They all walked together to the paddock "Hey! O'ward!" called out Toño as he spotted Pato farther ahead by the McLaren motor home. Liv hadn't seen him properly that week since the McLaren team was staying at a different hotel than Red Bull.
Toño hurried up to meet him as Pato flashed his bright smile "Oh no, who let you in?" he joked.
They greeted each other with a hug and started talking right away, Olivia immediately felt Max's hand tense up as she held it. "Ouch" she turned to him quickly and let go of his hand.
"Oh god, sorry" said Max immediately as he snapped out of it. He held her hand again and kissed the back of her hand. Olivia gave him a soft smile, letting him know it was all alright.
As they passed by Pato, Checo stopped to talk to him and Toño but given Max's very recent reaction Olivia thought it was better if they kept walking "Good luck today Pato!" Liv called out from afar as she kept walking hand in hand with Max.
Pato turned to her "Thanks Liv! See you around" he said brightly.
Liv smiled at him and then she turned to her boyfriend "Let's go get some coffee shall we?" she asked.
Max smiled at her, knowing what she was doing "You know coffee sounds fantastic right now, I think I will even have a cup".
"Oh really?" Olivia teased him.
"Quickly before I changed my mind" Max laughed as they kept walking towards the Red Bull motor home.
They arrived to the coffee station and Max made two coffees for both of them. For a moment Olivia was reminded of the times before they were ever together, back when Ashley was still present and looming over Max, back when all they had were stolen moments, excuses they would come up with to talk to each other. Like this: like Max and the coffee.
Max took a sip of his hot coffee "How is it?" asked Olivia with a smile as she thought about all of those times he would drink coffee he hated just to talk to her for a few minutes.
"It's wonderful" he said with a tight lipped smile, looking straight at her.
"Liar" said Olivia as her smile grew wider "How did I never realize how much you hated it? For months" she giggled.
"Is it that obvious?" he laughed.
"Well now it is! I guess I must have been blind before" said Olivia.
"Or maybe you just wanted to spend time with me so much you refused to see it" said Max with a wink.
"Oh shut up, you were the one who was dying to talk to me" said Olivia as she lightly pushed him back playfully.
"That I was" he said as he caught the arm she pushed him with and pulled her to him. Then he held her by the waist and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.
"Oh no, somebody call HR!" joked Paola, Liv's sister, as she entered the room with Checo and Toño. Checo and Toño laughed with her.
"Seriously guys? In the motor home?" said Checo.
"Are they like this all the time?" asked Toño jokingly.
"All. the. time." said Checo emphasizing every word.
Olivia rolled her eyes as she separated from Max. Max laughed "Three against one hardly seems fair" he joked "It's usually just Olivia vs. Checo".
"Who usually wins?" asked Paola.
"Definitely Olivia" nodded Max with his brow furrowed and a serious face.
"Hey!" laughed Checo "that's not true he just says that because Liv's his girlfriend".
"Always side with the girlfriend Checo, Max is doing well" said Paola defending Max.
"Not over your teammate" said Checo.
Max laughed "Of course over your teammate mate, I don't want to sleep on the couch".
"Careful Maxie or you just might" joked Olivia teasingly.
Max quickly pulled her back to him and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.
"Please excuse me, I'm gonna go throw up" said Toño as he left the room.
"Wow they really are always like this" said Paola amazed as she turned to Checo.
"I told you" he shrugged.
"Oh god shut up guys!" said Liv as she rolled her eyes once more, she couldn't help it. Max was right, three against one was definitely not fair game.
After Max and Checo had left to change their uniform and Liv was on her way to the garage to prepare her camera for FP1, she ran into Lewis.
"Liv!" he said with a bright smile.
"Hey Lew!" said Liv happily as she caught up with him.
"Hey dad, this is Liv she's Checo's sister" said Lewis introducing the man next to him to Liv "She's the friend I told you about, she was gonna come to Africa, remember?".
"Of course, of course, I know who you are" said Lewis' father with a bright smile "It's so nice to finally meet you, Lewis has told me a lot about you".
Liv blushed slightly at his obvious recognition "It's lovely to meet you sir, I'm so glad you came to this race in particular, it's our home race" said Liv.
"Don't call me sir please, call me Anthony" said Lewis' dad.
"No way, my dad's name is the same, well.. Antonio, which is Anthony in spanish" said Liv with a bright smile "that's crazy".
Lewis laughed "Oh shit I hadn't realized that before, you're right".
"Lewis you should be ready right now, we should go" called out Toto as he walked past them "Good morning Liv" he said with a polite smile.
