Charles and Aurora walked hand in hand into his garage to leave Charles things so then they could move to Rory's office. Behind them the murmurs and whispers had begun, moving at rapid speed throughout the paddock. The paparazzi's cameras had flashed incessantly, capturing every interaction between the couple.
Pictures of the two of them were already being posted all over social media and aware of this, Charles knew he would have to talk with his PR team as soon as he left Rory in her office.
"Mon Amour?"
Rory looked up at Charles, "Yeah?"
He tucked a piece of hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear, "I think I will need to talk to my PR team."
"About us?"
"Yeah, the fans will start to see us together and photos from today will start to circle around the internet and it is better to get ahead of it before it becomes something we can't control."
Rory sighed, gripping his hand, "Will you tell them that this is...", she didn't need to say the word, they both knew what she meant.
"No. To the public eye we are a real couple and my team should treat it as that, nothing else."
She nodded. It was weird for her to see this business side of Charles, during their time together there hadn't been the chance to do so.
"Do you want me to bring you ..."
Rory quickly shaked her head, "No need. Do what you have to do before the day starts. I know the way. Don't worry." she punctuated her statement with a sweet smile.
Charles returned her smile and softly kissed her forehead before they went their separate ways.
As Rory walked the short distance to her office she could feel everyone's eyes on her and the whispers that followed every single of her steps. It wasn't an exactly new feeling, the eyes on her, but she hadn't felt it since she moved from her parents house.
Someone cleared their throat behind her. Rory slowly turned around with a crooked eyebrow but a smile quickly made its way into her face when she saw who was behind her.
"Matteo!" Aurora's arms quickly wrapped around her brother's shoulders, pulling him into her. "What are you doing here?" her words came out muffled from her face pressed against his shoulder.
"Can't I visit my baby sister?" he kissed her forehead and pulled away with a more serious look.
"What 's wrong?"
"Dad called."
Shit. "Matteo, I didn't want you to find out like that..."
"Hey," he grabbed her shoulders, steading her into place. "Don't worry about it principessa, it doesn't matter the way I found out. I just want to know if you are okay. I know what it feels like to be ambushed by dad..."
"I'm good. His visit was unexpected in a way but somehow expected."
A sad smile made its way to Rory's face and Matteo gave her one back before pulling her back to his arms.
"So, when do I get to meet this boyfriend?"
On the other side of the paddock, Charles sat in a meeting room filled with all the people that were responsible for his and Ferrari's image. No one said a word and they all just waited for him to start.
"Well," Charles cleared his throat after his voice came out weirdly, "As you all must have seen I came into the paddock today, with Aurora. She works with the medical team for FIA, which I assume some of you may already know. The truth is we are dating and have been since the summer, the fact that photos of us haven't leaked yet is kind of a miracle. I really like her and I don't care what any of you have to say, I won't keep it private, me and her agreed that we want everyone to see the real us and our real relationship in a spontaneous way, what we feel like sharing we will share and what we don't want to share we won't share. I'm only sorry for the way we came today to the paddock, but in our defense it wasn't planned and it was mainly my idea in the end and Rory only followed my lead." Charles stopped rambling and looked at everyone whose facial expressions hadn't changed for a second. "Don't you have anything to say?"
"Do you really like her?"
"What?"
"Do you really like her?"
"I..." Charles took a deep breath, "more than anything."
"Do you see you two lasting?"
Charles swallowed, "Yes."
"Okay," they all nodded, "we will come up with a plan for you to come out officially as a couple, other than that it's up to the both of you, anything bad that may come out of this is on you two, understood?"
"Yes."
"Charlie!" Aurora ran towards Charles as she saw him leave the office.
"Hi, mon amour," he kissed her cheek, "how is your day going?"
"Really good." she smiled up at him. "So you remember my brother Matteo?" Charles nodded, "Well, he's here and kind of wants to take both to dinner."
"Today?"
