Hello! I can't believe people are reading and enjoying this book as much as I am enjoying writing it! Thank you all for voting, commenting and reading. HB3112
Shanghai, Baku and Barcelona had come and gone. The first two being a Mercedes domination , with Seb for company on the podium and Barcelona being a race to forget, Valeria was glad to be in Monaco. It was Charles' home grand prix and she could feel the Ferrari love. She had landed in Nice a day earlier than normal, having used some holiday to take the time to visit Jules' family and Charles'.
She had decided to visit the Bianchis upon arrival and, after having collected her luggage, she called a cab and got dropped off outside their house not long after.
She took a deep breath, before ringing the doorbell. Christine opened the door, a warm smile on her face.
'Valeria, hi! Oh my god, it's been so long since I last saw you' they had stayed in contact but Valeria hadn't seen her since the funeral. 'Philippe is just making coffee for us. Hope the flight was ok'
'It was good, thank you.' She followed her through the corridors she had seen so many times, to the kitchen.
'Philippe' she told him with a smile, giving him a hug.
'Valeria, it's been so long!'
'Please take a seat, honey' Christine told her. 'Do you want anything to eat?'
'No, I'm good, I'll be out of your way soon, I told Pascale I'll have lunch with her and the boys' she explained.
'It's good to see you're back in this world.' She told her.
'it's hard to stay away from it' Valeria replied. They went on chatting about Valeria's parents and her sister, she updated them on Noemi's job and anything they might have missed in the years. What felt like 10 minutes later, Charles had just arrived to pick her up.
'it's been a pleasure to see you' she told them, giving them a hug.
'before you go... we found this. We thought you'd like to have it' Christine told her, passing her a notebook. Valeria recognised Jules' handwriting on it straight away. 'Whenever you feel down, please read it.' she told her, tears in her eyes. Valeria hugged her tight and did the same with Philippe.
She grabbed her luggage and walked out, Charles was sitting in his mum's car, a bright smile on his face.
'Charlie, hello' she told him, as he got out to open the car booth for her.
'mum is so excited to see you, I apologise in advance for the amount of food she's made'he joked.
They sat in the car for the short drive from Nice to Monte Carlo.
'When's Seb coming?' Charles asked her, as she was typing away on her phone. Notwithstanding the amount of press regarding Mr Vettel being in a relationship, nobody had, yet, connected her name to his. Only people at Ferrari seemed to know, but the two had acted extremely professionally during the past GPs.
'tomorrow evening, if I'm not wrong' she smiled.
'Are you finally sharing a room? Or still sneaking in and out?' he smirked.
'Not sharing yet, no. It would be a bit too obvious' she laughed.
Charles parked up outside his childhood home, Valeria recognised Pascale standing by the door. She closed the car door and ran towards her open arms.
'oh my god, it's been so long!' she hugged her.
'You look so grown up' Pascale told her. 'oh my god I can't believe it's been 10 years' a young man appeared behind her.
'Arthur?' she asked surprised. 'oh my god, last I saw you you were a child, oh my god, look at you!' Valeria hugged him too.
'Do I get a hug too?' Charles' older brother, Lorenzo, had just joined them. 'Jesus, you got old' he teased her.
'Lorenzo, do me a favour and shut the hell up?' she laughed, giving the man a hug. He was roughly Valeria's sister's age, and him and Valeria had always been in a jokey relationship. Same couldn't be said about Noemi, who had been madly crushing on him in their teenage years.
'Come in, come in' Pascale told her. Valeria walked in, it was the day of memories. The house hadn't changed much since the last time she had been there. The absence of Charles' father was obvious, though, as Valeria glanced at the many pictures of him on the walls.
They sat on the patio, as Pascale started to bring a lot of trays out.
'Pascale, you shouldn't have. This is way too much. You know your son doesn't eat' she joked.
'Yeah, I might have gone a little overboard, but you can bring leftovers home with you, so you don't have to go out for dinner, you know?'
'there's going to be enough leftovers to feed a small country, mum' Charles joked.
'so Charles tells us you're in PR' she ignored her son.
'yeah, I only started in January but I'm enjoying it'
'no more racing?' Arthur asked her, he had followed his brother's steps and was starting a brilliant racing career.
'No, not anymore. I'm too old for that now' she joked.
'not really, Daniel still races and Lewis and Seb... who else is older?' Arthur asked.
'Jee, I'm not even 30 and you just defined people just over my age as older. It's heartbreaking' she joked.
'How's Noemi?' Lorenzo asked, eventually 'and your mum and dad and that..' he added.
'Noemi is good, she's somehow become a surgeon and is actually doing pretty well. She was always the brainy one in the family. She got married a year ago, Simone is quite nice too...' she noticed Lorenzo looking a bit upset ' Mum and dad are ok, still working, still putting up with one another.' She concluded.
A few hours later, Valeria felt it was time to leave the Leclercs. She thanked Pascale who gave her a massive tupperware full of leftovers. 'please come see us whenever you want' she told her. 'it's been a pleasure, say hi to everyone back home, we'll try to go down to Rome soon'
'of course, thanks for lunch and dinner for the next few months' she joked. 'Arthur, I can't believe you can legally drink' she told him, letting him hug her. 'Carlo, thanks for the lift. I'll see you at the paddock on Thursday' she kissed his cheek 'and Lorenzo, Jesus you're still a dick' she joked, friendly punching his shoulder. She walked out, looking at her phone screen for direction. The hotel she was staying at wasn't too far from there and Valeria decided to walk.
Her bright red Ferrari bag was attracting a few glances, probably from supporters who had arrived to the principality before the start of the grand Prix.
