Harmony - Charles Leclerc; Lando Norris

Bad habits

God how she hated being around him, it brought back all the dreadful memories from the academy, the fights with this man, the countless times she had cried because of this man, the many times she had contemplated quitting, all because of this man. Scrolling through his Instagram feed was surely anything but helpful in that situation; upon finding his account, she sat down with a bottle of wine and spent hours of drinking away her sorrow. It was one of her bad habits, whenever she was stressed – about Charles in particular -, she either smoked a cigarette or chugged a bottle of wine.

This hadn't happened in quite a while, she hadn't smoked or gotten sloppy drunk since 2016 to be exact, and Grace had simply not expected to lose control like this. She knew being with Charles almost every day wouldn't be easy, but she had definitely underestimated the impact of the Monegasque racer on her.

A week of working out, going out with friends, and journaling later, she felt as though she was ready to face him and their shared past. It was time for qualifying in Bahrain, everything she wanted was to focus and win. Anything to get one step closer to the world championship.

And so, she focused fully on the upcoming Grand Prix; her debut in Formula One. She packed all her things from her Apartment in Monaco, grabbed her keys, and together with her best friend Catie she was on the way to her big premiere.

Qualifying wasn't bad at all, she did everything she could to make up for her lack of experience and ended in fourth, right behind George Russel in Mercedes. Anyone driving their first-ever Formula One race would be beyond happy scoring fourth place, but not Grace.

"What about Leclerc?" she asked through the radio.

"He is P2, right behind Verstappen" answered the engineer.

"For fucks sake"

Grace was more concerned her teammate had beat her, she couldn't even celebrate her position and just as she got out of her suit, she lit her first cigarette in years. Inhaling the smoke behind a wall in the paddock, trying to make sure no one saw her, a certain brunette spotted her.

"Still have the bad habits, I see", he hushed in her direction and placed himself on the opposite wall.

"Oh, and why would you care, Charles?"

He knew she only called him by his full name when she was upset, at least back in the academy she did. Why he remembered all of that, he didn't know, but he did. He used to care deeply about her, he used to love so much when she won a race and wiggled her feet like a child, he loved it when she looked up at him through her lashes, God how he'd missed those beautiful blue eyes. And now, eight years and no exchanged words later, her voice sounded different. She didn't laugh at him the way she had done before; she was cold and dismissive. And he couldn't blame her, he had left her, he had gone to build himself a career and he had not considered her for a moment.

"Look Bella," he started but she was quick to silence him.

"Do not call me that," she rambled, and looking at him the first time, he saw a tear running down her cheek. Bella was a nickname only he has ever used, Isabella was her second name after her mum and Charles had used that knowledge to find a special pet name for her.

"Grace, I am incredibly sorry for what happened, and I know it was wrong of me but-"

Grace knew he was sorry butthat didn't matter to her, not anymore. She knew it was better to just leavehim be and get a good night's sleep before the race tomorrow. And so, withoutlistening to his excuses and without another word, she left him standing aloneand made her way back to the hotel room where she finally broke down in Catie'sarms. Apart from Charles, Catie was the only one who knew the whole story,everything that had happened between the two. And Grace was eternally gratefulto have found a friend like her, a true best friend who would never judge, whowould never gossip or say just the tiniest bad thing about her, a truesoulmate.