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64. The Two of Us

The next day, instead of leaving with everyone else to go to Italy, Max and Olivia decided they wanted a little time just for the two of them, apart from everyone else. They only had one day, but they were gonna make it count. Amsterdam was less than an hour away, so Max and Olivia got a car and Max drove to Amsterdam. They spent the entire day there, Olivia wanted to lift Max's spirits and she thought it was working. Although every once in a while she would catch him looking off, his mind somewhere else, a somber look on his face. Olivia kept trying to make Max laugh all day long and kept thinking of things that could get his mind off of everything. She just wanted to make him smile and hopefully hurt a little less. 

They visited the Van Gogh museum upon Olivia's request, tried some more dutch food, Olivia ate some dutch waffles which she was starting to love, they had lunch at this sports bar so Max could watch a soccer game he wanted to see and at sunset they had a private cruise along the canal just the two of them. 

As they road the boat along the canal, Max and Olivia sat on the tip of the boat, surrounded by cushions. Max had his arm around Olivia and every once in a while he would point at a house or a place they were passing by and he would tell Olivia something about it, explaining what it was. Olivia put her glass of wine down and rested her head on his shoulder, placing one arm around his torso and cuddling up to him. Max kissed the top of her head. 

"I know what you've been doing all day, thank you Olivia" said Max quietly.

Olivia looked at him "What do you mean?".

"You've been trying to make me happy all day long. It means a lot, it means a lot to me that you are here trying to make me smile when I was feeling like shit" he said as he stroked her arm. 

"You did not leave my side after the assault" said Olivia, Max flinched with pain at the thought of it "I'm not gonna leave your side now Max" she said as he looked at him, her arm still around his torso.

Max went in for a sweet, soft, kiss "I love you. This day has been absolutely lovely, thank you" he said with a small smile, Olivia smiled back at him. 

Olivia gave him another kiss "I love you too" she cuddled up to him again, resting her head on his shoulder "Are you ready to go back to F1 tomorrow?" she asked. They were flying to Italy in the morning. 

Max chuckled "Am I ready for the questions and the intruding on my life? Not at all. Am I ready to race and win that championship? Fuck yes". 

During the last couple of days the news had been filled with Ashley's involvement in Olivia's assault. Therefore, Ashley's relationship with Max, Olivia's relationship with Max, the pregnancy, the baby, Ashley's whereabouts, it was all anybody could talk about. Everyone on the news wanted to know the details of the situation, and neither Max nor Olivia wanted to talk about it to anyone. This led to a lot of speculation by the media, who created this elaborate and imaginary stories trying to explain the situation to the public. 

Fans started making crazy theories going back in time for months, looking for pictures of evidence that connected Max with Olivia. A lot of the theories worked around the idea that Max was cheating on Ashley with Olivia, and Ashley wanted to retaliate by attacking Liv for taking her baby daddy. Other theories, which were slightly more accurate, talked about how Ashley had been cheating on Max and the baby wasn't even Max's, they thought Olivia knew the truth about this and Ashley wanted to shut her up. However, nobody actually knew the truth. Just Max and Olivia, and they decided to step as far away as possible from all of the rumors and questions. They didn't want to deal with all that. 

Olivia knew this would all blow over eventually, that they would leave them alone at some point, they had to. The only thing she truly wondered was 'where the hell is Ashley'?