Arthur and Charles left for Var once he was awake, I was nervous about lunch with Charlotte. She was really sweet but she was his ex-wife, the mother to Mia. What if she despised me?

She had told me the name of the restaurant they were eating at, after help from the locals and a few wrong turns I was finally here.

The place was situated right along the beach, people were carrying their food from the restaurant to the beach, I found the concept really fascinating.

"Tara!" I heard Mia's squeals.

"Hi!" I walked to where they were sitting.

"I missed you so much!" She hugged me.

"In the entirety of 4 hours that you were away." Charlotte laughed.

"Thanks for inviting me!" I beamed taking a seat opposite to her.

"The pleasure's all mine, should we order now?" She asked me.

I nodded, we ordered a good mix of food and were served with beverages to cool ourselves down almost instantly.

"So Tara, tell me about yourself! There's so little I know about you!"

"Well, I'm Tara Fae. My parents are two successful entrepreneurs and my sister Harriet Fae is a chef! She's working at the Alain-"

"Ducasse? I've had the experience to dine there! Their menu is wonderful, compliments to the chefs!" She smiled. "That's about your family, what about you?"

"Well, in the 24 years of my existence all I've done is fail!" I laughed, "Started a clothing line, pockets went dry, abandoned the business and started one one on refurbishing and reselling preowned books, it didn't run profitably and then my last job was at an HR firm, I couldn't lie well enough."

She went quiet, she hadn't said a word. I could see Charlotte struggle to find the right words, she finally managed to say that she had seen pictures from the ball. Charles and I looked lovely together and it seemed dreamy.

"Thank you!" I smiled.

"So, tell me about how the two of you met!"

"It's... A long story..."

"And we have all the time in the world!"

I told her about how my parents threatened to cut me off after losing my job and so I moved to Monaco to live with Harriet. She too was tired of seeing the awful state I was in and we tried looking for jobs but it didn't work, until she met Pascale.

"So Mia would be there, at the salon causing chaos."

"I ran around with scissors in my hand only twice mama! Don't believe her!" Mia defend herself.

"Twice!? Mia!" Charlotte looked at her in shock.

"Yup, for that reason she needed a babysitter. I started babysitting her, blissfully unaware that she was your and Charles' daughter!"

"Oh wow!" She laughed.

"Let's just say the first week was difficult, she refused to believe in the concept of friendship."

"There was only boss and slave." Mia added eating her fries.

"Who's teaching you all of this?" Charlotte looked at her.

"She gave in, we became friends and then I was invited for her birthday. That's where we met the first time." I smiled.

"That's adorable! But Mia, we need to talk about a lot." Charlotte glared at her daughter.

"Fish! I'm going to go stand by the fish tank mama!" She leaped out of her chair and went running towards the aquarium wall.

"So, has he taken you on any dates yet?"

I was hesitant, what was I supposed to say. She could see that I was struggling, I managed to say we went out to eat pizza with Mia, dropped him at the airport and the ball was about all we've done.

"That's...nice." She examined me.

"...Yeah.... It is."

"Has he take you to the gelateria in Larvotto?"

"What? No... But Mia and I do go to eat gelato a lot!"

"You spend more time with Mia than you do with Charles...."

"He's a busy man." I shrugged.

"That busy?" She looked at me.

I didn't know what to say, I was short of words. She was catching on to us, before I could say anything she started again.

"You started off so confident, you talked about your family, your sister with fluency but the minute I started asking you questions about you and Charles, it's like you're weaving stories as you speak. What's the truth?" She rested her chin on her hands.

I broke, before I could even control myself I was word vomiting. It's a PR stunt, he doesn't have time for a relationship but the media won't leave him alone since the divorce.

After they found out that you had a boyfriend that was it, they pestered him all the time and he was getting tired. So he decided to give in, he heard Pascale trying to set me up with Arthur. So he decided I already had her approval so he asked me to fake date him.

She looked stunned, but I felt relief to finally have told someone my big secret. And then I realised what if she doesn't hold it in?

"Charlotte, can you make me a promise?"

"What is it?"

"Can you please keep this a secret?"

"This PR nightmare if the truth came out? Yes of course!"

"Thank you, I just really needed to get it off my chest."

"So, the dreamy photos from the ball?"

"The ball was dreamy but the start of it wasn't." I sighed.

"What happened?"

"So, it's a ball right? I'm wearing this fancy gown and tall heels, he said that he's going to pick me up and guess what! He didn't!"

"What?"

"He was running late so he made me walk, from my apartment to the casino. And then had the audacity to honk at me."

"Oh my-"

"That's not even the worst part, I nearly cried because of the way he was treating me and that's when he started treating me with human decency."

"Wow." He eyes widened.

"How were you married to him! Today morning too, he wouldn't come up to my apartment and or wait for me downstairs, like a bloody taxi driver he sat in his car and kept honking, I'm pretty sure he woke up everyone."

"He's horrible?"

I just realised what I've said, Charles wasn't a horrible man. He was very clear about how he didn't have time for all of this, I didn't have to paint him in such bad light.

"No... he's not that bad, I mean we're becoming friends now."

"All I'm hearing is he doesn't have time for anything but Ferrari, exactly why things didn't work out for us."

"I'm so sorry for that but then I have to bear in mind he's been through a lot and he's sacrificed a lot of things to get where he's gotten today."

"Yeah, you do have a point but Mia is his daughter and as time changes so should your priorities. Just a small shift."

"Yup, he's not willing to make it. So here I am, his fake girlfriend!" Both of us laughed at the last bit.

We paid for lunch and decided to walk on the pier for some time, Mia was once again running ahead of us in search of a place that would serve gelato among all the shacks on the beach.

I noticed a little shack selling bandanas, for some reason it instantly reminded me of Charles. I bought one, shoved it in my bag and we continued walking.

"So you're in Nice next week too?" She asked.

"Yeah, Charles didn't get me a paddock pass so I'll be in Nice next week too."

"How do you find the city?"

"As of what ever I've seen so far? It's wonderful! Quite a beautiful place." I smiled.

"I'd love to show you around, are you up for it?"

"Yes!"

"That's a plan then! Tara and Charlotte hit the streets of Nice tomorrow!"

She dropped me off at the hotel and was on her way home, I was greeted by the staff and got on to the elevator.

I was so excited about my plans with Charlotte for tomorrow, our meet up had gone better than I expected. I couldn't wait for it to be the next day already!