Forbidden

17. Bahrein GP

The rest of the week went by pretty smoothly. Liv and Checo spent Sunday together sightseeing and going out for lunch. Since the drivers had to keep training during the week, but were not in the paddock, Olivia actually had some free time for herself. She used that time to explore the city, rest, and Facetime with Ava to give her all of the major updates in her life. She had been desperate to know about all of it since "CharLiv" was already viral.

"I KNEW IT LIV! I told you Emilian was a weird name! Didn't I?!" she said victoriously when she found out about Emilian being Max Emilian.

Olivia failed to mention the part about Max becoming a father. She trusted Ava, and knew she wouldn't share that information intentionally, but she had a tendency of talking first and thinking second; so she thought it would be safest to keep it to herself until the news broke to everyone.

"Wait but, I don't get it Liv. I thought you were completely hooked with this Emilian guy and now you are dating Charles Leclerc? This makes no sense" she said with a furrowed brow.

"Max is just... complicated. And besides, Checo kind of forbade me from dating him, he heard us making out in Max's driver room. With Charles it's so simple and comfortable. No drama" she said, keeping some information to herself.

"Wait Checo heard what?!" Ava was dying for all of the details.

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Thursday was media day which meant Liv was there taking a few pictures from afar but didn't really interact much with anyone. Max was still avoiding her, but Liv did notice he had also started following @CharlesAndLivUpdates which seemed kind of weird to her. Why would he even want to see that?

Liv and Charles kept talking every time they bumped into each other and they also texted but they hadn't had a date since last Saturday. This didn't seem odd to Liv at all, it was race week after all. Once Saturday arrived it was finally Qualifying and Checo had scored P4 while Max was P2... right behind Charles on P1.

When Max got out of the car after Qualifying, he was fuming. There was not even a hint of a smile when Charles went in for a hug. Unfortunately for Liv, Max being on the top 3 of qualifying meant she had to stick by him for the rest of the day while he did interviews and more media. She had to take as much photographs as possible. Being around Max lately was uncomfortable but that day was even worst, there was a hint of Mad Max in him. When they went back to the hotel they drove in different cars, Liv was already waiting for the elevator at the lobby when she heard someone from reception call out "Excuse me, Mr. Verstappen".

She turned to look as Max walked over to the reception's desk and the same man that had called out to him said "Miss Williams arrived early this morning sir, we handed her a room key for your suite per your request". Olivia froze, that had to be Ashley, she was finally going to meet the woman who would have Max's kid.

"Wait, she got here this morning? Has she been here the entire day?" asked Max.

"Uhm, no sir, I believe she went out during the early afternoon. She is not back yet" the man clarified.

"Oh okay, thank you" said Max and he started walking over to the elevator just as the elevator doors opened for Liv. She stepped inside and Max walked faster to catch the elevator. For a moment she thought about acting dumb and letting the doors close before Max could get there. When the doors started to close she reacted and stuck her hand out the door, causing them to open once again so Max could get in.

"Thanks" he said and once the doors closed he let out a chuckle "I thought you were going to let the doors close"

"Oh I thought about it. I almost pressed the button that makes them close faster" she said, and she was only half-kidding. They both laughed together for the first time in longer than a week.