♬ ❝ You can feel it on the way home, you can see it with the lights out. You are in love, true love ❞ ♬
»»———— ★ ————««
"Max," she had gasped out; I could hear the panic in her voice. Her hands pushed me gently away. "Stop, please. We need to slow down."
I immediately stepped away from her. The panic on her face was similar to the panic in her voice, and I immediately regretted kissing her. No– I regretted my impatient behavior.
I muttered an apology over my lips, and she smiled reassuringly, yet the panic was still visible in her eyes. I wondered if she knew that the panic was still in her eyes.
She offered a new date.
After this, she still offered a new date.
"There must be something to overtop this date," she said.
I wanted the panic to stop running through my veins, but her words from Monza kept repeating themselves in my head. The way she confessed how guys tended to use her for her name or her brothers, the way she never knew if a guy was genuine with her.
And here I was. Using her as a pon in a stupid game.
"Challenge accepted," I said with a soft chuckle– a forced one because I did not want her to notice my own panic.
She tiptoed and gave me a quick kiss, and I gently kissed her back. Savoring the feelings of her lips on mine like I hadn't done before.
"Are you still mine?" I asked carefully; I had to know if I had just fucked it up– I had to know that this next date was really planned, and she didn't just tell me that to make me feel a bit better about the heated kiss.
"I am still Mine," she replied cheekily, and I remembered that I had given her that nickname. "Or yours." She added quickly.
"Perfect, then I am still your unknown lover."
Jasmine disappeared into her apartment as I walked to the elevator. My heart was racing; every beat was a heavy pound against my chest. I tried so hard to hide the turmoil inside me while standing before Jasmine that as soon as she closed the door, I breathed in desperately for some air.
The closed space of the elevator did little to nothing not to start feeling overwhelmed. What had I been thinking?
As soon as the door opened, I ran outside. My lungs were begging me for some fresh air, and my heart was demanding some proper rest. But I needed to go. I messed up big time, and there was no coming back from this.
Jasmine Leclerc was not just a bet. She is human; she is a person. And all these weeks, I had seen her as nothing more than a stupid bet I placed on her. I was so focused on winning– I hated losing.
But despite my hate for losing, I couldn't care less about giving up this bet– losing it.
Fuck, what was I thinking?
I ran from her apartment complex until my legs gave out right in front of my own apartment complex. The foggy grass wetted my shirt and jeans, and that's when I realized I left the car at Jasmine's. I rolled onto my back and took a few more deep breaths in.
They needed to know; I had to tell them. A new wave of panic crashed over me, I felt my head throbbing, spinning... demanding rest.
But I sprinted to the elevator, blinded by everything that was happening inside me. I pressed the button multiple times, a kid's belief it would make the elevator move faster.
One. Two. Third Floor. Sprint. One. Two. Three. Four. Apartment five.
I knocked multiple times on the wooden door. Fuck, what time is it?
"Max? What are you doing here?" Carlos asked, confused; he was wearing a Ferrari-related outfit and tilted his head.
"The bet is off," I rushed out.
"What?"
"The bet on Jasmine. It is off," I turned around to go to Daniel and tell him. Unknownst of what else played off in Carlos' apartment.
"The bet on Jasmine. It is off."
As soon as Carlos had closed the door, after looking after Max for a few seconds, he immediately got shoved against the door. Hands around the collar of his shirt, pushing him a bit up,
"What bet, Carlos?"
"Charles—"
"What fucking bet is placed on my sister?"
Carlos swallowed nervously, and for a moment, he actually feared his younger teammate; he had never seen Charles in such an enraged state.
The atmosphere in the apartment became tense, and Carlos tried to find the words to stammer his response,"I– We didn't– It was just a stupid bet among Max, Daniel, and me."
Carlos started the realize the gravity of the situation, his teammate's hands still pushing him angrily against the wall, "It was supposed to be a joke..."
"A joke?! A fucking joke, Carlos?! Do you have any idea how messed up that is? My sister's feelings, her dignity, reduced to a joke?"
"I- i- it was wrong, I know," Carlos stammered.
"Wrong? I don't think 'wrong' will cover it. She adores you."
