The Racing Line | M.V.

33. Think of You

W: 🔞

They spent that day playing by the pool with the kids or at the beach. Checo cooked up some meat for tacos on the grill of the terrace, and Carola made a salad inside, so Liv and Max looked after the kids. 

Carlota was playing with the sand as she sat in front of Liv and her aunt braided her hair. She had gotten a lot better since she was a kid and she had to braid her own hair. Now she could braid her niece's. 

Meanwhile, Max and Checo Jr. were playing football by the shore, kicking the ball around from one side of the beach to the other and through imaginary goal posts they had signaled with a pair of plastic cups. 

"Carlota come play!" yelled out Max. 

"She doesn't play yet, she's too little" said Checo Jr, who was only four years-old.

"She can learn" said Liv with a smile "Do you wanna play sweetie?" she asked little Carlota and she nodded.

"Yeah!" she said happily.

So Liv took her hand and they played together with the boys. Checo Jr. was right, Carlota was still too young and she was barely starting to run, but Liv and Max would take her hand to help her run along with them and they would cheat so both of the kids could score. 

After a short match in which everybody but Max forgot to keep score of their own goals, Max threw himself in the sand exhausted "I won!"  he said triumphantly. Checo Jr. copied him and laid in the sand next to him. 

"You cheated! Because you're bigger" said Chequito.

"That's not cheating" Max pointed out "That's just an advantage I have. One day you'll be bigger too and I'll accuse you of cheating" he joked.

Liv laughed and sat in the sand next to them with Carlota.

After lunch they spent some more time by the pool before leaving Checo's house to get ready for their first date. 

Max showered and he put on a dark blue button-up shirt, with white trousers and white sneakers. Then he left the room and went down the stairs while Olivia got showered "I'll be downstairs!" he called out before leaving. 

Carola had helped him out with a florist, who had agreed to create a beautiful bouquet at the last minute for him. It would be delivered to the beach house and as Max waited downstairs he heard de doorbell ring. He let out a sigh of relief, he couldn't promise flowers and then not get flowers. Specially on their first date. 

He opened up the front door and greeted the delivery man kindly as he got handed the bouquet of flowers. A big bouquet of red gardenias. Gardenia's were Olivia's favorite flower, Max had known since they were young. She liked the way they smelled, and now as adults she had spent years smelling like the same perfume of gardenias. 

Max looked at the bouquet as he waited for her to be ready. The red flowers almost looked like roses from afar, but if he looked closer he could clearly see they weren't. They weren't as perfect as roses, not as neat and symmetrical. There was something almost wild and natural about them. They were perfect in their own imperfection, which to him, made them even more beautiful. Plus, they smelled amazing. If Olivia could be a flower she'd be this one, a red gardenia, he thought proudly as he admired the bouquet. 

Suddenly he heard the sound of high heels on the upstairs floor and a couple of minutes later the footsteps coming down the stairs. He stood up and held on to the bouquet as he walked towards the stairs.