Drive to Survive

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

As Dylan stood in her room, putting on her jewellery in anticipation of her family dinner, her stomach twisted with nerves. Her family had arrived in about an hour ago, but she'd pretended to have some last-minute work and left them to Carlos. Her cousin had refused to speak to her for the rest of the day and she'd spent her afternoon miserably scrolling through Twitter.

The rumours had escalated since the morning. As she'd feared, someone had taken and released pictures of Max and Dylan wandering around the various tourist sites on her content collection day and people were once again commenting about how unusually happy Max looked. It should've made her heart soar, but she was too consumed with guilt and uncertainty.

What's more, the comments on Twitter had led people to listen back in on Max's radio from Miami and the audio clip of him demanding to know if she was okay had gone viral. On top of this, she'd been forced to see clips of the podium ceremony from that race and all the speculation had focused around how Max had refused to interact with Charles and how it looked like someone had punched him.

Basically, everything had come out. It wouldn't take long for some of the committed journalists or fans to look back through the season, the incidents, and the messy interviews to put a story together.

The speculation that she may be connected to another driver should have felt like just another sucker punch to her already shredded reputation but this wasn't like the baseless questions of her dating Pierre or Charles. These rumours had weight to them and she knew there was no escaping the reality she was being forced to confront.

Neither Christian or Greg had said anything to her yet but they both knew she had a family dinner tonight so she expected the meeting requests would come tomorrow. She desperately needed a conversation with Max but she didn't know where to find him. He'd not been in his room when she'd knocked earlier.

One of the strangest things had been the notification from Instagram.

@nicholaslatifi started following you

Clearly, news of her drama had even reached the lovely - but often unbothered - Nick down in the Williams garage. Interestingly, the only person now not following her on Instagram was Max himself. The days of Lando starting driver bingo felt like years ago. She wished she could go back to that first Welcome Ball and do it all over again.

The clock read 7:30 and she couldn't delay it anymore. She had to meet her family downstairs to travel to the restaurant and it was time to face the music.

Grabbing her purse, she headed out the door and down the stairs to reception. The volume of Dylan's family hit her before she even saw them but as she rounded the corner, they came into sight and her nerves were somewhat settled as her uncle turned and gave her a beaming smile.

"¡Cariño!" He cried, "You're here!"

"¡Hola, hola!" She embraced him and then made her way around the family with hugs and kisses.

Her aunt was the last to greet her and she cupped Dylan's cheeks, smiling warmly at her, "Ay, mi niña, estoy tan orgullosa de ti."

"Gracias, tía."

As Reyes left to speak with the hotel receptionist about organising a taxi, an excited Lando bounded over to her. She received his hug with open arms and laughed as he squeezed her tight.

"Hey, it's so good to see you!"

"Likewise, I'm sure Spain has been a bore without me." He laughed, stepping back, "Although from what I've seen on Twitter this morning, I don't think you've been very bored at all. I have a lot of questions."