SO AMERICAN | max verstappen

sixteen

"So, tell me again, what do pole position and p2 mean right now?"

I playfully hip-bumped Ella, laughing at the fact that this wasn't the first time she'd asked about the qualifying positions. "During qualifying, or quali, yesterday, Charles had the fastest lap time which means he starts pole or first. Max was second, so he gets p2, meaning he starts second. Lando had the eighth fastest time, so he's starting p8." We were standing up on the balcony of the Red Bull garage with Lili, wanting to have more space instead of tucking ourselves into a corner of the garage.

She pulled a face "I didn't ask about Lando."

"I know." I laughed, yet again.

Over the past couple of days, Ella had made a lot of excuses to talk about, talk to, and be near the British driver. I couldn't really blame her though, Lando had been doing the same. I think he forgot how well I knew him. I had only mentioned his starting position because I knew that the only reason she hadn't brought him up was to not draw suspicion.

Time passed pretty quickly, there had been a DNF on lap 6 and besides that, nothing much happened. Until lap 39.

"Oh my god, please tell me he's okay." Ella's panicked voice filled my ears.

I sighed, squatting to pick up Lili, holding her close as we watched the screens. "He should be fine as long as none of the cars behind him hit him." Lando had DNFed, colliding with another driver who had been struggling out on the track.

"Does that mean he's out of the race?"

She seemed so worried for him, knowing how much he wanted to do well today. "Unfortunately, yes. If he can't get the car back to the pit lane by himself, he's out. And seeing as he's missing a tire..."

Ella groaned, "Well, fuck."

I gasped, slapping Ella's arm. "No cursing around Lili unless you want to face the wrath of Max."

"Daddy beats up people who say bad words in front of me." Lili added in her thoughts.

Ella shot me a look, her face falling.

I laughed.

"He gets mad at them, definitely no physical violence though."

The rest of the race went by quickly, cheers filling the air. Max, unsurprisingly, had come in first, while Charles and Carlos took the other two places on the podium. Everyone started to flood out of the balcony, all going down to be able to cheer on the drivers.

"Do you want to come down with me and Lil or are you going to go find lover boy?" I teased Ella as we started for the stairs.

Ella glared at me, "I'm going to find Lando, so you go congratulate your boyfriend without me."

"Can I go with Ella?" Lili questioned, tapping my arm to get my attention.

I gave her a look as we reached the bottom of the stairs. "You don't want to tell your Daddy he did a good job?"

She giggled, "Oh, right." It was almost as if she'd forgotten that Max had won.

Ella veered off toward the Mclaren garage, leaving mine and Lili's sides. With the small girl still in my arms, we made our way to the barriers that separated us from the parc fermé area. Upon being noticed, some of the Red Bull team let us squeeze through, getting to an area where Max could easily reach us.

Sure enough, only a couple of minutes later, Max jogged over, hugging some of his mechanics. He seemed on top of the world.

He slid down to me and Lili. "Good job, Daddy!" Lili squealed, tapping on his helmet that still sat on his head and reaching for him all at the same time..

It was clear that Max was smiling, it was evident from his eyes which could be seen now that his visor had been slid up. "Thank you, liefje." He spoke, hugging his daughter.

Max then switched his attention to me. Thankfully, over the course of the weekend, Max had stopped being mad at me, and seemed like he tolerated my presence now. It was strange because I think I started feeling the same way.

I smirked at him, "Congrats, Mr. World Champion." My words were quiet as I pulled my nickname out for him.

He shook his head, it being obvious that he was still smiling as he pulled me in for a hug, his gloved hand holding the back of my head, "Thanks, Rockstar."

I was confused as he pulled away, watching as he made his way over to the brief interview he had to do before he was ushered to the cool-down room. For some reason, that hug seemed truly genuine.

~~~~~

We'd been back at the hotel for about 30 minutes now, Max having driven us back. He'd even walked us to our room, since his was next door, and told us that a bunch of the drivers were going to a club here in Miami in about an hour – telling me and Ella we were free to join and mentioning that he'd even found Lili a babysitter.

I was confused about the invitation, curious as to why he'd voluntarily invited me to come with him. Charles had already told me about the outing and I was planning to come anyway, but Max had asked me to come. Ella insisted that we go, definitely covering up her real reason of wanting to party with Lando by informing me how great it would be for our image if we were seen celebrating with each other.

And that was how I had ended up freshly showered with a towel wrapped around me, walking out of the bathroom in the hotel room I shared with my best friend. "What are you doing on my phone?" I noticed that the phone in Ella's hand had my purple case and not her floral one.

"Uh, nothing." Ella smirked.

Immediately, I'm suspicious. I clutched my towel, stomping over to Ella and taking my phone back. "What did you do?" I gasped, seeing the conversation open on my phone.

Why in the world did I give her my password in the first place?

Ella shrugged, "I made a groupchat with Charles, Max, Lando, Daniel, and Carlos and invited them to our family's beach house for a long weekend. We've got the space and they have a weekend off, so why not?"

I groaned, looking closer at the message seeing that everyone other than Max had accepted the invitation, Charles even saying he'd invite Charlotte to come. Looking at the dates Ella had provided them with, they'd all have time to travel home for a couple of days before reuniting in Wilmington to go to the beach house mine and Ella's family owned.

"El, there's not enough room in the house!" I pleaded, trying to get her to rescind the invitation.

She shook her head, "Yes, there are! You'll just have to suck it up and bunk with Max, especially since Carlos, Daniel, and Charlotte don't know your relationship is fake. Then Charles and Charlotte will room. Carlos and Daniel. Then me and Lando..."

I laughed. Why am I not surprised?

Then my phone buzzed, Max's confirmation now coming through. He must've read the part of the original text where Ella promised that we could leave Lili with my parents. She's quite the little mastermind.

"You planned this to get closer to Lando, didn't you?"

Ella got up from the bed, shrugging as she headed toward the bathroom.

"Maybe."

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