Roman Profile • Daniel Ricciardo

Don't Make Me Come In There

"Those are my terms, take them or leave them." Daniel had spent a great deal of time thinking about this during the hours he'd spent lying in bed after the wall incident but hadn't made up his mind until after breakfast when it became abundantly clear that the tension between the two of you was only escalating. It felt like he was letting you win by admitting that he wasn't just grudgingly accompanying you on a shopping trip, rather that he was looking forward to it.

If he was being entirely honest, the idea of seeing you trying on dresses he'd picked out, and even more so the thought of seeing you wearing one of them tonight, looking drop dead gorgeous in front of everyone in something he'd chosen for you, excited him a little more than it probably should have. So it seemed like the best option available to approach this like it was some sort of deal the two of you had struck, even though you'd been an unknowing and silent partner at the time.

"You can't just make up your own terms and not discuss them with the other person first? That's not how it works," you fire back at him, arms locked at your sides and fists clenched, looking down right furious. He supposed he really could have just asked to do more than just come with you and give his opinion on whatever you picked out, since that's what it had seemed like you'd been getting at when you'd requested the trip last night but much like the events of everything that had happened as he 'd listened through the wall and then what had occurred this morning in the shower, his sudden reluctance to admit just how much he wanted to have a more hands on role in everything you did was an entirely new development.

"I don't see why not," Daniel said, knowing he was lying through his teeth. The glimmer in your eye, backlit by your current fiery outrage at his undisclosed plan he'd just sprung on you, told him that you didn't believe the words coming out of his mouth anymore than he did.

"Because, Daniel, if a condition of your agreeing to go shopping with me to help me find a dress to wear to an event you invited me to," you poke his chest with your index finger, "is that I let you pick out whatever you want and I have to try it on, that's something you discuss with me before we're standing in the middle of the store, not when we're in the store." You jammed your finger into his chest again, as if trying to emphasize your point, but this time the motion was harder, and had more force behind it. Daniel moved reactively, his hand darting out so fast you didn't even have a chance of pulling back before he could stop you, wrapping his fingers around yours and keeping it there, pressed to his chest.

"But you see, if, I did that, then you wouldn't have even let me come." He was careful to say this in a way that didn't sound like the confession it was, like he hadn't been worried that you'd just randomly decide he was no longer invited and you'd spend the afternoon shopping alone. Daniel wasn't entirely certain he could handle being left alone right now, not when his thoughts were so loud and seemingly trapped on one topic, where there seemed to be no room for anything in his head but you.

"Okay so, you know it's weird then? That's what you're admitting to me, right now. You do realize that right?"

"No, what I'm admitting is that I know you're no fun-"

"Um, let me stop right there because first of all, you know that's a lie. That's a bold, bold lie. Everyone knows, you know, i know, that in this friendship, I'm the fun one, okay?"

"If you'd let me finish before you started spouting off with slander about who's the most fun of the two of us-"

"It's not slander, it's the truth-"

"I'm sorry, can I help you folks with something?" a soft voice chimed in from behind him, the sudden interruption startling the two of you into jumping apart, neither of you having realized just how close you'd gotten during the heated conversation, Daniel having bent over slightly as you craned your face up towards him until you were so near to one another that your noses were just shy of grazing.