Keep Me In | DR3 | BOOK 1

71 - Turn of the Tide

"Well, I don't know about Daniel..." I trailed off, my eyes looking past Max.

"I see. Is there anything I can, I don't know. Help with?"

"How about I meet you at the Casino?"

--

Okay - the Casino. Monte-Carlo. Casual drinks with Max, and whomever else 'we' entailed. Key word: casual. Even though I was going out to join Max in his Monaco win celebrations, he insisted it was just drinks. Either way, I knew I wasn't setting foot in a nightclub.

I'd talk to Max, try and settle things for myself, and maybe have a drink and a bite to eat. It would at least help things if I looked cute while I was at it.

I'm sure I have something in the vast expansion of fabric displayed sideways, but right now none of it seemed right. The blues were too blue, pinks were too bright. Black was too sorrowful and my neutrals were too bleh.

Something in me was telling me not to do this. To just hop back on a flight to London. To keep my head down these next couple of weeks, and pretend that everything was okay. To try and go back to normal, or whatever version of normal I had going on before Daniel came into my life and changed everything.

Sure, drinks with Max Verstappen were placed very low on my list of things I wanted to do, my list of demons to face. My wrongs that I needed to make right. But it needed to happen, if I wanted to make peace with myself.

If I couldn't forgive myself, how could Daniel?

Not like that should even be a priority to me at this point. It took so much effort to convince myself to give Daniel a shot. It went against everything I had accepted - when he asked me to stay out of his life, I'd try my hardest to comply. How was I supposed to do that when he was constantly bringing himself back into the picture, half-developed?

I tried to give him chance to talk to me, to clear things up on his side. It was what he wanted, anyway. I was foolish to believe that would end well for me. I just never thought he'd hurt me like that.

If all I got out of tonight was a good time, then maybe that was what the universe wanted for me. Now is as good a time as ever to start believing in luck, in chance, right?

"Most serious contender right now would probably be..." I called Carlee and Molly into my closet to help me find an outfit. Wallowing in self pity over something Daniel chose to do, something completely out of my control at this point, was clearly not sparking any inspiration.

As I trailed off, Carlee sat on a pouf and Molly beside her leaned against the doorframe. I held up a pair of black, wide leg dress pants. In the other hand, a chocolate brown skin-tight one-shoulder crop. Easily paired with black strappy heels, my most comfortable pair as I was planning on walking, and a black shoulder bag. Simple gold jewelry to go with my plated Day Date, and the outfit was dressy enough for Monte-Carlo without standing out too much.

"Bit boring," Carlee nodded curtly as soon as I put my whole outfit on the ground for the girls to see.

I slouched my shoulders in defeat, "Well then what else am I supposed to-"

Carlee laughed, bowing her head as she shook it back and forth. Molly joined in with her in the spit, the two of them apparently finding comfort in my distress.