Pretending | Max Verstappen

- 31 -

Max

That hug was everything. I won for her today, I didn't care for my home race or the records I broke with it again. All that mattered was that it was Zoe's birthday and I wanted to make her happy, to see her smile.

My look followed her as she disappeared into the garage while my mother was talking.

"Sorry, I wasn't listening." I therefore had to say as she waited for my answer.

"I noticed."

"Did she say anything?" I asked my sister and mother curious as I had seen Zoe standing with them before I joined them.

"She thinks you can't love her, with everything she has been through. Moreover she doesn't want to bother you with her past and all the press that comes with it."

"Fuck the press!" I nearly shouted as I got angry.

Not angry at Zoe but angry at myself that I gave her such a feeling, a feeling that made her think that she wasn't enough for me. Okay, at the beginning of the season I had insulted her really bad but it was all fun and she knew that by now.

Why then was she now thinking that I cared about her past, she was the same person that I had got to know before everything came out.

"Do you like her, son?" my mother calmly said and laid a hand on my shoulder.

"Like?" I laughed and buried my face in my hands before I bit on my bottom lip and looked into their faces again, "I fucking love this girl."

"Then fight for it, don't let her go that easily." she said while Victoria just nodded her head in agreement.

I loudly sighed before saying something about how right she is before I quickly hugged them good bye, running over to the garage. Unfortunately on my way over there my media manager caught me and dragged my to the interviews.

It was a while later when I had finally done the press conference and all the annoying interviews and was back at the garage. As I walked in I saw the mechanics packing away all their stuff and in a corner I saw Christian, not looking very happy despite we had won the race.

"What happened? Where is she?" I nervously asked as I had a bad feeling about this.

"She's gone." he simply said before hugging me.

"What? Where? When?"

Hectically I backed off and looked around the garage as Zoe would be standing there somewhere but obviously she wasn't.

"About an hour ago." Christian said and sighed but my frustration was just building up.

"Why didn't you hold her and tell her to wait for me? What have you done Christian?!"

"There was nothing I could have done." he said and tried to calm me down.

I wasn't mad at him, I was mad at myself again for not following her right away, for telling her how I feel. Maybe I hadn't been a convincing argument for her to stay but I needed to tell her that, in person. I was mad at myself for doing the interviews instead of searching for her.

"I know, I am sorry Christian." I excused my behavior and looked him into the eyes.

I know how stubborn Zoe could be and it was really cute when she was but at the moment it just fucked me up. I can't lose her, not today.

"Did she say anything else, where she would go or when?"

"She wanted to book tickets for a plane tonight from Amsterdam to England I believe." Christian tried to remember but that was everything I had to know.