LOVE OR RIDE | LESTAPPEN

Chapter thirty-six - problems with a "boyfriend"

"No."

And a few seconds after his words, there is a knock on the front door. I furrow my eyebrows, glancing at the boy, who shrugs his shoulders and gets out of bed, walking to the hallway. I, meanwhile, slowly get up and put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt. I run my fingers through my hair and curiously walk out of the bedroom. In the living room, Arthur and the boys' mother are sitting on the couch. Charles sits in an armchair, looking at them with a slight smile and they talk quietly.

"Hi Max!" says the woman as she notices me and gets up, walking first to me to greet me.

"Good morning." I smile as she hugs me. I reciprocate, seeing Charles squint his eyes, looking at me.

"Charles told us you had a concussion. How did it happen?" she asks, stepping back.

"He hit himself when he fell down the stairs yesterday." answers Charles for me, and I know why he does it. His mother wouldn't give me a break, talking about responsibility and other things I know.

"You need to take care of yourself." says the woman, looking at me worriedly.

"He's okay now." I reply with a smile and glance at Arthur, who walks up to me. We greet each other, and he smiles with some sort of plan.

"Shall we go to the party? I need to boast that we have a world champion." he says so that no one can hear it. Charles looks at me intently, ignoring his mother, who says something to him. He doesn't know what his brother is proposing to me, but he probably knows him well enough to know it's something stupid.

"I can't, Charles will kill me."

"But slipper!" he suddenly shouts, and everyone shifts their gaze to him. "I didn't say anything." He adds returning to the couch.

"What did he want?" asks my boyfriend as I sit down next to him and kiss him on the cheek. "Don't get cute like that, what did he say?" he moves away, but I catch him around the waist and pull him closer. "Max!"

"Nothing of the sort." I say quietly. "And don't scream, please." I add, trying not to squirm.

"Sorry, I forgot." He says with remorse, looking at my face. "Do you want some medicine?" he adds, to which I deny with a nod.

We spend more than two hours talking with Arthur and the boys' mother. In fact, Charles says more, I stay silent almost the whole time, resting my head against his shoulder and trying not to fall asleep, looking once at him and once at his family. As they were about to leave, I invited them to the next race, which Charles wasn't happy about, because it meant they would be in the Red Bull garage. His mom was overjoyed at the invitation, and Arthur accepted it because he likes to anger his brother, who, though he tried not to show it, was mildly upset.

"Are we going to watch movies?" asks Charles as he closes the door behind his family. Just as I want to answer him, my phone suddenly rings. I take it out of my pocket and, seeing Lando's name on it, quickly answer it.

"What's up?" I ask, even though I have a bad feeling, because he never calls unnecessarily.

"Can you come?" he asks quietly, but I can still hear him crying a moment ago.

"I'll be there in a minute." I say quickly, and he hangs up. "I have to go, Charles." I add, walking toward the hallway.

"I'll drive you, you can't drive."

I glance in his direction with a smile. He didn't ask, he didn't complain, just seeing my face he immediately decided to help me. I don't know what I would do without him beside me. And I do not comprehend how I could live without him. Now I can't imagine going back to an empty house where he won't be there. I have to sell mine. And so we sit at Charles' place.