Meeting the best friend
Oscar woke up the next morning, the sun peeking through the gap in the curtains and into Oscar’s face. During the night he had moved, now even using Lando’s upper arm as a pillow, his hand resting on Lando’s chest. Lando was still sleeping. Oscar got up carefully, not to wake up Lando. He went to the bathroom quickly before making his way into the kitchen. He looked through the cabinets for a bit and found some tea, making himself a mug and taking it outside to the balcony. It was colder than the sun made it look, so he went back inside quickly, he could also enjoy the view from there. Their appartement had a view over the whole bay and marina. After finishing his tea, he made his way back into the kitchen, looking through the cabinets for breakfast ingredients. He found some oats and milk, but no real indication of what Lando might normally eat for breakfast. He made his way to the pantry, where he found a recipe book, apparently made by someone called Jon, who seemed obsessed with nutrients, vitamins and proteins. He flipped through the book, some of the recipes sounded really good, but there was also a heap he didn’t like, just judging by the combination of ingredients. He walked back into the kitchen with the book, reading more of the recipes, when he heard a knock on the front door. He looked towards the bedroom, but the door was still closed. Whoever was in front of the door knocked again and he heard some rustling. Oscar put down the book and walked to the door, looking through the peephole. It was a man with a baby on his hip, looking pretty exhausted. The man moved towards the doorbell, so Oscar quickly put in the security chain and opened the door a little. He looked at the man for a little, and the man just looked back.
“Hello, you must be Lando’s new mate, right?” the man asked while the baby babbled to itself. “Okay, I know you don’t know me and of course you shouldn’t let me in. There are some pictures in the shelves between the living and dining area, of me, I’m Max, by the way, and Lando and little P, here of course.” The man said.
“I’ll look.” Oscar said, then quickly shut the door. He made his way back to the shelves and looked around, seeing multiple pictures with Lando and the man, apparently Max, in them. Occasionally with other people and with the baby, Penelope. “You’re his best friend.” Oscar said after really opening the front door.
“Well, yes, I am, hello, thank you for opening the door. My name is Max Verstappen, and this is my daughter Penelope, we live in the penthouse above you.” Max said while stepping in.
“Oscar Piastri, I just came here yesterday. Sorry, I didn’t know what else to say.” Oscar said. “Do you want some coffee?”
“I actually don’t drink coffee, thank you.” Max said while they walked back into the kitchen, Max dropping the diaper bag on the floor before sitting down on one of the chairs at the island, Penelope in his lap. “I just needed human company.”
“Human company?”
“We have two cats, but they are not very good at keeping a good conversation going.” Max said with a smile.
“Oh, yes, I understand. Do you want anything else to drink?” Oscar asked.
“Just some water or juice, whatever is open.”
“Orange from dinner.” Oscar said with a shrug.
“Sounds good. So how do you like it here?”
“Oh, it’s good, very nice view. It is very different, I mean I grew up very differently. Very different from how Lando grew up and lives. Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“What do you guys do? I mean, those trophies are saying Grand Prix and things, but … what do you actually do?” Oscar asked while handing the juice to Max.
“We race, we drive race cars. Have you ever heard about Formula 1?”
“Well, I think, isn’t a race in Melbourne called that?” Oscar asked.
“Amongst others, yes. Every year, starting in late February or early March we kind of start a tour around the world, racing different circuits in different cities, competing against each other. A race is called a Grand Prix, that’s why it says that on the trophies, the first, second and third place are getting a trophy at every Grand Prix. We are twenty racers, the first ten in every race are getting points. At the end of the year, the one with the most points wins the championship.”
“Has Lando won a championship?”
“Not yet, he has got 13 trophies from Formula 1, all second and third places. He was so extremely close to winning a couple of times, but somehow it seems like either the car, the weather or some accident is standing in the way of it.”
“Have you won a championship?”
“Yes, three times.”
“Oh, ok. What’s the record?”
“Seven. There are two drivers who managed to do that. Michael Schumacher und Lewis Hamilton.“
„Are there only alphas racing?”
“No, there are two betas on the grid. There are ten teams on the grid, each having two drivers competing in the championship. Williams is a racing team from England, a couple of years ago they got a new investor who wanted to give other second genders a chance. Their racers Alex and Logan are both betas, Alex also drove in my team for a year and a half before that.”
“Are you hungry, by the way?” Oscar asked, opening the recipe book.
“I could eat. What do you want to make?”
