Love Is In the Snow {Lando Norris & Max Verstappen}

Chapter Eighty-six - Quality time

It is January 2nd, the day after the surprise dinner where every family member of the boys and girls met each other. After a not eventful night, the boys and girls are waking up. They have some breakfast and get ready for the day. The girls will meet the sisters of the boys around 1pm for lunch. Max and Lando will be meeting up with their parents or brother, they have a lot to catch up on.

Lynn
“Hey girls!” I say as I see Vic, Cis and Flo sitting at one of the tables of the lunchroom. “Did you sleep well?” I ask them all as Vera and I take a seat as well. “Not very much, the boys were very restless due to the long trip yesterday” Vic tells me. “I’m sorry, but I can understand. They are still so little and vulnerable. And you, Cisca and Flo?” I ask the other two girls. “We slept as roses. We were tired after yesterday’s journey, but it was all worth it. We finally get to meet the two troublemakers!” Flo says as she is talking for herself and her sister. Vera and I look at each other. “Is that how they all see us? As troublemakers?” I ask myself. I don’t want that comment ruin my mood, so I decide to start another topic. “Are you guys excited for the upcoming season?” I ask them. “Hell yeah! I felt so bad that I couldn’t attend Abu Dhabi last month” Vic says a little sad. “Hopefully I will be able to attend more races this year, the boys will be a little older, so it will be easier. And Max can also see them more often, as he already missed so much time with Luca” she adds to it. “It must have been hard on the both of you, but I am sure this year everything will work out!” I say. “I want to see Lando winning his first F1-race!” Flo says a little too loud. “I think we all do” I respond and give her a wink.

Not much later the waiter serves us the drinks we have ordered and write down the orders. We talk a bit more about our lives at home and all the fun details about the trip in Austria and Monaco so far. We all get along very well, and it feels nice to know more people in this little, but big racing world. As I am still new, I need some people around me who can guide me through the unwanted attention and stuff.

After lunch Vera decides to go out with Lando’s sisters, so I decide to do some shopping with Vic.
We walk to the Le Metropole Shopping Center, it has all high-end and exclusive stores. Way above my budget and I feel a little underdressed for the location. I let Victoria guide me through the mall and we walk in some stores. It is so beautiful, and I need to keep telling myself not to fall in love with some of the items. “How good it must be to live a life like this?” I say to Vic while she is looking for some clothes racks. “Know, this could be your life at some point” she says a little teasingly. “What do you mean?” I ask her. “Well, I don’t know if you know what a Formula One driver makes a year?” she asks me. I shake my head. And she whispers something in my ear. I let the top I was holding fall on the ground. “No way!” I say a little too loud and everyone is looking at me. Vic gives me a push to let me know I need to lower my voice. “29 million Euros?!” I whisper. “Yeah and that is even without all the sponsor deals and merchandise” she says, and she laughs. “What the fuck!” I say as I start laughing. “I need to work my ass of if I want to make at least €40.000, - a year!” I add to it and keep laughing. “I know right, life isn’t fair. But if you and Max will become serious, your salary will not matter anymore. So, try your best!” Vic says and gives me a teasing push with her hip. “Just don’t only do this for the money, I don’t want my brother to get hurt” she adds to it. “I promise I won’t, I lo- liked him before I knew about the money and nothing is going to change that. When I met him I didn’t even know he was famous” I tell her

Vera
After leaving the lunchroom, the three of us decide to go on a stroll through Monaco. We walk by an Escape Room venue, and we decide to ask if they have a room available. And luckily, they have! I have played Escape Rooms before, but I can’t say I am an expert. This is Cisca’s and Flo’s first time playing, so we are all overly excited. It will be a good bonding activity.
Once we paid, we can start the escape immediately. We have one hour to find the solution to get us out of the room. The time starts after we are opening a little box, in there is a letter we have to read first before we can start.
It took us 48 minutes to escape, we hare one of the top ten fastest who has ever escaped that room. “Good job ladies!” I say to Lando’s sisters. “It was so much fun; we are a wonderful team!” Cisca replies. “We really are!” Flo says after her sister. “So, are you and Lando a thing yet?” Flo asks. My cheeks are burning up, I try to hide them, but it is not working. “I’m not sure…” I start saying as Cisca interrupts me. “Don’t lie to us, there is clearly something going on” she says. “We are not quite sure what we are, we let the time tell us what we will be” I answer her honestly. “All right, I hope you will find each other eventually!” Flo says enthusiastically. “To be continued…….” I say as I turn around and walk further.

