Unwritten Endings [Daniel Ricciardo]

"Qualifying on a Friday?!"

I couldn't really remember the reasons to why I was nervous over introducing my brother to Daniel over the weekend where Silverstone took place. Because by the very second they got introduced and Marcus' nervousness finally cooled down after meeting a F1-driver he'd been watching for so many years, it almost felt like they'd known each other for years. Even Michael and Blake joined in on my brother's jokes. Even the ones I felt were a bit awkward sometimes. Maybe it was a "bro-code" I simply couldn't understand that made all of them act like best friends all of a sudden or something.

But the further the Friday went, the more comfortable I became. Not only because of the fact that I had Marcus to take care of and make sure that he had a good time, but also because of all the cameras eating me alive in hopes of taking the very first pictures of me and Daniel as a couple now that we had gone public about it. But unfortunately for them, me and Daniel were on different places every time we weren't in the garage or in the McLaren hospitality, so I started to notice how they placed down their cameras once they understood that today wasn't the day where they would be able to catch a glimpse of us together. At least not yet.

The only ones around me all the time was Blake and Marcus, as neither of me and Marcus knew our ways around the paddock or where we were allowed to go so Blake were once again our guide for the weekend. Not that he seemed to have anything against it, especially as he dragged us to the bar inside the paddock club... again. 

"Blake... one question, I don't mind hanging out here before the practice, but it's only a Friday? And why are you keeping on insisting that I need an extra glass of champagne?! It's not like it's qualifications today??" I blurted out when another glass was placed in front of me.

My eyes moved quickly to my brother who nearly choked on his glass of coke, and with a frown I looked back at Blake who seemed like he tried to stifle his laughter.

"Daniel... he haven't told you about this weekend? I thought I emailed you his schedule?!" Blake said with a worried voice as I felt myself throw up my phone from my purse, realising that I probably didn't took an extra look over my boyfriend's schedule as it seemed like I was the only one in our company that didn't knew that this weekend was... different.

Seeing with thick letters in the email Blake had sent me that it literally said Qualification in thick letters on today's schedule, I looked up at Blake again.

"Wait... what the hell is 'sprint race'?? And why isn't it only practice sessions today?"

With a laugh, I watched the two men in front of me clinking their glasses together when I finally understood that my blood would sink down to my feet in pure nervousness in a couple of hours.

"It's a new concept F1 are trying out this weekend sweetheart!" Blake laughed, "but you're not the only confused one this weekend. The whole team feels like they're all over the place as they only have one session today to try out things with the car before it's placed in parc fermé..."

With a surprised face, I poured down the last drops of my first glass of champagne as I finally understood why my brother declined anything with alcohol when we got up to the bar. Especially after I pushed him to have a drink as I thought it would ease on his nerves but he kept on assuring me that he would stay away from it as he was more keen about me having a drink.

It made me feel stupid however, because the more I thought about it, about the reasons as to why it was way more people in the paddock today than it usually was on a Friday, or why Daniel seemed more pumped and even stressed today when we first woke up. Of course he didn't tell me because he probably thought that I KNEW already about this special weekend. But nope. Here I was, feeling dumbfounded now that I finally put the pieces together.