Song: Night changes- One direction (for you all 1D girlies plus I thought it'd go so well with the first scene as it was the song playing when I was writing it)
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Bahrain was stunning at night. I always thought even to this day it had a similar resemblance to Dubai. Charles had kept fairly quiet throughout the journey from the track to the restaurant not disclosing where we was going or why. The car eventually came to a halt outside a lit up building located just by the bay, I jumped out the passenger side looking up with curiosity as Charles handed his keys to the valet.
The restaurant was as fancy as the ones I'd seen in Monaco, Charles led me past several tables before we was directed outside onto a balcony that overlooked the bay. The view was incredible, the sky was a mixture of dark and light blue as the sun had just set and there was skyscrapers twinkling for miles in front of us. I had texted the girls briefly in the car letting them know where I was which only caused a stir in the group-chat,
Me- I'm not dead I'm with Charles at the bay having a drink. Love you girls see you later! X
Jesy- you're what? With who!?
Leigh- how's just friends working out for you again?
Jade- the betrayal Lucinda! It was meant to be a girls night!
Me- We can have a girls night when I get back to the hotel. Wait up for me!
We was seated in a secluded spot at the back of the balcony, luckily for us the restaurant wasn't very busy at that time of night. And I could
tell Charles was relieved about that too. The night air around us was calm and peaceful, and the only sound that could be heard was the soft thumping of music from inside and the crickets chirping in the darkness below us.
Ten minutes had passed and our glasses of wine had arrived, I was comfortably slumped back against my seat as my eyes scanned over the water in the distance. "Thank you for this" I said quietly.
"You worked hard today and I figured you needed some R&R so I took you here" his eyes glanced too over to the water "I come here every year before the race weekend to kick back and take it easy whilst I can"
I sipped my wine as I listened my gaze slowly falling onto him "how you feeling about the race coming up?"
He shrugged almost like he'd not pondered the idea until I'd asked "you could say we should be in a good place..car is fast and circuit suits it so I'm confident at least" he glanced towards the inside of the restaurant as he spoke, almost like he was taking note of the elegant ambiance, though his gaze shifted back to me.
"You just have to trust your abilities, I know I trust yours" I said with a warm smile. Charles chuckled softly "yeah thanks for that" he took a small sip of his wine before he spoke again "you know that means a lot coming from you right?"
Smiling tentatively I spoke softly in return "I have to admit it's been really nice getting to know you over these past few months" I hadn't quite comprehended how quickly me and Charles had formed a bond over the past three or so months. And I was quickly becoming grateful for him being in my life.
"Same here" he said, smiling across the table at me as he spoke. His green eyes held my gaze for awhile "Monaco wasn't the same once you left"
"You mean Jimmy'z wasn't the same without my incredible singing skills" I giggled as that night came back to me like a flood. The several shots we had, Lando nearly falling over every two minutes then of course my spontaneous performance.
"You're not wrong" he said laughing along with me "though your dancing was pretty horrendous"
"Hey!" I quickly grabbed the cloth that was draped on the table beside me, and swatted his arm gently with it. "I'm a great dancer"
"Are you trying to start something Stone?" He teased in response to my swatting. Taking advantage of how close we was he took a quick sip of his wine before nudging my leg with his foot under the table.
"In all seriousness it's been the best two months having you in my life Luce"
My heart swelled at his kind words, we raised our glasses towards each others.
"To friendship" he said.
"To friendship" I echoed.
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By the time Charles had dropped me back off at my hotel it was around midnight. We'd spent the rest of the evening telling each other stories of our childhood and the dreams we'd somehow managed to achieve over the years. Conversations like that were always my favourite, especially with the right person. I hugged him goodbye knowing I'd see him at the weekend which wasn't far away, before walking to my room.
I was greeted by the sight of the girls instantly as I walked through the door. They were sprawled out on my bed clearly engrossed with whatever they was watching on TV. It wasn't until I shut the door that they turned towards me pausing the show.
"You know I was joking when I said wait up for me" I said as I dropped my bag onto the little table besides the door. "Oh we know" Jade said rather abruptly before Jesy spoke up.
"We didn't expect he'd actually take you out. Besides we wanted to know how things between you both went" I had flopped onto the bed in the middle of the huddle with a sigh "we're just friends..I mean we even did a toast to being good friends" I cringed slightly as I remembered.
"Just friends?" Leigh asked seemingly surprised that I hadn't teased more.
"And nothing more?" Jade said almost sarcastically as if she had her doubts about what I was stating. Jesy chuckled as she laid down next to me "oh come on Luce are you seriously that blind to all this?" She protested.
