Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
22nd october 2023, austin
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAX AND ELLA HAD NOT GOTTEN BETTER. It was as if they were back at square one. Ella stayed quiet on the plane, listening to her music. Millie was asleep on her father's shoulder as Max stared aimlessly out the window.
Ella wasn't sure how she had offended him so badly, he barely spoke to her unless Millie was present, and even then his words were not friendly. She was getting sick of his attitude, and wasn't sure how much longer she could act as if it didn't affect her.
She truly thought her and Max were friends, maybe even more? She wasn't so sure anymore...
monaco,
Max carried Millie in from the car straight to bed, Ella put the washing from their weekend in the machine. She set a reminder on her phone that it would be done in an hour, and headed to her room. She assumed Max would want to watch TV in the living room and she didn't want to get in his way, since he evidently hated her now.
It was nine o'clock at night, but she wasn't overly tired as she had slept on the plane. She put the Kardashians on in her room and waited until the washing was done. She couldn't help but think about Max, had she offended him in some way she was unaware of?
She decided to have a catchup with her girls, "Ella! How are you girl?" Bella greeted her, Lissa joined the call and greeted the two girls. "I'm good, how are you girls?"
After a short catchup, Ella got to the point of the phone call. "I'm not sure if I've annoyed Max but he's been avoiding me since Qatar."
Ella listened to the girls advice, Lissa had advised Ella to turn a blind eye, after all Max was Ella's boss. They shouldn't really be friends. They definitely shouldn't be as close as Max and Ella, and have so many close calls as they did.
On the other hand, Bella had said the opposite. "Confront him! You guys are really good friends he shouldn't just throw you away." She argued, "Oh my god what if he's in love with you?" Bella gasped.
"Definitely not!" Ella defended. "If he was he wouldn't act as if he wanted to throw up whenever he sees me." She rolled her eyes, the timer on her phone went off and she made her way through the living room to the kitchen to get the washing from the utility room. She chucked the wet clothes into the basket, and grabbed the clothes horse and went to set it up in the living room in front of the radiator. Max got up at her arrival, suddenly Ella was speaking to him, stopping him from leaving the room. "Would you mind giving me a hand?" She asked. She could hear her friends voices over her shoulders.
Act normal. He's your boss. You shouldn't be friends.
Confront him! Ask him what his problem is!
"Sure." Max said in monotone, Ella grabbed the basket of wet clothes and the pair of them began hanging them up to dry. "Is there a problem with the tumble dryer?" He asked. Ella shook her head.
"No I just prefer to hang up jeans, hoodies and delicates." She explained, Max nodded but said nothing on the subject. Ella hated the silence, it was uncomfortable. Lissa and Bella's words filled her head once more.
"Max what happened with us?" She asked, suddenly. Max's heart jumped at the thought of them being considered an 'us' in Ella's mind. Max shrugged his shoulders. "If I did something to upset you I would rather you tell me. I know we don't have to get along but I would prefer if we did. And we did get on really well for a while, what changed?" She asked, her big doe eyes looking up at Max.
What changed? Max thought to himself, what changed was I fell in love with you. And I can't let that happen.
"Nothing changed Antonella, we were acting like silly teenagers." He said harshly, Ella didn't necessarily disagree with him. "I don't really understand what you want me to do Max. If you want our friendship to be strictly professional that's fine but there's no reason to be rude about it."
"You're right." He said suddenly, interrupting her. "I want our relationship to be completely professional. I don't know anything about you, you don't know anything about me. I don't like you, you don't like me." He spat, Antonella shook her head lightly. "That's not true Max. You can't just forget everything we learned about each other these past few months, frankly I don't want to. You are a really good person Max, and you were a good friend."
"I never saw you as a friend." He stated harshly, as if it was nothing. Antonella choked for words as she hung up the last few socks from the wash. She nodded silently as Max walked away. He stopped suddenly, inbetween the hallway to his room and the living room. Ella noticed as she picked up the basket on her way to the kitchen, he didn't turn to look at her as he spoke.
"I'm not in love with you anymore, Antonella."
"I didn't know you ever were..." She said softly, almost in a single breath as she was so shocked. Did Max just admit to being in love with her? No, technically he admitted to being in love with her previously. Not currently. Was that why Max was acting the way he was?
She was glad she knew the reason, but also wished she didn't. This complicated things massively. And Ella couldn't afford to lose this job, and she had become quite attached to her life her in Monaco, she had become quite attached to Millie.
She had become quite attached to Max Verstappen.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
