Page 183 of My French Love Affair

“Welcome to the Monaco effect, darling.”

“No, this doesn’t make any sense,” I tell her. “Seriously - what is going on?”

Before I can dive any deeper, Jas, who’s a few steps ahead of us, suddenly stops dead in her tracks.

Her brows knit together, her mouth slightly parted as she stares down at her phone.

“What is it?” I ask.

She lifts her gaze to mine, holding out her phone.

“Uh… have you seen this?”

I take her phone hesitantly, and my stomach sinks the moment I do.

There it is.

A gossip site. A blurry photo.

Andme.

Hand-in-hand with Frederic outside of his hotel.

The headline is obnoxiously bold:

F1’s Frederic Moreau Spotted With Mystery Woman in Monaco - But Who Is She?

I curse under my breath, my heart hammering.

“Oh,” Emma breathes, looking at the article from over my shoulder. “That is… definitely you.”

No wonder my socials have been blowing up.

“Fuckinghell,” I mutter as I run a hand through my hair, my mind racing. “This is not ideal in the slightest.”

The comments are already dissecting every detail, with some people clearly having recognised me. Some of them followed me already - enough to have pieced it together from my outfit, my location and the timeline.

I exhale sharply.

“Never mindnot ideal,” I correct myself. “This is bad. This isreallybad.”

“No! It’s not that bad,” Emma shrugs. “It’s not like you’re in a scandal, babe. You’re dating an F1 driver. That’siconic.”

I level her with a flat look.

“I’m not dating him.”

“Try telling that to the internet,” Jas smirks. “Along with anyone else who has an ounce of common sense.”

I shoot her a glare before turning my attention back to the article.

It’s all speculation - just vague assumptions about my identity and our relationship status, but it’s enough to makemy skin crawl.

The last thing I want is to be noticed like this.

Worst of all, I don’t want Frederic to have to deal with this.

The thought makes my stomach twist. He’s literally preparing for a race - the biggest of the year. The last thing he needs is some dumb gossip site pulling focus away from that.

---