Do you belive in forever? (Max Verstappen)

Chapter 28

Through an alarm clock I woke up the next morning with a headache, I had probably cried too much the night before. But this did not change the fact that there was still ringing alarm clocks. Without turning, I reached for my phone, surprised to find that there was no alarm clock at my phone.

Terrified, I found Daniel lying next to me in bed. So, it was also his phone that rang. Grumbling, the Australian opened his eyes and turned off the alarm clock. Now that there was peace and quiet, he wanted to continue sleeping. But I would not allow this, because I had questions that needed an answer.

"Why are you lying next to me in my bed?" came a groan from Daniel annoyed. He was probably not quite as a morning person as I had thought, actually I wasn't myself, but today was an exception. After all, you don't wake up every day next to a Formula 1 driver.

I was already aware that we hadn't slept together, but I would like to know why he was lying with me in bed: "We didn't want to leave you alone and my hotel is the closest. And now let me enjoy another five minutes of rest." After what he and the British had done for me yesterday, he had earned these five minutes, but I couldn't and didn't want to sleep anymore.

Quietly, I grabbed a Sky shirt, a pair of normal jeans and a pair of socks. With my clothes in my hand, I disappeared behind the bathroom door. Before I got dressed, I immediately threw in the painkillers, which this time were to help not only against the pain in the rib, but also in my head.

Carefully I peeled myself out of last night's dress and made up, which I couldn't do last night because I had fallen asleep in the car. My eyelids were slightly swollen from crying, so I quickly splashed cold water in my face. It hadn't really helped yet, but at least it felt better.

Moved and with fresh make-up on my face, I dared to get out of the bathroom. Just in time, it seemed to me, because Ricciardo wanted to get straight out of the dust. He stood in yesterday's old clothes and grabbed his car keys from the bedside table. He was almost at the room door when I stopped him.

"Daniel? Thank you," the Australian looked in surprise at me. With his typical grin, Daniel smiled at me and waved as if he hadn't done anything great. He hadn't won the World Cup title or saved humanity, but for me, he hadn't taken anything for granted. Neither he nor any of the boys should have come to the restaurant yesterday, but he had come and for that I was grateful to him and the British.

Without any of us saying anything else, he left my hotel room. It was only now that I realized that I was actually far too early and would only get up now. So, I decided to do something I hadn't done right for years, and that was breakfast.

With my bag already packed, I went to the buffet. To my surprise, almost everyone from the Sky Team was there and not only we Germans, but also from all other countries. Of course, other press staff were also housed here, not just Sky. But Sky employees recognized the clothes straight away, because we all wore the same shirts.

Next to Sandra and opposite Thomas I settled down with a muesli and coffee. As if I were an alien, they looked at me, especially Ralf. Even Udo, who was still with the game, seemed more than surprised to see me at the breakfast table.

"Did the world go down?" played in panic, Ralf looked out the window. But I couldn't quite understand why they were doing such a theater. That's why I looked back and forth inquiring, but no one really wanted to answer.

It was Thomas who wanted to educate me: "You never eat breakfast yourself said that, because you prefer to sleep the quarter of an hour longer. How do we deserve the honor of honoring us at breakfast with your presence?" Now a light had come up to me and I looked knowingly to my recording manager.

"Couldn't sleep any longer, was awakened by a strange noise" that the sound was Daniel's alarm clock, they didn't need to know. I hadn't lied correctly with the answer, I just omitted some details.

Luckily, everyone just took it and continued the normal conversations, but I stopped by. I felt comfortable with my team, and yet I just couldn't be talked about. My team probably pushed it my way in the morning, I always needed something to get into the aisles, so I initially only gave short answers like Kimi.

Thomas leaned back a little in the chair with his cup of coffee: "Do you think Verstappen can keep up with Mercedes and Ferrari. It would be nice if we had at least three teams that could compete for the win."

"I think we will see a closed Mercedes series at the end with the two Ferraris behind it, because Shanghai just fits too much on the Mercedes cars. Of course, it would be nice to see Red Bull in front, but I think Shanghai is the wrong track for them. Especially since you hear that they are not satisfied with their second driver," Ralf said. Sandra, too, saw it that way, only Leon was overwhelmed that Ferrari would manage to drive Mercedes down the rankings.

I just kept eating my muesli and didn't want to say anything about it because I didn't feel safe enough on such issues: "We still have to bet on the win for this race. I'm for Seb and you?"

"Bottas," I didn't always want to take Hamilton. In addition, Ralf said that there would be a closed front row of Mercedes, so it didn't really matter which driver I took from the team as long as Seb stayed behind.

