In the Spotlight (Max Verstappen - Book Two)

Chapter Forty-Nine

The next day was business as usual, despite not needing to get up early the adrenaline and my body clock woke me up at 10am anyways meaning I only had about six hours of sleep...not ideal before a potential championship-winning race but I didn't really let it bother me with so much time until the race I figured there would be the chance for me to nap if I wanted to and so I got up and started my day early.

Okay, I know ten isn't early but I didn't get back to the hotel until after midnight, then I debriefed with Liv and Nick and then we hung out for a while. Also, this is Vegas...10 am is extremely early. But apparently, I'm not the only person to feel the pressure of the day and have that interrupt their sleep because Liv and Nick are both up and about when I walk out of my room slightly bleary-eyed in my joggers and sports bra. They don't say anything, just smile at me as I slide into the stool of the breakfast area, after a few moments Nick slides a coffee towards me and we all just sit there chilling and enjoying the calm before the inevitable craziness of race day. Before I even finish the coffee, Nick has put a smoothie and some pastries in front of me and I smile, looking up from my phone and finally feel ready to communicate now that the caffeine has begun to sneak its way into my system. "Anything crazy happened in the last twelve hours?" I ask them smiling and Liv's eyes light up.

"Some of the drivers went gambling last night, lots of criticism but I already noticed that in the photos none of them are drinking any alcohol and with such a late race it doesn't matter but the Twittersphere is blowing up!" She informs me and I nod having seen that on my timeline as well.

"I know, so weird like we're running on a different schedule right now. My body should not know I'm racing at ten or else I'll feel tired as fuck during the race. Danny sent me a message saying he won big so I don't think he'll care," I tell her showing my phone and she smiles at the messages, obviously noticing that the one above was a congratulations message.

"Speaking of, I've already re-arranged your day slightly so that there is nap time available between 4 and 6." She tells me and I chuckle softly at the statement but thank her nonetheless. "Quick go over of the schedule?" I nod as I begin eating the pastries and drinking the smoothie. "Alright, well...I still don't think we go to the track until three at the earliest. If you want you can go for a run, go back to bed or swim. I don't know, that's up to you! Three we go to the track, there's an engineer's meeting at 3:30 and then a strategy meeting at 6:15. Time between that for you to do fan zone for a bit if you feel up to it. If not then there's time after the strategy meeting. But from eight you're off of everyone else's time so you can eat and prep for the race, race starts at ten so back in the garage around 9:15 if possible. Everything is extremely light and I have you out of all media duties until after the race, however, there's quite a lot scheduled for then. Sky is planning on airing their sit-down with you today during the run-up to the race."

I nod happy with the plan and look at my phone which vibrates with a notification and I smile when I see Max's name pop up.

You awake yet?

Of course. I reply back simply and immediately see the triple dots to indicate that he is typing.

What time are you headed to the track?

3. I type back quickly in response and when I see it's been read but he's no longer typing I put it back down, focusing once more on the food in front of me which is almost gone now.

"How are you feeling?" Nick asks and we hear a knock at the door, stopping me before I can reply. Liv gets up to open it to reveal Seb and Max, I look at the two confused as Liv lets them into the room. Senna who had been comfortable and asleep in his bed is now up and dancing in front of them causing everyone to smile before approaching me. Seb gives me a quick hug before stepping to the side as Max moves behind me to wrap his arms around my shoulders and rest his chin on top of my head. I tilt it back to look up at him and he lightly presses a kiss to my forehead.