"Good morning Toto" said Liv with a smile to her future boss "and good luck out there Lew, it's so nice to meet you Anthony" she said to both of them.
"Wanna go for a run tonight before dinner?" said Lewis as he and his father walked away.
"Sure, let's do that" called out Liv.
"Oh and Liv!" called out Lewis from farther away "My dad may not want you to call him Sir but I actually am a Sir" he winked at her.
"Oh yeah, Sir Lew Lew sounds really great now that you mention it" she joked.
Lewis burst out laughing "Forget it then" he said as he turned around and left.
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Olivia started getting her camera ready inside Max's driver room as he got ready himself for the first Free Practice, he was stretching as Olivia sat in the room and watched him "Shouldn't you be out there taking pictures of the car already?" he asked curiously.
"I'm in hiding" said Olivia casually, like it was obvious.
"Oh of course, because that is normal behavior" said Max sarcastically and laughed lightly "Who are you hiding from exactly?"
"Everyone? Anyone? I think I heard my mother's voice earlier and I ran here" said Olivia.
"Ah, then that's understandable. Maybe you can tell Christian you are sick" he said.
"I've tried to work even when my head was split open, I'm not sure he's gonna buy it" said Olivia.
"Tell him it's something serious, like the plague or something" said Max with a very serious face.
Olivia burst out laughing "The plague?!" she kept laughing "sure, maybe I can also have Ebola".
Max laughed loudly with her "That seems like a very credible excuse if you ask me".
Olivia couldn't stop laughing as she held her stomach and then there was a knocking on the door "Liv is that you? Are you there? Mom is looking for you" she heard from the other side of the door, it was Paola.
Olivia stopped laughing and turned to look at the door full of dread "I'll be out there in a moment" she lied.
"Can I come in?" asked Paola.
"NO" said Liv immediately as she got up and walked next to Max on instinct.
"What are you doing there anyway?" she asked still at the door.
"We are having sex Paola, I'll be there in a while! Go!" said Liv loudly and Max tried to hold in the laughter as much as he could but he snorted as he burst out laughing, Olivia covered his mouth before he made a laughing sound, as she tried to not laugh either. Then with her other hand she grabbed a chair that stood next to her and moved it backwards and forwards lightly, making sure there was a dragging sound coming from it.
"Oh god" she heard Paola say to herself and then heard her footsteps as she left.
Once her footsteps were gone Olivia let go of Max's mouth and he burst out laughing, his face red and his eyes teary as Olivia shook with laughter along next to him. "You know I really wanted to help and make some noises but I really couldn't stop laughing" said Max as his watery eyes let out a few tears.
As their laugh died down there was a second knock on the door. Max immediately reacted "Oh fuck yeah" said Max as he moved the chair front and back just like Olivia had done.
"Max? Are you ready?" said Christian from the other side of the door with a concerned voice.
That was it for them, they burst out laughing louder than before and Max fell to his knees as he cried from the laughter. Olivia rushed to the door, a kettle-like laugh coming from her. She opened the door right away so Christian would see they weren't actually having sex in case that was what he was thinking.
But as she opened the door there was Christian and behind him there was Checo with Olivia's mother standing on the hall. Immediately after they saw them, Olivia and Max burst out laughing again, snorting and not being able to breath.
"I'm so sorry" said Max laughing as he laid on the ground and held his stomach "I'll be right there".
Olivia was bent forwards laughing, her hands on her knees "One minute" she said, it was barely audible before she closed the door again and she fell to the ground too.
It took them way more than a minute to stop laughing completely, every time they gathered their composure they would simply look at each other and it would start all over again.
"Did you see your mom's face?" said Max laughing loudly.
"Did you see Christian's?" laughed Olivia "He looked so confused".
When they did come back out they went straight to work and ignored everyone else. Max walked straight to the engineers and Olivia already had her camera around her neck and was shooting pictures of Max as he walked out of the driver room and to the engineers.
"Oli!" called out her mother from the back of the garage, where the family and Liv usually watched the race and practices.
"Not now mom, I'm working" said Liv as she kept shooting photos.
As she walked over to Checo and took pictures of him he turned to look at her "what the hell was that?" he asked confused.
Liv tried not to laugh "I was just hiding from mom, don't worry about it" she said.
"it sounded like you two were having sex" he said while making a face "some very funny sex".
A small stifled laugh came out of Liv but she was able to stop it "we weren't, it was just pretend" she explained "we were laughing a lot though" she added.
