Monaco's VIP

Rory’s POV

Next morning arrived quickly. After all the moment Rory’s head came in contact with the pillow she was out. Even she was surprised by that, never in her entire life had she fallen asleep so quickly.

Jetlag

Her eyes tightened before she decided to open them. The shades were on, but rays of light still managed to avoid them through the creeks. Aurora rolled to her left side, and her gaze instantly met the sliding doors and the bathtub. The time was given by her phone, 7:20. It was a fair hour and she felt as good as new. She took her phone and placed it over her chest as she contemplated her next move. Should she scroll through instagram or TikTok?

“Fuck!”

Aurora sat up as the yelling reached her ears. Different Spanish curses flew around the silent suite. A malicious smile crept over Rory’s lips as she realized what was happening. Rory had warned him. She had warned him over and over again, but Mauro was certainly a stubborn guy. So as the sweet friend she was, Rory walked out of her room with her hair a mess and in her pajamas to find Mauro in front of the body length mirror by the living room looking at his back over his shoulder. A big red patch of skin was the center of the Mexican's attention.

All of a sudden their eyes met in the mirror and Mauro without turning to look at Aurora, he hissed, “Not a word” a murderous glare on his face.

The girl smiled and gestured to her silence by zipping her lips. However the urge to laugh was a bit stronger than Rory’s self-control. “Remember those 5 euros you won yesterday?” Mauro nodded his eyes still fixed over his burnt skin, “Well you might want to use them to buy some Aloe Vera”

Mauro finally walked away from the mirror and sat on one of the kitchen stools and huffed, “And where exactly do we get Aloe Vera, here in Monaco, Rory?” He ran his hands over his naked arms as he stared at Aurora who had already taken her phone to search.

“Maybe we should go to the front desk and ask,” she commented leaning over the counter across from Mauro, “For now I can lend you some lotions”

“Please do”

Mauro was laying face down on his bed as Aurora spreaded the lotions over his red sunburnt back. She was careful not to accidentally scratch him with her nails or put too much pressure over the burns. And as she did the only phrase swimming circles inside her head was “I told you so,” but she wouldn’t say it, Mauro was suffering enough.

“Please stop smiling” He grumbled, “And just say it already”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” her smile got bigger and bigger, “What exactly do you want me to say, Mauro?”

“That you were right and I was wrong”

“Fine. I was right, you were wrong. You should have used sunscreen, you idiot.”

His body relaxed, “Thank you. And if you are going to gloat, please do. Having your eyes on me as if you want to say something is unnerving”

“It’s not”

“It is”

Aurora shrugged and retrieved her hands from her friend’s back, “Honestly Mauro, next time I am buying you a wetsuit.”

“Yeah, yeah” grumbled the brunet as he sat up, “What is today’s itinerary?” Aurora turned to him, Mauro was only wearing a pair of shorts, his upper body bared, “I don’t feel like putting on a shirt” the blonde rolled her eyes, but smiled as Mauro gave a sheepish smile.

She really didn’t mind him not wearing a shirt.

Taking a look at their event notebook Rory took a deep breath, and continued to read today’s events. Mauro had specifically planned the complete itinerary on the weekend, but he remained flexible when Aurora explained to him that one of the FIA contacted her about a small shooting. So as of right then Aurora and Mauro had made a reservation at a cafe near the hotel for lunch.

“I think you need a shirt to be allowed inside,” thought Rory sitting next to Mauro, she turned to him, “This isn’t South Padre Island,” she grinned.

Mauro shook his head, his curls bouncing, “Alberto told you didn’t he?”

“He spared no detail, I am afraid,” she handed the notebook to him and winked as she stood up. Aurora walked over to the kitchen aisle and took a glass, “Did you finish the juice?” she asked opening the fridge and unable to find the bottle

South Padre Island was the best place to travel to with friends during high school. Rory’s grandparents had an apartment there and if she was honest with herself, the apartment was basically hers. Nobody else in her family used it as much as she did. However she was always a calmer traveler than Mauro and his friends.

One time Mauro and Charlie had gotten arrested. They had been drunk at three a.m trying to retrieve Mauro’s shirt from the giant W of Whataburger. After that lets say Mauro never recovered his shirt and was banned from Whataburger for life.

“I did,” He answered. The blonde turned over her shoulder to look at her betrayer, “It’s nothing personal, I was thirsty.” Mauro finally walked over to her and leaned over the aisle with a childish smile.

