The Undercut | Max Verstappen

chapter 7

August 6th.
Max's POV.

To say that the air has been thick with tension all morning between me and Micah, would be an understatement. I've been ignoring her, mainly because I don't know how to face her after last night's incident. Yes, I'm able to recognize that I shouldn't have said all those things. But at the same time, I barely know the woman. How am I supposed to just blindly trust her? The mere thought of a complete stranger snooping around my bedroom, invading my privacy so intimately, is enough to send chills down my spine. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Even though part of me thinks her words seemed believable enough when she swore she hadn't been inside of it. The conflicting emotions inside of me made it so I'd much rather avoid her presence or ignore it completely than stand in front of her for too long.

So, I spoke to Nick. He let me know where all the cameras were set up and I ignored the strange feeling of cameras pointing at me from every direction inside my own home as I made myself a breakfast pre-workout smoothie. That was the plan for today, I had a training session at the gym, and I'd be followed there by Nick and the twins. Thankfully, they were only there to film my work out, so there was no need for an interview, and therefore Micah was left to her own devices. I didn't have to be a genius, though, to realize that she was looking right at me when she casually mentioned she was going out to explore Monaco by herself while we were out. Probably in an attempt to reassure me that she wouldn't be anywhere near my things. I didn't reply, though. Not because I was trying to be rude, but because I wasn't sure of what to say. I found myself blurting out nonsense in front of her more often than not, for some reason, and I was trying to avoid that.

Nick and I arrive at the gym to meet up with my trainer, Brad. And as soon as we get there we see that Winnie and Oliver are already there with their camera set up all ready to go. Winnie is pretty cool, although I get the feeling that she doesn't like me very much and I guess that's got all to do with my not-so-friendly relationship with Micah. However, Oliver's a whole different can of worms. No matter how hard I try (which honestly isn't very hard), I can't seem to get over the bad vibe I get from him. I simply don't like the guy. There's something in the way that he carried himself like he always owns the place, like he knows he's better than everyone. Some people might say it's confidence, I say he's just a douche. Still, everyone else seems to love him, so what the hell do I know?

"Hey, mate! Are you ready for the day? I already sent you the routine, I don't know if you had the chance to take a look at it." Brad tells me with a smile on his face. From the first moment the documentary became a real possibility, I knew I wanted Brad to feature on it. He'd just opened new gym facilities and if I could do something to help promote his business, I was going to do it.

"Yeah, I saw. I think you're trying to kill me." I joke as we shake hands and clap each other's backs. Turning to Winnie and Oliver, I smile politely at them. "Hey, I hope it wasn't too difficult for you to set everything up here?"

"Hi! It wasn't, everyone's been really accommodating." the girl replies, nodding at me as she moves to stand behind the camera. "Do you mind if we start shooting now? We want to get as much raw footage as we can. The more, the better." she asked tentatively, as if she was trying not to pressure me into breaking the usual genuineness that reigned between Brad and I as soon as we put our heads into what we had to do.

"Yeah, no problem." I said. I looked over at Oliver, only to find him looking at me with a frown on his face. "What?" I asked. That seemed to shake him up, nearly jumping in his spot on the ground. He hadn't even said hello to me, and now he was giving me dirty looks for no reason? I'm telling you, the vibes are off.

"I didn't say anything." he replied, crossing his arms over his chest, trying to look nonchalant but he only managed to look even more pathetic.

"You didn't have to. I'm not stupid. What's the deal?" the tension in the air was palpable, but he seemingly didn't have the guts to say what was on his mind because he stayed quiet. "Next time you have something you want to say, say it to my face." I dared, topping it off with a sarcastic grin before I picked up the boxing gloves from the cabinet behind him, moving past his frame not really caring if he didn't get out of the way to let me pass.