As free practice started and Olivia felt like she had no place to run, she decided to watch the practice with the engineers. GP gladly gave Liv some headphones and made sure she had some space to watch the practice with the rest of the engineers before Max started his first lap. The back of the garage was too crowded anyway.
To the crowd's pleasure, Checo was P3 during FP1, while Max was P4. Like the rest of the season, their main battle was with Ferrari, as Carlos landed P1 and Charles P2. At that moment Charles was ahead of Checo on the run for second place in the championship, but only for a few points and they still had three races to go.
However, during FP2 the Mercedes were really picking up the pace, while Checo fell to P5 and Max to P6. Olivia knew a long meeting with the engineers and the mechanics would come after this, so they could find the real issue and try to fix it for the next day. However she did notice something, on both practices Checo had been faster than Max. She didn't want to get her hopes up, specially because it was only practice, but for a moment she thought about her brother winning his home grand prix and she felt this firing excitement in her chest.
As free practice ended Liv excused herself immediately from her family "I really need to get this photographs ready for posting! I'll see you guys later" she said as she left the garage, knowing damn well she wasn't going to see them later.
As Max and Checo had their meetings, Olivia sat in the motor home editing her pictures. Once she was done she texted Max letting him know she was going back to the hotel and going for a run with Lewis. She got to the hotel, changed clothes and met Lewis downstairs at the lobby.
"Hey Lew, nice comeback during FP2" she said honestly.
Lewis smiled at her "You better be careful with your bulls or I might get pole tomorrow".
"We'll see about that" smiled Liv. Honestly if Lewis were to win what felt like her home race too, not just Checo's, she would be happy. If there was someone who deserved at least a win this season it was him.
"Let's get moving, I hear there's a mob of people outside the front doors" said Lewis.
"Let's go through the restaurant door then" said Liv, and they did, but there was a multitude of people there too. As they started asking Lewis for photographs and autographs he couldn't say no, so he kindly signed a few caps, took a few selfies as they slowly made their way out of the hotel and started running.
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Back at the circuit, Max and Checo were picking up their things as they left for the day.
"Are you having dinner with your family tonight?" asked Max.
"Yeah we are, are you sure you two don't want to come?" asked Checo hopeful.
Max shook his head "Olivia was running from your mother the entire day, I'd say there's no chance in hell".
Checo shrugged "I guess I cannot blame her after the last dinner".
"You know, Checo I actually wanted to tell you something" said Max as they started walking towards the exit.
"What is it?" asked Checo.
"I'm gonna ask Olivia to move in with me" said Max with some apprehension in his tone, he didn't know what Checo would think of them living together, and he knew quite well that he was the person Olivia cared about the most, so if he thought it was a good idea then it would be alright.
Checo turned to Max, stunned for a moment but then he snapped out of it "Oh, that's great Max" he patted him in the back with a smile.
"So you think it's fine right? It's okay?" asked Max.
"I mean you two basically already live together" shrugged Checo with a small laugh "This would only change were some of your clothes are".
Max chuckled "Yeah I guess we basically do live together already, and she does have a key to my apartment, but I'm gonna properly ask her so don't tell her yet".
"Alright I won't" promised Checo "but you're being kind of obvious mate".
"I am?" asked Max surprised.
"Yeah like the other day when you said you were inviting Carlota to 'our apartment' and Liv told Carola you said you were hanging the drawing Carlota made on 'our fridge, when we get home' " explained Checo citing what Max had been saying the last few days.
Max couldn't help but laugh and cover his blushed face "Oh that's fantastic, I'm so stupid" he said "I'm just guessing she's going to say yes so I already think of it as 'our place', 'our home', and 'our fridge' " he laughed "I'll try to stop so at least it's a surprise".
"She's for sure saying yes mate, I've never seen her like this" said Checo reassuringly.
"Like this?" asked Max curiously as to what he meant.
"Yes, so.. well not to sound cheesy mate but so in love with someone" said Checo with a smile "Just don't break her heart because I will have to kick your ass and then I'll get fired" joked Checo.
Max laughed "There will be no heart-breaking and no ass-kicking" he shook his head.
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I'm back home!
What did you guys think of the ending? :)
BY THE WAY! Since the book 1 is about to end, I wanted to know if you guys wanted to learn about my moments of foreshadowing or easter eggs. Actually I'm not sure I would call them easter eggs but definitely little connections or parallelisms I have made throughout the book that may not seem so obvious but to me they were really important in understanding the story better and giving little hints of the character's connections or what would happen later in the book.
I was thinking that as I start writing book 2, once I finish book 1, I can start releasing this little by little as more chapters of the book but only containing these notes, while the story continues in book 2.
Are you in?