Drive to Survive

Chapter Eighteen

"Incredible. I could live there. I think I put on five pounds from all the food Carola kept feeding me."

"¿Aprendiste español?" She teased.

"I think that means do I now speak Spanish and the answer is ¡sí, un poco!"

Dylan laughed, "Close enough, muy bien. You can chat with me and Andy now."

As if she'd summoned him, Andy appeared from the corridor and joined them at the table. They all caught up for a few more minutes before diving into all the content they'd gathered from their trips and setting out a strategy for how it could be gradually disseminated. As she'd hoped, Andy was overjoyed at the amount of TikTok trends and content Dylan had brought back, but Hunter raised a suspicious eyebrow and looked at her pointedly. She knew what he was saying; how did you get this out of someone who absolutely despises you?

Now wasn't the time for explaining, though.

They each posted a clip of their respective drivers on the official Instagram to show something from the break and then Max was coming out of his meeting and it was time to head to the media pen.

"Good meeting?" Dylan asked brightly as she fell into step beside him.

He grunted in response before nodding his head once.

"Ready for media day?"

"Kill me." He muttered and rolled his eyes, for once not at her.

Spurred on by his actual responses to her questions - no matter how blunt they may have been - Dylan began to chatter away about the content plan she'd just talked through with Andy and how happy he was with everything they'd put together in Hasselt. Max didn't comment on anything as she talked his ear off but he was listening, and he hadn't sworn at her.

They were maintaining their stalemate.

As they turned the corner towards the media zone, the journalists caught sight of Max and came rushing over, cameras in hand and questions at the ready. The pair were instantly swarmed and Dylan squeaked as she was swallowed in the crowd and lost sight of Max. Sharp elbows dug into her sides and she was pulled against the flow of the crowd.

"Max!" She called out, panicked.

Her cry alerted the media to who she was and suddenly all the shouting questions were being fired at her.

"Are you dating Charles?!"

"How long have you been sleeping with Pierre?!"

"What do you say to rumours that you're using Pierre for his money?!"

"Are you sleeping with multiple drivers?!"

Dylan's mouth gaped as every shouted at her at once and she felt her throat close and her chest get tighter. She was surrounded and there was no air in between all the cameras and bodies pushing against her. It was too much for her and she frantically looked side to side, searching for Max.

"Please- I..." She tried to ask them to stop but she couldn't find the words.

The questions kept coming and she felt the burning lump in her throat as tears gathered in her eyes. Someone needed to let her out and let her breathe.

Suddenly, there was a booming shout, "Hey! Back the fuck up!"

An arm shoved through the circling crowd and firmly grasped on to her wrist. She was yanked and squeezed through the bodies until she was pulled into a chest and arms came around her securely. She knew just by the cologne that it was Max and she let out a shaky breath of relief. He continued gruffly barking orders at the journalists until he'd cleared a path and then he was marching her somewhere and she was still firmly pressed against his side.