“Then I guess you will buy me a drink downstairs,” mumbled Rory leaving the glass back in its place, “So go get dressed Mauro.”

Together they descended into the lobby and Rory sensed a good amount of looks darting their way. She wouldn’t admit it, but Aurora wondered if people thought that Mauro and herself were a couple. They sure looked like it.

“I was thinking of sight-seeing,” thought Mauro once they sat at one of the farther tables next to the giant windows. “Maybe even go shopping.”

“Shopping?” Aurora raised her eyebrows, “You like shopping?”

The brunet shrugged, “I mean, when you have the money you might as well spend it. Besides, I like clothes.”

“Okay, Richie Rich, we can go shopping,” chuckled the blonde before biting her straw and taking a sip, “Then we can go by the paddock, don’t you think?”

“You have never said anything better,” smiled Mauro winking.

“I know you so well, '' she joked, “So what exactly are you in the mood for shopping? Clothes? Wallets?” Aurora dared look to the bar then back at her friend who shrugged, “Mhm. I want a new dress, maybe a matching set of heels.” The girl was dreaming out loud, if she was honest with herself, Aurora didn’t need new dresses, she wasn’t as known as other models, so events of high importance were oblivious of her. Sadly, if she got new dresses Rory wouldn’t have any events where to wear them. So as she imagined herself in high couture it was still a dream, to make that into reality Aurora had to keep working. Then Aurora’s eyes met Mauro’s. He had a smile on his face and stared at Aurora as she spoke. At that moment, Rory fell silent. “What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head, “Keep talking.”

“Are you done with your drink, ma’am?” asked a waiter close to the table, “Sir?”

“I am done,” smiled Mauro, “Rory?” the girl nodded to him, “Yes, we are done.”

Mauro opened the door to one of the stores and gestured for Rory to walk in. She did. The cold air of the store drew goosebumps on the model’s arms. However Rory stood at the entrance waiting to feel Mauro behind her. Aurora then felt Mauro’s hand carefully placed on her lower back slightly pushing her forward. So together they walked deeper into the store. A couple of ladies walked up to them asking if they could be of assistance, but Mauro kindly refused them. He then found a comfortable couch to sit and waited as Aurora roamed the store looking for clothes and once in a while she would stop and stare at purses.

Mauro POV

Mauro sat patiently. He found himself staring at the clothes and at the people roaming through the store as he waited for Rory who was in the fitting rooms trying on a couple dresses.

“Monsieur,” came one of the employees, “Your girlfriend is trying on beautiful dresses. Aller,” Mauro wasn’t able to argue as the lady was already pushing him into the fitting rooms where he saw Rory standing in front of a mirror.

She wore a green halter-neck dress with a low back. Rory’s hair had been pulled up into a bun leaving her back bare. Her lips were pursed as she stared at herself through the mirror until her green eyes rose and met Mauro's.

“Hey,” smiled Rory turning over her shoulder

“Hey,” replied Mauro retrieving his arm form the lady who beamed at his side. he gave her a look before turning back at Rory, “That looks good on you”

“You think?” she bit her lip and turned back to the mirror, “I don’t know….I think it is a little loose over here,” she gestured to her chest area. The lady cleared her throat and Aurora froze and turned to her, “Yes?”

Mauro glared at the short woman to her side, “What now?”

“It can be fixed” her words carried a heavy accent, “If you want” The woman fumbled with her hands and smiled at Rory who gave a side smile in return. “Beautiful, doesn’t she look like that?”

Mauro met Rory’s gaze, “You should buy it,” he insisted, taking a step forward, “Unless you want to keep looking?” Mauro offered his hand to the blonde so she could climb down from the peg.

The blonde shrugged and pulled the skirt high enough for her to climb down the peg in which she was standing with her free hand, then let go and looked at Mauro, “Maybe another time,” Mauro nodded and Rory turned to the store lady apologized and proceeded to walk back into her changing room.

Without warning the lady once again grabbed Mauro and pulled him away all the way until they were at the register. The woman had a crazed look on her eyes and Mauro couldn’t help but fear the woman. “Elle aimes la robe!”