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Max
After the girls left I get to their meeting point my dad told us to meet with him and my mum. I am glad they are on good terms, even though they divorced years ago. Sometimes I still feel guilty about it, what if I never got into racing? Would they still be together? That are some of the questions who keeps play tricks in my mind.
Our meeting point is an open parking lot. A few minutes after I arrived I hear a car coming my way, I see my parents sitting in a Ford Mustang. “Ready for a road trip?” my dad asks when he got out of the car. “I am, now I see this beauty nothing can hold me back!” I say and give my parents a hug. My mum gets into the backseat, and I take the passenger’s seat. We leave the parking lot and drive towards the French boarder.
We talk a bit about the happenings of last night and talking about it makes my mum acts weird. “Is there something wrong? You have been acting off since last night” I ask her. “No not really. Actually, Vera’s dad, has been a friend of mine who I met in collage. It brought back a lot of memories” she answers. “Good or bad ones?” my dad says teasingly. “Both..” she says quietly and turns her head and looks at the view outside. My dad and I look at each other, and that weird feeling comes up again. Something must have happened when she was in college, with him.

One hour later, my dad stops the car, and we all get out of the car. We walk for about five minutes before we arrive at a karting track once I have never been before, or I just can’t remember it. “We thought you would like some adrenaline after all those weeks without racing. We packed all of our racing suits in the trunk, so let’s get changed so we can go race!
Once we are all suited up, we get in our karts. As we all know how it works, we skip the part where normally you would get the information first. We start with a formation lap to get a better feeling of the car and the track in the colder conditions. Once we are all lined up and the lights are out we start racing.

After 12 laps I finish first, I am happy as it would be embarrassing to lose form my parents as I am a Formula One champion. We all get out and take of our helmets, it is time for a drink.
We walk to the restaurant which is attached to the track. we sit down and order some drinks.
“Max, there is something we… Sorry, I need to discuss with you” my dad starts talking when we sit down. And at the tone he is talking, I start to worry. “It is about Lynn and the agreement. I understand and see how she makes you happy and I am glad you found someone who has that effect on you again. But I don’t think it is all worth the risks. I want you to be happy, however I will not watch to see you ruin your career over some girl you just met!” he adds to it with a much more frustrated tone. I look at my mum and see she is agreeing with him. “Mum, Dad please listen to me. I will not ruin my career over Lynn, and she isn’t just some girl I just met. Just believe as I say everything will work out, and yes I will be careful. You only need to trust me, please understand” I say while they look at each other and nod. “What a relieve!” I say to myself

Lando
As everyone had made plans for today, I decided to meet up with Ollie. It has been too long since we have spent some time together, away from the fam. I am going to show him my soon to be home, here in Monaco. We grab some drinks and snacks on the way over so we can spend time together. The rebuilding is almost finished, so it has been some time since he has seen the improvements.

Once we entered my apartment I give him a tour, again, he has been here in the summer when I got the keys. I walk him through every room, and we end the tour in my game/simulator/Quadrant/F1-room. “WOW!” Oliver says once he enters the room and looks around. “Did you do all this?” he asks me. “No, Max F., Ria and Arrav did” I answer him. “Do you mind if I….” Olli starts saying and points at the F1-simulator. “Please, do you want to race?” I ask as I turn on the simulator. He nods and his eyes starts sparkling.
While Oliver is racing he start to ask questions about me and Vera. Such as what we are, why we aren’t official or when I will ask her, if she will be attending races and so on. “Sorry, I can’t answer it as I don’t even know what she wants” I answer him. “You don’t have to think what she wants, but what you want! Once you know what you want, then you can talk to her about it” he replies with a confident sound to his voice. “I can hear the experience in your voice!” I say when I start laughing. “So, what is it what you want?” he asks me. “I miss her when she isn’t around me and it just feels right with her. The affection is there, and it is coming from both sides” I answer him. “So, if I may sum it up. You want her to be with you” he says to me once he ends his laps and turns over to me. Saying it out loud for the first time, make me realize what I want. But first I want to spend as much time as possible with her. I don’t want to force things as it is both our first time dating someone, for reel.