barely legal | max verstappen ✓

chapter 9 | let them eat cake

«You'd fall in love with anyone...I think you'd fall in love with anyone who fell in love with you and they frequently do.»

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Feeling the sofa dipping under her weight, Sloane kept scrolling through her phone. Salma, as shown by her recent post on Instagram, was having the time of her life on a yacht. Champagne, expensive food, and everything. She'd told Sloane to join her, that she would hang out with some guys who played professional Tennis or something like that, she wasn't paying that much attention when the conversation happened, but Sloane had declined the invitation. That earned her another sneer from Salma, she had just pressed her lips and ignored her; there was no need to focus on Salma or she'd end up losing the little sanity she had left.

Scrolling further, she also caught a glimpse of what Irina was up to. Unlike Salma and her fancy yacht party, it seemed like her other colleague was skiing somewhere in Switzerland, as the tagged location indicated. Or she was taking pictures pretending to be skiing. She sighed because why was she the only one wallowing in self-boredom at home? Perhaps she should've taken Salma's offer, even if that meant spending more time with her. It was too late now though. For a moment she considered going for a walk, it seemed to be a nice day.

When she was about to keep scrolling, nosing in other people's business and whatnot, a sound coming from the intercom pretty much dissipated those plans. Sloane groaned and closed her eyes for a couple of seconds before forcing herself off the sofa and walking over to the intercom. Her finger pressed one of the buttons and she blinked expectantly. Other than her parents, and Salma and Irina, she couldn't think of anyone else who could be looking for her. Aurora wouldn't show up out of a sudden, the girl was too organised to do that.

"Sloane, it's Max." Oh, she thought. That one makes sense. "Are you up for a visit?" He said with a bit of humour in his tone.

She chewed on her lip and smiled. "Always. Come up, I'll let you in."

It took only a few minutes for Max to arrive at her flat, and she opened the door on the first knock, clearly a bit eager. He was alone, of course, and holding a white box in his hands, not too big and not too small. As she fixed her eyes on the box, curiosity crawled into her brain. There was a moment where Sloane wondered if she'd forgotten about making plans with him, but she couldn't recall anything. Their last messages had been pure banter between each other, strangely they kept too much contact for two people who didn't need to talk that much when they weren't together.

"Hey there," He gave her a smile.

Sloane leaned against the open door. "Hi," She tilted her head. "Did we have a 'date' or something and I completely forgot about it?"

"No, I..." Max chuckled and scratched the back of his head as he managed to balance the box with one hand. "I brought you something." His gaze flickered to the box and so did hers.

They looked at each other almost at the same time. "Okay, consider me interested." Her lips curved into a smile, and she stepped aside to give him enough space. "Please come in, Max Emilian."

It seemed like she was truly getting a pass on calling him that way because all he did was give her a quick nod while walking into the flat. She closed the door behind him and followed his steps as he made a beeline to the coffee table, placing the white box there. Sloane looked at him with full attention. It wasn't her birthday and unless she was suffering from memory loss, she hadn't asked him for anything — she never did anyway. Max turned to her, his hands dipping into the front pockets of his jeans. She looked at the box and then at him, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.