Something Gained

Chapter Fourty-Six

I pulled on a summer dress as it was quite warm today, I slipped on some converse and put my sunglasses on my head. I had let my hair dry naturally and now my dark wavy hair sat down my back, I put on minimal makeup for the day and grabbed a crossbody bag to store my purse, phone and hotel keycard in it. And of course I was now waiting for Daniel to be ready after all of that. I played with my bracelets he got me for my birthday, I really was such a lucky girl to have him. Apart from when he's in the car, he's the happiest, smiliest (hottest), softest and caring character.
"Are you ready?" He said as he walked up to me. I nodded and he held out his hand to stand me up. He put his hand on the side of my face and kissed my lips softly, "beautiful" I nearly squealed. Softy!

We walked outside the front of the hotel to his car. There was of course cameras and fans everywhere, they knew the McLaren team stayed in the Hilton hotels and so that's where they stayed practically everyday of race weeks.
"Here" Daniel said, he chucked his car keys up in the air and I caught them and smiled, and so I got in the drivers side of his blue McLaren, as he got in the passenger side and I started the engine. "Don't put the roof down, not while they're spying" he warned, I wasn't going to anyway, I didn't want them peering in either. I revved the engine before I got out of the hotel car park, to wind Daniel up, which it had the desired effect as he rolled his eyes and drove. I didn't actually know where we were going as Daniel hadn't told me anything and I've never driven to Turkey, or really been here. Only for the race last season and I didn't go anywhere else apart from the hotel and the track. He directed me a little bit as we got onto a motorway.. I guess they would call it highway here?

"Go on then" he said, I glanced at him and he smirked. He never can do anything slow, but I agreed and took his car for a ride. I suppose if you can't physically drive a formula one car, driving a Mclaren with a formula one driver is the closest you'll get. He had already got his phone plugged in and he turned up the music and pressed the button for the roof, thankfully I wasn't easily distracted otherwise he'd be a nightmare. He sang along to the music, of course, and I raced up the road. I assumed we were going somewhere, if this was our "day out".

We eventually left the motorway and he directed me down some places.
"You're a decent driver, I'll give you that" he said
"Decent? Sorry" I said
"Well I can't say you're the best, that's reserved for me" he said laughing, I rolled my eyes and drowned him out with music as we drove into some more populated streets.

Daniel did his usual thing and come round the my side of the car to let me out once we had parked the car. He had a thing about it, even though I was perfectly capable of opening my own door, he took my hand and I closed the door and locked it while putting the keys in my bag.
"So where are we going?" I asked as we stepped in time together down the street.
"Well breakfast first, then some shopping. Then we can be tourists and see what we can find" he said. I nodded as that sounded good to me

We wandered around Istanbul, checking out the history, shopping and just walking. We chatted about all sorts of things and it was so nice. I loved it. We also headed to the beach and walked along the sand together, it was like one of them scenes you see in a movie, where the guy and the girl walk down the beach hand in hand, stopping to kiss and laughing, a romantic moment and that's what it was like. I felt like even though we were very close and spent so much time together, it brought us closer and I felt all giddy and happy about it. We spend majority of our time travelling and spending it around race tracks and talking to journalists, we didn't have an awful lot of time to do things like this, but it made it all worth it in the end. Even if we were being followed constantly, but I had started to learn to tune them out, I don't know how Daniel did it so easily, maybe it's because he's done this for so long and it's part of his job. As long as I've got him with me, I'm okay.

Daniel

The days I spent with Alex were the best days. I had missed her like crazy being apart. I spent a lot of time with her but it was never enough when we spent so much time at tracks and racing. She was one of my two favourite things, the other being racing.

I took the keys from her for the car, as I had one more surprise for her before we had to go back to the hotel, due to training with Michael. I drove towards where we were going, my hand on her leg, I could never get enough of her. I knew Turkey a fair bit, I'd been coming for for a while for races, I knew a lot about most places, so it was easy for me to get around. I pulled into where we were going and parked the car. I got out the car and went round to open her door. The sun was nearly setting, perfect.

"Why have we stopped here?" She asked, her blue eyes sparkling as the sun was low
"A little surprise" I said simply. I led her down the park towards a field, and as we rounded the corner there was a hot air balloon sitting waiting, the one we would be going up in. We walked towards it, I looked at her and it was quite funny to see realisation hit her face
"No way!" She shouted
"Fancy a trip?" I asked her, she practically jumped into my arms
"Are you serious? We're going in that?" She asked
"We are indeed" I confirmed as we approached the tour guide. I helped her in, and got in myself as the balloon prepared to take off. I poured a glass of champagne that I had waiting. The sun was at the perfect position as we cruised up across the mountains of Turkey.
"I've never done this, this is amazing" she said, I watched her and she looked out over the scenery. The sun setting but still shining on her, she was so beautiful. I took out my phone and took some pictures of her before taking pictures of the mountains and the sunset, I even got the guy to take pictures of us, I wanted these memories forever, of me and her above Turkey where it was peaceful. Us on top of the world.