Mauro understood that, “She does”

“Buy it”

“Me?” Mauro questioned

The lady nodded, “Gift” she smiled, “She will like it as gift”

Rory’s POV

It was unreal. Aurora and Mauro walked through the Monaco paddock side by side. Rory had refrained herself from taking Mauro’s hand whenever a new wave of people walked past them. She didn’t want to be carried away by such a wave, so instead of taking his hand, Rory would be rather close, bumping into him a couple of times, until she gave up and decided to grab hold of his arm.

Mauro suddenly stopped. Obviously Rory crashed into him, “Ouch,” she mumbled rubbing her nose.

“You reckon we can go inside any hospitality?” he asked once Aurora was standing by his side, he looked down at his pass and brought it up to his face scanning it with his honey colored eyes.

“I’m not sure,” spoke Rory doing the same, “I mean, we can try to go in and if we get kicked out or not we’ll have our answer,” suggested the blonde, “Worth the try.”

“We are not doing that,” said the guy, “That would be embarrassing.”

“It wouldn’t”

“It would”

“Nah”

“Yeah”

Rory rolled her eyes before scanning the paddock in search of any hospitality, but the truth was even if she wanted to prove her friend wrong she had no idea what hospitalities looked like. Around the paddock she could only see engineers and media people. Just as the girl was rearranging her hair there was a flash.

The model’s eyes scanned the area where she believed the flash came from and saw a man she had always admired. The man was checking the picture he had just shot and Rory jumped with glee.

It was Killian Indiana. A famous F1 photographer who Rory had always followed and who made a lot of giveaways that Rory never won anything, but she always participated.

She reached the photographer. “Hi” she said happily, “I’m..-”

“Aurora Lagos” finished the man stretching his hand at her, Rory gladly shook hands with Killian, “Killian Indiana, but I have a feeling you already knew that”

“Yeah,” she giggled, “I am a big fan of your photography, I always participate in your giveaways”

“But you haven’t won anything yet, have you?” Killian asked.

“Afraid not. Maybe I’ll get lucky next time” Rory smiled and felt a hand on her back, peering over her shoulder she saw Mauro, “Killian, this is Mauro a friend of mine”

“Killian Indiana” repeated Mauro stretching his hand, “Damn, I’m a big fan, mate”

“Thank you,” smiled the photographer, “Mauro Flores, yes?”

Mauro and Rory turned to each other and then to Killian, “Yes”

Killian turned to Aurora as he rearranged his shirt’s neck, “Unlike you my dear, this gentleman has won several of my giveaways”

Outraged Aurora turned to Mauro and slightly punched his shoulder, “And you didn’t even mention it?” Mauro shrugged, “Let me guess,” started the blonde again, “You didn’t want to brag.”

“You know me, I am a humble man, Rory” was Mauro’s smug response, “It was a pleasure meeting you,” he gestured to the giant Silverlane logo, “But we have to finish something.”

“It was lovely meeting you Killian,” said Rory as Mauro guided her away, “Have a nice day!”

“You too my dear” offered the photographer with a smile

Rory wouldn’t shut up about the fact that Killian Indiana knew her name, knew who she was. It was the first time someone important in the f1 domain recognized her. Mauro just listened to her with a smile on his face. Both were in the Silverlane official store. Aurora would look at the clothes but she wasn’t actually looking at them, she was on auto-pilot, and was not really there at all. Mauro on the other hand was measuring things and dropping two caps on the bag he had with himself.

The blonde kept on rambling about pictures and photographers as Mauro paid for the stuff he had collected through the small tour of the store. Among the things were the caps, two raincoats, and a pin. Once outside Rory turned to Mauro and smiled, but the smile vanished quickly, “Wait I didn’t see anything!”

“I got you this.” he placed the cap over her head, “And this,” Mauro pulled one of the raincoats from his backpack.

“Wait,” Aurora pulled the cap to her face, “This is Silverlane.” She was not arguing about the clothes, boy, she loved the raincoat.

“Yes”

Confused, she looked at him, “Why?”

“Because apparently the FIA wasn’t the one responsible for your invitation,” the brunet paused and gestured to the cap, “It was them.”

“Really?” Rory placed the cap over her head again and smiled, she didn’t know Mauro had invested so much into learning who had sent the tickets, “Wait!” Mauro halted on his way, “Does that mean we get to meet..-”

“Jean?” offered the brunet. Jean-Pierre Gervais was one of the two drivers for the white and blue team alongside the 22 year old Japanese driver Yori Tsuchida.

“Yori?!” squealed Rory, clapping her hands.

