*Max*
Melbourne had come much too quickly. And after Melbourne I had traveled to Milton Keynes, she to Silverstone, and we hadn't seen each other for two weeks. It had been torture. And even after those two weeks, we had only been able to meet for one day before it was on to press appointments for me, while she had disappeared to the Aston Martin factory, already working on developments for next year's car.
It was crazy how much our lives ended up passing each other by. But that was just our lives.
Not that it meant my feelings toward her had changed. I loved this woman. But barely seeing her was exhausting and I knew she felt the same way. Maybe it was even a little worse for her, because every time I even talked to a female, those photos immediately went all over social media.
It felt like the whole world was trying so hard to break us up again. They were trying so hard to drive a wedge between us. Then some days I was just tired of being myself. I would have given a lot to not be known anymore. Even though I loved my job, of course. I loved racing. But in those moments I just wished I could live an undisturbed life.
It was almost a little like they didn't want us to have our happiness.
And even though Lia didn't say anything and kept reassuring me that she trusted me, I knew it hurt her. Every time again.
She was already so insecure and all these speculations didn't make it any better. I knew how much she struggled with it. Some nights I could see it in her face when we just had another video phone call.
It was probably the most exhausting relationship I had ever had. But not because of her, but because of everything that affected us from the outside.
I was all the happier when we finally landed in Baku and I knew I was about to see her.
But everything turned out quite differently than I had expected.
I had just entered the hotel lobby when an extremely angry Kevin came rushing towards me. I didn't even get a chance to ask him what had made him so angry, because without a word he hit me so hard in the face with his fist that I was sure he had broken something.
"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO HER?" he roared in anger and was about to strike again.
I took a step back and while holding my bleeding nose with one hand, I tried to shield myself from the angry Dane with the other.
"What's going on anyway?", I gasped.
"SHE TRUSTED YOU! SHE FUCKING TRUSTED YOU!", I felt like the walls were starting to shake under his voice.
"What are you talking about? Can you please tell me what's gotten into you?", I really had no idea what was going on.
"Your father told everyone. This is so fucking sleazy. I didn't expect anything like this from you.", his chest rose and fell jerkily "I've never seen her like this. And I swear to you, you come near her one more time, I'll kill you. Or Lance will. Or Mick. Or Seb."
"WHAT'S THE MATTER?", slowly but surely I was getting a little indignant. I had absolutely no clue what he was talking about. After all, when I had gotten on the plane, everything had been fine. I had just been happy to see my girlfriend and now I was supposed to have done something that made Kevin so mad that he broke my nose?
"Don't act like that. The evidence was overwhelming. And your father already admitted it. She'll probably lose her job and everything she's worked for because of you. Can you even look at yourself in the mirror anymore?".
With these words, the Dane left me standing there.
I looked confusedly at my companions, who looked at me with a shrug of the shoulders. "Can someone find out what I have supposedly done and find my dad," I growled and then made my way to my hotel room.
My nose wasn't broken, thankfully. But it was bleeding like crazy. I washed my face and then dug my cell phone out of my pocket.
I had turned it off for the flight and hadn't turned it back on yet, thinking I would see Lia right away. Everyone else could wait. But when I turned it on again I was overwhelmed by a flood of messages and missed calls. I couldn't sort it all out as fast as it almost made my phone overheat.
Everyone had written to me and called me. Really everyone. Except Lia.
But her number was the first one I clicked on. I had to know what was going on. But I immediately got a busy signal. Then I would just text her to get back to me. It was important. However, when I opened our chat I found that she had blocked me.
What had happened while I had flown here?
A call from Christian interrupted my thoughts. I took it, because he had already tried to call me 20 times.
"Well, finally you answer the call! What were you thinking?" he sounded as angry as I had ever heard him.
"What was I thinking with what?", I growled "Everyone is just yelling at me. Lia blocked me and I don't even have the faintest clue what happened!".
"Well, that she doesn't want to talk to you anymore I can understand. The poor thing. Max you destroyed her career with that and our credibility too."
