Unwritten Endings [Daniel Ricciardo]

Going back home

With weeks passing by, Daniel flying in between Monaco and UK as well going to a couple of races, I had a full time of trying to keep up with work, friends and being a good girlfriend to Daniel. 

And yes, it felt a bit weird that we finally had a title on us two, and it took me a while to understand it until Daniel had introduced me to Max, who also happened to be his old teammate a couple of years ago, as his girlfriend. 

Max was also a person I quickly got to understand that Daniel enjoyed hanging out with whenever they had the time, but they both had a lot going on, Max fighting for the world title and Daniel still tried to figure out why he didn't feel comfortable in the car yet. But we managed to have a couple of dinners together, and Max even brought his girlfriend Kelly and her daughter for a couple of times. It was a great time for me to actually get to hang out with a woman, and not only two goofing men who tried to troll around with me every second they got. 

But me and Daniel worked steady, and I quickly adapted to him barely being at home and we had turned into pure experts at making the most of our time together before he once again had to leave to be somewhere else, in a country far away from home. 

We even started discussing the Silverstone race, and I found the courage to ask him if I could invite my brother Marcus to it, and Daniel had been shining when the question was brought up, and it didn't take him long before he had been texting Blake about it and sorted it out. I don't think I have to even mention the excitement I was listening to when telling Marcus about it, and his face was even better when I asked him to facetime me, only for him to be met by Daniel's face and not mine. 

But with that, we didn't decide on telling him just yet about our relationship, even though I knew that Marcus already suspected that there was something going on as I was literally laying in Daniel's arms while we talked with him, me laughing uncontrollably as Marcus threw out question after question to Daniel, with me excusing my way too excited brother for bothering him with the talks about racing when Daniel had a day off. But as suspected, Daniel only shook his head, telling me that he got just as excited to see someone literally having their eyeballs pop out of his head, while his mouth never seemed to shut up. Apparently Daniel could see the resemble between me and my brother, making him earn the fist I punched into his stomach afterwards. 

With Daniel away on a triple header, giving him literally no time to go back home for even a day as he flew between France and Austria for three weeks, I was starting to long after him, and I was also longing for my small vacation that would take me back home, home to the UK and it would give me an opportunity to see some of my best friends, Rebecca especially, on our small trip there. Daniel would go there for the weekend before, attending the Goodwood Festival as he looked like a kid that whole week, with him telling me every other second that he would be driving Ayrton Senna's MP4/4, explaining for me almost every day how big of a deal it was for him to get to do this. 

It made me excited though, to see him finally smiling widely about the racing, because the more into the season he got, the less he smiled while talking about the races, the only time I had heard him being pleased was after the French GP, where he and Lando had managed to have a great race as a team, with them ending up in P5 and P6. So hopefully this weekend away at Goodwood would help him find that flame again that reminded him why he did what he did. 

But as it was worthless for Daniel to go back in between Goodwood and the GP at Silverstone, we decided that we would meet up in London after the weekend, giving me a great opportunity to finally introduce Daniel to some of my friends, or... right now I only felt safe with introducing him to Rebecca, especially as she was the only one knowing about us two. 

Plus, I looked forward to have a week with him away from home again, not that it would be a vacation for him, but to just be able to be with him at the racetrack, staying with him during the nights and spend a full week with him was all I asked for right now. Even though I knew that once August would come, and Daniel had his small summer-break, we were flying off to Los Angeles after he had asked me a couple of days after the Monaco GP, telling me that he was going there for three weeks to just enjoy life, and when he told me that we would get a chance to go outside and act like a normal couple, he had me hooked on the idea. So a talk with Stephan, I asked him if it was okay for me to be away for three weeks, getting some vacation or even bring some work with me to LA, and he was not even hesitating on giving me a couple of weeks off. 

Not now when he clearly knew who my boyfriend was, like everyone else did. After our small kiss in the paddock, we of course managed to have someone take a picture of us and it was like someone poured gas onto the fire, making me have literally the whole office grin once I was back, asking me about it. 

So we decided from that day, that it was totally unnecessary to try and keep it as a secret, and I guess I was surprised by how sweet people were when they either saw us walking around in Monte Carlo, a thing we had done many times even before we made it "official", but I did feel the looks more now. Maybe it was because I was more aware about it, almost expecting the gazes more now, but they surely left us alone after they either wanted to talk to Daniel or take a picture with him. 

One thing I did notice though, was the amount of people that managed to find my profile on Instagram, and even though Daniel still didn't follow me back while he knew that I was following him, I took the decision on making my profile private for now, being met by hundreds of people every day that wanted to follow me. It felt a bit sore, mostly because I often used my profile to share my work, getting new contacts and I often used my private account for research whenever I had a new pitch to prepare for at work. 

But that was what life was now, and Daniel often reminded me that it would cool down eventually, but he was surprised at how easy I adapted to it all, suddenly being in the public eye. Of course, I knew that it would slap me hard in the face the day I would step inside the paddock in Silverstone, with the photographers probably expecting to get a moment to grab some pictures of me. And, after seeing what the other girlfriends of the drivers wore at the track, I had a sudden urge of getting a new wardrobe. Something Kelly seemed very excited to help me out with whenever we would get the time for it. 

Charlotte had been laughing at me when I told her about my certain panic over going to Silverstone, and when she helped me plan out my outfits the weekend before it was my time to leave, she reminded me that my closet was way better than hers, and that I had nothing to worry about as she said, and I'm quoting, "you're having one of the best stylings I've ever seen when putting out outfits". So I guess she was right, but a girl wouldn't mind some shopping, right? 

But that would have to wait, because once my bag was packed for a week in the UK, with the weather bringing out its' best for once, with nearly zero sights of rain, I only had a couple of hours left before my plane would leave Nice, take me to the man I surely couldn't wait to see after days apart. And, to not forget, see my older brother try to act his cool and not be a total fanboy once he finally got to meet Daniel, my boyfriend. 

----

A/N: aaaah, sorry for the lack of update, I guess I went straight into a post-race-depression once I went back from Barcelona. That, and trying to feel like a human again after that heat while I managed to stay in the sunlight the whole day until the race (not to recommend haha). Therefore the short chapter, plus I have my last week at uni before a summerbreak next week so after that I'll try and be better on updating the story 🧡

Hope you've had a great week, and I guess we'll have to keep our fingers crossed still for Daniel to get a better weekend now. Monaco is ahead and I'm soooo excited to see what the weekend will bring.