The cameraman looked at me nodding: "What is the stakes this time? The winner is allowed to choose a costume for the loser to wear all the time next weekend?" I agreed, because firstly I couldn't think of anything better and on the other hand, I liked the idea of a cameraman dressed up as a clown.

The rest of our team at the table could only shake their heads. But I didn't care, I liked betting and when I lost, I settled the bet with pride. In addition, they didn't have to complain, because they probably had the most of it when the loser had to wear funny things. At the moment, fortunately, it had always been good for me, as I trusted the dominance of Mercedes and Leon followed his fan heart of Ferrari.

Now that we had ticked this off, I took out my phone. My brother had sent me a message that I opened. It had been a photo of a piece of paper. As much as I could, I enlarged the image, so I could read the text. All the color was removed from my face and my stomach turned.

"Bad news?" Asked Sandra about me. I nodded to her as I continued to read and hoped the numbers would shrink. Honestly, I was hoping that I saw a zero too much, so I counted the zeros seven times.

A little beside the lane, I looked up at the questioning faces of my colleagues: "The beggibg letter of the police has arrived, 7000Fr. the accident costs me and 3months the driver's license is away. Next time I should do the accident before the border, I would probably get away with it much more cheaply." The others had also made big eyes. 7000Fr. were extremely much money but given my offence somewhere justified. I had put not only myself and the tree in danger, but also all other people.

"The best thing to do is not build an accident, next time you may not be lucky. I don't want to have to visit you in a cemetery," Ralf clarified. The father had probably penetrated him, even though he knew that I had said the last part as fun. It might have been a stupid joke, but when I got a little too uncomfortable, I always tried to make jokes to cover them up.

Thomas agreed: "I don't want to have to work on it again, it's really hard to work in the season. Speaking of work, we should all go there slowly, otherwise the drivers will do their first laps without us."

We quickly cleared the dishes and went to the entrance hall where the rest of the staff were waiting. They had either had breakfast earlier or kept it the way I normally do and didn't eat anything yet. Since I was really awake after the news of my brother, I had still got a can of Red Bull from a vending machine.

"First coffee and now Red Bull, do I have to tie you to the chair?" Ralf wanted to know about me amused and too skeptical. But I shook my head, my body was now in front of the caffeine, so it had no real effect on me anymore.

Udo also looked at me skeptically: "Today's youth, just stare at their phones and drink energy like water. If you don't get problems with your heart, I go to church every Sunday." For someone who shied away from the Church, these were very big words, so I was surprised to see Udo.

"Then I hope the church doesn't go too long, and you make it to the race", because my heart worked excellent. Udo then quickly told me that I wasn't getting any younger and that caffeine took time to leave visible damage to my body.

But I just didn't care what happened in ten years, so I immediately got a second can for on the road. Should I have a heart attack at that moment, my heart was already broken anyway. That Red Bull would then, so to speak, bear the blame for my death would be the irony of fate. But I didn't get a heart attack, even if my heart felt like it was breaking again at the thought of the night before.

I was desperately hoping that I wouldn't see Max for the rest of the weekend, at least in person. In my job, the hopes were very low, and I had to be prepared to see him again. Very likely I would have to interview him after the race, I have to get bad. This interview would be totally unpleasant for all involved and viewers, I was sure.

"Hanna are you coming, or are you still clearing the vending machine?" I quickly shook my head. I hurriedly followed my team outside to our transfer bus. This time I was sitting on the side where there was only one seat, because the thought of Max had pulled me down.

Thoughts lost I looked out of the bus, on the environment that was always changing while I was drinking my second energy for today. I took the voices of the others only on the sidelines, as I tried to imagine how the encounter between me, and the Dutchman could go. I still had a little spark of hope that Charles and Carlos had washed his head and he regretted it.

Max would hardly get on, but the Dutchman certainly wasn't such a guy, even though he had been the one who approached me the last few weeks. I should do the same to him now and go to him. One last time having a conversation, but I doubted that Max still wanted to talk. The best thing would be to forget as best I could and concentrate on my job again. But a part of me didn't want to make a catch behind it and move on.

At that moment I would have liked Jessica to have with me, she knew what to do and would build me up. I briefly thought about writing her a message, but in Switzerland it was still very early in the morning, and so I wouldn't get an answer anyway. I also wanted to clarify it quietly on the phone with her, but I didn't want to write a novel to her.

Once again, I would be ripped out of my thoughts: "Getting up early really doesn't seem to be good for you. We've arrived at the track."