The next few days at university went in quite quickly, mainly introductions to the staff and getting used to the environment. All I kept thinking about was seeing Charles and seeing him race in person. He had been incredibly busy this week with radio and television interviews, everyone wanting to speak to him about his home race which meant we hadn't spent any time together.
It was now Thursday and Emma and I had planned to go shopping so she could be looking her best in the pits tomorrow. I lay in bed scrolling for a while before Emma joined me to do the same, still looking at outfits for inspiration for tomorrow.
We eventually got out of bed and started to get ready for the day, I picked out a light outfit as the heat from the sun made it unbearable to wear any heavy clothes.
After half an hour of Emma deciding what shoes she wanted to wear we finally left the apartment and started our day. Getting ready and walking in to town had really worked up an appetite so we stopped to have breakfast before starting shopping. We chose a little cafe with outdoor seating and ordered our drinks and pastries from the waitress that were soon brought out. I was enjoying my muffin when Emma gasped and I looked at her confused. Before I knew what was happening she was shouting Charles' name. He lifted his head to acknowledge what he thought was a fan excited to see him before clicking who it was that was shouting for him, making his way over to our table.
"Fate still managing to bring us together I see" I laughed, giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek
"Carlos and I were just about to go on our track walk" he mentioned as another figure appeared behind him, presumably Carlos
"Hi I'm Carlos" he introduced himself
"Jennifer" I replied giving him a hug "and this is my friend Emma"
"Nice to meet you both" he nodded in our directions "we better get going mate" he said to Charles, aware of the team that were standing waiting on the pair of them
"Enjoy yourself" I hugged Charles goodbye "you already know every square inch of that track so it'll be a breeze" I laughed trying to pick Charles' spirit up as I could tell he was nervous for this one. I sat back down watching him walk away, giving him a wave when he turned back around to do the same. He kept giving me butterflies and I honestly felt like a little girl having her first crush again.
Emma and I finished our breakfast, paid our bill and headed to the shops ready to hurt the bank account a little. We shopped for hours and ended up laden with bags, needing to get a taxi back to the apartment. We slumped down on the couch after getting changed into comfy clothes, both way too tired to move to do anything.
"Lucino's" I suggested after a few minutes of lying on the couch
"You read my mind" Emma chuckled
We forced ourselves to go downstairs and got our pizza before returning to our place on the couch. Our plan of action was to have our food, have a nap then have our usual fashion show of new buys to plan our outfits for the weekend.
Emma went first, showcasing her many buys of her spree before settling on her two outfits. It was then my turn to do the same, pulling everything out of the bags and matching it with my wardrobe. I decided to keep my FP outfit quite casual because I thought there would be a lot of sitting about in the pits as Charles did his thing, and picked a cute summer dress for the race.
We both called it a night, we had to get up early for our online lecture before practice.
- -
I had to drag myself out of bed the next morning to go for a shower before our uni work started. I blow dried and straightened my hair, setting up my laptop at my desk/makeshift dressing table and signed on to the lecture. Managing to multitask, the tutor was speaking in the background about root canal treatments as I was doing my makeup. The lecture finally finished and I got changed before going to check on Emma, luckily she had the same idea as me and was ready as well. We took some photos for Instagram, thinking of captions, to-ing and fro-ing before finalising the posts.
jenwalker
Liked by charles_leclerc and 103 others
Practice makes perfect 🏎
We went downstairs and were met with stewards, sending pedestrians in the opposite direction from where we needed to go. We were going to be late because of the redirection so I text Charles to keep him updated.
Jen
We're going to be a few minutes late, been diverted
Seems that there's some big event going on today 🤷🏼♀️
Charles
😂😂
See you soon x
We eventually made it to the gates and scanned our passes and at the same time saw Pierre coming through the gates as well. He hugged us both and thankfully showed us to the motorhomes that we definitely would not have found without him. We wished him luck on his practice today and knocked on the door of the Ferrari motorhome, the door opened and we were met by Carlos who welcomed us in.
"Charles, your girlfriend and her friend are here" he called out
"No no, I'm not his girlfriend, we're just-" I began
"Courting apparently" Charles interrupted as Emma and Carlos started laughing
"You told him about courting" Emma got out through her laughs
"Right it's not that funny, calm down" I shoved her arm
"What is courting?" Carlos asked still confused
"It's like the part of a relationship before dating" Emma explained
"Exactly, that's the best way to explain it" I added
The four of us sat chatting before going over to the pit lane, Charles got us both a seat in the garage with a view of the screens whilst he did his last minute preparations before setting off for some practice laps. We watched all the cars do their laps for FP1 and 2 and Charles was wheeled back in to the garage before jumping out of the car coming over to us. I handed him a towel as he pulled me in to his side giving me a kiss on the top of my head.
"Do you want to go meet some of the other drivers" Charles asked the question Emma had been dying to hear all afternoon and we walked to the pit next door which happened to be Red Bull.
Charles greeted Max and Sergio before introducing us to the drivers, giving each of them a small hug, Emma lingering a little bit longer on her hug with Max. They all spoke about their laps as Emma and I listened intently, most of the technicalities going over our heads.
"We're going out after the race on Sunday, you're all welcome to come" Max said, grabbing our attention
"That sounds nice, we've only got lectures on Monday so that won't be a problem" I replied as Charles winked at me
"Are you both coming tomorrow?" Max asked, making direct eye contact with Emma
"Couldn't get any passes for qualifying mate" Charles replied for us
"Ah you don't have the Championship charm yet" Max joked with him as they both laughed "Well it was nice meeting you both and I'll see you on Sunday" he smiled at Emma before we made our way out of the garage.
We spent the rest of the afternoon with Pierre and Charles as they did some press and got food in the hospitality suite. Eventually everyone had to leave as the boys had an important day tomorrow so we said our goodbyes.
"Give me a text where you are in the stands on Sunday and I'll send someone to come get you" Charles asked me as we parted ways with our usual hug and kiss on the cheek.
~ Author's note ~
Another meet cute and introductions to the drivers 🥰
Hope you're all enjoying so far x