Sara was busy finishing up an interview for the upcoming issue of Vogue. It was a boring process of taking out mistakes in grammar and making everything so it would be a smooth reading experience. She was focused on trying to make it perfect and in doing so, she was biting her lip in concentration.
Carlos smiled. She was so in her element. People were walking up to her, asking her things which she patiently answered. She laughed at something Camille said and then turned back to the screen of her PC.
"Can I help you?" A young man walked up to Carlos.
"No, I'm here for Sara."
"Do you want me to get her?" Carlos shook her head, making the young man frown.
"It's funny to see this side of her, I'll go to her in a couple of minutes. I just never see her this way."
"If you need anything, just let me know." Carlos thanked him and looked back at Sara. She was none the wiser to the fact that he was standing there. When she got a text, she frowned and looked around the office, suddenly seeing a man standing at the entrance, a bouquet of flowers in his hand.
"Carlos?" Camille immediately turned around as well. It was indeed Carlos. Sara jumped up and ran into Carlos' arms. Since she had broken off contact with Noah, she had not seen Carlos anymore. They had both been too busy with work in different countries so had no way to see each other face to face instead of through a screen. "I missed you," Sara whispered, breathing in his cologne as she buried her face into his shoulder.
"I missed you too," Carlos whispered. Both forgot they were standing in a full office space and people could see them.
"They are all starting, aren't they?" Sara asked and Carlos nodded. "Great." Sara pulled back. "Guys, this is Carlos, my boyfriend." A couple of people cheered, knowing very well that Sara hadn't had the best of luck when it came to finding someone to love.
"I'm happy to finally meet you, Carlos." Camille grinned. "It took long enough." She eyed her best friend and then sweetly smiled at Carlos.
"I'm sorry we were barely in France." Sara sassed back. "Just during our vacation we were here and I wasn't going to go to the office voluntarily during these days." Camille rolled her eyes but grinned.
"Carlos, don't you work in England?" Carlos nodded slowly, not knowing what Camille was up to. "We should totally go on a double date then. I've been warning Andrea from the start that we were going to go on a double date with Sara and whoever she would date when she would get a man."
"So she is mentally prepared for Sara." Sara gasped and hit Carlos against his arm playfully. "I'm sorry, I just have to be sure."
"No, to be prepared for me I guess," Camille admitted. "Trust me, I am the one who ships you most. I don't think there is anyone else who ships the two of you more." Carlos laughed loudly.
"You should have heard her over time. She kept whining when I would finally get it through that thick skull of mine to see that you loved me and I loved you."
"It took you a while." Sara raised her eyebrow and leaned away from Carlos.
"Excuse me? I thought you didn't mind the little waiting you had to do." Carlos laughed and pulled Sara close to his chest.
"I didn't." Camille laughed.
"You know what would be adorable? An interview with the both of you, how you met thanks to the magazine and how you are doing now, half a year after you met for the very first time. After all, you are a bit of a celebrity couple and you are Vogue Paris' Belgian darling." Camille winked. "Could I book you for an interview?" Sara looked slightly panicked. There had been so many Instagram and Twitter accounts that suddenly shipped her and Carlos and had started digging up things of her past, including Juliette that she didn't exactly feel like exposing anything else in an interview.
"Camille, no matter how fun this is, I was actually here to kidnap Sara for a day." Sara looked back at her desk hesitantly as her screen was still displaying the article. She wasn't sure. At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to go with Carlos, to be with him, but also to get the hell away from Camille who was already getting so excited with the idea of interviewing her best friend and her boyfriend, Carlos Sainz, the McLaren driver in Formula One. On the other hand, she doubted whether she could get away with another day from work. "Come on, you know you want to." Sara sighed and turned back to Carlos.
"You are going to get me fired for the number of days I've skipped work or worked from wherever I was at that moment." The smug smile Sara had come to love so much returned.
"Then I could drag you everywhere I go, that is not such a big problem right?"
"Honestly, you are insane." Sara laughed and walked to her desk where she put all her things in her bag. "Shall we then?" Sara asked, her cheeky smile matching Carlos'. Carlos took her bag and together, they left the office.
"It was lovely to meet you, Camille, I'm looking forward to the double date!" And with that, they descended down the stairs and out of sight. "I was thinking of visiting Paris like a pair of tourists."
"Eifel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, those kinds of things?" Carlos nodded. "Eat croissants, macarons?"
"I love it when you say French words." Sara looked are Carlos questioningly. "I don't understand it when you speak French, but you sound so carefree. And that adorable accent when you speak English." Sara blushed as she pulled Carlos in the right direction.
"We always let Juliette do the English presentations because we had too much of an accent in our opinion. I've come to learn to hide it more as I learned English more but she just spoke it so much more fluently than we did. So it was up to her." It had become easier for Sara to talk about Juliette since the fight. She now knew why Juliette had left and though she had still not fully forgiven her, she was holding less of a grudge. Sara had even come to accept a possible relationship between Pierre and Juliette. It had even gotten to the point where she was furious at the parties that kept them apart.
Pierre was already having a hard enough year without being forced to break up with Juliette. Even Juliette was having it hard enough after Anthoine's death. And she hadn't made it any easier for her at all.
Sara and Carlos walked towards Carlos' car to drive to a better place to get to all the nice places Paris had to offer.
"We should get something to eat. I am starving. We could have a picnic or something? Get some small treats and just chill, look at the Eifel tower." Carlos agreed and together they walked to a bakery where they got some treats. On a market, they got some fruit and then sat down on the big grass field at the bottom of the Eifel tower.
"I'm happy you are here." Sara smiled at Carlos. "I love you."
"I love you too." He smiled. "It's a shame my plane for Mexico leaves tomorrow afternoon." Sara pouted.
"I won't see you for weeks. I can't leave work again. A day is fine but not weeks." Sara took a macaroon and took a bite. "I don't know what I'd do without you for weeks. In the last half-year, the longest we have been apart was two weeks. Not four. It is a whole bloody month." Carlos chuckled.
"I love you, we will just have to call."
"You are in a different time zone the entire bloody time."
"I am most of the time in a different time zone."
"But that is never more than one or two hours." Carlos put aside the treats amidst them and pulled Sara against him.
"It's going to be over before you know it. But I will need your support. I'm not going to do as well without your support."
"Now you are talking to me like I am a five years old." Carlos laughed. "But fine. I will support you even though I want you to stand here with me. So I can cuddle you." Sara looked up at the Eifel tower.
"I'm not feeling like going up there. I love it from the ground. I don't love it from up there." Carlos laughed.
"I get the feeling you've been there and didn't like it." Sara shook her head.
"Nope, I didn't."
"We can stay here for a little." Carlos looked at Sara. "I don't care what we do, just as long as I get to do it with you, I am fine." They relaxed for a little longer on the grass and then decided to go for a walk around the city before they got back to Sara's apartment for the night. They settled in in bed and discussed their upcoming weeks. They planned when they would be able to call and when they wouldn't. Just in case they wanted a spontaneous call, but didn't want to disturb each other's sleep.
"I already hate it." Sara said when she looked at her agenda on her phone. I can't wait until you are back home." Carlos chuckled. Back home, it was going to be somewhere in Europe but both knew very well that home for the both of them had suddenly turned into wherever the both of them were in Europe, whether it was London, Paris, Spain or Belgium.