LOVE OR RIDE | LESTAPPEN

Chapter thirty-two - a new beginning

Charles

The next whole week is a boring routine. We sit in my house in Monaco. We talk on the phone almost all day every day, or meet live with our teams, getting along on new contracts that must be carefully worked out to bring us back and we are getting closer to the end, then we go to training, and in the evenings we watch TV series and go to bed. Daniel and Max still don't speak to each other. Pierre has decided to pour over the team and talk to us normally, just like the other drivers. Slowly, things are moving in the right direction. My mother even invited us to dinner tomorrow to get to know Max better, which made the boy panic since yesterday when he found out, as if he was going to get married to me.

"Daniel is calling." I say while Max is driving the car as we go to meet our team directors.

For the past three days, Ricciardo has been calling and texting me and Max once every day, but I ignore these notifications with a pain in my heart, because my boyfriend asked me to do so and I don't want to get in between them. The Red Bull driver even wanted to block a friend, but I convinced him not to do it. In fact, I don't know if they're still friends, Max thinks not, and when I ask what they're fighting about, he doesn't tell me it's because of me, because he doesn't know that I know the truth. We haven't heard from his father since the video leaked, but our families write or call non-stop, inviting us to visit in our spare time. It's nice that they're worried, but at times I can see that Max is sick of it, because I know perfectly well that he doesn't like to be so attacked by someone's presence.

"Reject, or preferably block it." He says, without even glancing at me.

"Max..."

"Charles, I beg you. Don't start this topic, because I don't want to say something I'll regret, because I don't want to argue with you." He glances at me and smiles gently. I nod, dismissing the call. I put the phone aside, leaning back in my chair.

"Pierre wants us to go with him and a few other drivers to this club he managed to get tickets to." I remind myself, so I immediately share this with Max. My friend will kill me if we don't come, so I decide to bypass the fact that the few drivers include Hamilton and Ricciardo. I'd rather Max kill me on the spot than Pierre in my house.

"You can't go alone, saying I'm unwell?"

"Definitely not, but I can drive the car." I suggest, to which he reluctantly agrees with a nod. I don't need alcohol, so I can easily take care of everyone, and I know Max could use loosening up at least for a day, because he and Red Bull are working a lot harder than me and Ferrari. And I don't surprise them, after all, Max is a key driver, they want him back as soon as possible. Well, and silently in my head I pray that he and Daniel will reconcile. And both do badly to one and the other with this argument. Both are dim and humorless. I know from Pierre that Daniel was even crying yesterday, scolding himself for the way he treated me and Max.

After a while we are there and get out of the car, walking quickly, that is, almost running to the office, because of course we are late. Without knocking, I enter first and curse in my mind this habit I learned from Max. Definitely too much time together. Our directors look at us without surprise, because for a week we've always been at least a minute late.

"I thought to myself that since you are with Charles and have become decidedly calmer, you will learn punctuality from him, and as part of that calmness we have not one, but two drivers who are late and don't knock on the door." Says an amused Horner.

"Can we get this over with relatively quickly? I'm going to go drink vodka." says Max suddenly, and all three of us look at him in shock. "Well what? Honesty is key." He shrugs his shoulders, sitting down at his desk.

We spend the next few hours writing statements on our Instagrams. We've already signed a lot of confidentiality agreements, and at times I'm already lost as to whether telling Max that I'm going to a meeting is also breaking the rules or not. But it's all to accompany the posts, too, so that fans can see that neither of us is giving the other information about the team's plans. Preliminarily, we are prepared for anything. Fortunately, our sponsors, with whom we also had meetings, decided to stay, which makes it a lot easier for us. Additionally, FiA is no longer taking such a bad approach and I think we'll both be back on track in a month. Or at least Max is, because Christian is fighting a paddock war for him.