"What is up with you?" All afternoon long, Sara had been brooding and Carlos started to get annoyed with the bouncing of her leg and the rapid blinking. "Sara?" Sara looked up at Carlos who sat in front of her in the hotel restaurant. "What is wrong?" Sara quickly shook her head but Carlos wasn't going to drop it.
"It's nothing, Carlos."
"You are blinking too fast for it to be nothing." Sara blushed. In the short time, she knew Carlos, he had been able to figure out how to see when something was bothering her. Something Noah hadn't been able to in at least three years. After that, he did figure it out but not by the subtle hints, no by the more visible ones. Carlos picked the most subtle hint there was to see that something was wrong with Sara.
"I ran into Juliette," Sara muttered and looked down at her plate. "It all seemed fine for a little, but-" Carlos reached over the table and took one of Sara's hands, gently caressing her knuckles. "then she told me she and Anthoine still talked." Tears started to pool in Sara's eyes. She had been able to hold them in for the entirety of the afternoon but it broke her to hear that Juliette had deemed Anthoine good enough to regain touch with and not her.
"And she never reached out to you." Carlos looked at the girl in front of him. For the first time, he saw her broken. She still missed Juliette and her sudden departure still broke her.
"I trusted her with everything, she was my absolute best friend, no disrespect to Anthoine and Pierre, whom I love but Juliette and I just hit it off. And then we didn't." Carlos remained silent. There was more and he needed to be patient for Sara to tell him. He didn't want her to shut down again. "Talking to her today felt so good but then I was reminded of what she did and I got so angry." Sara shook her head. "I still blame her for breaking what we had. We were in a rocky place but we would have made it through if she wouldn't just have left!" The anger started to rise in her again. "I know I made mistakes in our friendship but she never even bothered to give me a second chance."
"Let's go for a walk." Carlos stood up from the table and with a gentle tug on Sara's hand, he ushered her to get up as well. "I think you could do with some fresh air." Together, with Sara clamping onto Carlos's hand for support, they walked out of the hotel where the sun was slowly setting.
"Carlos?" Carlos looked down at Sara, who looked small and fragile in her current state. "What does Anthoine have that I don't that made her come back to him?"
"Don't say that." He stopped walking, stroking Sara's cheek and pushing back some hair. "You are perfect, just the way you are. It is Juliette's mistake for never reaching out and it is her loss, not yours."
"Then why is she fine with us not talking in any way and I'm not?"
"Because you have a way too big of a heart. Honestly, I have never seen more compassion in one place than when Lando, you, Anthoine and I had coffee. Your entire group of friends is so kind and loving, it doesn't surprise me that you all still miss her and it doesn't surprise me that Anthoine forgave her when she replied to him."
"But I'm still so angry," Sara whispered, looking down at her feet as her rapid blinking caused the first tears to drop.
"But you would forgive her the second she would say sorry." Carlos placed his fingers under Sara's chin, gently lifting it so he could look her in the eye. "And none of it is your fault Sara, whatever you did, wasn't the cause of Juliette's departure. I refuse to believe that."
"I was way too harsh. I should have listened instead of trying the tough love approach. Whatever was going on with her, I just should have listened instead of pushing her away."
"I'm sure you didn't push her away Sara. If I need to, I will go straight to Mercedes right now to confirm it." Sara chuckled and for the first time since opening up to Carlos, she truly looked him in the eye. They stood there until Sara stood on her tippy toes and gently placed her lips against Carlos'. She needed more of the comfort she got whenever she was around Carlos. She wanted to never let go of him at that point. He was so kind, calm, and caring that she would never want to let him get away.
"Sara." Carlos set a small step back. "You know how I feel-" He carefully thought over every word. He saw Sara's state and despite seeing that through the need for comfort, there was more in the soft kiss she had just given him, he couldn't do it. "I don't think right now is the best moment for that." He breathed, watching Sara's facial expressions carefully.
"I am so sorry." She whispered trying to set a step back herself but she was pulled back into Carlos' arms before she could even do so.
"Don't be. It's just, your timing is a bit off."
Xxx
"Come on." Sara stood next to Pierre who was looking at the screens just as nervously as she was.
"I still hate I have to skip most of the race. Two laps and then I'm gone. I'll be back for the final lap. I hope." Sara took Pierre's hand and gently squeezed it. They were all nervous.
The first lap was chaos, people were shooting off the track left right and centre, luckily without any crashes but through all of the chaos, Anthoine had gotten away from first place brilliantly to extend his lead to half a second already.
"He got away good at least. I'll keep you up to date." Pierre was already being called by his team for him to come.
"Thanks, Sara." Pierre walked away and Sara settled down on one of the chairs as she kept staring at the screen, flowing the interval and the pink car closely.
Aitken didn't take long to drive back to Anthoine's gearbox trying to see where he could get by. Yet every single time, Aitken wasn't close enough to get by. Soon Aitken was over a second behind and Sara could breathe for a little. No more DRS.
Things got even better when Correa overtook Aitken in lap six, driving both of them to the edge, giving Anthoine another second advantage.
Sara: He's just gaining and gaining and gaining. He's in lap eight now and has 2.3 seconds
Sara: It's down to 1.8 now, but the gap to Zhou behind Correa is 2.2 seconds
Pierre: How far are they?
Sara: Lap 12
Sara: Never mind, it is up to two seconds again.
Sara bounced her knee up and down. The race was halfway over and Anthoine was still in front with just around a two-second lead. It went up and down a bit, depending on where on track they were, but when they crossed the finish line, it was always around two seconds.
Pierre: I'm waiting for an update
Sara: It's been four laps. The gap is 2.3, he just put in the fastest lap. The gap to Zhou behind is 2.1
Pierre: Call me when it is lap nineteen. I'll sprint down.
Sara: Yellow flag, Schumacher is off the road, he had a puncture and pitted but is off now. Just in sector 2.
Pierre: No safety car?
Sara: Nope. Just add sector one to it.
Pierre: Did it change the gap?
Sara: Yes, with five laps to go the gap is 2.6
Sara dialled Pierre's number when she saw the counter up to nineteen out of twenty-one.
"Pierre, the nineteenth lap is underway." Sara didn't even get an answer. All she heard was the beep indicating Pierre had ended the call and feet rushing down the stairs.
"Where is he at?"
"Two point two ahead of Correa and a yellow flag because of Tatiana." Pierre grabbed Sara's hand and rushed her to the pit wall where they climbed on the side and watched as Anthoine drove over the finish for the final time, winning his home race.
Sara and Pierre cheered loudly. They were happy for Anthoine, he had deserved nothing less than this. They jumped down and hugged each other tightly.
"Let's go to the podium." They ran down the pitlane again to stand at the fences to watch Anthoine drive his car in front of the number one sign before he would walk up to the podium. Sara was beaming her heart racing as she watched Anthoine walking up onto the podium. Only then did Anthoine notice two of his best friends standing at the side of the podium and he grinned. They were surrounded by his team but just beside the team, there was one woman in particular that caught his eye. They were about two meters apart but none of them noticed. Anthoine sighed. If only the three of them could stand together like they had done so many times in the past. If only it could be the three of them together and not Pierre and Sara and Juliette two meters away.