Maeve
Waking up on a boat does not assist any kind of hangover anyone could ever have. Instead of being stationary and being able to fight off the nausea, I ripped myself out of Daniel's arms on the pull out couch's thin and squeaky mattress to make a beeline for the bathroom.
"You ok?" Max was asking a few moments later through the hollow bathroom door as I was emptying my stomach of last night's dinner and drinks. He must've been in the small kitchen area making breakfast and heard me getting sick.
"Why do we drink? It's always such a bad idea..." I weakly replied without opening the door. Not that I could get up to open it if I wanted to at this point.
"Mate, D is dying in the bathroom!" I groaned as another wave of vomit climbed up my throat.
"Jesus Max, leave her be." Daniel responded, closer to the door than the couch now. I heard a smack soon after his words and smiled briefly knowing that Daniel had hit Max in some way to make the younger man yell expletives.
They left me alone to empty the contents of my stomach for a bit longer before someone knocked on the door while I leaned against the wall. Daniel's head popped in a few moments later.
"Good morning, beautiful. Someone drink too much last night?" He smirked as he opened the door fully to show a water glass and pill bottle in his hands.
"Vanfanculo"(Fuck You) I groaned as he placed the water glass next to me on the ground and opened the pill bottle.
"Maybe drink a little less next time," he ignored my expletives as he handed me a couple of the round red pills," take these. Max said there's a tooth brush under the sink and then we have to go. I have a training session soon." I just glared at Daniel, who was now crouched next to me. Despite him having somewhere to be, I was clearly in no position to be up and moving at this exact moment.
"Or she can take her time and I'll take her back to my apartment to sleep the rest of this off." Max added as he appeared behind Daniel, placing his hand on his shoulder as he stood behind Daniel's crouched form.
Daniel turned to look at Max. Another silent conversation happened as I sat idly in front of them. Just moments later Daniel nodded as he stood, but looked back at me.
"Yeah. We can go with that. Max has a key to my apartment so when you're ready you can change and hang out with Max for a little bit. I have a long training session and then some meetings I have to do but I should be done by the evening." Daniel explained his day. However, in my hungover haze all I did was wave him off and groan.
My eyes were half closed and I barely heard what words Max and Daniel exchanged before I was already almost asleep. Someone's arms ran under me to pick me up and put me back down on the pull out mattress before I could fully fall asleep.
When I woke up, the living area on the boat was dark and no one else was around. I groaned, rubbing my eyes as I sat up and took a look around the dark living room as my eyes adjusted to the low lighting. The boat was rocking much less than it had been last night, leading me to believe we were no longer out in open water.
"Daniel? Max?" I groaned as my own words made my head pound. Luckily, the pain was much milder than it had been the first time I woke up.
Despite the pounding still happening in my head, I stood out of the bed and clumsily made my way top side to look for everyone. Someone had guided us back into the dock, confirming my suspicions that we were no longer in open water based on how calm the boat's rocking had been. The sun was high in the sky telling me it was probably midday. Yet, no one was on the boat. My bag still sat in the grill area with my phone in it. I had a massive amount of messages from different people once I finally checked it. Charles, Pierre, Kate, and Charlotte had all said thank you for the hangout time yesterday and they were sorry because they left before I woke up. Christian had called and then texted about some changes to the cars for Monaco. Max was the one I really paid attention to though since Daniel had not texted me.
Max V.
8:13 AM
Hey drunkie, had to go to Physical Therapy. I'll be back in two hours with lunch and will take you on some dumb adventure that Daniel wants me to take you on. Don't puke on my boat.
He had sent that almost two hours ago as is. With a sigh, I dropped my phone back in my bag and pulled the sundress I had worn in yesterday out to slip over my head. Without anyone to entertain me, I had nothing else to do other than work. It was what I wanted to avoid while I was here as I had promised to Daniel that I was here for him. The large number of emails that greeted me when I checked my inbox said otherwise.
Hopping up on the counter, I started weeding through them to look for the most pertinent ones and the ones that were quick answers. The first one was from Christian. It was a long-winded email with notes from the last race and his personal assessment of the engineers notes from the upcoming track last year. He detailed a long list of changes that he wished to have implemented before the race started next week. I was responding with time frames for everything that he was asking when a shadow caught my eye.
"Ah good morning!" Max stepped onto the boat in the middle of my email with one of my bags and a grocery bag.
"I don't think it's morning anymore, but sure." I joked as I went back to my email with a smile on my face.
"You're boring when you work," Max set the bags down on the counter next to where I was sitting," now get down. I have plans." I raised an eyebrow as I looked back at him, crossing my left knee over my right.
"You have plans? That requires me to get down?" He nodded as he emptied the bags of groceries between us, my bag having been dropped on the floor.
"Yes, I've been instructed to tell you to get ready in the outfit in this bag. Then we are going to explore the city for the day since you didn't get a chance to do that." Explore the city? Someone else wanted me to do that and I was surprised he didn't want to take me out himself. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't disappointed Daniel didn't want to make sure that he could show me his favorite parts of the city first.
