In the Spotlight (Max Verstappen - Book Two)

Chapter Forty-Two

You guys have no idea how much your comments mean to me! They're genuinely so kind and a lot of them quite funny and I love it when people notice the details. It makes me so happy whenever I get to interact with you because these books basically write themselves and it brings me happiness that my story is enjoyed by other people. It was a story that was swirling around my head and so I decided to just write them, knowing that they weren't very cohesive because of it but enjoying it nonetheless and it genuinely makes me so so so happy that other people get enjoyment and entertainment from reading them!
So yeah...just saying thanks because it's really awesome and kind of mind blowing for me that so many people do read and like these books!
Anyways! Here's another pretty long chapter!
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I walk into the paddock on Saturday as I normally do, with Liv and Nick behind me ready to get the final sprint race before the summer break, qualifying had gone well yesterday with Max and I both being pipped to pole position by Lewis, one-tenth between him and us and just two hundredths between Max and I. Liv and Nick were both pleased for Max and me, having both been quite brutally exposed to us when they walked into my flat on Wednesday night to travel with me on Thursday. Max and I were...so to speak...caught in a compromising position on the balcony to the horror of Liv and the amusement of Nick, although once we were clothed and Max sent on his way I was subjected to quite a brutal grilling as we packed for the race weekend and I listened to their warnings closely, promising them that they weren't the only ones wary and that I had told him quite clearly we weren't back together.

Maybe the lines had been blurred by the I love you's...but the point had been made and I was happy when I saw Max on the track walk on Thursday that not much changed between us, apart from considerably less tension to the great relief of the engineers that were stuck with us on the seven-kilometre long track.

"I remember watching you here last year, with Liv," Max mumbled when we got back into the pit lane and I nodded laughing.

"You caught my eye just as I left for the cycle..." I say smiling at the memory and Max nods as Sydney walks cautiously over to us with bikes.

"Er, if you're up for it, we're running low on footage of the two of you..." she says cautiously and I laugh, very aware of the tonnes of footage they had been using from earlier in the season after the two of us were barely seen together for a while. "Just cycle around the track and talk about lines. The cameras are on the front here," she says pointing to the front of the bikes and I look at Max, nodding at the idea.

"I don't mind another lap," I say and Max nods eyeing the bikes cautiously.

"They're engine powered?" He asks and Sydney nods, all worry dissipating from his face as he reaches out for the bike.

"Lazy," I cough mockingly and he lets out a laugh bringing the attention of those in the pit lane towards us, including a certain Australian who was watching us curiously.

"I just didn't want to cycle up Eau Rouge...if that makes me lazy, so be it," Max says as we take off in a cycle, ignoring the cameras watching us.

"It does make you lazy, that's exactly what it makes you!" I say in a sing song voice. "Liv and I did Eau Rouge without the engine last year, for the challenge," I tell him and he looks at me flabbergasted.

"But...why?"

"Because it's a challenge! You don't like a challenge?" I say teasingly and I watch him eye me warily.