'Valeria Proietti, please' she told the receptionist, grabbing her room key.
She went up to the first floor and opened the door. It was a nice room, nothing to compare with Seb's one, but nicer than the ones where the rest of the crew was going to stay.
She sat on the bed, still full from the lunch she had at Pascale's.
She grabbed the book Christine had given her. She had been curious about it since, she opened it up to find it was a sort of diary Jules had kept when he moved to Viareggio. It was in Italian, as he used it as a learning tool, too.
February 2nd 2007
I met this Australian guy today, he seems nice. He has the biggest smile I have ever seen. It's his first experience away from home and his Italian is.. as bad as mine was when I first started learning. Well, I had Taz to help me out. He's actually half Italian, but his accent is still quite strong and hasn't really spoken much of it before he came. I guess Taz could help him too.
At the bottom Jules had written Daniel's name and contact number. She smiled at the drawing of a kangaroo he had attempted.
She went forward in time to find the summer that she knew she spent there.
June 3rd 2007
Taz is coming tomorrow and I couldn't be happier. She's going to spend some time here with me and then we'll travel down to Puglia, she said something about good food and I just agreed. I think Dan is going to like her, they have the same sense of humour. I hope he's not going to like her too much. He knows I'm crazy about her. Well, I'm going to try and sleep now, so tomorrow comes quicker.
June 4th 2007
Taz is here and she convinced Dan and I to go out drinking,even if technically we are not old enough. When Dan told her she laughed loudly and just replied with 'this is Italy, mate, the rules don't count'. I knew they were going to get along, maybe they're getting along too much.
June 4th 2007
We just got back, Taz has already passed out on my bed. Dan told me to get a move on and kiss her already. He seems to think she likes me back. I think she sees me as a brother.
June 6th 2007
Ok, Dan was right. She does like me. We went out again, just me and her. She got a bit drunk and just told me she loved me. I was taken back, until I got the courage to kiss her and then I forgot about everything else.
Valeria smiled and went forward a bit more, to when they decided to split.
September 24th 2007
Taz and I have decided that it would be better for both of us to stay friends. I know it's the right thing, but it hurts. This summer has been the best few months of my life. She's loving, caring, funny and beautiful, not that that matters, she's perfect on the inside and that's what's most important. It has been amazing waking up next to her every day, but life needs to go on and I need to concentrate on racing. She understands, even if she decided to abandon professional racing and instead going to uni, she's going to move to London when she finishes school, she says.
I'm happy to know she'll still be my best friend, that I can call her up whenever I feel low or just need a friendly voice. I'm annoyed at myself for never having told her how much I truly love her. I haven't told her she's the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last I visualise when I go to bed. I haven't told her that if I spend a day without talking to her, I feel like i wasted time. I haven't told her that's she's my Elliot, my Rachel. If anything were to happen to me, that'd be my main regret. Ti amo, Taz.
Valeria shut the notebook. Tears were now streaming down her face. She looked at her left wrist, touching it lightly. She knew that was teenage Jules writing and that since then he had been in a couple of serious relationships, but those words had hit her more than she expected. She needed a drink. She jumped off the bed, got dressed again and left the building, checking on her phone for the closest shop that was still open and sold alcohol. She walked in, grabbed a 4 pack of Guinness and walked back to her hotel.
She went back to her room, turned down the lights and started drinking in silence, until she felt her phone buzz.
'thinking of you, hope you had a good day. See you tomorrow, ich liebe dich.' She smiled, Seb always managed to say the right thing at the right time, without realising it.
'can I call you, please?' she responded. Her phone lit up straight away with his name video calling her.
'Hey, sorry it's dark' she got up, to turn the lamp on the desk on.
'Are you ok, Kleine?' he asked, he could see she had been crying. 'who upset you?'
'Nobody. I mean, this' she showed him Jules' diary. 'Jules' mum gave it to me and it just brought it all back. I feel like I avoided talking and thinking about him because it hurt too much.'
'do you want to talk about it?' he asked with a shy smile.
'I am not sure. I think I just wanted to see your face and hear your voice' She told him.
'You know I'm here for you if you need me.' He said. Valeria nodded, a small smile on her lips.
They stayed up chatting for a few hours, until Valeria had started feeling really sleepy.
'amore, I'll see you tomorrow night, OK? I love you. And call me back if you need anything'
'sure, Seb. Thank you so much. I love you. Gute nacht, meine Liebe' they hung up. Valeria finally feeling sleepy, she cuddled up to her pillow and fell asleep.
She was woken up by the noise of the door clicking. 'shit have I overslept and housekeeping is in already?' she jumped out of the bed.
'I'm sorry I forgot to put the sign on the door, I'll be out of... Seb?!' her jaw dropped, as she saw the German walking into her room. 'how, what, when?' she asked shocked.
'I changed my flight, I didn't like not being here with you feeling so low' he told her. She jumped to him, holding him tightly.
'how are you even real' she whispered, feeling tears coming up again. 'thank you' she added.
'I have got you a coffee too' he said, passing her the cup. 'it might be a bit cold now, it took me a while to convince the receptionist to let me in your room. She's probably got the police on standby' he joked.
'thank you, you really shouldn't have' she lifted herself on her tiptoes to kiss him. 'i love you.'
She started sipping the lukewarm coffee Seb had brought her. 'would you like some cake? Charles' mum gave me way too much stuff'
'No, thank you, I had some breakfast before I left' he smiled. 'What would you like to do today?'
'I didn't plan much, just wanted to relax'
'I have a hot tub in my room' he winked.
'Interesting' she smirked.