UNBROKEN [ MAX VERSTAPPEN ]

11. The truth

[ Hasselt, January 21, 2021]

- Max

Victoria's hands move up from my shoulders to my hair and she entwines her small fingers in my hair, pulling me in for a deeper kiss, a kiss that I've waited for since the first day that I laid my eyes on her, I still remember the first time, the season hasn't been good, Pandemic was awful, the calendar had been all changed, and there we were, in the last race of the year, and I was in third place, this year my name was involved in several polemics, some of them related to the fact that I was dating Kelly.

After the end of the race, and even though I was in third place, the team celebrated anyway, because this was a great achievement and despite all the problems we went through that season, we should celebrate, until Horner arrived with Victoria, my mood was not very good, Victoria was wearing classic black pants, a red Ralph Lauren polo shirt, her Stan Smiths were impeccably white and she had a Red Bull hat on her head.

Her skin was dark, darker than she has now, and despite her makeup, you could see the red of sunburn on her cheeks and nose, probably having just come from vacation, her dark skin contrasted perfectly with her black hair, she had some curls at the ends, which clearly had been done by some hair shaping tools, as Kelly leaves her hair the same way, but what caught my eye was her beautiful green eyes, those eyes had mesmerized me from the first time I saw them, and here they are right in front of me.

"Is everything okay Max?" - Victoria speaks and I wake up from my memories of that day, she is still sitting on my lap, but her facial expression has changed, both hands move to my neck again and she intertwines her fingers to be more secure and not fall backward, I move my hands up to her waist, gripping her tightly and preventing her from running away from me.

"Yes Vic, everything is perfect." - I say and remove a patch of her hair from the front of her face, she removes her hands from my neck and pulls all her hair back, putting it behind her ear - 

"There's no place in the world I'd rather be Vic, but I don't want to do anything to make you regret it tomorrow, you're drunk, and I'm sure if you keep kissing me like that, neither of us will be able to stop."

" And who says I want to stop Max?" - she questions and lowers her head shyly, and I realize that behind this personality of a person who is well settled with life, independent, and doesn't need a man for anything, there is Victoria a woman with desires, and she desires me.

"I was remembering the first time I saw you, and how I could never get you out of my mind again" - I speak - " I was having such a bad day, I hated that I came third, but when Christian showed up with you, and it was like everything bad that had happened that day was gone."

"I didn't know." - she speaks and settles once again on my lap, clearly this position is not comfortable for her at all, he puts his hands on her ass and I quickly stand up, Vic seems surprised at my attitude, and once again entwines her hands in my neck to keep from falling, I carefully lay her down on the bed and carefully lay between her legs.

"How could you know Vic? I have never told this to anyone, never told anyone about you and how I feel about you" - I look at her and she lets out a small laugh - "What's so funny ?" - I say and follow her laughter.

"You actually spoke to someone Max" - she smiles and runs one of her hands through my hair - "You spoke to me"

"What do you mean?" - I question her puzzled, I have never talked about my feelings to her, other than the anger I feel towards her, and even though I am in love with her, sometimes I still feel a little anger.

"That night you don't remember what happened, you declared your feelings for me, several times" - she speaks and I am shocked by what she just told me, I get up, getting on my knees in front of her, quickly Victoria notices my change of attitude and sits on the bed facing me - "What?"

"I asked you several times if I had told you anything important and you always denied it" - he looks at me seriously and I realize I have said too much - "Why did you always deny it, Vic?"

"I didn't think it was important Max" - I try to move closer to him, but he quickly gets up from the bed - "I thought if I didn't talk that everything you would have said would stay that night, what harm would it do, I was too worried about your relationship with Kelly and my job."

"You shouldn't have lied to me about something so important, do you know how my head has been going around thinking I would have done something wrong that night?" - he speaks

"Other than the fact that you threw up several times?" - I laugh and try to break the tense atmosphere that exists between the two of us.

"Victoria it's serious business, this situation could have been resolved days ago, this is something serious, I spoke my feelings to you and you pretended it was nothing." - he speaks once again, Max is visibly irritated.

"I didn't pretend anything Max, I was simply watching the way the situation was going, you were drunk, I was drunk, that wasn't a type of conversation to have drunks." - I speak visibly angry and upset about the fact that I promised I would never talk about this subject with anyone and here I am discussing this subject with Max.

"And you are drunk again, so it won't be today that we will discuss this subject either." - he puts his hands on his waist and looks at me again - "Please Victoria leave, I am tired, it is late, and I have a long day tomorrow, I need to sleep." - he does and I nod my head and get out of bed going towards the door.

"You know, I was trying not to complicate your life, not to complicate my life, but you're right Max, I should have told you the truth, and not just hidden it, it wouldn't change our lives at all, and while I admit that I didn't want to ruin your relationship, I also didn't want to admit the fact that there were feelings between the two of us, because I'd be making this all come true." - I speak and continue - "But I'm glad this conversation happened, and I'm glad we cleared everything up, because from now on our relationship will be only and strictly professional, everything that happened in the last few weeks will be forgotten by me and I would appreciate it if you would do the same." - I speak and open the bedroom door and walk towards my room, closing the door behind me.

I put Vic's shoes on the floor and start to remove my clothes, refusing to believe what happened in the next room and being more sure that things between me and Max could never work out, and the idea is to forget this whole story and do my job and when the year is over I won't renew my contract with Red Bull.