SO AMERICAN | max verstappen

twentyeight.

"Riley, this song is amazing!"

I smiled brightly at Kate, hugging her tight after we finished our first recording session. We'd gone over the lyrics and figured out the instrumentals the past two days, today was when we were recording the lyrics. It was all coming together, ready to be released within the next couple of days as a single.

Kate wanted to expedite the process, keeping me away from Max and Lili for the least amount of time.

"Thanks, I worked really hard on it. A lot of feelings went into the song."

Ella laughed, hip-bumping me, "Yeah, she wrote most of it in a hospital with her boyfriend's kid."

"Oh shush." I laughed, elbowing Ella. "It was fun to think about all of our interactions when writing it."

"However it was written, it sounds amazing! I think it is going to be one of your best songs. Are you prepared for the demand for more love songs?" Kate asked, walking over to one of the computers.

All I could think of when Kate spoke of love songs was Max. I've had lyrics and melodies in my mind constantly since Canada, all different songs I could write about the Dutch driver.

"It'll be easy." I shrugged, walking back into the recording booth when Kate asked me to.

She said something about wanting to record some parts a few more times to get all they wanted. If we got all the recording done today, then we could do the mixing and editing done tomorrow and have the song released... Monday?

This was going to be an exciting weekend.

~~~~~~

"That was a long day." Ella groaned, reclining the seat in our rental car.

It was nearing 6pm and we'd just picked up dinner for ourselves on the way back to my place here in LA. It really had been a long day.

"I think I'm gonna try and call Max when we get back. I wanna see how Quali went–"

"He's P2, Charlie's P3, and Lan is P6." Ella cut me off.

I sent her a look, confused as to how she knew all of this. "How did you–"

"Lan called me after, knowing we wouldn't be watching because of recording." She shrugged before turning to look at me, "You know it's like 2am there, right? He'll be asleep."

I groaned, of course. How'd I forget that LA was 8 hours behind instead of our 5 hours in Wilmington? I had meant to call him midday here, but got too busy and now I've missed my chance.

"I guess I'll call him around midnight here? That way I can talk to him before the race there." I tried to come up with my game plan as I parked the car.

The two of us clambered out of the car, managing to pull ourselves up the stairs and into my apartment. We'd gotten tacos from our favorite place here and had planned to have a movie night. It should be a nice relaxing night before another long day in the studio.

"Ri, your phone is ringing!" Ella called from her spot on the couch.

I returned from the kitchen with two sodas, sitting them on the coffee table before picking up my phone. Why was Taylor calling?

"Hey, Tay, what's up?" I questioned, putting it on speaker so I could start eating my food.

"Can you sit down for me?"

I furrowed my eyebrows, sending Ella a look to which she just shrugged. "I mean, I already am, but why?"

"Tell Ella to check her phone." Why was she being so cryptic?