"WHAT WITH?", I yelled and could feel tears of anger welling up in my eyes.
"Max, it all came out. That you only dated her to get the data on Aston Martin. The chat histories with your dad, it's all become public and your dad has already admitted it too. We are summoned to a hearing in front of the FIA, where you have to confirm that you didn't do this on behalf of us. Otherwise we'll get points deducted for operating espionage and..."
"I what?", I sank down on my bed.
"I don't know what you plan to do with the data, but if you're smart, you won't touch it and forget you ever saw it in the first place."
"I don't have any data. Why would I... I love Lia. I would never do that to her."
"Max, there are Whatsapp histories. They're all public."
"No. I never wrote anything like that. I never even thought about it. I...", I dropped my head into my free hand "I would never do that to her. I do love her.", with effort I suppressed a sob.
"Max, I'm sorry about this, but I need you at the FIA in half an hour. The hearing is causing quite a stir. To be more precise, everything that has to do with it. The media are out in a spree reporting. The phones here are not standing still at all. You've really put us in the shit with this."
"But I didn't even..." but I interrupted the sentence. What was the point? He didn't believe me after all. Would anyone believe me at all?
But what hurt me most was that she believed I had really done it.
How could she believe that I had acted any of this?
The thought tormented me unspeakably.
I reached the FIA offices at the same time as Christian. He eyed me for a moment, then I remembered why he was looking at me that way.
"Kevin.", I mumbled, Christian nodded.
"He's her best friend, isn't he?", I nodded.
"I don't know why you did that, Max, but it's really quite a mess. Maybe we won't get out of it so easily. I might even have to give you a leave of absence, I'll be honest with you about that. Industrial espionage is not on. And certainly not in such a rotten way."
"Christian, I didn't..."
"Then where do these Whatsapp histories come from?"
"How should I know."
"Why does your father admit to everything?"
"I don't know that either, but...", I took my phone out of my pocket "I do have the right histories. I never wrote anything about Lia because I know he doesn't like her. And I would never think of...", at that moment the office door opened.
Lia came out of the office, shoulders drooping, accompanied by two suits.
"Lia!", I was with her in a few steps and put my hand to her cheek.
My heart was racing. I just couldn't find words at that moment.
"Lia!" one of the suits said sternly, she nodded and took my hand from her cheek.
For the breath of a second, she squeezed my hand. I could feel her shoving a piece of paper into my hand, then she pushed past me without a word.
I looked after her, completely overwhelmed, before opening the note.
"I know you would never do that to me. I know you wouldn't. But my lawyer says I shouldn't have any contact with you for now until this is cleared up. I don't know why all this is happening right now and it scares the shit out of me, but I know you would never do this to me. Ever.
Meet me on the hotel roof around 10:00 pm. I hope we can talk there.
I love you
Lia"
A relieved gasp escaped me before I folded the note again and slid it into my pants pocket.
I don't know where those rumors and those chat histories came from and especially why my father admitted that we had talked about something like that. It was complete bullshit. But I would look into it. I would find out where all this was coming from.
As long as she believed me, everything would be fine. As long as I hadn't lost her....
Still, my hands shook and my mouth went dry. But I had proof that it had never happened that way. I had the right chat histories and thus already saw myself on the safe side.
But I didn't expect that no one would believe me at the FIA hearing and that the chat histories had to be checked first, that my cell phone would be confiscated and that I would be treated like a criminal.
I didn't expect to be met with a wave of hatred as soon as I left the FIA offices. I hadn't expected all those hateful looks, all that anger.
And certainly not with the rotten eggs they threw at me.
I just felt terrible.
Why did everyone think I would do such a thing? Why didn't anyone believe me? Why was I the bad guy to everyone?
The only bright spot was that Lia trusted me. At least she still believed me. If no one else believed me, at least she did.
That had to be enough for me. At least for the moment.
Still, it felt shitty that everyone trusted me to do something like this. I had gotten so many angry messages, had had so many missed calls. Maybe it was even better that my cell phone was at the FIA. At least then I didn't have to read those messages.