Doctor on the grid

19. Call you mine

"Merde," I heard him exhale next to me. I glanced at him, and he gave me a dying look. As he turned back to the others, his expression got a bit softer.

"Salut les gars," he smiled. "Quelle surprise!" he exclaimed, but sure the situation felt a bit awkward.

I bit my lips. Fuck. Our quiet, secret getaway suddenly turned to a welcome party with barbecue and frizzante and surely too much posing for Instagram photos.

The closest stood his little brother, Arthur. Charles often posted pictures with him on his social media, so I easily recognised him. He quickly gave a hug to him.

"Arthur, she is Clara," Charles introduced me. A wide grin appeared on his face immediately.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Arthur," the younger Leclerc held out his hand to shake mine. He had the same adorable accent his brother also had.

"I heard a lot about you," he smirked, his statement made Charles snap his head towards us and turned crimson on the spot.

"Arthur, s'il vous plaît," he begged to him, murmuring. "Nous en avons parlé."

Arthur rolled his eyes and turned back to me.

"Sorry, I guess this surprise party wasn't something you planned for today, right?" He asked, still grinning. "Maybe, if Charles would have been so kind and informed us you're coming, then maybe, I wouldn't arrange all of this," he mocked his older brother, earning a deathly stare again.

"I could still send them away," Arthur grimaced and already turned away to make the announcement.

"No, no there's no need," I grabbed his shoulder. They were already here, there was no point in sending anyone away. He nodded and gave me a hopeful smile.

"Ok then, do you want a beer?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Only a bit of water please."

He hurried away for the drinks and I watched Charles chatting to everyone. They mostly spoke French with each other and no matter Charles tried to switch to English so I could understand them, they tended to return to their mother tongue.

Arthur returned and handed me the water I've asked for. I thanked and tried not to notice he was just about to ask me the big question hanging in the air since we stepped in the flat.

"So, are you like, together now?" He asked casually but his curious eyes gave him away.

I bit my cheek from the inside, and suddenly couldn't answer him.

This little excursion to his home country supposed to be about us finding out the answer to such questions. However, now ten minutes after our arrival, I was already chatting with his brother about our relationship. And that made me quite uneasy.

"Well, it's kind of complicated," I said. That made him smirk whatsoever.

"OK, just checking, you know," he grinned and took a sip from his beer.

Later on Charles introduced me to his friends one by one. It was quite strange since most of them were much younger than me and were eyeing me with funny looks. Charles introduced me as his so called friend, but sure they weren't blind and saw us entering the apartment holding hands earlier, so that raised some unasked questions.

Apart from the chit-chat really didn't know what to do. These kids - because they were kids - seemed to have fun around the house, hitting on the drinks and enjoying the music, chirping in French. I had the honour to watch two friends record a tik tok video dancing together in Charles's helmets. I rolled my eyes and finally decided to make a gin and tonic for myself.