lemon and mint | Charles Leclerc

~ venti ~

Great Britain, July 2019

"Oh, hey," Pia greeted Max when she entered the lift where he was standing.

"Hey," he greeted her back annoyedly. Something was off with him. He had that Verstappen pissed-off face - his lips in a thin line together with his cold stares.

"Wow, someone is a little bear." In Pia's opinion, Max was just like a little bear when he was angry. He growled just like a bear. The Italian could feel that Max had just murdered her with his stare. He wasn't overly enthusiastic about this nickname.

"Okay, okay," Pia defensively lifted her hands up. She didn't want to screw his mood up even more. "Where's Joanna, by the way?"

"Home, where she should be," he growled just like a bear.

"Okay? What has she done that she's grounded?" Pia asked, and she could feel once again Max's killing stare. He really wasn't in a good mood.

"She just needed to rest after that crash," Max stated when they left the lift. Pia should check out of her room and meet Lando because of the dinner with his parents, but that didn't seem important to her now.

"That was her opinion or yours?" Joanna wasn't the one to stay home when she didn't have to. She loved to be in the middle of it all.

"Jesus, does that matter?" he lashed out. He regretted it the moment he saw the expression on Pia's face. He knew how sensitive Pia was, but she was just too annoying with all those questions.

"Okay, let's just go and have a drink or two. Let's forget about everything," Pia suggested. The Dutchman looked like he could use to ease off a little. Or a little more.

Max wanted to reply, but he was disturbed by the ringtone of Pia's phone.

"Sorry. I have to take this," Pia apologised and went away from Max. She didn't want him to hear that she had different plans because Max would demand her to go to that dinner.

"Hey, I'm just dealing with something right now... look, I'm really sorry, okay? But this is important... I'm not saying that, Lando. Just tell your parents that I'm really sorry, but I couldn't make it, please," she begged the Briton. A part of Pia felt ashamed that she had turned down Lando right before dinner without any explanation.

"Let's go get drunk, Verstappen," Pia shouted as she approached Max. She tried to place her arm around his shoulders, but he was too tall for that, so Pia's arm ended up being curled around Max's waist.

---

"Alright, Max, listen to me, will you?" Pia asked her friend drunkenly. She put her arms on his shoulder, making sure Max would look at her. "This seriously is important," she wanted to keep a serious face, but she lost it somewhere in the middle. Max started laughing as well. It was a little bit after one in the morning, and they were still drinking. "You have to stop wearing your Red Bull T-shirts everywhere," she seriously said. She was serious. She hated that Max was lazy to wear something else.

"What's wrong with 'em?" he asked her offendedly. What was wrong with his Red Bull T-shirts?

Pia lifted her eyebrow. "What's good with them?" She took a sip of her gin tonic before she continued. "Look, you're a good-looking man, but those T-shirts don't do you any good." Someone had to tell him that.

"Joanna doesn't care," he argued back. His appearance didn't bother him that much. He would change something if Joanna would say so, but she didn't.

"Oh, Max. She's just afraid to hurt your feelings," Pia explained, even though she wasn't sure about it. Maybe Joanna liked him in the Red Bull wear, but the Italian doubted it. Max just shrugged his shoulders.