It had been a while since Sofia had been home. Her real home in Towcester. After her confrontation with Jos, she felt drained and decided to skip the next two races that were taking place in Austria. For the first time in her life, she had handed a doctor's sick notice but she knew that her mental health was declining once she recalled her behaviour towards Max's father and especially Teddy.
She had tried to make amends after insulting Teddy, but he had blocked her in every possible way. Sofia didn't want to get back together as she felt it would be wiser not to be in a relationship while she wasn't fully healed.
Even though she would fight hard for her career and hated when people tried to interfere with her life, Sofia recognised that threatening to cancel a man with a fake rape story was completely out of order, so she issued an apology and wrote a statement to RedBull Racing HR department and it had been dealt internally. She got reprimanded but the job was hers to keep.
She looked around the lifeless house. A house that once belonged to her grandparents and that she inherited when her grandmother passed away. The shelves were covered in a thick dust layer and she wasn't even sure she would have running water or even electricity even though she still paid the bills monthly. She had been avoiding going back there as it brought her memories that she wanted to erase from her brain.
She leaned against the kitchen island and put her fingertips on her temples briefly as if her head ached. She recalled the beginning of 2020. It had been the hardest year of her life. Not only she had to endure a broken heart sponsored by Max Verstappen and had to move in with her grandmother, but she also had to see the latter die in front of her.
It was a shock to Sofia when her seemingly healthy nana had a fatal stroke and died in her arms in that exact same room she was standing in now. Nana's favourite place in the whole house. Her refurbished kitchen where she spent her days baking delicious cakes and force-feeding her distraught granddaughter.
Sofia wouldn't be able to recognise her own mother if she was standing right in front of her. Apart from some old photos that got destroyed when a pipe burst in the house, that was the only idea she had of what her mother looked like. All the woman had done was give birth and run away not even a month later, leaving her newborn with her parents. No one knew who her father was or at least everyone pretended that. Her grandparents refused to talk about their daughter as it caused them great shame and Sofia grew up happy and always felt loved, so she never felt the need to pursue the subject.
Now that kitchen and the whole place smelled stuffy and mouldy, but Sofia had decided that it was time to bring the house back to life and make her grandmother proud. She felt that it was a project that would distract her from her other troubles.
*------------------*
It was nearly time for Sofia to get back to work. She had planned her sick notice until Silverstone which was a 10-minute drive from her house and she wouldn't have to check in into another soulless hotel room.
The one-story house finally looked habitable. Sofia had no idea for how long she would be able to live there but seeing it once again bright and full of life gave her a sense of relief. The three weeks spent on her own had also been a blessing. She had ignored every phone call and text message. She had also limited her social media usage. Amelia had tried to call her at least 20 times on a single afternoon and she felt guilty for not responding, but she definitely needed to be back in the right mind space.
In those last three weeks, she didn't think once of Max or Teddy. She didn't worry about an impending lawsuit from Jos or losing her job. She finally felt at peace.
She looked at herself in the tall bedroom mirror. For the first time in a while, she was makeup free and her hair was simply tied up in a high and messy ponytail. She didn't care about her baggy clothes covered in paint stains and it felt amazing.
Suddenly a sound she didn't expect startled her. Was it the doorbell or was she hallucinating from the paint fumes? She heard again and there was definitely someone out there. Sofia imagined that it would probably be some salesman or the neighbours' kids looking for their football even though they had thrown it into her garden just over a week before.
Walking barefoot she opened the door with low expectations only to be left paralyzed by the sight of the person standing right in front of her. Sofia looked down confused at what the person was holding. A carrier bag in one hand and in the other a waving dirty white napkin. He raised an eyebrow at the sight of her but decided it would be wiser to not mention anything.
"Peace offering? I wanted to buy a white flag but have no idea where to get one around here so I kind of stole a napkin from the restaurant where I had lunch."
