Zoe
I was shaking as Max and I entered the paddock on Saturday morning. Of course the reporters fell over us with their cameras as soon as we had made our way through the entrance.
"Babe don't look at them, don't be nervous, they are just jealous that you are mine." Max tried to help me with my anxiety.
After minutes that felt like hours we reached the RedBull hospitality and finally went inside. Christian welcomed us and hugged us, more than happy that I was back. We had texted a lot during the last weeks and he was always there for me, which I really valued.
He also had told me stories from my father and the time they had been friends and everything that happened afterwards, how we had watched me through my life and tried to help me with my ex boyfriend.
I was really thankful that he was there, I mean of course I had Max, but Christian felt like somehow family even though only my father had known him. But he was the only person here who had major insight in what had happened during that time.
"There's no pressure this weekend you can fully relax and be with Max and if you want from next race on you can du your old job. You don't have to decide yet but I would be more than happy to have you on my team again, even though I had to say you are always welcome here."
"You are family." Max added and Christian nodded his head.
"Yes, that's true so don't bother what the press or anyone is saying, here at RedBull we all love you and welcome you."
"Hey, don't steal my girlfriend." the Dutch laughed and pulled me even closer to his body.
Christians eyes widened and a knowing smile appeared on his lips.
"So it's official now?" he asked carefully but with a warm voice.
"We" Max started but was interrupted by his media manager.
"Max, we need to talk."
Unsure what she wanted we followed her into one of the meeting rooms and set down.
"About your relationship or whatever is going on. Are you two now together?"
A bit scared why everybody was putting a label onto us I looked at Max and he gave me a slight smile before he looked at his media manager again.
"We are." he than said and took my hand from the table to put it into his.
"That's lovely to hear, I am more than happy for you two. However we need to plan this through, especially after everything the media had discovered about you and your past Zoe."
Silent I nodded my head, this was going way to fast for me, I wasn't even sure what I wanted myself. The only thing I know was, that I wanted to me with Max, he kept me safe and with him it felt a bit more home. The feeling I hadn't had since I had lost my parents.
"With have two options here, because the media already saw you two walking in together so it's kinda obviously for them."
"What are your ideas?" Max asked emotionless and I immediately know such meetings about his private life were nothing new for the Dutch.
"Of course you have to release a statement so there are no wrong rumors that could make everything worse." his media manager started.
"That will be no problem, if text or picture we can decide later." Max said and looked at me, knowing that it was all a bit too much at a time for me.
"Yes. So either you can say that the break up you published was wrong and you did it to protect her. The other option is that you can be honest with everything and tell the people that you pretended to date her and than you fell in love, but I am not quite sure about this one."
"I think Zoe should decide this, I love her and everything that's fine for her is fine for me, as long as she is happy."
"The second one." I whispered, not sure what they would think of me with that answer.
"So the whole truth?"
"Yes." I cleared my throat, "If we are being honest with the people they would feel more with us and maybe understand everything."
"That sounds like a wonderful plan." Max said and smiled at me while squeezing my hand that was still in his.
"Okay, so we are telling the world that Zoe was there to pretend to be in a relationship with you so the media would stop bothering you with your ex, but than you two fell in love and to make a clean start you officially broke up with her?"
The three of us looked at us, knowing that the real reason for the break up was a certain person, but the media couldn't know about that, obviously.
"That should be fine I guess. Send me the text when it's ready and we decide how we publish it." Max said after a short break of silence before he stood up, "Thank you."
His media manager just nodded and I also quickly thanked her before following Max to his drivers room.
"Wait here, I am back quickly." he than said and disappeared around the corner.
Unsure I went into his room and stood around, not knowing what I should do. Of course I had been here a couple of times, but now it was different, now it was the drivers room of my boyfriend, even if I still couldn't believe it.
Memories of our first kiss came to my mind as I saw the little desk at the back wall of the room. We had been fighting, once again, and than Max had just kissed me, without any warning, and it was beautiful. Even though the kiss was more filled with adrenaline and anger than real emotions but it still had been amazing.
Suddenly the door swung open and Max entered the room, one hand behind his back. Curious a smile appeared on my lips and as soon as the door was shut we were in our little bubble again, where I was more than comfortable.
"What do you have behind your back?" I shyly asked and tried to peak around his muscular upped body.
"You wanna see it?" Max said cheeky and stepped closer towards me.
Excitingly I nodded my head and wanted to look again but was cut off with Max closing the gap between our lips.
"I love you Zoe and I am so proud of you for doing this with me." he whispered and looked down at me.
"Do... Doing what?" I asked because my mind was like empty with him so close in front of me.
"Being together with me, coming here to the track with me, you have no idea how much this means to me. You are so strong my liefje."
I felt how my cheeks turned red after he called me with this Dutch nickname. Because I didn't want him to see me like that I quickly leaned in and closed the gap between our lips again. After the long and emotional kiss Max stepped back a bit just to reveal what was behind his back.
"This is just a taste of what will happen tomorrow, because after the race I want to have dinner with you at a fancy restaurant here in Singapore, enjoying the beautiful skyline with my love. Does that sound like a plan?" he whispered while he smiled at me.
"Of course, Max." I breathed back, looking at the red rose he had handed me.
YOU ARE READING
Pretending | Max Verstappen
Fanfiction"I warn you, don't fall for me," he said, but fell instead.
