Brute

13. Kalki

Breakfast with everyone was awkward to say the least, but it had gone better than Kalki had expected. She wasn't the one who broke character first, it was Max. And that brought her some sort of joy, knowing that she was stronger than him.

Raymond took the rest of the day to familiarise her with Max's schedule, his commitments, his sponsors and the brands he worked with. Kalki was perplexed by the number of organisations that took interest in Max, much to her annoyance, he was going to be the most high profile client she was probably ever going to work with.

The day was done, Kalki sat opposite to Raymond, both of them devouring a pizza over more conversations about how to keep everyone happy and make Max's brand grow even more. Kalki felt like the whole time, she was going to have to view the Max she knew and Max as the world knew as two different people. She had to like Max Verstappen, work hard with him, even if she didn't like Max Emilian- the one she was familiar with.

"Just out of curiosity, where's Evi?" Kalki asked.

"She was supposed to attend this race but I'm guessing something came up at work." Raymond answered.

"Oh, okay." Kalki nodded, "because I had an idea and I wanted to run it by her first."

"What is it? Enlighten me."

"His Instagram, I know we've got people running it but I think it would be all the more appealing if it was a little more organic."

"What does that mean? I don't have the social media guy here, explain it in a way I can understand." He laughed.

"He only posts promotions, post session thoughts and training related things, we could make it a little more interesting in my opinion."

"How?"

"I'm not saying he should post everything about his life, but I'm sure people would like to see what Max does when he's not racing, when he's just Max the 24 year old."

"So... Relatability?" Raymond asked.

"Well, more of realness. Because being a young millionaire isn't very relatable." Kalki laughed.

"Sounds good! We'll have a meeting about this with the social media guys next week." Raymond said thoughtfully.

Raymond took the rest of dinner away an opportunity to learn about Kalki, what her interests were, how she ended up on track opposite to Max and why she was doing what she did today. Kalki was just as inquisitive about things, she asked a lot of questions, about his life, about what Max was like and what the entire team was like.

Kalki had a good feeling about this, working with Max wasn't her first choice but the guidance she was going to get under Raymond was making it all worth the discomfort. Despite having years of experience and far more knowledge than her, he didn't treat her like a subordinate he treated her as an equal. She still knew, she had a lot to learn, and she was glad to have a mentor like him.

"I always keep my word so I've got new talent for you." Raymond smiled.

"Really?" Kalki's eyes lit up.

"Yes. Red Bull signed Kai Weber, a 15 year old karting driver  from Salzburg." He said, "I've made them assign her to you."

"Thank you!" She beamed. "Thank you so much! This is incredible. This is more than I could have ever asked for. Seriously thank you so much."

"Don't even mention it! But now you've embarked on two challenges at once."

"How?"

"You have to make Max look more vegan or something and you have to find Kai sponsors so she can compete in F4."