"Daniel arranged this? What is that insane man up to?" I asked Max as I stood and pulled my bag closer to me to examine what Daniel had packed me.
Inside was a pair of ripped dark wash skinny jeans, my vintage Nirvana shirt, underwear and socks, and my vans. Seeing the shirt made me smile though. This was almost the exact outfit I wore the first time Daniel and I met up after texting and calling for months. The only difference were the shoes and a missing My Chemical Romance hoodie that I had stolen and eventually had to return to its rightful owner.
"Did he pack chocolate in there or something? Or do you just smile at your bags all the time?" My eyes snapped to Max and I had been caught.
"No," he held up his hand when I went to reply," you don't have to explain your weird 'more than friends' feelings for Daniel you continue to ignore. I get it." I went to open my mouth again, to argue that it wasn't true. No one should have guessed that.
"Don't. I've had to hear this for two years now and I know you're lying." Max leaned against the counter next to me, crossing his arms as he smirked at me.
"Why are you like the shitty little brother I never had?" I shoved him as he laughed.
"I'm just not oblivious like everyone seems to think I am. It's part of why I'm so underestimated." I scoffed as I stared at the young Dutch man.
"Yeah, coming from the kid being labeled as Red Bull's next great hope? That's egotistical in the worst way." He placed his hand over his heart, feigning hurt.
"Sure, we can say that. I don't see you denying it though." He smirked yet again, making me want to smack him across the face.
"Because I'm not going to confirm or deny anything. There's no use putting feelings into words, good or bad, when nothing could happen anyways..." I picked up my phone off the counter and grabbed my bag to quickly go and change downstairs.
"Ok well when you're done not denying anything. There's towels on the cabinet next to the bathroom if you want to shower! I'll make lunch."
I didn't respond to Max as I took the stairs down into the living quarters. After a quick shower to wash the ocean off, I dressed myself and made my way back out to the kitchen with my wet hair in a bun on the top of my head. Max had made sandwiches.
"Oh my god I haven't seen a sandwich in so long. Something just boring and uninteresting." My mouth watered at the square food as Max just laughed and handed me my plate.
"I know. The fancy food tastes great but sometimes you just want a sandwich on the go." I nodded at that while I took the first bite after hopping up on the same counter I had previously been sat on.
"So, how's Denial going? Figure it out yet?" I rolled my eyes as Max took a bite of his own sandwich as he smirked at me.
"I already gave you that answer Max..." I told him before taking another bite.
"No, you denied denying something and then walked away. Tell me though. What did you mean by nothing could happen anyways?" He asked as he hopped up this time to sit on the counter next to me.
"It doesn't matter Max. There's nothing there. Why is this so interesting to you?" I eyed him suspiciously.
"Well as you know I've had a lot of free time the last few weeks and since I've been observing you two for the last few years, I've just noticed some things. Gave me a lot to think about while I was stuck in bed for over a month." He popped a small tomato in his mouth before smiling at me.
"Max, there's nothing going on between Dan-" he laughed.
"No shit. I'm aware nothing is going on. You both just pine over each other like no one will ever notice. It's ridiculous that no one has called you out for this shit before." His smug response made me want to smack him, but instead I just turned to my plate.
"What are the plans again? Like where are we going?" He shrugged as I changed the subject.
"Wherever you want. The places I'd take you are the same ones Daniel would take you so he'd probably rather be the one to do so." I pursed my lips and nodded.
"Ok... hear me out." He stared at me with a frustrated expression. I couldn't blame him as most of my bad ideas started with that sentence.
"Let's tell Daniel you took me to the beach and we went for a run, but actually let's go play FIFA at yours."
"Sometimes, you do have good ideas."
We finished our lunch before going back to Max's flat. Currently, his second bedroom is for his simulator and streaming set up though and not really for guests. We stayed in the living room to play FIFA for a few hours before Daniel started calling to figure out where we were. And by calling I mean, repeatedly calling during matches to the point that Max was about to throw his phone out the window.
"Ohp Daniel is calling again..." Max didn't even look away from the screen as we were in the middle of a match. He had felt his phone vibrating on the couch cushion.
"He can wait. I have to beat you first." Max just laughed as I gritted my teeth.
"Not happening." I would've argued back if he didn't get a goal in the last seconds of the match that made him win the game 1-0.
"What the fuck!? How is that fair? You used Daniel calling as a distraction!" I stood up from the couch, wildly gesturing at the TV screen where the virtual team was celebrating.
"Don't hate the player, hate the game, Maeve. I won." He laughed as I threw my temper tantrum.
"That's not how that works! You cheated." I crossed my arms before Max's phone rang again.
"What?" He answered, clearly annoyed that Daniel had repeatedly called him.
"No, we're not in town. We were playing Fifa." Daniel was saying something on the other side of the phone that must've been either ridiculous or confusing based on Max's face.
