Royal Speed | Leclerc & Verstappen

43 | birthday feelings

-/- Monaco 2021 - race break -/-

"W... What?" I asked overwhelmed, tears running down my face, but not because I was sad or hurt, no, it was because of the words Max had said to his father about me.

Still there was something I wasn't quite sure about. So while my hands were shaking and my heart was racing I looked up at Jos, who was still smiling, kneeling next to me in the back of the garage of Max's apartment complex.

"And you're fine with that? Him liking me?" I asked quietly, scared he would get angry, like my father every time he mentioned a gay couple.

"I also hope that you like him." Jos nudged me, before he got a bit more serious, "Look, I wasn't always the best father, I know that I have made terrible mistakes and that I have not always shown my love towards him, even though it was there, of course."

He made a short break, thinking about something, before he laid his hand on my knee.

"But I love my son and I want him to be happy and I saw that he wasn't with Kelly nor his previous girlfriends, besides that I didn't like her, but I always had the feeling that this wasn't him to 100 percent, that he had to play a role while being in these relationships."

I only nodded my head, interested in the whole story even though I was still scared about Jos's sympathy for me.

"But when he then started talking about 'a person' that he had met and liked really spending time with, I was happy for him, I still am. And after the pictures of you two from the race in Zandvoort went viral, should have already known."

He laughed and I slowly started to relax, his warm words comforted me.

"But it doesn't really matter because now I know it's you and I'm happy about it, you seem like a really great guy and I can only thank you for making Max so happy. He's in the middle of the championship fight but I have never seen him more calm outside the race track, even though normally he would freak out 24/7."

"That's surely not because of me." I mumbled, nervously playing with the rings on my fingers.

"Oh trust me it is, since this Monaco race I had the feeling that Max was calm and interested, interested in a life outside of the race track. Even though I didn't had the knowledge back then that it was because of you." Jos added and smiled.

"I... I'm sorry if I'm distracting him. I know it's an important year and Max is really going for it, so I'm sorry for... for being there?" I stuttered, scared this was all against me and Jos hated me for distracting Max.

I never made anything right in my life if it was for my father, so I was always extremely scared that people would hate me for doing something. But luckily Jos kinda understood that, maybe because he had been hard with max in the past and could now see some parallels.

"That's surely not true prince Charles, you and Max are great together and you're good for each other." he said before he chuckled, "Max never said that you were the prince but he always said that you have strict parents and all that stuff and he loved showing you a world outside if that."

It was true, since I had known max I had seen so much more of the life than in all my years before. Before him I had never dared to fly with a chopper, I had never dared to go swimming with people around, to do these sexual things before marriage with someone, a man.

"So should we go up and you talk to him, I think he also wants to apologize for his words from before. And then we can figure something out about the press and all that stuff, okay?" Jos pulled me back from my thoughts and stood up.