Drive to Survive

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Dylan definitely felt lighter for getting everything off her chest. Her aunt was a fantastic listener and could be relied upon to give honest, straightforward, and kind advice.

"Ay, querida, this was not meant to be such a stressful job for you." Reyes laughed, "I thought it would be relaxing and fun."

"It has been, honestly!" Dylan protested.

Reyes squeezed Dylan's hand, "I don't think you gave Carlos enough credit in his love for you. I know you did not mean to, but you did lie to him and you have hidden things from him. I know my boy can be a stubborn hot-headed man but he loves you and he would have come around."

The guilt struck Dylan deep, "I know, I wa-"

"Ah! I'm not finished." Reyes interrupted, "My more important point is, why do you care what Carlos thinks anyway? This is your life! These are your interactions with people, your feelings, your perceptions. You are the only one that matters when it comes to deciding who gets your heart. I know you were trying to do right by everybody else, but you forgot about you. What is it that you want?"

Dylan bit her lip, eyes downcast as she still felt almost ashamed at what she truly wanted most, "I want Max, tía."

"Then fuck everyone else!" Her aunt declared loudly before covering her mouth, "Ooh, do not tell your tío that I said a bad word."

"I won't." Dylan smiled, shaking her head slightly at her aunt's antics.

Reyes shuffled forward, wrapping her arms around her niece and squeezing her tight, "Dylan, mi querida, you are young, you are kind, and you are beautiful. Give your heart to whoever you want and don't let anyone else make you feel like you cannot. Just make sure he is worthy of such a wonderful heart."

As Dylan let her tears fall once more in her aunt's arms, Max was marching out of the hotel and down to the basketball courts where he knew Carlos was training. Today was the day to put right all of his former mistakes and that began with fixing his friendship with Carlos.

He caught sight of the Ferrari driver running around the court, closely shadowed by his performance coach, Rupert, as they played one-on-one basketball. He knew it wasn't great etiquette to interrupt a training session but Max was on a tight deadline; he needed to fix everything before Dylan decided to ring Christian. While he'd called in some favours to make sure she couldn't easily be reassigned, he still knew that a meeting between his Team Principal and Dylan was imminent, and he didn't want her to go into it thinking she had no choice but to leave.

"Carlos!" He shouted.

The man paused in surprise, looking over to the court entrance and frowning as he noticed who was yelling for him. He exchanged some words with his trainer before storming over, a look of thunder on his face.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Max?" He boomed.

Max held his ground, standing tall with his arms behind his back. He waited until Carlos got right up close to him before saying, "Punch me in the face."

"I- what?" Carlos stopped, confused.

"Punch me in the face." Max repeated.

"Why?"

"Well, don't you want to?"

Carlos let out a bitter laugh at his question, "Of course I want to. Do you know how much shit you have put my cousin through? And now you want to act like you're worthy to date her? You want to make a fool of her? Treat her like that and then not even apologise to either of us? Act like she should be happy that you've decided you like her now? If you think I'm going to stand around and just let you do that to her, then you're a fucking idiot."