, Kelly and the others still wanted to hang out with me occasionally, I would understand if they were disappointed about my behaviour.

As I still had everyone's phone number in my contacts, I decided to take the first step and texted Lando:

Lando Norris
Before you try knocking on every door, trying to find me in Monaco: Meet up at Giacomo for a 🍕 when you're back?