"You are a total weirdo..." Sofia finally said after a moment of silence when her brain was still processing what was happening. She moved out of the way to let the man inside the house.
"Why does it smell like something is burning?" He asked.
"SHIT!" Sofia exclaimed as she dashed to the oven only to recover an incinerated cake which was still too hot to handle even with the thick oven mittens. By instinct, she threw it across the room to give her hands some relief from the scorching heat and made a huge mess in the process. Sofia let out a sigh.
"Looks like my baking skills haven't improved at all... was trying to replicate one of my grandmothers' recipe but she's probably rolling around in her grave right now wanting to come and haunt me for life..."
He let out a chuckle and helped her clean up. He had been in that house before and was fairly comfortable being there.
"I'll help you with this one as it's too hot and then maybe we can talk?"
Sofia stood up and watched him carefully and methodically clean up her floor.
"Max I'm not sure I want to talk about us or your father at this moment..." She said and turned around to peek at the contents inside the plastic carrier bag he had been holding before. Two bottles of vodka and about 16 cans of Redbull energy drinks. It made her smile that he still remembered what her drink of election was.
Without asking or saying anything she took some ice from the freezer, two tall glasses from the cupboard and mixed the drinks. She handed one to Max and led him to the garden where they could sit down and enjoy the warm sunny weather.
For the first hour or so they didn't talk much to each other. They simply sat there and sipped on their drinks which were refilled over and over again. It was like they were strangers but at the same time they were comfortable to be in silence next to each other. Sofia took a big gulp and finally broke the silence.
"How did you find me here?"
"Well when your friends failed to know where in the world you were, I just assumed and took a shot..."
"Which friends?" Sofia seemed taken aback.
"Claire and David..."
"You called Claire and David???"
"Well no, I messaged them on Instagram... It's still weird that they own a joint account..."
Claire and David were Sofia's best friends. The type of friends that she wouldn't talk to daily but that she knew she could always count on them and vice versa. They were also married and absolutely despised Max.
"I'm sure that they must have been a delight to deal with..." Sofia said with a mocking smile.
"Yeah they were lovely..." Max rolled his eyes. "But they were worried about you so they ended up asking me to message them back if I heard from you."
"But why were you looking for me in the first place?"
"This may be the alcohol talking right now because I'm not usually this sensitive, but I missed you, believe me or not. I missed having you around even when you were being a total brat..."
"I did apologise and I'm not going to humiliate myself anymore in front of your dad..."
"I know, I'm not here to talk about that. I understand that he tried to mess around with your job but you have to understand in his mind it's all about being practical. Once he found out I broke up with Kylie whose family brought in a lot of money to the team and he saw you, he made the connection that we were getting back together..."
"And do you think that's right? That a man doesn't think I was good enough for you because I come from a humble background?"
"No, I was a stupid kid. I let him get into my mind and trust me, I regret it to this day. My dad... he's just looking out for me and what he think it's best for me and yeah he fucks up sometimes."
Sofia downed her whole drink as she heard Max talking, trying to find the courage the say what she was about to say without breaking down.
"So do you think he was looking out for you when he found out I was pregnant and forced me to get an abortion?"
"What... When... What are you saying?" Max was stuttering but Sofia made a gesture with her hand telling him to stop talking and let her continue.
"I was stupid enough to tell Victoria the news before I told you as I wanted advice on how to break it down to you. She must have thought it was okay to share it with your father who didn't waste anytime threatening to get my grandparents evicted... As you remember grandpa wasn't really legal in this country..."
"And you aborted my child?"
"Of course I did. What was I supposed to do? Watch my grandparents being kicked out of their house that they worked so hard to build and sent back to a country that it was not their home anymore? He took me to the clinic, paid for it and also made Victoria promise not to say a word to you... He even wanted to be in the same room as me as they procedure was being done. That's how much of a lunatic he is!"
"I don't know what to say... I don't know if I'm mad at him or at you for going through that without asking for my help... Fucking hell..."