We had partied until the sun started to rise when we drove back to our hotel. Isa had also given her phone number before she returned to her and Carlos' room and Charles hugged me goodnight in an empty hotel lobby. The hug had lasted a little longer than it should have, but I had the impression that both Charles nor I wanted to let go as our arms around each other felt quite comfortable. It felt like I fitted right into his arms. His warm and strong arms around me made me feel safe and comfortable, but we had to let go. I had to drag a drunk Olivia up to my hotel room, as she couldn't remember her own room number and the key card didn't have a number on it. Charles had offered to help, but I had declined, I'd be fine. We giggled as we almost tripped as we stepped into the elevator to take us to the twelfth floor. Charles had watched us go with a sleepy smile on his lips, he was in another part of the building. I had waved at him before the doors closed and Olivia started muttering about Charles being so hot and then about basically every other driver that had been there, everyone was hot and it wasn't fair or something along those lines. I tried to ignore her and had managed to get her ready to get into my huge bed, taking her make-up off so it wouldn't stain the white sheets and make her drink a big glass of water. My tired and intoxicated mind tried to comprehend what happened all night, all the conversations I had, my moment with Charles on the balcony, Isa who had been such a lovely girl, Pierre's flirting, Mick who tried to dance with me all night long. It had been a long but amazing night. I sighed deeply as I let myself fall into my bed next to Olivia after I had also gotten ready and drank enough water to hydrate myself. The second my head hit my pillow I fell into a deep sleep.
I woke up way too early after a late night. My sleeping schedule was horrible with the time difference. Olivia was sound asleep next to me and besides a little headache from dehydration, I was feeling completely fine. I hadn't drunk too much alcohol like some others and I was wondering in what state Olivia would wake up in. Somehow I was wide awake within minutes and when I saw that breakfast was still set downstairs for at least 30 minutes, I decided to go and grab myself something to eat and of course: coffee. If I could wake up this easily after every night out I would never complain again. While drinking from my water bottle to rehydrate myself a bit, I put on my sweatpants as I only had an oversized black t-shirt on with the Mercedes logo, I grabbed my black framed glasses to be able to see and put on my shoes to walk downstairs. Everyone from last night was probably still asleep, as most of them - myself included - only got back less than 5 hours ago. My flight back to England would be at the end of the day, so I could sleep for a few more hours somewhere if I needed to. But the thought of hotel food made me happy, awake, and most importantly: very hungry.
As carefully as I could, I walked around the room, grabbed my stuff and went downstairs without waking Olivia. There were barely any people at the buffet and I happily grabbed myself a big cup of coffee and walked around to get a bowl of some good plant-based yogurt with some granola and banana and blueberries. Before I sat down I also quickly grabbed the last croissant from the basket with a grin.
"Hey Teddy, you up early?" It was Charles, who I had completely not noticed, but it seemed like he had just finished his breakfast. He had noticeable bags under his beautiful eyes due to the lack of sleep and he smiled sheepishly at me. His stubble was a little darker than I remembered. He still looked adorable. I blushed.
"I can say the same about you, why are you up already, we came back like what, 5 hours ago?" I asked him as he sat down at my table with a cup of tea. He shrugged.
"We have an early flight and I woke up from some noise and couldn't sleep anymore so I went to grab some breakfast before we leave. Carlos and Isa are probably still asleep." He answered as he rubbed his face.
"Olivia is also still knocked out in my bed." I giggled at the thought and he raised his eyebrows with a grin on his lips. "I didn't know her room number, so I let her crash in my room. I figured it was the easiest option." I happily took a big sip of my coffee and a little happy moan exited my mouth and it made me blush as I didn't intend on doing that so loud, leaving a very great impression in my sweatpants. Stupid Teddy, embarrassing yourself in front of one of the hottest drivers. Charles' laugh filled my ears and I had to laugh myself as well. "Guess I really needed that."
"I can imagine after such a long night. You and Olivia and Isa danced all night long. Did you have a fun night?" He asked friendly and I nodded.
"It was really fun! I had a good time, yeah for sure!" I answered him and his eyes lit up. It was endearing to see that he was happy that I had a great time.
"You are very welcome to join us again next time." He smiled. "Everyone loves having you around."
"Ah, you are all talking about me already?" I joked and he chuckled with a lopsided grin on his lips.
"Ah no, no, no, not like that, of course! But if we drivers don't like it when someone is around us, we tend to notice it, and most of them aren't too subtle in the way they show it. But everyone was really excited to have you around." He explained a little worried and I giggled at him. "Even the ones who didn't come were very sad that they haven't had the chance to meet you."
