On Wednesday, Charles had gone back home to Monaco along with Arthur. Isack was in France with his family, and I was alone in London. Or so I thought.
I had just received a text from Charles, saying they were boarding the plane, while I was walking around town. I told him to get there safely and to text me when they landed. While texting, I had my head down in my phone, so I didn't see a thing until I walked straight into someone.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry-!" I looked up, "You need to learn to watch where you're going, Yn. Some day you won't be lucky enough that it's just me, you know." Lando said and winked at me. I couldn't help but smile at the familiar face, "I'm sorry Lan, I'll be more careful." He just chuckled and pulled me to the side as people were trying to walk past us. "No worries, I'm always happy to see you." He smiled.
"Aren't you going back to Monaco for the break?" I asked curiously. "Nope, I'm staying here. My parents live in Bristol, so I'm staying at theirs." He explained. "Ahh, I see," I replied and he smiled with a small nod. "Have you got any interesting plans yet?" he asked and I let out a small sigh while shaking my head no. "Well, how about we go karting one of the days?" I laughed a little and shook my head. "Again? Lan, we're off for only a little over a week and you still want to go karting?"
He laughed too and scratched the back of his neck. "Alright, how about mini golf then?" I looked him in the eyes and I could tell he was hoping for a yes, so of course I couldn't resist. "Sure, let's do that." I chuckled and his smile grew wider. "Tomorrow then! I'll come pick you up at your apartment!" He took out his phone and handed it to me. "Here, give me your number and I'll text you a time to be ready and you text me the address, okay?" I took his phone and put in my phone number with the name 'Yn Carter'.
When I gave it back to him he giggled a bit and shook his head, "What?" I asked and he looked at me with a teasing look. "Yn Carter? I'll change it to something else, that's too formal." I acted offended at his teasing and he looked at me with a 'serious' look, saying "You better not put me under Lando Norris!" I couldn't take him seriously though, as he had a smile on his face the whole time, so I decided to tease him back. "Why not? That's your name, is it not?"
Now he looked at me offended. "Don't you dare, Yn!" he put up his finger pointing at me. "What should I put you under then?" I asked, crossing my arms. He acted as if he was thinking about it for a minute, then looked at me with a happy face and said, "You should put me under 'Lan' and then with a heart at the end!" He said, drawing a heart in the air to illustrate.
I laughed and shook my head at his silliness. "Dream on, Lando Norris." I made sure to say his full name extra clearly just to tease him further, but he couldn't hold back a big smile from spreading on his lips. He always had the brightest of smiles, I couldn't help but be happy whenever he was. It was a gift of his I suppose, always spreading the best energy and lighting up any room he walked in. Truly admirable, he was.
"Tomorrow, Carter. Be ready to lose!" He winked at me, beginning to take a step to walk past me. "I never lose, Norris, just you wait and see!" I spoke back and he just shook his head before walking away, leaving me standing with a smile on my face. This break seemed to going to be just fine after all.
The next day, Lando said he was picking me up at around 11 am, so I had plenty of time to take a shower and get ready for the day. I put on a casual but cute outfit, one that I felt comfortable in and decided to go through Twitter before going out. Just as I saw an article about Charles and I leaving my apartment the other day, I got a message from him.
"Did you see it?" was all it said. I opened the article and it was just like the others, so I didn't care much at this point. "Just did, it's not that bad?" I replied, only to get an incoming call from him.
"Hey, what's up?" it was a FaceTime call, so I could tell that something was wrong. He didn't look happy. "Did you check the comments?" He asked and I furrowed my eyebrows. "No I didn't, one sec, let me check," I replied, returning to Twitter on my phone to go through the comments. There were tons of negative comments, calling me an attention seeker, famefucker, golddigger and many more things. Sure, there were positive ones as well, but most of them were horrible. "Oh my..." I said as I kept reading.
"Don't take it to heart, Carter. They don't know you." Charles spoke softly and I left Twitter to return to the FaceTime call. "I know they don't... Still, it's not so nice to read stuff like that about yourself." I gave him a sad smile, which he returned. "I already spoke to the Ferrari team and they agreed that I should make a statement about the situation."