"I mean realistically we only met a few months ago it'd be crazy to have feelings for someone so soon"
"Is it though?" Leigh quizzed above my head with a little smirk "I mean I hear what you're saying don't get me wrong but this is the same man you spent an entire week with in Monaco and the same man you haven't left the side of the entire time we've been here"
Dammit. She had me. She genuinely had me out of come backs. Before I could protest any further, Jade's voice came from the side of me as she leant on her elbow getting comfortable.
"Leigh has a point, let's say you are just good friends I still think you're on the road to something more"she studied my eyes for a second looking for any response. I sat up slightly with a heavy sigh "okay I'll humour you all for a second. Let's say there was feelings there it's a relationship failing from the start. Our lives are from two different planets and so chaotic we'd barely have the time for each other"
"And you honestly think that he's not aware of that?" Jade replied looking at me with a tint of seriousness though the mood in conversation had drastically shifted "I mean he's a smart guy I think he'd work around the differences in your lives and the chaotic nature of it"
"Besides your schedule isn't necessarily busy every day" Jesy added. I rolled my eyes, I felt backed into a corner. But I couldn't help but ponder on the idea of maybe there being a hint of truth in it all. But I didn't ponder too long. Instead I pushed it to the side and rolled onto my back "what we watching?" I asked as I looked up at the paused TV screen.
"Drive to survive" Jesy made herself comfortable by resting her head against the lower part of my stomach. Leigh and Jade had already crawled their way back up the bed and was resting against the headboard. They'd seem to have instantly dropped the conversation which left me a tad nervous.
"Drive to survive?"
"Yeah it's a Netflix series on Formula One" Jade replied. I groaned slightly "I'm maxed out with motorsport for one day"
"That's a weak mindset you can never be too tired of motorsport" Leigh's voice echoed into the room with a slight roughness "oh please you didn't even watch the sport till we went to Vegas"
She rolled her eyes at me as she glanced back at the screen "and now I do so you're going to be quiet and watch it with us" she snapped back quickly before blowing me a kiss.
My heavy eyes fell onto the bright screen in front of me. At the top I saw we was only on the first season and Charles's face after a few minutes instantly popped up. He looked young. Younger then he did now. But that was only natural when it was filmed three years ago. It was clear that this part of the episode was focused on him so I decided to pay close attention.
"One moment stands out for me which was in formula two when he got to Baku"
I instantly felt like something wasn't right, the mood of the commentators had shifted and the music was intense. At first I was expecting it to be about a crash he had but then I realised I didn't really know what I was expecting.
"And he'd lost his father earlier in the week..and were talking literally forty eight hours later he was in the car..he then went out fell to last place fought his way through and won the race...this was a kid who'd just lost his father"
The room had fallen eerily silent. My heart had plummeted several feet through my body, leaving me feeling shocked and confused. I'd tried frantically racking my brain trying to remember if Charles had ever mentioned losing his father, but I realised quickly he hadn't. And this was the way I was finding out. The silence was thick and heavy as I tried to process everything.
His father?
He'd never mentioned anything about this, not once.
Leigh laid her hand against my thigh and spoke up first "Are you okay?". I didn't really know what to say or if feeling upset was even morally correct. But my heart had started to bleed for Charles "he's never mentioned his father before"
It was clear the rest of the girls were as shocked as I was. Back in London before going to Vegas i hadn't come across anything to do with Charles's personal life, instead just the important highlights of his career. And it was obvious that the girls knew nothing about that too.
Judging by my body language and facial expressions the girls had decided it was best to call it a night there. I kissed and hugged them goodnight and just like that I was left alone in my hotel room with my thoughts. I turned off the TV not wanting see the reminder of the reasoning for the hollow feeling in my chest. My fingers had got a mind of there own, I'd suddenly grasped my phone and began to dial his number, I didn't know what I was going to say instead I just wanted to hear his voice. A part of me wanted the confirmation he was okay, even though I knew he was.
The silence on the line was deafening until eventually he picked up.
"Hey is everything okay?" he said softly.
In that moment, hearing his voice brought comfort to me that I had never felt before. I fought back tears as I spoke down the phone "I just wanted to make sure you got back safely"
For a moment Charles didn't reply, I could hear his shallow breaths down the line until eventually I heard his voice again "yeah I did" he paused again "are you sure you're okay Luce? You called me this late, and I don't think it was just to wish me a good night. Which by the way I could get used to"
A small laugh escaped my throat as I leant my now heavy head against the pillows "I'm serious I just wanted to make sure you were okay"
"Okay..well I'm okay and you really should get some sleep it's been a long day"
I sighed trying to not let the tiredness I'd felt since I'd woken up in Charles motorhome defeat me. But I was losing the battle "okay..goodnight Charles"
"Goodnight Luce"