"No need to flatter me that much, Charles." I giggled, this man made me giggle so much. " But you are all so nice and friendly. I'm looking forward to the next weekend to get to know y'all better."
"I hope you like traveling and media drama because otherwise you'll be done with F1 before the summer break." He joked and I shrugged as I took a small bite of my yogurt.
"I don't mind traveling at all and most drama is usually much bigger online than it actually was in real life, so I guess I'll manage. As long as I'm not the center of the drama, and I'm not planning to, so I'm good." Charles laughed.
"You are a smart woman." He grinned. "We need those around here. Without those, we'd be lost." I chuckled when I took another bite of my yogurt bowl. We sat in silence for a few moments and I noticed his soft gaze on me with an adorable lazy smile on his lips. As if he was awoken from a daydream, he straightened his posture and blinked a couple of times. "So, what are your plans until the next GP? Do you have to work a lot?" He seemed genuinely interested in what I had to do and it was adorable.
"Well, I have a couple of appointments I need to be at over the next week back at Mercedes, and I have some event stuff to fix before getting on the plane to Saudi Arabia. Things will probably pop up as well." I told him and thought for a second if I was gonna add some more info, but he made me feel comfortable in sharing stuff, so I did without thinking to much. "And besides work, it's my birthday on the 12th so I'm having a girls' night with a few friends from uni to celebrate." I answered his question. His eyes lit up at the words 'birthday' and I couldn't suppress a smile as he looked very adorable while doing so and that made him smile even wider.
"Oh, I didn't know it was your birthday already." He said but quickly seemed to realize that he couldn't have known. " We should throw you a little party next GP!" He offered excitedly and I shook my head with a small laugh.
"No need, I'm not a fan of celebrating my birthday to be honest." I answered and I could swear I saw him pout a little bit. "But you can buy me a drink next time we are going to a party, if you really want to.." I added with a cheeky voice and emptied my bowl of yogurt. Over his shoulder, I noticed the tall figure of my father had appeared with Fred Savveur, who was the new team principal at Ferrari, my father had told me. Fred seemed ready to go to his flight with his suitcase packed and he was here to pick up Charles. By the look on Toto's face, he heard my remark about buying a drink, but he kept quiet.
" Charles, boy, are you ready to go? Or do you want to miss your flight by talking to Teddy Wolff from Mercedes here?" Fred spoke and held his hand out for me to shake. I smiled at him. He seemed nice. I was still not used to people knowing who I was. "Hi, Fred Savveur, welcome to the world of F1." He said with a smile and I shook his hand.
"I'm Teddy, nice to meet you!" I said as I had gotten up from my chair, now realizing that I was wearing very casual attire with my sweatpants in a room filled with people that were way more nicely dressed. But most of them weren't out partying until early morning.
" You had a fun night last night?" Fred asked Charles, who also had gotten up and Charles looked back at me and nodded. "You sure needed it after the race."
"It was a good first party of the season." Charles answered and put his hands in his pockets, looking down as he was reminded of his DNF of yesterday. I actively avoided eye contact with my father and grabbed my coffee from the table to take a sip.
"It was a late one it seems. You two look like you have barely slept." Toto now spoke a little bitter and I looked up at him with a little frown. What's that supposed to mean? I rolled my eyes and took another sip of coffee.
"Yeah, we came back here with a few others around four I think... But some were still going on when we left. They are probably still knocked out. We just happen to wake up early." Charles answered nicely and received a nod from my father.
"Olivia is still asleep in my bed." I grinned and Charles grinned as well, as he had seen the state Olivia had been in when we got back.
"Not surprised." Charles joked and I chuckled. "Well, we should get going, otherwise the plane will leave without us." He looked at Fred and then back at me with his gorgeous - now quite tired but that didn't make them less pretty - green eyes and I couldn't help myself and stare back at them.
"I just woke up Sainz and his girlfriend, so they are also almost ready, so be back downstairs in 10." Vasseur said and said goodbye to me and my father. He looked like a genuinely nice man.
"See you later Teddy, have a safe flight home and happy early birthday." Charles said with his adorable accent and put his hand on my arm, gave it a little squeeze with a dashing smile and before I knew it, I was watching him when he disappeared with his team principal towards the elevators chatting. Charles's hand left a print of warmth and tingles on my arm and I couldn't help but smile as I saw him walk away. He left me with Toto and the tall man was looking at me with a stern look on his face.
"So Charles Leclerc is going to buy you a drink huh?" He spoke with grinding teeth the moment the Ferrari men were out of range to hear. The way he said Charles' name was weird, I tried to ignore the way he spoke. It was weird, some kind of dumb fatherly feelings that got in the way or something.