"Max just called the bet off," He tried to reason with the Monegasque. "We will tell Jas–"
"No," Charles interrupted him. "Jasmine doesn't get to know. Max better stay away from her, and if any harm comes to my sister because of this, I won't hesitate to make you regret it."
Carlos nodded, swallowing hard, "I'll talk to Max and make him understand the gravity of the situation, okay? We'll handle it, Charles. I promise."
Sixth floor, second apartment. I knocked on the door with the same rapid beat I felt my heart pumping against my chest. My breaths were short, and I felt a sheen of sweat on my forehead, a bean dripping down the back of my neck.
I heard shuffling, a key turning, and then the click of the door opening; my hearing was at the top of its point as my vision blurred; I could barely see my Australian teammate opening the door with worry etched on his face.
"Max? What are you doing here?" Daniel quickly looked through the hallway before he gently pulled me inside his apartment.
"The bet is off," I gasped out as I leaned against the wall. The cold brought me back to reality, and I let out a deep breath. "I give up on the bet."
"Wh–" Daniel's confusion took him over. "What is going on?"
I shook my head, "I fucked up."
Daniel took a step back, nodding as he realized what was happening in front of him; he could not say he wasn't entirely surprised, "You fell in love," He whispered.
It was the slowest nod I gave in my life; Daniel's words carried the confession I was carrying with me all the way from her apartment to here.
I fell in love with her today.
I didn't care about these stupid feelings yesterday; I didn't think more of her than a bet. I tried winning her over with a stupid bracelet and a helmet design carrying her first initial.
And now I am in the apartment of one of my friends I made the bet with.
Knock-knock-knock
The rapid knocks indicated the hurry in Daniel's second guest of the night; but the fear on Carlos' face mirrors nothing of Max's panic expressions just moments earlier.
"What the..." Daniel stepped aside as he let the Spaniard in his apartment too.
"We've got a fucking problem," Carlos said, his hands still somewhat shaking from his encounter with Charles, the smack the door made when Charles left his apartment still drummed in his ears. "Charles knows."
Max's eyes widened, "How?"
"Because he was in my apartment when you knocked on my door and yelled at me that this bet is done!"
"I didn't expect him to be at your place!"
"Why the fuck would you yell such a thing anyway?!"
"Because I am in a fucking panic about all this, okay?! I didn't fucking plan this bet for this to fucking happen!"
Daniel hushed us before Carlos could yell anything back at me, "Quiet down," he led us to his living room, and we sat down. "What did Charles say?"
"He is beyond enraged," Carlos chuckled anxiously. "We're not telling Jasmine. She can not know and if he sees you with her... He didn't tell me what would happen, but we would all regret it."
I shrugged, an anxious chuckle also escaping my lips, "He hasn't seen me for the past weeks with her. What makes him think he will catch us now?"
"Because he knows now," Carlos accentuated. "That is the difference. God, why are you so stupid? Why is the fucking bet even off in the first place?"
"Because he fell in love," Daniel retorted.
"Great fucking time."
I got up from the couch, "Does he know the depths of this bet?"
Carlos shook his head, and I let out a breath I did not know I was holding. In the worst case, I could just slightly twist my words when Charles tries to tell his sister.
"Charles is going to keep an even closer eye on her now, you know that, right?" Carlos tried to get to me. "And Jasmine is going to hate that."
"We need a solid plan," Daniel stood up, too, walked over to his liquor cabinet, and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. "Because if Charles knows, we can only hope that he doesn't tell his other two brothers."
"He won't," Carlos said. "The last thing he wants is for Jasmine to feel like a fool inside her family. He's going directly to her to see how much she knows."
"How are you so sure about that?" I asked and sat back down.
"He has been my teammate for four years. Don't you think I know his relationship with his sister?"
I nodded; Carlos was right. But with the French Grand Prix nearing, the helmet design, the bracelet, and the perfect date we just had, my feelings were a turmoil.
"I have to talk to Jasmine."
"You can't do that," Daniel warned me. "Charles will kill you."
"I left the rental car at her place... I need to pick it up by tomorrow."
"I will do it for you," Carlos offered, and I immediately nodded, agreeing. "But we got to be careful."
"And we will," Daniel looked at both me and Carlos. "We will figure this out."
I nodded once more, I had no words to tell them, because they knew just as well as I did...
I am totally screwed.