Forever and Always | Max Verstappen *ੈ✩‧₊˚

Intoxicating

Present day
Emma
So, yeah, Meredith seemed nice enough. She said she'd go over "the rules" tomorrow over coffee, which honestly sounded super weird, but I guess I'm living in weird now, so whatever.

Max and I were left with the rest of the day to ourselves.

"Do you want to maybe see the city?" Max asked.

"Sure," I shrugged.

I wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of wandering around Monaco with Max, who—let's be honest—felt like a complete stranger to me.

But maybe seeing the city would jog something in my memory.

At this point, I was willing to try anything that might make me feel like my life wasn't one giant mystery novel with missing pages.

As we left the apartment, I kept sneaking glances at Max.

I know, it sounds weird, but I was trying to see if something—anything—felt familiar about him.

Spoiler alert: it didn't. He was tall, kind of quiet, and seemed like the kind of guy who'd give you his jacket if you were cold but wouldn't know what to say if you cried.

"Where do you want to go first?" Max asked as we walked down the narrow streets, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"I don't know... where do people go in Monaco?" I replied.

Like, seriously, what do you even do here? Sit on yachts? Buy overpriced designer clothes? Both of which I'm not really into.

Max chuckled lightly, "Well, there's the harbor, the casino, or... we could go to the track. Maybe that would jog your memory?"

I blinked at him. "The track? Like... the Formula 1 track?"

"Yeah," he nodded, looking a little hopeful. "We've spent a lot of time there, and—"

"Right, because you're a Formula 1 driver," I interrupted .

"Yeah, we've gone to the races together a lot. Monaco's pretty special for us."

I cringed inwardly at the "special for us" part. That "us" still didn't feel like me.

"Sure, we can check it out," I agreed, more because I didn't know what else to say.

As we walked, I tried to take in the sights. Monaco was beautiful—stunning, actually.

The water sparkled like it was trying to show off, and the buildings were all so... fancy.

"Does anything look familiar?" Max asked quietly.

He was trying so hard not to push, and honestly, I appreciated that.

I sighed. "No, not really. Sorry."

"Don't apologize," he said quickly. "It's not your fault."

I gave him a small smile. "Thanks... it's just weird, you know? Being here and not remembering anything. Like, am I supposed to have some kind of 'a-ha' moment where everything just clicks?"

Max chuckled softly. "I don't know how it works, to be honest. I've never been in this situation before."

I snorted. "Yeah, me neither. Obviously."

We both laughed, and for a second, it wasn't so bad.

Then, of course, the awkwardness crept back in. I mean, what do you even talk about with your husband who you don't remember? The weather? Formula 1 stats? It's not like I could just bring up funny stories from the past. I didn't know any!