On Top of the World [Max Verstappen - Book 3]

21

Long chapter...hope you enjoy!
Also Danke Seb :(
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"Please!" Max begs for the fifth time that weekend and I roll my eyes.

"I said yes already!" I responded equally as frustrated with him as he was with me.

"No, but not like that..." he moans glaring at the Mercedes-branded coffee cup in my hand.

"If you don't want it then I'm more than happy to have it instead," I say as I bring it to my lips but before it makes contact he's snatched it out of my hand and is holding it protectively against his chest.

"No, I do want it. It's mine," he says after a moment and I let out a giggle as we stand in the middle of the Mercedes hospitality suite in Melbourne as we wait for a few more moments until my coffee is ready. The last few weeks had been hell for me and having to sit out of the race last week had genuinely almost killed me (yes, I am being dramatic) but the one shining light through all the darkness was Max. He had gone out of his way time and again to see me, check on me, talk to me, distract me from the races and the results I couldn't be a part of. It meant that Mercedes staff weren't even surprised to see the two of us standing in the hospitality chatting, it was normal for them. "Are you going back to Monaco after this?"

"Yeah, thank God! I miss being home," I say as I sit down on a sofa on the balcony and smile as I watch him struggle to choose a seat before deciding to sit next to me, arm splayed out across the back of it reaching out to me as his body was turned towards me. "By the way - this is going to be a totally weird question and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but have...have you been cleaning my flat?" I ask him curiously the question on my mind for the last month or so, before seeing him burst out laughing, almost spilling coffee back all over himself.

"No, God no!" He says and a frown comes on my face as he laughs at the question. "But I did keep on paying for the cleaner to go because I knew you would let that flat fall apart a little bit without the help," he answers matter of factly once he's calmed down and my mouth drops open.

"I fucking knew it! I thought I was going insane and I kept asking my accountant if I was paying someone to do it but he said no. You need to tell me how much you've paid...that's like what - two years now?" I ask raising an eyebrow at him and he just shrugs.

"No need, I don't mind but now you know I don't need to get Liv to send me when you're in and not in anymore!" He says smiling and I roll my eyes, of course, Liv was in on it too - she hated cleaning. "I just didn't want it to be messy or dirty when you went back - then you never really went back for months and so I kept paying...the difficulty came moving appointments around so I could get her there when you were gone."

"I'm going to buy you a really expensive bottle of wine as thanks that will cost more than the cleaning if you don't say how much it cost you!" I warn him, lifting my right hand and sipping lightly on my own coffee before receiving a glare from Max and switching it to my left and repeating the action.

"Sounds like a win-win situation for me, but I will give you her contact details so we can switch over now you know," he concedes after a moment and I just smile to myself at the mini success.

Max and I had been spending a lot of time together, especially after I was ruled out of the race last weekend. I was heartbroken and so upset but Max was quickly sent to the rescue and calmed me down a lot more than the Red Bull advisor should do for a Mercedes driver. Random coffee catch-ups like just now were often loaded with subtext and subtle flirting but nothing had happened mainly because neither of us allowed ourselves to ever really be alone. We sit there and talk about nothing, both of us just wasting time before we needed to be in our respective garages for the race. "Stay slow?" Max asks as we both step out of the hospitality thirty minutes later and get ready to cross over to our respective garages and I just shake my head at him.