I woke up next morning to the noise of the bustling city, Harriet was in the kitchen whipping up some breakfast.

"Good morning!" She chirped.

"Morning!" I yawned "what's cooking?"

"Crepes! There's fruits in the fridge if you want some."

"Fruits? What? You think I eat healthy?"

"How stupid of me, you're still 10. We'll buy you artificially flavoured and sweetened garbage to eat soon." She rolled her eyes.

After breakfast and getting dressed we headed out to the streets of Monaco, we first walked around Monte Carlo. The district was so rich of heritage!

A little later her friend Gabriel joined us, he grew up in this place and knew it like the back of his hand. He knew how to get to places, the fastest way and just about everything.

To my surprise Harriet too knew the place pretty well, both of them walked through the city while I was literally dancing through it! I couldn't wrap my head around it, this place was fascinating.

"It'll take you four days Tara, you'll memorise the whole province!" Gabriel laughed.

"I really hope I do!"

"You see those apartments there?" He pointed to a very modern and sleek looking tower.

"Yup!"

"That's where Lewis Hamilton lives."

"No way! This all so cool, you guys live in a place where practically every driver on the grid lives!"

"Come on! Let's show you other driver's houses too!"

And that's what we did for the next two days, they took me around showing me the happening spots of the place and occasionally pointing to houses and telling me who lived where.

The days flew by and I found it easier to navigate through the city, I explored the place, looked for job vacancies but no avail. It was like a sign from the gods to remain a bum.

Harriet had to get back to work, I was all by myself. I spent the days mindlessly watching TV because that's all I could afford to do, this place was expensive!

My job search was not very successful either, I did get called for an interview with a real estate agency but the job involved a lot of paperwork and I wasn't so sure if I was going to stay in Monaco after all, what if I wanted to go back home?

The weekend was here, I was so excited! The streets of the usually slow district were packed with people and stalls, I was still soaking it all in. The district underwent a drastic change to accommodate the street circuit.

"Oh my I want my place back! Way too many people." Harriet sighed as we navigated through the crowd.

"Are you kidding me! This is amazing!" I beamed taking as many pictures as I could.

We finally made it to the hotel, she spoke to the receptionist and we were shortly joined by Gabriel who took us to the balcony.

"You're going to love this Tara!" He beamed.

"I'm already mind-blown!" I smiled.

"Quick question, who are you rooting for?"

"Is that even a question? The Ferraris for sure."

"I didn't take you to be a Ferrari fan, you were giving me Red Bull vibes." Gabriel laughed.

"Of course she's supporting the Leclerc brothers, she's obsessed with the older one." Harriet chimed in.

"He has a name and its Charles, he's beautiful!"

"And a fast driver!" I added.

"Recently single too!" Gabriel smirked.

"Where did you hear that? And tell me all of it!"

"The race is about to start! Pay attention!"

"You can't just pique my curiosity and then leave like that!"

"The damn thing is about to start!" Harriet glared at me.

We stood there, watching the race on big screens and looking down at the street when the cars came by for the hairpin bend, the Ferraris had taken lead since qualifying and were doing a fantastic job extending the lead.

The two red cars were now racing each other, a move that would be frowned upon but the street circuit made overtaking nearly impossible, after a roller coaster ride of a race it all came to an end. With Charles being on top of the podium, then Arthur and finally Max.

"He's doing so well, I smell a world championship." Gabriel observed.

"He's absolutely killing it! He's been here for 9 years now and he's performing better than ever." I added.

"What? He's 30 already!" Harriet exclaimed.

"Why are you so shocked?" We laughed.

"But he doesn't look thirty! He looks young!"

"30 isn't old age!" I laughed.

"I don't know how to feel about this, I'm turning thirty in two years... will we no longer be friends then?" Gabriel joked.

"It depends if you're cool then we'll remain friends." She laughed.

I was getting hungry after all this standing around in the sun and cheering so loudly, we decided to check out eateries around the area but there was literally no room for three people to eat.

"You know what? Let's just go home, I'll cook you both some good pasta and we'll hang out and then see what to do."

"Sounds like a plan!" I beamed.

"I'm in! Please make a good pesto." Gabriel chimed in.

We got home after another hour of pushing and crawling our way through the packed streets, there were parties happening literally in the middle of the roads!

Harriet continued cursing and angry yelling at the crowds as we walked past them, I had never seen her get this angry and annoyed about things.

"Give me 20 minutes to catch my breathe." She plopped down on the couch.

"Take all the time you need, I'm still processing foul mouthed Harriet." I teased her.

"This bitch, I shouldn't have let her into my house." She shook her head looking at me.

"You take that back!"

"What are you going to do? Call mom?"

"Fucker."

"So I'm guessing this is normal?" Gabriel broke the silence.

"Yeah, we randomly get very violent at times. I'm going to start cooking now."

She walked to the kitchen and started cooking right away, Gabriel and I set the table for lunch and sat down for a bit to catch up about today's race.

"It was a thrill! Thank you so much for inviting us!" I thanked him.

"Don't even mention it! Did you have a good time?"

"Good time? Had the time of my life!"

"I'm so glad you enjoyed yourself! You're a big fan I sense?"

"I mean yeah, not with same intensity I did when I was a teenager-"

"For the millionth time! She was obsessed with Charles!" Harriet laughed from the kitchen.

"Well yes! I realised that's not how the world works and life went on! But I still do love Formula one, just don't care that much about the drivers or their lives anymore."

"What a small world we live in! You are in Monaco so is Charles, I suppose you aren't seeing anyone, nor is he-"

"He just went through a very public divorce, I think the last thing he wants to do right now is date someone." Harriet interrupted Gabriel as she walked to the dining table with the pasta.

"What? I've been living under a rock! Tell me everything!"

"All we know is he and Charlotte split, different priorities in life, two years of marriage made them realise this was not going to work."

"You know what this means? He's back on the market! Up for grabs! Shoot your shot." Gabriel smiled at me.

"Yeah! Match made in heaven, an unemployed, broke, average looking girl and a wealthy, successful racing car driver." I rolled my eyes.

"You forgot to add sexy." Harriet laughed.

We spent the evening napping, yes napping. The streets were still very packed with people and the last thing I wanted to do right now was party, we introduced Gabriel to the wonderful world of crappy British and American reality TV shows.

"This is utter garbage! I love it!" He announced.

"It's my escape, do you want to start watching the next season of toddlers and tiaras?" I asked him.

"Give me a minute, it's six already? Let me call Julia and tell her to start dinner-"

"Nonsense! Call her over, Tara's here too so I can cook us all a nice dinner."

"Who's Julia?" I asked him.

"Julia, is my girlfriend and the only person at the Restaurant who can get Harriet to follow orders."

"She's the kitchen manager and my good friend."

"She just texted me, she's at the bakery they're about to close and they have really good focaccia should she get some?"

"Yes! I'll start with the soup, Tara help me cut all the vegetables." Harriet took in charge.

After thirty minutes we heard the doorbell ring, Gabriel answered it. Julia was here! She was a beautiful woman, with a big smile on her face she walked into the apartment.

Harriet introduced us to each other, she was the same age as me but strikingly different. She was level headed, intelligent and warm. We spent dinner chatting about the race, news and gossip. My week at Monaco could not have had a better end! I was now two friends richer but still couldn't find a job.