Forbidden

14. Breaking News

Once Olivia got back to work it only took Max a couple of minutes to get back in the garage. His face was no longer red and he seemed a lot more calm.

"I can see the Xanax kicked in" joked Christian with a laugh when Max came back in acting normal.

Max let out a small laugh "Yeah I just needed to cool down I guess".

Checo was inside his driver's room for a while but when he came back out he looked very serious and stayed like that for the rest of the day. Olivia worked for the rest of the afternoon taking some more pictures and then she went back to the motor home to edit the photographs and get them ready to publish. At the end of the afternoon Checo came over to her desk where she was working.

"Ready to leave?" he said without his trademark smile.

"Yeah sure" she answered her older brother with a warm smile. "This day has been long enough".

"Well, not to make it any longer but I thought we could have dinner, there's this park I like with some food trucks, we could eat there" he said.

"Hanging out with my favorite brother makes the day better, not longer" she said picking up her things "let's go" she added.

"Alright I'll pick up my things upstairs and I'll meet you in the car" he said.

Olivia started walking down the paddock on her way to the exit and Carlos came up to her.

"So the secret is out I guess" he said with a mischievous smile.

"What secret?" asked Olivia curiously.

"Your secret love. Well.. not so secret now I guess" he paused for a moment thinking  "What does Checo think about his sister dating one of the drivers?" he asked turning to Liv, it was a genuine question.

"Wait what?" Liv said as she abruptly turned to look at Carlos. How did he know? Did they have cameras inside the driver's rooms? Did somebody overhear her conversation with Max in the garage?  She tried to act innocent "What are you talking about Carlos?" a nervous laugh escaped her. 

"Oh COMMON" he said loudly with a smile on his face, he didn't believe her. "We all know now, we saw the pictures". Olivia's heartbeat started racing like crazy. She could feel the sweat in her palms. Then Carlos said  "You look good in Ferrari by the way" he said with a wink.

Olivia stoped walking "wait, Ferrari?". 

Carlos could see the confusion on her face now. "Oh wait, have you checked your phone?" he asked. 

"Obviously not" she said extending her hand so he would hand over whatever he was talking about. 

Carlos looked something up in his phone quickly then handed it to Liv "It's all over Instagram and I also saw a few TikTok romantic edits about it" he said with a giggle. 

Liv looked at his phone where the "breaking news" of her relationship with Charles were revealed to the public. They had an entire fake story made up and there were people who swore they saw them together having dinner in Monaco. According to the media, Charles was the reason Olivia came to work at F1 in the first place, so they could be together. 

"This is ridiculous" she said reading the news.

"Wait so you are not actually dating? Because in that picture inside the motor home it looks like you are kissing" he said with a confused face, leaning in to see the phone screen as well. "I mean I don't believe the rest, but I do know you both had dinner last night" he said shrugging his shoulders. 

It was true, there was a picture from the moment when they were saying goodbye where it looked like they were kissing. But it was all angles and right timing, they just hugged and Charles kissed her cheek.