Drive to Survive

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

Max Verstappen had kissed her.

He had kissed her!

Admittedly, he had run to his hotel room as fast as humanly possible immediately afterwards but that was a problem to be considered later because right now her lips were tingling, her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were bright. 

He had kissed her!

After moments of being stood in absolute shock and delight, it occurred to Dylan that she was stood alone like a lunatic outside the hotel in the middle of the night by herself. She decided to make her way back up to her room. 

The hotel was a ghost-town. A lonely receptionist smiled kindly at her as she headed towards the lift. As the doors closed, she caught sight of herself in the mirror and her hands came up to cup her cheeks. She was glowing. 

Who knew that Max Verstappen was such a good kisser?

It was the kind of feeling she'd seen in the movies, when the guy finally kissed the girl and everything fell into place. 

Except, everything hadn't - and probably wouldn't - fall into place here. Even if a miracle occurred now and Max magically turned around and confessed feelings for her, Dylan still had to contend with the delicacies of her job and cousin. But she just couldn't bring herself to think rationally right now when she was basking in such an electric feeling of excitement.

The doors on the lift opened and she walked along the corridor, swiping her card and entering her hotel room. It was still a mess from where she'd gotten ready that morning, so she started to pack her makeup up and hang up her discarded clothes.

He'd kissed her. 

She slipped a t-shirt onto its correct hanger and thought about how his hands had cupped her face. He'd held her so firmly but he was still gentle, like she could break in his hands. The suddenness of it had sent such a rush through her stomach and she felt the same twist every time she thought about it. 

What did it mean?

Did it mean anything?

She stepped into the bathroom and washed her current makeup off. Max had seriously shocked her with his actions and now she was re-evaluating every interaction they'd had over the last three months. The dislike he'd demonstrated - and verbally expressed - had definitely been real, so she wondered when things had changed for him. 

Had they even changed for him? Or was this some sick, twisted way of playing with her?

Dylan changed out of her clothes and into her PJs. There was surely no way that Max would kiss her just to mess with her. He'd not even wanted to be in the same room as her before so he surely wouldn't do something like that. Although, how well did she really know him? Maybe that was within his capability. 

No. She had to stop herself spiralling and thinking like this. She did know him, at least well enough to know he wasn't a heartless, evil person. As cliché as it sounded, he really was just a little bit misunderstood and stuck in his ways. 

The progress they'd made over the last few weeks had truly showed her a different side of him and as she reflected on it, she realised that Max had actually made effort to spend an increasing amount of time with her. He'd helped her with the media, approached her at the Netflix dinner, come running to find her after the accident, looked after her on the plane, and spent his free day with her today.

Had she been so blinded by her stubborn belief that he disliked her to realise what was right in front of her?

Dylan's phone flashed with an Instagram notification, and she saw it was almost 1am. Definitely way too late to be driving herself crazy with all these thoughts and theories. She could probably convince herself of anything when she was this tired and that was a dangerous route.