"Yeah. But if you're busy we can reschedule. I'm sure Matteo wouldn't mind..."
"Chérie," Charles gently grabbed her face, "I would love to go to dinner with you and your brother."
Charles smiled at and she smiled back at him. The truth is, Charles was terrified of going to dinner with her brother. He knew that they had a good relationship and that added to the pressure of making a good impression.
Charles and Rory arrived at the restaurant and looked around for Matteo. Spotting her brother's curls, Rory grabbed Charles and walked to the table.
"Matteo," Rory hugged her brother, "this is Charles. Charles, this is Matteo."
The two men shook hands and Matteo kept his grip on Charles' hand while sizing him up and down. Charles' eyes widened as Matteo took him in. "Uhm," was the only sound that came out of Matteo's mouth when he let go of Charles' hand.
The boy turned to Aurora after and she only gave him a double thumbs up after seeing him panicking a bit. Charles approached her and kissed her forehead, "You're going to be okay, he's all bark and no bite." Charles smiled and pulled her chair so they could sit and start their dinner.
"Amour, what time is it?" Charles asked, recovering from the laugher that had just came out of him after listening to Matteo's story about little Rory.
"Ten thirty."
"Oh, it's getting late.
Rory turned all her attention to Charles. "Do you need to go?"
"No..." Rory gave him a stern look, "Kinda, but I can stay for a bit longer."
"Charlie," she grabbed his face, "if you need to go, go, we will have more chances to talk more, don't worry." she punctuated her sentence with a sweet smile.
"You sure?" Rory nodded, "Do you need me to take you home?"
"I'll take her," Matteo interrupted with a smile on his face.
"Oh, okay, thank you," Charles turned back to Aurora, "call me when you get home?"
Rory nodded, "And you warn me when you get home," Charles nodded before kissing her forehead, shaking Matteo's hand and leaving the two siblings behind.
"You two look in love," Matteo remarked, making Rory turn her head to him, seeing him with a big smile on his face.
"Matteo," Rory took a deep breath, she couldn't lie to her brother, "my relationship with Charles is fake."
"What do you mean?"
"It 's not real. We are not really dating. All of this is for show."
Matteo looked at her with a puzzled expression. "Why?"
"We met in Andorra, and we started a relationship there, but ended it before the vacation finished because we didn't want the drama of it all. And you know how dad got about my job and I didn't want to have another thing for him to throw in my face."
Matteo interrupted her. "But the whole fake relationship doesn't defeat the purpose of what you just told me?"
"In a way." he looked ready to interrupt her again but she quickly continued before he could. "Neither Charles nor I wanted this. In Andorra we agreed that we would each follow our footsteps and if the future brought us together we would accept it but not force it. But when I got here everything changed when I saw Alejandro." Matteo's anger started to become visible, "Mom and Dad had told him where I was working and he thought, along with them, that it would be a great idea to reconnect. That's when everything between me and Charles shifted and here we are today."
"Little Principessa..." Matteo sat on the chair Charles was previously on and cleaned the tear that had fallen from Rory's eye, "do you like him?"
Rory wiped away the stray tear, her gaze locked on Matteo's concerned face. "I do, Matteo. I really do. But it's complicated. Our feelings got tangled up in this mess, and now it feels like we're just going along with something that's spiraled out of control."
Matteo's expression softened, his hand squeezing hers gently. "I understand, Rory. But you can't keep living a lie. It's not fair to you, or to Charles."
She nodded, her throat tightening with emotion. "I know. But what can I do now? Dad's already involved, the media is buzzing about us, and I feel like I'm stuck in this whirlwind."
"You can start by being honest," Matteo suggested, his voice firm but kind. "With yourself and with Charles. Figure out what you really want, and then take steps to make it happen. It won't be easy, but it's better than pretending."
Rory sighed, feeling the weight of her brother's words sinking in. "I can't do it Matteo, not now."
"Rory..."
"Don't try to convince me otherwise, it won't work."