beyond the grid - max verstappen

chapter forty six

"how is it possible that we are the first to join the meeting?" maya's face shows up full screen on my laptop. Instead of spending another afternoon avoiding the outside world, I decided to join a meeting with my contacts at orri. they wanted to have a catch up meeting, talk media strategy and I knew it was something I needed too

max was sat on the other side of his lounge with sassy cuddled into his side, going over some 'top secret' statistics, whilst jimmy found comfort snuggled into my lap. the change of environment definitely heightened my motivation levels. I had been sat on this lounge since this morning organising and finalising everything for next week, wanting to be able to completely relax with max tomorrow.

"its almost as if the world has become completely backwards. im pretty sure charlotte writes all her meetings in fifteen minutes early just to make sure she is the first one here"

"im so sorry to keep you waiting" charlotte rushes to sit down in her office chair. just from the decorations alone I could tell that she was working from home.

"well, well, well look who decided to finally join us" charlotte only offers a short laugh at my attempted joke.

"um. I know this was meant to be a nice little catch-up meeting, see how you're going and talk a little about marketing but there was something I wanted to talk to you about." her tone seemed optimistic "I was just in a meeting with a new unexpected partner"

"oh? what partner?" my head tilted in confusion

"hoka" maya clapped her hands excited about the news

"that's so great!. their ethos, branding, product, just the brand as a whole is so amazing. wait... what is the whole connection with orri?"

"as you know we usually start to plan our new year's strategies now, we wanted to create a campaign that both raises awareness and funds to help subsidise treatment and the idea was to reach out to other brands and try to hit a new demographics. hoka was one of those brands. their marketing lead brought to the table the idea of a sponsored athlete" as she spoke about the partnership, I could see the excitement building

"okayyy so which athlete were you thinking?" jimmy meows as I adjust myself of the lounge, causing max look over send me a small smile.

"we spoke about the london marathon, giving just under nine months for training and brand preparations. there was one athlete that I thought of straight away. given youre a huge fan of hoka and have gone through the program your-"

there are these moments when everything stands still. I can see charlotte continue to talk over the zoom call, but the only there is only silence ringing in my ears. from the corner of my eye I see max place his laptop next to him but I don't dare turn to face him. I nod along as if I can understand anything she is saying. I look back not even ten minutes. that girl was ready to talk about her eating disorder relapse, the possibility of returning to outpatient therapy and then... yeah

"im so sorry charlotte, I just need to pop to the bathroom for one sec" without even waiting for a response, I mute the call, pacing the room just out of the frame

my breath got stuck in my chest with no way of getting out, as if I was drowning on the one thing I my lungs were meant to be filled with. all I can do is watch as my hands start to shake. I try to squeeze them shut an attempt to steady myself, only to be stopped by another set of hands. his hands slowly slid to my arms helping me to sit on the floor.

"ace" my eyes focused in on him as he crouched in front of me "what are five things you can see?"

my eyes frantically darted over the room "sassy... jimmy" the words were still hard to get out but my chest already felt a little bit of relief "lounge, you... tv"