The arrangement - CL

8.

Qualifying was fun to watch, even though Aimée had to leave halfway through. Her mother showed up unannounced at the store where she worked after 5 years. The woman had some nerves.

So she left and I had to explain things to Lando - which luckily he understood. He knew about her relationship with her mom, so I was even more convinced that there was more than just friendship there.

I also met Lando's best friend, and he made it even clearer. Lando actually told him that he liked Aimée, so we set up a dinner.
We told them both that it would be a dinner with the four of us, but of course we would never show up.

I had other plans after the race anyway.

"I dumped Rhys" Aimée said as we walking through the paddock.

I looked at her, probably with a big smile on my face. "Finally" I couldn't hide my excitement. "I absolutely hated that guy, especially the way he treated you."

It was perfect timing too, I hoped she would be honest with herself and just admit that she liked Lando.

———————-

The race itself wasn't that eventful, but I was happy because Charles actually had a decent result. He finished P6, which was probably terrible for him, but I knew he wouldn't complain about it anyway.

"I have to go to work real quick, but I'll meet you at the restaurant okay?" I told Aimée as I was putting my shoes on.

Of course, I wasn't going to meet her at the restaurant. I was going to meet Charles instead.

"Uh yeah sure. Can you send me the details of the restaurant?" Aimée replied. She was styling her hair. I could see how nervous she was, it was cute.

But I had to worry about myself right now. I was going to meet Charles Leclerc at his apartment.Surprisingly, it was only a short walk to his apartment, who knew we were actually living pretty close to each other.

My heart was beating fast as I was standing in front of his door. I don't know why, because I actually had no reason to be nervous.

"Hi Kara, good to see you" Charles said as he opened the door. He was in a good mood, that calmed me down a little.

"Charles" I said as I walked in his apartment and looked around. "Congratulations on the race, you did a good job" "Thanks" he said as he closed the door.

I walked further into his apartment, he had some questionable decorating choices, but it was a nice apartment for the most part."So" Charles said as he cleared his throat. "You wanna be my fake girlfriend?"

"If I have to," I joked, but I don't think he could read my sarcasm yet.

He grabbed a paper from the desk and handed it to me. I quickly scanned it.

"You actually made a contract?" I looked up from the paper and met his eyes.

He just shrugged his shoulders but he didn't answer.

I guess it was only logical for him to make a contract. He gave me a lot of money, so I guess he wanted something in return.

I was reading through it. I have to accompany him to several races, dinners and sponsor events. I couldn't tell anyone about our arrangement, which was going to be hard because Aimée and I told each other everything.
And most importantly, this arrangement had to last for 6 months.

I pointed to the last sentence, which made Charles lean closer to me. "Or if one of us falls in love with the other, we end the arrangement too."

I was pretty sure I wasn't going to fall in love with him, but it would be way too messy to fake a relationship when real feelings were involved.

"And no sex, no kissing or touching" I said as I looked at Charles.

He chuckled a little as he shook his head. "We have to kiss and hold hands and stuff if we're going to pretend to be together."

He was right about that. It would just make it harder not to fall in love with each other when we were touching.

"Okay, you're right. Just little kisses and little touches then."

He chuckled again as he put grabbed the contract. His hand touched mine in the meantime. "Are you afraid you might fall in love with me?"

God, this man was so full of himself.

"No, you're not my type"

I could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't expecting that answer. He was probably used to girls falling for him, but I wasn't interested in that.I just wanted my money and get out of here.

I only had to pretend for six months. Easy.