The Winner Takes It All

<12>

The rest of the flight was uneventful, and I spent most of it reading a book while Lewis slept on my shoulder. When we landed and got off the plane, I spotted Horner and Adrian in the distance, talking to each other.

"What is this? A team meet up point?" I chuckled as I walked over.

"Well what time do you call this?" Christian said checking his watch and chuckling.

I couldn't tell whether he had perked up or if this was a cover up, either way it seemed to distract Adrian from his clear rugged appearance. I stared him down but he continued to smile at me, definitely a cover up.

"Well some of us don't have fancy jets that we can just hop on. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Lewis for a whole flight. So I call this time perfectly fine."

After saying our goodbyes, I headed off towards my car, ready to make the journey back to my flat in Milton Keynes. I arrived by 4 pm, just as Max and Checo's plane touched down at the airport.

Checo was flying back to Mexico tonight to spend time with his family, while Max was staying in the UK to do some work at the factory. Over the past few months, I had grown used to Max staying with me whenever he was in town. He refuses to buy a house here despite having plenty of money to because "Milton Keynes is a shithole." I mean is he wrong? I had even unofficially named my spare room "Max's room" since he practically lived there.

As I placed my bag down beside the door, my phone rang, and I saw that it was Max.

"Hey Y/N..." Max said.

"Max you already know the answer to that question don't you." I sighed, although I culdn't help but laugh.

Despite practically living in my flat at this point, he still called every time to ask to come over. Its polite, yes, but unnecessary, he knows my house is also his. He literally has a toothbrush in the pot on my bathroom sink and his leftovers always fill my fridge.

"I know that, but I didn't know whether you had not so mystery, mystery man over." He whispered conspiratorially .

"No I don't." I scoffed, "Why are you whispering? If there are people around you shut your hungover mouth right now."

"No I'm in the car." He said perking his voice up to normal volume, "but the rule with secrets is that you always whisper them."

I rolled my eyes fondly. "Okay, Max. Just hurry up and bring us some food home, will you?"

"I'm on it," he said, his excitement audible. "I really fancy Chinese."

"Fine by me, mate," I said, my mouth watering at the thought, fucking love a Chinese.

"Wonderful. See you in 60," Max said before hanging up.

That was another thing about Max. He never said goodbye, he just hung up. It didn't matter whether he cut you up or mid sentence. I had no idea whether it was a Dutch thing or just a Max thing, but it always made me smile.

I walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine. Not bothering with a glass, I opened it and took a swig. I also couldn't be arsed to walk to the sofa, so I laid down on the kitchen floor and gazed up at the ceiling.

Max managed to make it home with the Chinese, which he placed on the counter before carefully shutting the front door.

"Honey, I'm home!" He shouted, and I chuckled. He glanced over the counter to me on the floor, a half-empty wine bottle in my hand. "Now what are we doing on the floor?" he asked.

"Sofa's too far away. It's fine; I'll get up," I said, starting to sit up.

"No, no, the floor is fine. The wine, however, is not fine after yesterday, so let's move that out of reach," he said, putting the bottle on the counter top and placing the bag of Chinese between us.