All is fair in Love & War

Chapter 5

Six days of lockdown in total and you and Max were still friends. You had breakfast together, trained together and then had dinner. It was a nice routine, turns out Max was quite the joker and loved to tease. You learnt to understand that many of his comments were of that nature and that he never meant them the wrong way. He spoke the same way he always did with you but now that you started to know him better, you understood his humour. And he got yours, because he encouraged you to answer back to him with your wit and your own jokes. He helped you a lot when it came to Dave and sometimes the urge to call him or to even leave a voicemail to tell him to fuck off again without even reading his texts.

The rest of the team moved the same way, always tiptoeing around you both, just in case you would snap at each other. So that's how you had fun lately, by being extra obnoxious and bickering over everything around them. Christian was about to make you spend the night outside because of it. Nobody ever noticed that your banter wasn't as mean anymore, probably because they were so fed up on it that they stopped paying attention.

"Should we watch a movie?" You said from the floor, tired after stretching.

"Oh please yes, i don't think I can take another afternoon of Brad and his breathing exercises!" Max chuckled and stood up to find his laptop. "When Harry Met Sally?"

You rolled your eyes. "Admit it, Verstappen, you're a big rom com lover!"

"I am a romantic at heart, what can I say?" He shrugged and started searching for the movie.

"Your girlfriend must be so lucky!"

He just cleared his throat and looked down. "Um, she and I broke up a bit before I came here..."

You widened your eyes and went to him. "Max, I'm so sorry, I didn't know..."

"No of course you didn't, I haven't told anyone because I was hoping to get her back, but this stupid lockdown ruined it all!" He looked at you with tears in his eyes.

"Oh god, Max, come here!" You instantly hugged him tightly. "If there's anything I can do, let me know, you did so much for me! We can call off the movie, if you want to talk about it..."

He sniffed and hugged you more. "No, I think this movie will help me feel better..."

"Of course." You moved to look at him to see if he felt better for real and found his eyes and smile being very mischievous. "What's going on?"

He laughed. "I'm just glad to know my poor boy façade is worth it to get whatever I want!"

You gasped and let go of him embrace to throw the cushions at him. "You bloody bastard you almost make me cry with you!" You laughed while trying to be very offended.

He kept laughing and evading the projectiles while walking towards you. "Oh come on, I can see you liked my prank!" He went for you and hugged you again. "I'm sorry, I am a bit romantic too!"

You let him embrace you but you didn't do it back to him. "You made me care, did you know that?"

"Awww see? I knew it, you have a soft spot for me!"

You shook your head as you looked at him. "I don't know why, but if we have to be honest here, I do." You chuckled. "Weird little man."

He ruffled your hair as he let go. "I do for you too too, you tiny specimen!"

You threw one last cushion at him while he finally put on the movie.

Halfway across it, you were hungry, so you ordered a casserole from the room service menu. The problem was that it came in just one pot and you had no other dishes, so you decided to sit on the carpet and use the small coffee table. That's how you stayed the whole time until it ended and you discovered Max sleeping next to you. You smiled and was about to wake him up when you stopped to watch him a little more. He was pouting, his big lips were showing themselves as he softly breathed in and out. His eyelashes were quite long and soft, giving room to his cheekbones, prominent and sharp. He was so pretty, no wonder Dave was insanely jealous of him.

You slowly stood up and took out the food containers to be picked up tomorrow, and went back to your spot beside Max, where you fell asleep.