He looked at me for a moment before holding up a finger to signal that he needed a minute. My eyes followed him as he walked onto his balcony and closed the door behind himself. Max was having a very animated conversation with Daniel as his arms were moving. His face changed from angry to amused in varying forms. Instead of focusing on the conversation, I focused on my phone and finally replied to the other conversations I had going on. Pyrita had also reached out asking how my workouts and what we had been doing, such an uncomfortable conversation to tell a new performance coach that you had done none of your workouts.
The email that I focused on the most was one from the school approving my research to start the week after the Monaco GP. I would be building a new engine to my specifications and a traditional engine to the specifications of a normal automobile for comparison purposes. It was the easiest part as they would both have to be put through rigorous testing. My professor had asked if I would need a room in the lab building for my work or if I would be ok working in the open. Given the newfound attention on myself and the proprietary capability of my work, I absolutely wanted a private room.
That was another reason I hadn't stayed home this week. Going back to the factory and school felt different. I wasn't Maeve to my classmates anymore. Slowly it had turned into Maeve, the "Decimating Dragon" of Formula 1. They said it in the halls, during lectures, and I even had someone message me via my school's online system asking for a photo next time I was on campus. He also tried to give me his phone number and say we should go out next time I was home from a race, but that's an absolute no. It was kind of creepy how many people had reached out.
That didn't even scratch the surface when it came to my woes with social media as well. I had a facebook, one that I sparingly used and haven't even looked at since I was probably 18. I received an email saying I had thousands of friend requests a month ago. My instagram was the same. I liked to update and post funny videos and stuff for us to look back on, but it had always been private. That didn't stop hundreds of thousands of people from trying to follow me via request. It was scary to think that anyone could see some of the stuff that I posted. As a precaution, I had added most of my really close friends such as the drivers, trusted coworkers, and a handful of college friends to my close friends list and I almost exclusively post for that group. Thankfully I didn't have any social media past that.
The team communications and press officers had asked at one point if I would consider making a twitter and other forms of social media for the fans to keep up with me on. It was something I was fighting as much as humanly possible. Much like in music, I don't believe that just because I have a status amongst people means they are entitled to my life. No one that I don't even know deserves to know where I spend time with my friends or what I have for breakfast. The fast content world we live in is breeding this need to know every single thing about the people that have status. I refused to play into that. With that in mind, it would be the responsibility of the team if they wanted me to have any kind of public profile for social media. They had not acted on me telling them it would be their responsibility. We hadn't even talked about it since being asked originally. I would believe it if they went and made something without me knowing.
"OK, so," My head snapped up as Max reentered his living room," Daniel has run into a bit of trouble apparently with Michael and asked me to keep you entertained for a couple of hours." He explained his phone call as he came to sit next to me.
"Trouble with Michael? Did he forget about training or something?" Max bit his lip. He was making up a lie.
"Honestly, I have to politely refuse to answer that question. He said he will tell you later. Until then, do you want to play Fifa?" I pursed my lips as I looked at the screen where the team was still celebrating.
"No. Why don't we go beat some noobs on f1?" He just shook his head.
"You've met Lando and George right?" I shook my head, not sure exactly who he was referring to.
"Oh man, come on." He motioned for me to follow him into his sim room.
He had a full sim, minus the motion portion of course, set up in one corner and a desk with a computer and streaming set up against the far wall. He stood behind him as he booted everything up on the computer, reaching over to turn on the sim while also being on his phone, texting someone.
"So, Charles and I grew up racing with Lando and George. Lando Norris and George Russell. We do a lot of gaming with them. Oh, and Alex! I should ask Alex too." He looked back at his phone after the small announcement while I was simply confused.
"Are we playing with them?" He nodded while furiously typing at his phone. It pinged a few times before he looked up at me.
"Lando and George are in. Waiting on Alex. Charles is probably busy with Charlotte." He motioned to the seat.
"You've used one of these before right?" I nodded.
"Yeah. I spent a ton of time on sims when I first started," I took a seat and adjusted to I was right at the pedals," I really need to get one in my flat too."
I watched the game start up as Max was fussing around with the computer and stream set up.
"Wait, are you going to stream?" He shrugged.
"The others might, but I just like having everything up to talk to them. No camera will be on you if that's what you're asking." I nodded as he handed me a headset.
"Good call. I am not dressed for the paparazzi right now." He laughed as he went back to his computer.
"You look fine. Such a girl response to the thought of maybe being on camera." I reached over to try and smack his arm, but was instead scared by someone screaming through the headphones he had handed me.
"Good evening gentlemen!" I squeaked in surprise, making Max laugh as he put a pair of headphones on.
"Mate, Maeve is a lady. way to screw it up when first meeting her." A second voice said through the headphones.
"Guys, Maeve is here in case you didn't fully read the message I sent." Max added, his voice now also coming through my headset.
"Hey?" I tested the microphone, not sure how this all worked.
"Hey!" The other two replied back.
"Alright, enough talking," Max came over and started fussing with the controllers," Maeve and I have a few hours to kill. Should we show up some online players?"