F1 One Shots II

#79 Max - From heartbreak to happines in one wedding night

NARRATOR POV: After their nasty break up, Mackenzie sees Max for the first time, ironically, at a wedding.
At first she was mulling over the decision to attend it, or not and stay at home in her comfy joggers (Max's, but she'll tell you otherwise). Everything still feels too fresh and too raw for her, even tho they seperated almost 3 months ago. But it still feels like yesterday for her, and a wedding is well known to be a very joyous occasion, and Ken ie wasn't sure if she's capable of attending it and pretending everything's alright, when it clearly is not.
In the end however, she decides to attend it anyway, saying that she should be happy and live her life to the fullest.
Andrew's a very good friend and an important part of their friend group. It meant that he was VERY vocal about wanting Kenzie there. Well, he was vocal about wanting both Makenzie and Max there, but that's a minor detail Kenzie is trying hard not to think about on her way to the venue.
Luckly, it's not a long drive from her apartment in downtown London. After short thought, she decided to drive there herself, instead of taking the cab. That way she had an excuse to not drink that much, as drinking and heartbreak was never a good combo when it comes to her...
Kenzie really thought and prayed that Max would be too busy with Red Bull in Milton Kenyes to attend. She hoped that, after their heated argument at the begining of Formula 1 season almost 4 months ago, he would step back and focus on himself, sitting this one out. It's not like he's already a CHampion and can loose up a bit...
Unfortunately however, Kenzie's prayers are not heard. Cursing every god she can recall (due to her fascination in greek and Romanian mythology in her teenage years, it's a lot), Max is the first person her eyes land on when she enters the building.
It's not a surprise really, as Max is quite tall and broad, while his persona takes up the most of the room.
As if fate could be even more vicious, he's wearing the suit Kenzie picked out for him, all those months ago (close to New Years, her traiterous mind suplies), subtle dark blue makes his blue eyes stand out even more, as they sparkle in amusement while he's telling something. Just like they did, when they laughed about today, sitting on their couch, saying how big this wedding would be and all that. Kenzie only needed to look at the lapels and the handkerchief in his breast pocket that it's the very suit Kenz picked out for him on random weekend stroll in the mall, telling him, Blue is your colour, darling, not black. She stands speechless for a second, her eyes not leaving him. It knocks the breath out of him. The bowtie looks wonky, she spots, and it reminds her of another thing about Max. He's terrible at tieing bowties or ties in general. As long as she knows him, she had to do that for him, before she got too angry about it.

Eventually, Makenzie manages to move. When he gets gentled out of the way by incoming guests, she takes a step, then another one, to the side, but she doesn't dare move any closer to where Max stands with a group of people by the long table, deep in conversation. Deep enough to not spot Kenzie's arrival, nor spare her a glance. It's fine tho, as Kenz can get her share of staring out of the way now.
To be frank, she hasn't seen Max ever since THAT night, a night he walked out of their shared home in Monaco with a loud bang on the door, 3 weeks before testing in Bahrain. It's embarasing and stupid, but Kenzie doesn't even remember what they fought over about. Only the look of hurt on Max's face and quiet and soft, almost breathles "Simply lovely then", "I need to focus on the season anyway"...
And then he left. And the emptiness of everything around her for weeks after that... And lonelyness inside her too..
But Max looks good. Kenz hoped that he wouldn't, cause she knows she doesn't. Sleep and rest are almost non-existant, unfocused and unsocial ever since that one fight. But Max is Max... Everything Jos put him through made him seem almost bulletproff, uncaring at best...
And Kenzie hates him for it.. Just a bit.. But she still does, even tho it's not even 20% of the love she has for him, she realises, and the realisation following is that three months is really not long enough to get over the love of your life, and the realisation following that is simple, Kenzie should have stayed home because this is going to fucking hurt...
As if to fuck with her even more, it's also the exact moment Max chooses to lift his gaze and look straight at Makenzie. It's the worst possible timing, Kenz is hovering off to one side, right next to the door, all by herself, and this is really not how she had imagined their first encounter after their breakup to go. In some abstract fantasy, Kenzie had seen herself bump into him in the middle of the busy Monaco GP, with an excuse to go somewhere, to not have to talk to him that much, but still make him miss her. If he ever does... This on the other hand? She shouldn't have come...
Max is first to break the eye contact. It doesn't last long enough to figure out what Max might be thinking or read anything into the lines of his face. And it's liberating but also hurts at the same time.
To free herself from this stupor, Kenzie moves away from the wall, turns her back on the door, no way out now, it's too late anyway, and makes her way to the bar.
-Gin & Tonic- she says to the bantender, tone flat -On the rocks.
-Coming right away- he replied and even tried a charming smile to match it, but it doesn't work. Not anymore...
Kenzie is way too distracted to care and is in desperate need of something to hold onto. And if it's just a glass of familiar Gin & Tonic, so be it. It's free, and she can down it before they have to walk over to the chapel, and she can pretend that the warmth it feeds down her throat distracts her plenty from the set of eyes she imagines on the back of his neck.