Pretending | Max Verstappen

prologue

It was a day like any other. The sun was shining in England and Zoe was sitting at her desk in the headquarter of RedBull Racing. She was working for the company since she was twenty-two and this year was her fourth. While the two drivers and the whole team around them was travelling around the world her job was to analyse the data from the simulator and sent email to the team out there.

Although she wasn't on the road from March to November she really enjoyed working for an Formula one team, especially RedBull. Since she was a little kid she watched the cars going around in circles. After her graduation she started working here in Milton Keynes for the currently best team on the grid and she was proud about it.

Travelling the world be to stressful for her anyway and she didn't like the attention that comes with all that. That's why she was happy with her job here at the simulator, nobody was interested in her and the stuff she does outside the people she worked with and for. 

However Zoe had to admit that she was really interested in the drivers life and lifestyle and of course she followed them all on Instagram and watched a lot of interviews and videos of them. There were of course some drivers which she liked more than others, even inside of RedBull and AlphaTauri.

Perez for example was a really nice and friendly character and she always got well on with him, he was someone who takes feedback thankfully and gives it also back. On the opposite there was Verstappen who was completely a mess. He always had to be right and when someone didn't agree with him he got angry.

Luckily today the Dutch wasn't there and Zoe only had to gather the data from one of the academy drivers of RedBull who had driven in the simulator this morning. Most of her colleagues already have gone home but Zoe wanted to finish her tasks today and the sun was still out there so there was no need to hurry.

The new season was about to start and the car launch was next week. The end of the last season was a big mess, even though Verstappen won the title and the team the constructors but after that celebration there were some bad news.

Verstappen broke up with his long term girlfriend and shortly after that she accused him to be violent. She said he had hit her and her daughter and he was always angry with her and during their last months. The media was more than happy to have something to report about the three time world champion and ever since the press was full of these things.

They portrayed Verstappen as a violent person who hates everything and everyone outside of his car and likes to vent his aggression. Over the last weeks the articles and reports didn't stop and Zoe was curious how the whole thing would effect the new season and the whole formula one world. Verstappen was the most hated man out there even his team and of course his fans didn't believe his ex.

Zoe wasn't sure what to believe because she mostly just saw him annoyed and angry, but would he hurt someone, she couldn't say that for sure. But luckily it wasn't her job to represent the drivers and the team, she just had to analyse the data and sent emails. And that's exactly what she did the next two hours until she finally closed her laptop and turned of the monitor.

Suddenly she heard a knock on my door and looked surprised at her watch, half past six. Zoe said yes and the door opened. Her eyes widened when she saw no other than team principal Christan Horner stepping in. She had never really spoken to him, just at some meetings but never alone in a room, so she got nervous.

"Zoe Graham?"

"Yes, that's me." she shyly answered while the man took a seat across of her desk.

He sighed and looked in his small book where something was written but Zoe couldn't see it so she just panicked a bit and looked confused at Horner. 

"What I now tell you had to stay in this room, even you say no. But well I think you don't really have a choice."

Unsure what he want with that she raised an eyebrow and Horner quickly ran his hand through his hair before he cleared his throat.

"HR gave me your name. They said you're very shy and you're not one of those people who share their lives on social media, you're unknown, let's put it that way."

Still unsure what he want with this Zoe stared at the man in front of her. It was more than odd and she asked her self if she had made an mistake during work and Horner was now here to fire her.

"I am sure you have heard of the whole thing about Max and his ex-girlfriend, what she said and how the media reacted to this." he said and Zoe only nodded her head in response.

Of course she knew about this but did this have to do with her work or personality, she didn't get it.

"I'll just get to the point. Since the season is about to start and we don't need all this negative attention, we wanted to ask you to be Max's girlfriend until the end of the season so the world can see that Max can have a normal relationship and the negative headlines will go away. In other words, it's not a request, it's an instruction."

Zoes jaw dropped while Horner finished his explanation. Did she just heard that, did he just asked her to date Verstappen for the media to show that he wasn't a violent guy like the world thought. Why her, she asked herself over and over again before saying it out loud.

"Why me?"

"We needed someone unknown and someone who somehow has a connection to RedBull and the team so the relationship doesn't come out of nowhere. You aren't present on the internet and media at all and therefore you are the perfect candidate."

Zoe wanted to say something but her brain wasn't fast enough with processing the information she just got. Before another word could left her mouth Horner stood up.

"Okay, I have to go now but I will sent you all the necessary information in the next days and don't say a word to anybody about it. The fewer people who know the truth the better, but that's best discussed another time. Bye."

With that he opened the door and disappeared on the hallway, leaving Zoe completely lost for words. What just happened?

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Hey, I hope you like the prologue and the idea for this story. 

Please let me know what you want to find in the story and how you like it.