" Yeah, I mentioned that it's gonna be my birthday next week. So instead of throwing me a party I don't want, he's gonna buy me a drink at the next after-party.." I answered him, unbothered, but I saw him rolling his eyes. "It really is no big deal, he was just being friendly."
"Do you even remember what I told you about making friends with our rivals so soon?" Toto said. "If the media picks up that you go around partying and being friendly with one of our biggest competitions, you have no idea what they'll turn the story into." I sighed and threw my head back in annoyance. He hadn't been in my life for that long, but I was sure this was how annoyed some daughters could be with their father's when they would become protective for no real reason. I wasn't used to that and he wasn't used to having a grown-up daughter. We both had to learn how to make it work and it was not going to work perfectly from day one of course.
"What do you want me to do? Lock myself up in my room the second I leave the paddock? I'm careful with the media, just like you said I should and I just wanted to meet the drivers, Lewis, Mick and George actually invited me and Olivia, so I don't see the problem. Besides, Charles and the other drivers have been nothing but very nice to me." I spoke a little offended. I could understand where he came from, social media was a very scary place where things could easily escalate, but I was just trying to find my way around the paddock, otherwise, I would probably become quite lonely very quickly. I didn't take the leap to enter Toto's F1 world to become a lone wolf in the progress. I wanted to see the world, meet interesting people and just live my life.
"Teddy.." Toto started with a soft sigh and put his hand on my arm, in the same spot where Charles had just put his. I look at it for a second, it felt a lot less comfortable than Charles' hand had done. I bit my lip, ignoring the slightly uncomfortable feeling of my father's large hand on my arm. "I'm trying to look out for you, I don't want to see you get hurt." I looked up to his face and forced out a small smile. I knew he was just trying his best to be a father to me and to make sure that nothing would happen, but I wasn't used to this kind of parenting. I was used to doing my own thing and figuring things out by myself. My mom kept an eye on me, but usually, let me do my thing and screw stuff up in the process so that I would learn. My stepdad David never even looked at me as long as I wasn't bothering him and then it would be a look filled with annoyance and hatred if I was in his way. I was trying to find my way around the paddock and flourish my relationship with my father, who was also my boss now, but everyone put me under a microscope, analyzing every move I made and I had to get used to that, as well as warnings like these because they are only spoken out loud to protect me. But that didn't mean that I liked it all the time, it was also something I had to get used to, it was also something I had to accept.
" I know you do." I eventually sighed with a smile and gave him a quick side hug. We chatted a bit more about when we have to leave the hotel and I went up to shower and get ready and to wake Olivia, who had a hangover and just felt incredibly horrible. I laughed at her. My phone buzzed as I got a text message. My heart skipped a beat when I read who it was from.
Next GP weekend I'll buy you that drink! X Charles
It was Charles. I smiled wider than I would admit as I had almost forgotten that he had given me his number yesterday. He also send me an 'x' and that was why I couldn't stop smiling, but I wouldn't say that out loud at all. He had put his own number and name in my phone, so it was adorable that he still signed his text with his name, as if I didn't know it was him.
Good, I'll keep you to that promise ;)
Can it be anything?
Do you want to get me drunk?
No of course not! But I just wanted to know my options!
A beer would suffice Charles
Alright, I'll surprise you ;)
Is Olivia alive already?
Barely, she literally had to drag herself into my bathroom. We have three hours before we have to leave
I don't think she's gonna survive and we won't make our flight lol
How are Carlos and Isa doing?
Carlos is also in very bad shape, is saying something about never drinking again lol
Isa is laughing at him
As she should hahaha
We have to get Carlos down and in a moving car to the airport without throwing up, wish us luck
HAHA that sucks, good luck with that! Peppermints help with nausea sometimes maybe it will help him ;)
That's a good one! Speak to you later ;)
Have a good ride and flight! :)
I stared at my screen for a moment and noticed that I was still smiling after a few seconds, feeling all warm and fuzzy. I put away my phone to keep myself from rereading our messages as it made me feel all cozy. I might like Charles a bit more than I should and more than I would admit. He was just so likable and friendly, it was hard to not like him. I understood why all my friends would call him the cute and hot one.
I decided to just take my mind of things while Olivia was trying to get herself together in the bathroom and I took my book from my nightstand to start to read it on the comfy bed. I had to pack my things as soon as Olivia was done, but it might take a while considering the state she's in. For now, I let myself escape into a random fantasy realm about badass elves and honorable knights for a while to distract myself.