Sara tugged on the hem of her little red dress. She was nervous. While it was just a simple dinner, she was nervous. At any moment, Carlos could knock on the door and Sara didn't know whether she was ready. Suddenly, it felt like Carlos did have other intentions than she had. He was taking her on an actual date, not just a friendly dinner.
She started bouncing her leg and blinked a couple of times. She had to try and get her act back together before Carlos would knock on the door. She took her phone and dialled David's number. She just needed some mental support to calm down again.
"Pick up, pick up." The phone went to voicemail. "Shoot." She started blinking even faster. The next one she could come up with to help her calm down was either Anthoine or Pierre. But then again, Pierre would first make it worse by teasing her before realising she was actually freaking out. Anthoine would be the better choice in this instance.
"Sara, what is up? You have timed it perfectly, we are just done with the debriefing."
"I need you to make some sense out of me."
"Out of you?" Sara nodded. "Chéri, if you are nodding, I can't see you."
"Yeah." She swallowed. "Please."
"You have the dinner with Carlos right?"
"Yeah."
"Is that why you are freaking out?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"I don't know Thoine! I just am." Anthoine remained silent. "I think Carlos might have other intentions than I do."
"See, you did know, but don't worry about it. If he makes advances, just tell him the truth. You're not ready for anything, you just got out of a serious relationship and you'd like to remain single for a while. At least until you are ready to commit again."
"Do you think he'll understand?"
"I do, as far as I know, Carlos is a very reasonable guy. I got to meet him a couple of times last year, he's a good guy that won't do anything unless you are a hundred per cent sure of it." Sara stopped rapidly blinking as her heartbeat slowed down.
"Thank you Thoine."
"Don't thank me. You know I've got your back."
"Same." Someone knocked on Sara's door. "He's got impeccable timing." She chuckled. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"I do expect a full report of tonight."
"Thoine."
"Right, have fun!" Sara ended the call and walked towards her door. When she opened, it, Carlos stood there, his hand in the air. He had been ready to knock again, just in case Sara hadn't heard him knock the first time. "Someone is a bit impatient." Sara laughed as Carlos lowered his hand.
"Someone took long enough."
"Touché." Sara smiled as she quickly grabbed her purse from the floor beside the door. "I had Anthoine on the phone. Couldn't exactly just hang up on him." Carlos laughed.
"Really? You can't? That explains why Lando keeps yelling at me when we first see each other again after a conversation where I did that." Sara chuckled and shook her head. "Ready?" He held out his arm and Sara hesitantly hooked hers through it. "There is this little restaurant, just a block away, I thought we could go there."
"Sure, I'm not a picky eater, so I don't really care." Carlos laughed.
"Good to know." They walked for five minutes until they got to the hotel Carlos was referring to. It small and cosy, but the smell made Sara's mouth water. It smelled amazing. It was an Italian restaurant – which became apparent because of the several Italian flags throughout the restaurant. They were given a table and they sat down. "So-" Carlos placed his phone face down on the table. "Tell me more about you. You are somehow friends with two drivers, but you have no affinity with the sport itself. How did you do that?" Sara laughed.
"School. Pierre, Anthoine and I were in the same classes when we were teens. I went to races with them back then, but because of circumstances, that stopped about six years ago." Carlos nodded. It didn't take much to realise that those 'circumstances' were not a subject to start about over a first dinner. "But what about you? How did you get involved in the racing business." Sara quickly diverted the conversation away from herself. She used her interviewing skills as she listened to Carlos and it didn't take very long for Sara to realise that Carlos was a real family man with a true heart for the sport and that he thanked his father for it all.
"Do you do any sports?" Sara shrugged.
"Not really. I play badminton about three times a week after work and I work out." Carlos frowned.
"You don't really do sports, but you play badminton three times a week, most people do call that playing sports." Sara chuckled.
"For me, that is doing it every day and sometimes more than once a day. Including competitions."
"And why would that be?"
"Because that used to be what I did. I competed at a high level and it was everything I worked for."
"Why did you quit?"
"I didn't want to, but I had to." Sara played with the cutlery on the table. "I had a couple of returning injuries that kept me from playing pain-free, have fun and actually play at the level I wanted and would be able to without my injuries. It was too frustrating, so I quit. Despite hating it, it did make me happier."
"It must have been hard." Sara nodded.
"It was. It was really unfair as well. One of my best friends at the time was a real talent in her sport as well but she just threw it all away." Sara shook her head. It was still incredibly infuriating to think about how Juliette had behaved as a professional athlete. Sara had wanted nothing more than to be as successful as Juliette and she worked damn hard for it but injuries kept her from it time and time again. On the other hand, Juliette did quite the opposite and still managed to win a gold medal at the European championships.
"While you wanted nothing more but succeed and you were robbed from that opportunity and it was totally out of your control." Sara nodded. Carlos had hit the nail right on the head.
"But Anthoine is a good guy, Pierre is as well." Sara frowned. "Anthoine I know from last year, when I was at Renault, Pierre from my time in the Red Bull family, I even raced twice with him in Toro Rosso." Sara looked amused.
"Really, you were his first teammate in formula one?" The frown returned. "Should have known." She shook her head.
"Why?"
"Because I watched a couple of his races and I most certainly couldn't miss his first. He would have killed me."
"Pierre, kill anyone?"
"Yes. Maybe not everyone, because he has the sweet and innocent image to uphold. He would have totally killed me." They laughed. "All jokes aside, I know I can count on them at all times. And the other way around."
"You seem like you are really good friends."
"We are, even with everything that we have gone through. I love them with all my heart." The food arrived and Sara and Carlos thanked them for their food. "But to get off this subject, and not to get to racing, what's your family like? You've had a brief glimpse into my idiotic family, I have to say I am the slightest bit curious to yours."
The rest of the night, they laughed and talked. They talked about so many subjects that Sara didn't even remember what they had talked about by the end of the night. It felt normal, just like their many talks over the phone.
"I can't breath anymore." Sara wheezed when they stood at the entrance of her hotel. They had sat down on the steps. "Honestly, I am exhausted." She yawned. "It was a very busy day." She placed her hand on Carlos' shoulder and stood up. "Thank you for tonight, I had a lovely night."
"I had so too." Sara smiled at the Spaniard before continuing her way into the hotel. She had to bite the inside of her lip to keep herself from smiling. Even though she didn't want to get too comfortable around Carlos because she was afraid of his intentions but then again, she already was. It just felt good but that was what scared her.
She had felt totally at ease around Noah whenshe was in a relationship with him. That was why she had married him. The comfortlured her in, it gave her peace where her mind sometimes just kept running. It washer source of comfort. She didn't want to make the same mistake all over again.She didn't want to drag Carlos in it as well. Her mistake would involve him aswell, especially if she were to find out it was a mistake. She didn't want tohurt him because she did care for him. In whatever way it was.