Grand Prix Of Love - Max Verstappen

Chapter 48

Together with Daniel, we make our way towards the garages. I am not ready to face Max yet. I haven't spoken to him since I left the hotel room last night. He hasn't tried to contact me either, so I'm not bothering either. I have to stay professional, in the sake of the team. I am just going to try to ignore him until the start of the race.

I walk into Max's side of the garage and he is talking to Marcel. He looks up and spots me, but doesn't do anything. I walk past him without saying anything and walk up to Rose. She frowns, but hugs me.

"What's going on?" she asks me, catching Max's attention with this. I look at him, face showing no emotion and that's exactly what I get back from Max.

"Nothing" I answer Rose. A few seconds later, Marcel walks up to me.

"We need to talk strategy" he simply says. Max is talking with Roy about his car. I look at Marcel and nod.

"I'd say 2 stop" I say to Marcel. He nods.

"That's what we thought. Okay, well, let's see if it's the right one" he says and walks to talk to Roy and the pit crew as well. Max looks at me and I just turn away from him. Rose frowns once more, before pulling me out of the garage.

"Spill" she says, once we're away from everyone else. I sigh. No way she's letting me off.

"We got in a fight yesterday. I think I overreacted to begin with, but he started yelling, which made me yell and cry" I say. I also explain everything with the texts and the way he couldn't tell me what was going on.

"I don't think Max wants her back" Rose says, softly after hugging me.

"Then why couldn't he say what was happening or going on? He stayed quiet when I asked him. If nothing was happening or if he wasn't thinking about it, he would've told me. But he didn't" I say. Rose nods, understanding me. I look at the time and see that it's almost time. We've been talking for a good 15 minutes and all the drivers are at the grid now.

"Let's just go" I say and we walk towards the screens. We're greeted by Christian and Femke, who are already there. I sit down too, Rose next to me. We both put on our headphones and immediately people start talking to me.

"Are you okay?" I then hear Femke ask. I look at her and nod, not really wanting to talk about it. I need to concentrate on the race and to get the best possible result for Red Bull.

The drivers do their warm up lap and I check all the data of Max's car. The tyres are looking good and so is the temperature of everything. The warm up lap is done and Max is behind Daniel and next to Lewis. The lights go out and off they go. Max has a horrible start though, not reacting well enough to the lights going off. He falls back to P8, behind Kimi, Daniil Kvyat and also his former teammate Carlos. I am really deciding wether or not to talk to Max, but then I remember one of the first things Christian said when I started this job. "Don't let people know you're his girlfriend".

"What happened, Max?" I ask through the radio. It amazes me when I get  a response.

"Car didn't react. I let go, but the car reacted a few seconds later. Something is not right with the settings" Max replies, sounding cool and no emotion in his voice what so ever.

"Okay, try to push now, you can get Daniil and Carlos for sure" I say. Max doesn't respond with words, but with actions. I can see his laptimes getting quicker each lap. At one point, he's close to Daniil and tries to make a move, only to be stopped by a defanding Daniil. He goes into the pit a few corners later, so Max moves up a position.

"How're the tyres?" I ask, checking the data of them.

"Losing a bit of grip on the rear" he replies. I talk to Marcel about it and Rose's face lights up when she hears his voice. He tells me to wait a few laps. I let Max box after 4 more laps, as you can clearly see him losing a lot of grip. He gets a new set of tyres and moves up a few positions, this time, getting passed Daniil.

Nico Rosberg is in the lead, with Daniel getting behind him. In the last few laps, Daniel gets closer and closer and I'm nervous for him. We all know Max is a lost case at this moment. Even Vettel is in front of him and he started from the back. At this point, Hulkenberg, Bottas and Button are all out. Hulkenberg crashed in the first lap, almost hitting Max. Luckily, he didn't.

Nico crosses the finish line in P1, with Daniel 0.400 seconds behind him. Femke is excited as she talks to Daniel. I open the line to Max when he finishes 6th.

"Good race, well done" I say, less excited than I normally am. It's hard, putting your feelings aside.

"Yeah, thanks" Max reacts, again, no emotion in his voice. I feel Christian's eyes on me, probably confused as hell. I see sadness in Rose's eyes as she feels bad for me. I take my headphones off and Rose follows me to the garage. Just when we walk in, Max walks in as well. He looks at me, but doesn't say anything. I look away as well and just walk into the garage. Rose hugs and kisses Marcel, before he starts talking to Max. After a few minutes, he moves away to get changed.

It turns out that the team is going to celebrate Daniel's podium tonight, so I decide to just sleep in our room. We still haven't talked to each other. I'm already in the room, in my pyjama's in bed, watching some TV, when Max walks in. He looks at me and I can see that he is debating wether or not to say anything. Apparentely, he decides against it, as he just walks to his suitcase, takes out jeans and a shirt and goes into the bathroom. I let out a sigh and feel tears prickling in my eyes once again. I feel a few roll down my eyes. I hear the bathroom door open again and I turn my head away, so he doesn't see me crying. But I guess he does know me.

"Why are you crying?" I hear Max asks. I move my head and look at him, feeling the tears on my cheeks.

"What do you think?" I ask him, voice cracking. Max opens his mouth to say something, but it interupted by a knock. He goes and opens the door and I quickly wipe my tears away. Marcel is in the doorway.

"You ready?" he asks Max. Max nods and looks at me. I just look at him, hoping he stays to talk this through. But he doesn't. He grabs his key card and walks out, letting the door fall in the lock. And there come the tears again.