The anatomy of a champion • I •

29.

*******MAX*******

Two races already done.
One a completely disaster for me and for the team, but luckly i won the one from Saudi. Now, I have to keep the winning coming, one after the other.

And if the disaster from the first race wasnt enough, i found my dad in the garage yelling at all the mechanics, race engineers, even to Christian. Blaming them for making a shit of a car for the new season. Obviously i didn t escape his wrath either. Oh, the good old days.
"Are you that stupid?
"Of course you are not capable to keep your title"
"You should stay on your mechanics ass day and night to make sure your car is in good condition"

Daddy dearest, with his motivational speech. See, he made his life goal to train me to become the person i am today, the person he never was. What i do appreciated about him, is that he never behaved differently when we were in public, he was his true self all the time and anywhere. It was out there in the public "Jos Verstappen, the devil himself" I know that most of people pity me. And all that is out there in the media is true, i never denied it. My father stripped away my childhood at the expense of my humanity. I was familiar with this rough education, in fact i don't remember feeling loved in my childhood...
Anyhow, i was not in the fucking mood for another lecture, so i quickly undressed myself and went to do my media duties so i can get out of the paddocks as soon as possible.

Pacing back and forth in my hotel room after i drank almost all the mini bar and ordering some more alchool i made the decision to pull out some strings to find out where Irina was staying. If someone would have asked me why, i didn't know the real reason... i just wanted answears. As stupid as it sounds. She, of course owns me absolutely nothing, but still...i wanted answears.
And God...how beautiful she was. Even in my drunken state I was fucking aware of her.
I went for answears and unfortunately i found or rather i saw how she reacted when Charles appeared. I bit my tongue for too many times to prevent myself to ask what the fuck they share.

Ever since me and Charles were little and rivals in our karting days, he always was surronded by girls. I may be a men but I can recognize if another male has the looks, and Charles has the looks. He knows how to make himself plesant while I am not. I don't know if this is jealousy, because like i ve said, she owns me nothing, but I don't want to loose my chance on trying to have her...
If having some kind of relationship with benefits will keep her closer to me, so be it! I know she enjoyed our night back in 2017,  like, she couldn' fake those orgasms, so playing the "sex card" is going to be my weapon.
Who would have thought that Charles and I will have other fights and not only on the race track

——————

Australia was definitely one of the races I was looking forward to. Another race another win hopefully. I arrived on wednesday morning at Melbourne and since it was pretty much a day off, I decided to go out on a walk with Daniel and Lando. On my insistences Daniel agreed to take us to a place away from the pry eyes, because as much as I hated to be out in public, Daniel loved it. And now even more so, since it was his home race. We sat on a terrace of a pub owned by one of Daniel's friend which was located on a quite hidden street and where not many people passed by.

Imagine my utter shock or surprise or whatever you want to call it when i heared Daniel yelling on a distance at two persons and gestured for them to come towards us. "Welcome to Melbourne, welcome to my country" he said to Irina which was accompanied by Alex, ferrari's manufacturing engineer. This aspect i also didn't like, she will always be close to the Ferrari,  to Charles...

"It's madness out here during the race week" Irina said to Daniel, trying her best not to look towards me. I don't know why she always tries to avoid me..."we couldn' find any free table at any place" Alex continued. I refrain myself to interfere in their conversation but many many thanks to Daniel who had invited them to join us. And they accepted.

Irina sat between Alex and Daniel across of me and Apparently she was having a good time with them and ignoring me, my presence by all means. Well, if this was going to be, fine! I also ignored her, engaging myself in conversation with Lando, laughing from ear to ear. But this is practically impossible when you are at a table with few people. Our eyes kept meeting and probably the tension between us was also felt by the around us.

She took out a cigarette "it's not exactly ethical of you, doctor, to instruct your patients not to smoke when you don't respect that either," I say
"there is a saying, do what the doctor says, not as he or she does" winking at me and making me smile like a fucking idiot. Why is this difficult to be close to her?! Was she trying to flirt ? Alex nudged her with his elbow and soon after they excused themselves saying they will be heading back to the hotel.

"where are you guys staying? maybe we have common road" Daniel asked and
Alex answered the name of the hotel. fortunately or unfortunately, apparently we were all staying at the same hotel. Daniel was by car and offered to drive us all there, but, Irina said she wanted to walk back to the hotel.
C' mon Max, you can do this.

"I'll walk with you" now imagine all their faces, mixes of confusion, enthusiasm, shock, suspicion. Alex had offered not to leave the girl alone, but I insisted and Daniel, like a perfect wingmen almost shoved Alex into his car. I owe him a big one.

We begin our 3 km to the hotel and I suggested to avoid the main streets because of the paparazzi issue.
During our walk we talked some random things, like a couple who just had a date. No yelling, no tension, no intimidating stuff between us. At one point she tripped over a kerb, almost falling to the ground. My basic instinct was to catch her or try to hold her in place but she quickly regain her posture " just testing the durability of the pavement to make sure you will be safe in the car during the race. It passed" I refrain myself not to burst into laughter and waited to see her reaction. Fucking shit...she's unbelieveble, in all the good ways.

We spoke briefly about certain events in our lives. She about her medical journey and me about the championship i had won, how I knew that many don't give me credit for, and being accused of stealing the championship away from Lewis. "this part will be an interesting chapter in The anatomy of a champion" she said and my face lit up. She remembered what I told her 5 years ago. Why the fuck my stomach is feeling so empty, I just ate. and why my heart is beating so fast?

Arriving at the hotel, I approached to kiss her on the cheek and whispered softly in her ear "I hope you dream of me"