46: I can tell through your eyes

Sienna's point of view

I'm wearing a green dress, dark green, it fits my olive skin tone.

He likes the dress, I've worn it before.

Yet this evening... he's not giving me one look.

'Sienna, is something wrong?', Carlos' voice interrupts my thoughts.

'Carlito! No everything is fine', he gives me a kiss on my forehead.

'Next week, home race huh, are you going to win?', I ask him.

'Only if Maeve lets me', he smiles.

'I will feed her poison if I have to', I laugh.

'Don't, your friends are worth more than my win'

'Carlito, I will always have one true friend and that is you, I don't need anyone else. You know I'm proud of you right?', his eyes sparkle the same as in the past when we would go for ice cream and he would pay for me. I will never forget the things he did for me, never.

'I know, Esperanza', my face changes as soon as he mentions my middle name.

'Why did you ruin this special moment by bringing up something so horrible', I give him a smack against his arm.

He laughs even harder.

'I hate you'

'I love you more, Elvira'

'STOP IT!!', I hiss.

I love him.

With my whole entire heart.

Luciana's point of view

'Dance with me princess', Charles walks up to me.

'Why? I can't dance', I smile

'Because you're my girlfriend, princess', his accent gives me goosebumps.

He takes my hand and looks for approval to take me to the dance floor. Well... dance floor... Maeve's living room is turned into a dance floor.

'What do I do?', I ask.

'Just move your god-given hips, they're amazing so why wouldn't you?', he smirks.

I can't help but blush.

He plants his face on my neck, giving me sweet kisses all over it.

'Charles...', I smile.

'Come on... we'd go with the flow', he says.

'I know... that's why I'm doing this', I place my hand in his hair and push my lips onto his.

I close my eyes and I can feel him trying to get his tongue inside my mouth.

Why the hell not?

Maeve's point of view

Max is a little... wasted, he had like... 5 margaritas and 2 glasses of wine.

He is ranting on about basically everything.

I'm enjoying it very much.

'So basically Esteban is a French dick', Max concludes.

'I love this evening', Ricciardo laughs.

I laugh too.

'Maeve you are quite pretty, do you know that?', Max turns towards me.

I feel my face reddening. 'Well thank you, Max, you are pretty too'.

Ricciardo is giving me a huge side-eye.

'Stop it', I tell him.

'You wouldn't lie to me right Maeve?', Max smiles.

'Never, I would never', I can't help but smile at the sight of Max being a cutie pie.

'Great, because my dad lies to me a lot and I hate him because of it', Max says out of nowhere.

I look at Ricciardo who is acting like it's the most normal thing on earth.

'He trauma dumps a lot, if you just offer him a listening ear it is enough for him', Ricciardo says.

I nod. Okay, totally normal...

Sienna's point of view.

I walk towards the bar, he's standing there with Oscar.

'Oscar! Lando! How nice to see you', I act as if I didn't just come here for him.

'Hello Sienna', Oscar looks at Lando and notices something is wrong.

'Maybe I should leave you two alone for a minute', he grabs his beer and walks away.

'Lando... please talk to me', I say.

'Are you ready to tell me the truth?', he asks.

'Yes, yes I am...'

'Then I will talk to you', he grabs his soda.

'Meet me in the guest bedroom, end of the hall... I'll go first', I whisper.

He nods.

He closes and locks the door behind him.

'Talk', he says.

I can tell he isn't mad, he's hurt... and I feel even worse about that.

'Five years ago I opened my own bakery, SainzSweets. I made cupcakes... I made pies... uhm I made all sorts of things. I hired people to work for me because I was too busy to be there all the time', I take a deep breath. I haven't told this story in ages...

Lando notices. 'Take another deep breath, Sienna. Then tell me the rest'.

I do as he says. 'I had this one girl who worked for me, her name is...', tears start to fill my eyes. 'Her name is Naomi... Naomi Stone'.

'I made a mistake... I was in a hurry. It was a Sunday morning, the bakery would open in an hour. I had these mood candles in my office, they would clear my anxiety, or so I thought. Every time I left for only a minute I would blow them out... make sure nothing could happen. Until that Sunday... Carlos and I had been fighting the evening before, he was mad because he was starting P18 at his home race'.

The tears roll over my cheeks. I sit down on the bed.

'Here', Lando hands me a tissue.

'I'm sorry, It's hard for me to tell', I try to stop crying.

'Calm down, it's okay', he says.

'It was four years ago... he still drove for Mclaren with...'

'With me, I remember... he was very upset about it', Lando says.

I nod. 'He wasn't just upset... he was mad... extremely mad. He was so scared of disappointing his family... our family'.

'I told him to be grateful... to be happy he could race... to be able to go to his family every day...' I dry my tears. 'He called me a bitch, told me I would never achieve something, I told him I would never watch a race again and he told me to fuck off'.

'But you watched... I remember you congratulated him on his P6, you guys were fine after the race'.

'That's because I left the bakery that morning in a hurry. I couldn't understand how I'd say that to him the night before, he had every right to be mad. I wanted to watch that race, it was his home race... our home', Lando takes a seat across from me.

'I told Naomi, she said, don't worry about it girl... go watch your brother. I left my office, but I never blew out the candle'

Lando takes a deep breath.

'After the race Carlos and I were fine, we apologized and promised each other to never ever fight like that again. When I went home that day I got a call... it was the police'.

I notice that my eyes are full of tears again, so I pat them dry.

'They told me the bakery caught fire, the candle had been burning the whole day, it wasn't a problem... until it was... the curtains caught fire and the whole place burned down'.

This might be the hardest part to tell... 'There were two people at work that day, Naomi and Celeste... Celeste was on a smoke break a few curbs over, she always did that. Naomi noticed too late, she couldn't get out. She tried to call me but there was too much smoke'.

Lando's breathing is becoming irregular, just like mine.

'They got her out, she was in a critical condition, she was burned all over her body. She survived, I send her money every month, 10 thousand euros, in cash for her hospital bills'.

Lando seems to know where I'm heading. 'The 800 pounds...'

'She has cancer, cancer of the skin. That fire was my fault, although she never ever said that to me, she said it was... an unfortunate situation. She has never ever held me accountable. No sues, nothing... she comforted me while it was supposed to be the other way around. So I offered to pay for her treatment, she has no insurance, you know. I went to the bank... all kinds of different banks... but they wouldn't lend me more money, they arrested me for fraud'.

'That's why I had to bail you out', he says. I nod.

'The 800 pounds weren't for me, it was for her, she needed her medicine but she couldn't pay with card... I had no other option all the banks were kicking me out. I couldn't tell you...'

'Sienna', Lando sits down next to me. 'When I told you I loved you, you know I meant that right? I'm not talking just about all those warm and cute feelings. I'm talking about putting in the work. I'm here to stay for the hard parts, not just the pretty ones'.

I can't hold it in much longer and I start crying.

'That means so much to me, I'm sorry if I hurt you... I just don't want anyone to think I am a disappointment. I never told anyone. I told everyone it's still going strong... only Maeve and Luci know'.

'Sienna, I know your family. They would never think of you as a disappointment. I know it might feel that way but this wasn't your fault, it was an accident, and it could've happened to anyone. Thank you for telling me and I'm sorry for giving you a hard time about it', he closes his arms around me.

'Thank you Lando... I love you more than anything you know that right?'

'Sienna... I know... I can tell through your eyes. Don't worry, I feel the same way about you', he kisses my head.