“I’m not sure, this book does have a couple of nice recipes, but they call for all kinds of powders and additives and stuff, which is something I really don’t like, I learned to make it more … natural, you know? For example, here are pancakes, with part of the flour removed and then dried blueberry protein powder added. I, by now understand, that money doesn’t seem to be a big issue with you, but if I look at the specifics and benefits he lists underneath, it would be way more nutritious to skip the powder, add some oats and serve them with fresh blueberries and some Greek yoghurt. That would also add more antioxidants and protein.”
“Then try it out. We are just starting winter break, it’s all good to experiment, the important thing is that we get enough of everything in the end, we are athletes after all. I’m sure Lando has an app where he puts in everything to keep an eye on everything.”
“An app?” Oscar asked while raiding the cabinets to find the ingredients he was looking for.
“Yes, an app on his phone.”
“Oh, I don’t have a phone.” Oscar said, putting some stuff on the island.
“That’s fine, we can take care of that later, just write down what you put in them and we should be fine.” Max said calmly. While Oscar started making the pancakes, he asked Max more and more questions about racing.
Lando woke up to some voices in the kitchen and then realized Oscar wasn’t next to him anymore. He stumbled out of the bedroom and was for a moment blended by the light.
“Good morning, sleepyhead” he heard Max say from the kitchen island.
“Why are you here?” was Lando’s grumpy greeting “Where’s Oscar?”
“Oscar is in the pantry. He doesn’t like Jon’s recipe book, by the way. He’s really nice, I like him.” Max said while Lando made his way to the coffee machine.
“Oh hey, good morning, I would have woken you in a couple of minutes. How was your sleep?” Oscar asked, coming back into the kitchen.
“Very good. How late is it?”
“Almost ten.” Oscar said, softly pushing Lando aside to get to the stove.
“We slept that long?” Lando asked surprised.
“YOU, dude. YOU slept that long.” Max said from his chair, watching Penelope play with some toys on the living room carpet. “When did you go to bed, anyway?”
“Nine thirty, why are you here again?”
“I wanted to introduce myself to Oscar. He was very cautious to let me in.”
“And you thought it would be a good idea to introduce yourself while I’m sleeping?”
“How was I supposed to know that you would sleep more than TWELVE HOURS in a single night.”
“I’m never fully there before eight thirty, you know that much and you could never know when we went to bed.” Lando snarled at Max.
“Not a morning person, huh?” Oscar asked while Lando brew his coffee.
“Not really. I get up early when I have to, but it’s not my favourite. If I wake up at seven and just see that number on the clock, I’m already grumpy. You seem to be more of a morning person, though.”
“Some days yes, some days, no. Back with my family we always had breakfast at 8.00, so I think it is more of an inner clock thing. I made pancakes with blueberries and Greek yoghurt, just sit down, I will come in a minute.” Oscar said to them, waving the kitchen knife towards the dining room table, which was already set for them. Max picked up Penelope from the living room floor, who wasn’t happy about leaving and fussed a bit before Oscar arrived and placed a little plastic plate with cut up banana and halved blueberries in front of her. In his other hand he balanced a big plate with pancakes.
“So” he said after sitting down. “I saw the cookbook from this Jon guy, but I didn’t like all these powders and stuff in them, so I used substitutes. We have pancakes with banana and oats, sweetened with honey instead of sugar, some more banana, greek yoghurt, blueberries and some shredded nuts as toppings. I didn’t mix in the nuts because I didn’t know if one of you had an allergy.” Oscar pointed around the table, surprising Lando.
“Wow, these look definitely better than the ones I make.” Lando said with a look towards the pancakes. He took the spatula and lifted a couple of the pancakes onto Oscar’s plate. “You want more?” he then asked him, lifting the next pancakes.
“No, no, no, all good.” Oscar said, for a moment taken back that Lando served him first.
“So, what do you plan on doing, today?” Max asked them after a little bit of silence. “And these are amazing, Oscar, really.”
“Well, we got to go to the bank and the insurance office and then we will do some shopping. They are really great, Oscar, thank you.” Lando answered, piling some more yoghurt and berries on his pancakes.
“That sounds fun, don’t forget the phone, though.” Max said to Lando, winking a little.
“The phone?” Lando asked.
“Well, Oscar doesn’t have a phone yet.” Max stated, just catching the empty plastic plate from Penelope before it hit the floor.
“No phone?” Lando mouthed towards Oscar, letting the younger man look down and shake his head. Max and Penelope left after helping to clean the table, Oscar going for a shower first.