Wild Heart [Max Verstappen]

Part 21

Today was FP3 and qualifying and I couldn't wait to see what would happen. I was already at the McLaren garage to support Lando. Charles walked by and stopped when he saw me, a cheeky smile appeared on his lips and I walked over to him.
"Hey you, glad to see you here"
"You knew I was coming"
He smirked and looked at me grabbing one of my hands "how was your night"
"It was pretty good
"I wonder what the reason for that would be" he winked and pulled me closer to him.
"I'll see you well after FP3?"
I nodded, "I'll wait here for you."
He gave me another kiss before walking to the Ferrari garage. With a smile I looked around me and saw that Max was staring. I crossed my arms and went to the back of the garage to have a look.

After a nice meal and a couple of nice conversations I went back to the McLaren garage for qualifying. I could feel the nerves building up for Lando, I put the headphones around my neck and chatted with the others in the garage. As they were prepping everything I put the headphones on and folded my hands together and wobbled a little on my legs. The weather gods were in a good mood because the sun was shining and it was nice and warm. As I looked at the screen, I played nervously with my hair. As they all started qualifying.

I looked anxiously at the screen. Lando was doing a very good job. And yes I was so happy for Lando, he was allowed to start on 3rd tomorrow because Bottas had to drop a few places due his penalty, somehow I was happy for Max because he had pole position. Charles wasn't bad at all and started in 7th place. With a big smile I looked at everyone in the garage where everyone was happy with how Lando had done. Things didn't go as smoothly for Daniel, but they would talking about that after the interviews. I decided to go and see Charles quickly. I walked to the Ferrari garage where Charles was talking, he saw me coming and opened his arms so I took a little run and jumped into his arms. We gave each other a kiss "7th place isn't that bad after all!
"Wow you're excited" said Charles as he carefully set me back on the ground.
"Of course I'm excited for you and for Lando of course."
"Will I see you later?"
I nodded convincingly "you can be sure of that"
"Will you come with me to the motorhome first? Then you can go to the hotel and I'll come to you after aal this is finished"
"Sure"
He took my hand a bit uncertainly and carefully at first, to make him a bit more confident I squeezed his hand and then his well-known smile formed on his lips. Together we walked to the motorhome, on our way we saw Max with Ava. I looked at the ground as we walked and just as we crossed Max ran into Charles' arm. I saw that Charles really wanted to say something about it but he held back, maybe he just wanted to show Max that he was the bigger person and is not concerned with him. I was grateful for that because that confrontation would have been difficult for me, Max still played a big part in my mind. Once we arrived at the motorhomes we said goodbye and I went to the hotel.

In the bathroom, I took off my makeup and washed my face before changing into something more comfortable. Then I decided to take it easy and watch a movie in bed. Soon I felt my eyes getting heavy, before I would actually fall asleep I quickly sent to Charles.

Nora_Norris
I'm very tired, I'm about to fall asleep. I'll see you in the morning then! Good night x

charles_leclerc
No problem dear, sleep well x

I closed my laptop and slid it on the floor next to the bed. I dug deep into the covers and closed my eyes before quickly drifting off to sleep.

-Next morning-

Max's POV
Now that I was together with Ava I came to realise how much Nora actually means to me and that I'm actually in love with her. Don't get me wrong Ava is a nice girl and all but she isn't Nora. Since Nora is travelling with Lando for the whole season I had to face her almost everyday and she had to face us as well. But I don't think that it hurts for her, she seems perfectly happy with Charles now. I can't blame her, he treats her right and gives him all of his time when he can. Those texts still came into mind everyday and then she acted like she didn't know what she did, that's the worst part. I was walking with Ava down the paddock when I spotted Charles and Nora together, walking down the paddock as well. She usally wears an orange cap to support Lando but that cap was replaced by a bright red cap. I couldn't help but watch the two of them, they were holding hands and were laughing the entire time. I shouldn't have dropped her in the first place, maybe then we would be walking down the paddock hand in hand and laughing, her wearing my cap or a shirt of mine.

Seeing them together made me feel jealous and made my heart ache. It was christal clear that they were dating, even tho they denied it everytime an intervieuwer asked about them. Me on the other hand made sure everyone knew I was with Ava, but now I'm starting to question myself all over again. "Baby are you okay?" I heard Ava ask, as a respons I just nodded not taking my eyes of the perfect couple walking infront of us.
"Can you like look at me when I'm talking to you?"
I rolled my eyes and looked at Ava "Can you like leave me the fuck alone" I hadn't thought about how this would come out of my mouth, Ava looked stratled and Charles and Nora turned around to look at us. They must've heard it. I sighed loudly and walked away from Ava who was just looking at me in disbelieve. I needed to be alone for a while, why did I have this jealous feeling inside of me when I saw those two together. I was the one that told Nora to leave me alone, I was the one who didn't want to listen to her. What a joke... I went to sit down on the floor with my back against the wall and rested my head against it as well. I closed my eyes for a moment to reflect on myself and to calm down a little. Soft footsteps came my way so I carefully opend my eyes to see Nora standing right in front of me.
"Hey, what's going on?"
"What did I tell you Nora?"
"Come on Max, talk to me. What's going on?"
I pushed myself up back on my feet and walked over to the girl I loved all along. I cupped her cheeks and looked directly into her brown eyes.
"I thought I'd be better without you, I can't stop thinking about you! Now you're with someone new..."
"Max..."
"I want you" I whispered.
Our eyecontact was strong but I could see she was biting her lip, which means she was nervous or she wanted to kiss me. It felt good that she still got nervous around me or even wanted to kiss me. I knew she wouldn't do that to Charles but just the tought of us kissing made me want her even more. I decided to take a step back so we wouldn't be tempted to kiss.
"Do you think it's easy for me to see you with someone else?"
"Max you are with someone else as well and you're the one who ran back to her and ended it once again with me remember?"
"Yeah because I was mad at you! Not because I stopped loving you!"
"Wait... you love me?" her soft voice filled my ears and I looked down, I didn't plan to say this out loud. Not now, not to her.
"I- Look Nora..." before I could finish my sentence I was interrupted by her.
"You do love me..."
There we stood right in front of each other, both not knowing what to say. But I was glad it was off my shoulders, I knew this was something she would think about a lot now, but maybe that was a good thing. Of course Charels had to interrupt this moment.
"There you are Nora, are you coming? We're going to the garage, I asked Lando if he would mind if you watched in the Ferrari garage."
Charles didn't give me any eye contact, he pretended I was air. He wrapped one arm around her waist and gave her a big kiss on the lips. He did nothing but rub in the fact that he was now with her. They walked away together before disappearing around the corner, Nora turned her around one more time, to make eye contact with me. I walked to the Red Bull garage, I had a couple of minutes before the race would start. Christian came up to me and patted my shoulder "Come on Max, you've got this"
I smiled a little and walked to the car and got in.

Nora's POV
There I was in the Ferrari garage, I didn't know anyone here and it felt a bit strange not to be in the McLaren garage. I got a pair of headphones pressed into my hands and I put them on my head. Everyone was quiet before the starting signal and off they went. Lando already had a good weekend and I hoped he had a good day today. The words that came out of Max's mouth haunted my mind the entire time, every fucking time I tried to get him and his words out of my mind, he came right back. Maybe when the race started the thoughts would disappear because of the concentration on the race.

———————————————————————————Hey everyone!
Hope you all are enjoying this story, here's an extra part because I won't be able to post tomorrow.
I'll be back on Monday! x