"What kind of statement?" I asked out of curiosity. "Just telling people that they should respect our private lives and that I don't appreciate the lashing you're getting. That kind of thing." He explained and I nodded.
I didn't know much about PR and what to do and not to do, so I didn't think twice about trusting Charles on the matter. "Do you need me to do anything?" I asked, making him smile. "No, you just relax and enjoy your break, okay?" He said and I smiled too. "If you say so! How are you enjoying being back home?" I asked, not wanting to hang up the phone just yet.
"It's lovely in Monaco, always is. I can't wait to show you around next time!" He said with sparks in his eyes. "I can't wait either!" I smiled brightly back at him. "What are your plans for today, then?" He asked and I looked at the time automatically. "I'm actually meeting up with Lando in half an hour," I said carefully, remembering the last few times we had spoken about Lando.
I could see Charles's expression change right away, and I felt my stomach drop. "Lando?" He just asked, not looking at the screen at this point. "Yeah, I ran into him in Central London yesterday, and he asked me to go play mini golf today. I didn't have anything else to do, so I agreed." He didn't say anything.
"Charles," I said, trying to get his attention, but he didn't respond. "Charles!" I tried again and he looked at the screen finally. "I couldn't say no-" I tried, "Why would you? It's good! at least you're not alone, right? You should have fun!" He smiled, but I could tell it wasn't genuine. "You're right..." I didn't know exactly what else to say, so I just looked down at my wrist, fiddling with my bracelet.
"Will you call me tonight?" My eyes shot up immediately, thinking I had heard him wrong. "What?" He avoided looking at me as he repeated himself. "Tonight. Will you call me once you get home?" I was completely baffled, but couldn't help but smile at the same time. "Sure. Yes, I'll call you." I replied and he finally looked back again, smiling. "Alright, have fun with Lando then, I will talk to you tonight!"
"I'll talk to you tonight Charles," I smiled and we hung up the phone.
Soon after, there was a knock at my door. I went to open and there stood Lando, smiling as always. "Ready to lose today, Yn?" Was the first thing he said, making me laugh. "Hello to you too Lando," I replied and he chuckled. I grabbed my bag and joined him out the door.
When we had just entered his car, I felt my phone vibrate. A message had popped up and I felt a smile spread on my lips as I read it. "Can't wait to talk to you later! Don't have too much fun without me x"
"Who's making you smile like that?" Lando asked, looking at me with a suspicious smile. "No one, just a friend," I replied, chuckling as I put my phone away. "C'mon let's go, the sooner I beat you the better!" I said with a wink. He just shook his head in disbelief before he started the car and drove off.
The day with Lando was so much fun. We played mini golf and laughed nonstop, as we were both horrible at the game and kept trying to cheat to win over the other. In the end, he did win though, which he didn't hesitate to rub in my face.
"I told you I would win!" He exclaimed after returning our golf balls and clubs. "Only cause you cheated!" I replied and he gave me an offended look while beginning to make our way back to the car. "You were the only one cheating here!" I gasped dramatically, "Did not!" We were now standing on either side of the car, both a hand on each car door. "You did so much!" I opened the door, got in the car and rolled my eyes.
"Don't you roll your eyes at me, just because you're a sore loser!" I chuckled and tried glaring at him. "I am not a sore loser!" He raised his eyebrows, "Oh, of course, you're not, so what do you call this reaction then?" he teased and I hit his arm. "It's cause you cheated!" He held his arm and acted to be hurt badly. "Ouch! Okay okay, I'm sorry then, don't beat me!"
We both laughed and he started the car, beginning to drive again. "You hungry?" He asked, glancing at me. "A little," I replied, looking back at him. "Let's grab some lunch then, I know a great place in Camdon!" I was a bit taken aback by his suggestion, as Camdon always seemed to be flooded with people. I didn't mind the crowd at all, I just didn't want any more bad press, and being seen alone with yet another f1 driver couldn't possibly be good.
"You don't like Camdon?" He asked. I got back to reality and glanced at Lando. "No- No, I like Camdon, it just seems like it's usually pretty stacked with people," I said, sharing my concerns. He seemed to think for a minute before responding again. "How about we just make something at your place then?"