Love Is In the Snow {Lando Norris & Max Verstappen}

Chapter Ninety-seven - Another surprise

*January 7th*

Lando

I have met up with my parents to fly to Belgium today. We will see some family to have a late New Year's party. My Belgian family is so different from my British one, a bit more direct and not that formal which I like more.

We need to be at the airport around 9am and our flight leaves around 11pm. In Belgian it is an hour later, so we arrive there around one in the afternoon if everything goes as planned.

I know the airport even better than I know the McLaren facilities by now. After checking in and security we could almost immediately start to board the plane.

When I got in my seat I check my phone and text Vera that I will be taking of soon and wish her a nice trip to Antwerp. She opens my message at the moment I pressed sent. She starts typing and her message says: "Have a safe flight, text me when you have landed 🛬. Thank you, I will keep you posted, and you have fun with your family! 🥰"

She is the sweetest. I respond with an I will with a lot of hearts. Actually two, but who cares.

Max

I am tired of the recording and meeting days with Viaplay. They work so differently compared to Ziggo Sport. The presenters are so formal and decent. Olav and Jack dared to ask questions; they shouldn't have. I need to get used to it and change my language a bit, so it fits their content.

Today I woke up at my mum's. She has made breakfast and my sister will join us as well with Lio and Luca. Thom is out of town, so she can use a bit of help and I love my nephews. It no bother for me!

Vic arrived around ten in the morning and breakfast, or brunch actually, was ready around 10.30am. I sat beside Luca and helped them with his sandwich. I played a bit with his food so he would enjoy eating. We laughed a lot together; he is such a funny little man. He looks just like me, he hates tickling and loves to fool others. I can't wait for the time we could spend time together more and build an uncle-nephew bond.

Around twelve we finished brunch and cleaned everything up. Around 1pm, my mum drives me to the airport. I decided to fly back to Milton Keynes to catch up with Brad a bit, my performance coach. I didn't like to have the weekend of, since my interviews of this weekend are rescheduled. I want to prepare myself as best as I can for the upcoming season.

Vera

Everything is packed for the weekend in Antwerp. It is a two-hour ride from my house until we reach the hotel we will be staying. All the bags are in the trunk, and we are ready to go. Around twelve we get in the car and drive towards the highway. And I connect my phone to the car's Bluetooth to put on some of our favorite road trip music.

A yawn escapes my mouth. I always get a bit sleepy when I sit in the car for a longer time. I look at the view outside and it gets hard to keep my eyes open. Not even twenty minutes after we left, I fall asleep.

About an our later I wake up because of the hard braking. We have reached the Belgian border and it is a bit busy due to the holidays I think. The traffic drives slowly. We will be delayed for around twenty minutes. I start to get bored, at home I kill time by looking for snacks. Today it will be a bit harder. So, I ask my mum for a sandwich, which she has prepared this morning.

I finish my sandwich and start scrolling through Instagram. I watch some of my stories. Lando posted a story on his public account that he was at the airport, on his way to Belgium. Max has posted a photo of him, Vic, Luca and Lio and his mum of them having brunch at his mum's. Max, Lan and I will be this weekend in Belgium and Lynn at Breda, which is nearby the border.

If something happens once, it's an incident. If it happens twice in a brief period of time, that is very coincidental. If it happens three times, there is a pattern and if a fourth case is almost identical, then that is downright suspicious.

Lando

We have landed at Brussel airport, got our luggage, and rented a car. We put all our baggage in the trunk and drove away to our family.

We drove for an hour before entering a district of Antwerp I am not familiar with. It is weird, as my family don't live near Antwerp, but the other side of the country. I look around me to see if I recognize anything. But I don't. Flo and Cisca are laughing at me, so they do know what is happening?!

Wait, Vera will be in Antwerp as well. Is that the plan? I don't want to get my hopes up, but it certainly can be one of the outcomes.

Max

My mum was supposed to drive me to the airport. However, she drove towards the wrong direction. She kept telling me I was wrong, but after all those years I hope I certainly know how I must drive to the airport here in Belgium?!

It is strange, she takes the exit of the highway nearby Antwerp. She has something planned, but I can't figure out what. She parks her car on a private driveway. I get out and she ordered me to stay put. Fifteen minutes later, she comes back with a pair of keys. I follow her steps to a house. We get in and it is immense, why are we here?

*While Max and Sophie are inside the house*

Vera

We have taken the exit to Antwerp, and I look my eyes out. The architecture is so beautiful. Building has always fascinated me, that is why I study engineering.

Eventually, we take a turn to a calmer part of the city. It is more spacious than what have seen earlier.

We drive into a terrain, and I notice that someone is standing with an orange sweater. We park the car and get out. At that moment, the person turns around and he looks shocked. It is Lando!

He runs towards me, and he almost flies me over, picks me up, spins around and then put me down on the ground. Then he does something I didn't expect, he kisses me?!

Lynn

We were supposed to stop in Breda. We have visited my grandparents for almost three hours. We left early this morning and after those two hours we 'had to go,' which is very strange. The only thing they said was something came up and we had to go. We have passed the Belgian border and an hour later we exit the highway around Antwerp.

We drive around through the city; it seems like time needs to be filled. It feels like there are random turns as we drive without navigation.

Around 1.45pm we leave the city center and towards a different part of the city. We drive up a driveway and I recognize Vera's parents' car. I get out and seen Vera standing beside Lando. "Hey guys! What is this?" I say as I give them both a hug. "We have no idea! Until so far I like it" Lando says with a big smile.

Max

My mum is checking every room and it irritates me that she is not answering any of my questions. After half an hour of walking after her, I am done with it. I walk back to where we parked the car. I check my phone to see what I have missed and open up the front door. I walk outside and at first I don't look in front of me. I hear some voices, but I keep ignoring it. I walk past the group of people as someone starts talking to me, "Hey you, don't look so grumpy."

I look up and see Lynn standing there, with a big smile on her face. "Babyy!" I say out loud and walk back to her "My god, what are you doing here?" I ask her, "I just asked them the same thing. We have no idea. Or well. I think we do know now" she answers.

At that moment, my mum comes outside as well, "Surprise!" she says. The other parents join the group and greet each other again.

"Isn't this a delightful surprise" Louis says to me while he grabs my shoulder. "It really is! The parents have been good at keeping secrets and surprises these days" I say to him and give him a friendly tap on his shoulder. We can get along very well, hopefully it stays that way!

This weekend will tell us more about it! And I can't wait what our parents has been planning for the entire weekend.