midnight rain | mason mount

iv

CHARLOTTE POV.
FEBRUARY 2, 2022

I hugged Phil goodbye and he opened the door of the passenger seat as I got in Mason's car. I rolled down the window and said, "Bye loser. See you soon." 

"Come to one of my games soon, yeah?" He laughed. "It's free tickets to see one of the most popular games in England. You're quite literally the only one mad enough to refuse." 

"What can I say? I'm a busy woman." I playfully pushed him and said, "Love ya." 

"Love you too." He then looked at Mason who was in the driver's seat and said, "Drive safe."

"See ya in a couple of weeks, mate." The car drove away, and once again, it was just the two of us alone. Thankfully, it was a lot less awkward than our previous encounters. Maybe because we had had so many awkward encounters before, we were finally past the awkward encounter phase.

"I can't believe you're giving me a ride again." I broke the silence first, feeling a little embarrassed. 

"I'm your personal chauffeur, aren't I?" 

"Please don't make me feel worse than I already do!" 

"Don't worry about it. It's quite nice, actually, having someone to keep me company."

"Are you sure you're not saying that just to make me feel better?" 

"I'm a terrible liar. You'd be able to tell right away." He was looking forward since he was driving, but I could see that he was smiling. "It's a long drive, from Manchester to London. Normally I don't go to Phil's parties because they're so far away, but he insisted this time round." 

"Yeah, I was gonna say. I've been to a couple of his parties but I don't think I've ever seen you at any of them. Besides, even if I had, I was probably too drunk to remember."

"Big partyer, then?" 

"Hm. I think I was in Spain, but coming to London, I've calmed down a bit. But two of my friends, Kiera and Lily, are the biggest partyers I know. So I've been dragged around here and there." I replied. "What about you? Phil tells me that it's hard to go out in London to clubs or anything without people recognizing him and asking for signatures and pictures. That must be exhausting, no?" 

"Hmm. Sometimes. I do enjoy meeting my fans, but sometimes I wish I had more personal space."

"I understand that." 

"Besides, I'm not a huge clubber anyway. I'm more of a homebody, really." 

"I do remember you saying that. You said you enjoy spending time with your niece?" 

"Yeah. Her name's Summer, and she's my sister's daughter. She's the cutest thing ever. Makes me want to have kids." He replied, laughing. The way he was smiling even when he was talking about his niece made me smile as well. It was full of pure bliss and joy.

"Sounds like you've thought about having kids." 

"Can't say I haven't. My ex-girlfriend and I dated for four years before we broke up about a year ago. It was a pretty serious relationship, so I guess I had thought about it." 

"Four years. Wow. You're 23 now, so since you were 18?" 

He nodded.

"That's a long time. My longest relationship was with Ferran, and that was a little over two years. I'm sorry." 

"No, don't be. It was for the better. We started dating when we were teenagers— we liked each other at the time but we grew apart as we became adults, and we became different people. And trying to force us to work out had made our relationship toxic for a long time before we broke it up. We were always on and off— we probably dated for only like two, or two and a half years, considering all the breaks we had. We had fallen out of love with each other for a long time, but I think we were both in denial and trying so hard to hold on, that we were lying to ourselves. "