Mauro burst out laughing hugging his belly, “Oh God, you are excited to meet Yori and not Jean Gervais?” he wondered

“Well, duh,” Rory said, “I am not exactly pumped to meet someone who drags Wicho so much, I mean what is the guy’s problem?” Wicho was the only Mexican driver on the grid this year, and had managed a seat within La Rouge after battling it out with Jean last year in Silverlane; they used to be teammates and good friends until the Mexican got the promotion to the bigger team.

The guy shrugged and continued his path behind his friend, “You gotta understand, it is not the guy’s fault”

“Neither Wicho’s,” the blonde argued, crossing her arms over her chest.

It is not that she hated the French driver, he was just too aggressive towards the only latinamerican driver who just happened to be Mexican, like herself, like Mauro, it was not a surprise that Aurora felt a little attacked herself. However as much as she disliked Gervais, which wasn’t much, the young model couldn’t really deny that the driver had a strong sex appeal, after all he wasn’t ugly and sometimes he was kind, but nevertheless as long as he kept on bashing Wicho, Rory would dislike him.

The excitement was making a mess inside Rory’s tummy. There were butterflies, of course, but the little winged animals had needles for legs and razors for wings. The girl started to wonder if her period was coming earlier than expected or her nerves were really killing her.

“Are you okay?” Mauro asked placing an arm over her shoulder

“Is it possible to die due to nervousness?” she wondered out loud leaning into Mauro’s body.

With a light chuckle, “What are you even nervous about?”

The reason she was nervous was mainly meeting the drivers. Since Rory was little her parents always warned her not to meet her heroes. That made little Rory wonder why was that, why would her parents not want her to meet her heroes, her models? Aurora learned it the hard way. In a modeling gig she met one of her favorite models, and it turned out that she was a monstrous bitch. Disappointment really hit Rory, after that she kept her distance from role models, however meeting the drivers was a whole other story, she loved them, every single one of them. She feared that once meeting them, they wouldn’t be the giant crackheads that they seemed to be in social media or even on the team videos. That didn’t just scare her, it terrified her.

“What if they are sorta bitchy?” she asked Mauro

“So what if they are,” shrugged the brunet, “You are a freaking model, and I am here whatever you need.”

Narrowing her eyes at him Aurora chuckled, “I am a freaking model and you are stupid rich, right?”

“I didn’t say that,” laughed Mauro side hugging Aurora, “But yeah,” Aurora tightened her arm around Mauro, “Besides, you can just talk spanish and criticize them,” she gave him a look, “Alright, just not in front of Marcos, Antonio or Wicho.” Aurora chuckled.

“Ms. Lagos?” a man asked standing a couple feet away from Aurora and Mauro.

“Yes?” wondered Rory and headed towards the man, dressed in Silverlane clothing, “That’s me.” Mauro followed close behind.

“I am Aaron Buckley, I am the head of marketing for Silverlane,” he stretched his hand, he was a man almost ten years older than Rory and Mauro, with a balding spot and salt and pepper hair, “We just sent you an email, but now that I see you in person I want to let you know, tomorrow we have the launch of new merch.”

“Oh, I have not checked my mail, sorry.” Aurora said before looking for her phone within the pockets of the raincoat. Why did it have so many?

Aaron gestured for Rory not to worry, “It is alright, the schedule was sent to you as well, we are so excited to collaborate with you. It would be a good idea if you and your manager met the drivers tonight, so tomorrow’s shoot is more comfortable for you. There will be a welcome dinner for both teams, Silverlane and La Rouge. The information is also in the email,” smiled the guy.

“Of course. We will be there,” smiled Aurora, “Just a question,”

“Anything,”

“The dress code, what is it?” In her head Aurora was already thinking of her outfit, she was a model, she had to be prepared for anything and everything and well, she didn’t bring a big luggage, she brought a simple carry on and a backpack.

“Casual”

“Casual?”

“Yes, you won’t see Visser wearing anything other than La Rouge’s polo,” he laughed, “See you both tonight.” Visser was the reigning World Champion with La Rouge and Aaron was right, seeing the dutch driver with anything other than his team’s polo was a rare sight.

“See ya,” smiled Mauro as the man walked away and then turned to his friend, “I am your manager now, sweet” that made Aurora roll her eyes, “I can tell you where to go, and when, and.…”

“Hold your horses my boy. You have no such power”