It was quite early the next morning when I woke up, I took this time to go for a walk. The little stores were still being cleaned and readied for the day's business.

I was greeted by an occasional smile or nod as I walked by, I still couldn't take my mind off the feelings that kiss filled my heart with.

Sure, I've kissed my fair share of people. Probably kissed them more intensely then this was, but it refused to fade away. My heart skipped a beat literally every time I thought about it.

I returned to the hotel to see if he was ready for breakfast, still no sign of him. I waited in my room for a while, I sent him a few texts. No response.

I decided to head to his room to check if he was even awake, I knocked on the door and stood there for a while. Just when I was about to leave, the door creaked open.

"Come on in." Charles said.

He sounded so sleepy, gosh his sleepy voice was attractive. I stepped into the room, struggling to make eye contact with him. He wasn't wearing a shirt, how was I supposed to talk to him without looking at that midriff?

"Uhm..." I turned away.

"Oh!" He realised he wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Your room is a mess." I shook my head looking at the place, everything but his Ferrari kit was in a messy condition.

"You can turn around and stop criticising me." He said.

"So, breakfast?" I looked at him.

"Sure, let's go." He smiled. "The helicopter should be ready soon." He rubbed his forehead.

"How stupid of me!"

"What?"

"You went clubbing, you're probably super hung over."

"Well, not THAT hung over." He ran his fingers through his hair.

Oh gosh this wasn't going to be easy for me, who allowed this man to be this bloody attractive in every sense?

We ate breakfast, headed back to our rooms to pack our bags and leave for the heliport. We were back in Monte Carlo in a while, I thanked him for the great weekend and just like that we went our ways again.

"I'm home!" I announced walking into the apartment.

I then realised it was Monday, unlike me my sister had a job. She was not going to be home in the afternoon to welcome me.

I decided not to use social media for the rest of the day, instead I read and watched more reality TV. I even got a call from Mia, who was as always jumping from one topic to another.

It was 6 at last, Harriet was finally home. I asked her about her day, more eager to tell her about how my week had been.

She didn't speak much in detail, giving me the time to speak more. I told her in excruciating detail about Arthur's proposal to Nat and in even more painful detail about Sunday.

"Oh my gosh, SHUT UP!" She groaned.

"Ouch."

"I mean cute- It's hard for me Tara!"

"To show love?"

"I don't have time to be all soft and you too are wasting your time getting all soft-"

"Mum, is that you?"

"Don't you dare go there! Bitch!"

"Who are you calling bitch!?"

"You make me want to never do nice things for you." She rolled her eyes.

"What did you do?"

"Charles stopped by at the restaurant for a meeting, I was on a break so I pulled him aside and invited him for dinner."

"When?"

"Whenever he's free. So that's after the Singapore Grand Prix."

"Awww." I smiled.

"Stop! Disgusting. Like watching both of you smooch plastered all over the Internet wasn't enough." She grunted.

The kiss, oh Charles why were you toying with me? I don't think I've been able to live in peace since that happened.

The days almost felt like they were merging into one giant mass, I was waiting for that dinner so bad. I was craving his presence, I couldn't wait for the race to be done so that I could finally have him over.

I spent most of my days eating gelato, bothering Harriet, Julia and Gabriel, thinking about Charlotte's offer and answering DMs from sweet people.

It was Friday night at last, time for family game night! Gabriel and I set up the board game we were going to play while Julia and Harriet cooked up a feast.

"So Charles..." Gabriel smirked.

"Yes Charles..." I smiled.

"How are things with him?"

"Good, about to be great because Harriet has finally accepted him."

"What? No way!"

"Yeah! She's inviting him for dinner next week!"

"That's big!"

"Zip it or I'll uninvite him." She yelled from the kitchen.

We spent the evening playing the game, cracking jokes and talking about things. After a good while we got hungry and gobbled down dinner, they started talking about their careers and that's when it hit me.

I had literally put my life on hold, for this web of lies. I felt like an idiot for getting so invested in it but then I realised it didn't feel like I had hit pause.

It felt right, to be with him. Be with him, no I wasn't with him. This was all a lie Tara, why are you manipulating yourself?

"You know what?"

"What?" The three of them looked in confusion.

"I'm going to accept Charlotte's offer."

"What offer? Catch us up please." Gabriel said.

"So when I was in Nice, she told me about how she needed help running her architecture firm. She needed a manager."

"Go on."

"As you know I-"

"Have two failed businesses and was fired from my last job, I studied at a business school though." Julia completed my sentence.

"I told her all of that and she still told me to think about it and tell her by September!"

"Are you sure? Moving to Nice? Think all of this through."

"I'm sure! Maybe..." I realised I was doing things on a whim.

"How about you wait, call her up tomorrow morning and tell her you're ready!" Gabriel chimed in.

"Yeah! I could do that!"

"Good, now don't do anything stupid on a whim. This definitely feels like one of those decisions." Harriet took a jab at me.

I woke up with a smile on my face, it was Saturday already. Just one more day and he'll be on his way back home, I'll get to see him.

Harriet left early for work, weekends meant double the workload of weekdays. I headed to the harbour for a morning jog and to clear my mind a little before I made the phone call.

My pocket buzzed, it was a text message from Charles.

🙀

😽

I wasn't mad, I was confused about why he was avoiding confrontation about that kiss. It was driving me insane, I had to know what it meant to him.

I walked back home, showered, ate breakfast and cleaned up. It was about 11 am, seemed like a decent time to call Charlotte up.

I sent her a text asking if it was a good time to call her up, she replied with a thumbs up in a few minutes. I took a deep breathe and hit the call button.

"Hello Tara! It's been a while, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing good! How have you been?"

"Fine, but struggling without a manager." She sighed.

"That's exactly why I called up, I thought about it. I'd love to work with you, provided you still need the help."

"That's great! Take down the email ID I'm sending you, mail me these documents. I'll text you the list."

"Thank you so much Charlotte!"

"Thank you Tara! I'll give you time to come to the city and find a house and all that so yeah I think you can join us after Christmas?" She asked.

"Sounds perfect!" I beamed.

So maybe coming to Monaco was a good idea after all, sure I was going to leave it in a matter of months but it helped me meet some of the most precious people in my life.

I decided that I'll wait until the dinner to tell Charles, I didn't need his approval I only wanted to know how he'd take the news.