Heard it through the grapevine

Chapter 11

Helena sighed as she dropped herself in her seat in economy. 

Her layover in Dubai had been smooth, but heavy turbulence had prevented her from getting any sleep on her flight from Nice. The anxiety was still in her body, despite the hour she'd had on the ground to change flights, and she knew that she would also not be getting any sleep on the last stretch to Bahrain. 

The last three months had gone by in a blur. It was difficult to understand that she was already on her way back for a new season start. So much had happened in the past three months, she felt like she was a new person entirely. She felt more ready to tackle this season head-on. 

By the time that she had made it back to Monaco by the end of November, she had been so tired that she'd ended up staying in bed for a couple of days. By the time she was ready to leave bed, she had gone to see her mom whom she so desperately needed to hug again. It had been comforting to feel her mother's touch and smell again, it immediately made her feel at home.

She knew it had been hard on her mom that Helena had been gone for so much, and that she'd done her best not to show it when they had spoken on the phone. But Helena knew her better than than, and she felt guilty for it, although her mom would tell her not to in an instant. 

She had also spent a considerable amount of time with Sandrine, as Jade and Eleanor were still in Paris. They had both been home for a few weeks over the three months, but not as much as Helena would have liked of course. She'd introduced her to Lando, who had been desperate to hang out once he had touched down in Monaco, and the three of them had gone out on a few occasions. Sandrine and Lando got along great, and Helena was always happy when two of her friends would get along. 

She couldn't remember exactly when it was that things had started taking a turn for the worse, but she assumed that it was somewhere towards the end of January, maybe the beginning of January. Just the thought of it made her squirm on her plane seat, feeling the heat rise through her body.

Because over the break, she'd done something that she regretted more than anything she would probably come to regret in a really long time. It had come out of nowhere, she would have never expected it in a million years. 

But the universe had decided to go against her, and she hadn't known it then, but it had all started spinning in the wrong direction on one particularly cold day in Monaco. 

She had been standing in a coffee shop for only a few minutes, browsing through a free magazine from the counter, when the bell rang, signaling that the door to the coffee shop had opened. Cold air had come rushing in, making goosebumps stand up on her arms, but it wasn't until that she felt someone looking at her that she'd looked up and felt her heart jump into her throat. A familiar pair of blue eyes were looking straight at hers.

She'd run into Charles. They'd both been surprised to see each other. They'd gone a whole month in Monaco without running into each other, but now here he was, standing in front of her with damp hair from the slight rain outside. 

"Hey," he said, looking like he'd not expected this situation, which to be fair, neither had she. It was probably the last place she would have expected to run into him. 

"Hey," she said back, closing her magazine, probably looking equally surprised at his appearance, but shooting him a small smile nonetheless, as she placed the magazine back down on the counter in front of her.

"How's your break going?" He said scratching the back of his head. His voice had a surprising lack of venom in his voice. Helena wasn't sure if she'd expected him to ignore her, but she surely hadn't expected him to ask about her break. 

"It's great. It's been nice to catch up with everyone," she said sending him a small cautious smile. "How about you?"  

Charles nodded and walked closer to where she was standing, probably also sensing that neither of them were going to pull out a knife and stab the other. She took his appearance in and noticed how he was wearing loose jeans and a grey hoodie. The kind of outfit she had been most used to seeing him in back when they had first gotten to know each other in Maranello. It was giving her nostalgic flashbacks to that time. How much she had enjoyed his presence. And how different it had been to the situation they were in now.

His skin also looked more tanned than it usually did, and he looked like he'd gotten more sleep than he did during race season, which to be fair, wasn't actually hard to achieve. She hadn't realised how little sleep she had actually gotten every night with the changing timezones, constant flights, and early wake up calls. 

"It's been great. Charlotte and I have been in Sardinia for a bit", he said carefully. That would explain the tan. Helena knew that they were still together, that much she had gathered from social media, but she couldn't help but feel a tiny pang of jealousy as he spoke of her. He looked happy though. His hands were tucked in his pockets, and his gaze at her was still cautious, and she could sense that he wanted to say something. She was looking at him in silence, waiting expectantly for him to continue.