Chapter 2
Operation Proposal
Asking Maxine Webster to marry me was officially driving me insane.
And the worst part?
It was completely my fault.
“You look like someone about to commit a crime,” Sebastian commented as he walked into the restaurant’s private room and found me staring at my laptop screen for the tenth time.
I looked up slowly.
“Maybe I am.”
“Finally going to kill a journalist?”
“I’m serious.”
Sebastian unceremoniously pulled out the chair across from me and stole a fry from my plate.
“That usually means you’re about to say something stupid.”
I ignored him.
Or tried to.
I looked back at the computer screen with its fifteen-odd open tabs:
hotels, restaurants, private islands, event planners, jewelry stores, romantic itineraries, and an absurdly specific article called “The Most Luxurious Marriage Proposals in Europe.”
I was losing my mind. Sebastian’s eyes slowly followed mine to the screen, and then he burst out laughing.
Son of a bitch.
“You’ve completely lost it,” he managed to say between laughs.
“I just want to do it right.”
“Adrien, you won a world championship in Abu Dhabi in a torrential downpour with less pressure than you’re putting on this proposal.”
“Because that was easier.”
He laughed again.
I crossed my arms defensively.
“She deserves something perfect.”
Sebastian’s mocking smile faded a little.
“She deserves you, idiot. The rest is just details.”
I huffed.
Easy for him to say when he was already married and wasn’t trying to figure out how to propose to the most emotionally guarded woman in Europe.
Because Maxine didn’t like over-the-top gestures.
But she also deserved everything, and that created a massive problem in my head.
I wanted to surprise her. I wanted something memorable. I wanted to look back at that moment twenty years from now and know I’d done everything right.
Sebastian took a sip of his beer before looking at me again.
“Okay. Bring me up to speed. How deep into the obsession are we?”
I ran a hand through my hair.
“I thought about doing it in Monaco.”
“Too obvious.”
“Saint-Tropez.”
“You guys have already spent half your love story on that yacht.”
“Paris.”
“Cliché.”
“Japan?”
“You trying to propose or kill her after fifteen hours on a plane?”
I let out a tired laugh.
Sebastian leaned forward.
“Listen. You’re thinking about this the wrong way.”
“Oh yeah?”
“You keep trying to turn this into an event. But you two were never about that.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“Maxine fell in love with you when you were just some arrogant kid arguing with her in a conference room. Not when you became world champion.”
That shut me up for a few seconds.
Then Sebastian pointed at me.
“And another thing: if you keep acting this weird around her, she’ll figure it out before it happens.”
Shit.
Maybe he was right about that too. Because I really was being weird.
Not on purpose, but I’d been a nervous wreck lately. My head was so busy planning everything that I was constantly distracted.
Maxine had to be noticing by now.
“Charlotte said she’s suspicious,” Sebastian commented casually.
I froze.
“What?”
“Relax. She doesn’t know anything yet. She just thinks you’re freaking out or up to something.”
“Great.”
“You really are freaking out.”
I ran my hands over my face.
“Man, I just want it to be perfect.”
Sebastian was quiet for a moment.
Then he gave me a half-smile.
“You love her like crazy, don’t you?”
The question hit me right in the chest. Because the answer was ridiculously simple.
“More than I ever thought possible.”
His smile turned genuinely warm this time.
“Then stop trying to impress the whole damn universe and just ask the woman to marry you before she kills you.”
I rolled my eyes.
But I laughed anyway.
Two hours later I was in another secret meeting, this time with Logan. Who was absolutely useless for anything even remotely emotional.
“Don’t do it at the paddock,” was the first thing he said as he threw himself onto the couch.
“I wasn’t going to do it at the paddock.”
“Good. Because she’d probably run you over with a team car.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“I’m being honest.”
Logan grabbed a beer from the fridge and cracked it open.
“Did you buy the ring yet?”
Silence.
His eyes went wide.
“Adrien.”
“I’m still looking.”
“You’re going to ask the woman to marry you without buying the ring?”
“It’s not easy to choose!”
“It’s literally a circle of metal!”
“Go fuck yourself.”
He burst out laughing.
I rubbed the back of my neck, irritated.
“She deserves something special.”
“She’ll love anything that comes from you.”
That seemed to be the annoying consensus among my friends. As if none of them understood that Maxine Webster deserved the best of everything.
Including from me.
My mother was even worse.
“Adrien, you’re in love. You’re not organizing a corporate merger.”
Her voice was amused on the other end of the video call.
I paced back and forth in the closet while she watched me patiently from the screen.
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand perfectly. Your father did the exact same thing before he proposed to me.”
I made a face.
“That’s not helping.”
She laughed softly.
“What’s scaring you so much?”
I stopped pacing.
It took me a few seconds to answer.
“She’s everything to me.”
My mother went quiet.
“What if I mess this up?”
Her expression softened immediately.
“Adrien… do you really think Maxine Webster looked at everything you two have been through and made it this far expecting a perfect proposal?”
I swallowed hard.
“No.”
“Then breathe.”
She smiled.
“And buy that ring already before I do it for you.”
That’s exactly what I did the next morning.
I walked into the jewelry store alone wearing a cap and sunglasses like some pathetic criminal trying not to be recognized.
The salesman probably figured out who I was in less than thirty seconds, but had the decency to pretend he didn’t.
I spent almost two hours looking at options, and nothing seemed right.
Until I saw that one—simple and elegant. Strong without needing to draw attention.
Maxine.
My chest tightened the instant I imagined that ring on her hand.
That was the one. I bought it without even asking the price.
The black case felt absurdly small in my hands when I left the store. My heart was pounding so hard it was ridiculous.
Because suddenly this was real. I was actually going to ask Maxine Webster to marry me.
I’d never been more certain of anything in my life.
When I got home that night, the apartment was quiet.
Max wasn’t back yet.
I took a deep breath before going into the closet. I stared at the small black case for a few seconds. Then I slowly crouched down and hid it in the back of one of the least-used drawers, behind some old boxes and forgotten sweatshirts.
I closed the drawer and smiled to myself like a complete idiot.