One Day // Daniel Ricciardo

CHAPTER 17

"I don't want to go home." I sighed, throwing myself back on the double bed whilst Daniel packed his suitcase.

Our week in Austria was exactly what I was needing, it had been time for us just to be with each other and forget about everything that was happening at home.

"Let's not go home," He responded, like he had been planning to say it the whole time. "I never told you because I wanted to see how the week went without putting any stress on you but my sister just had a baby, I'm going home to Australia for a while I think you should come too."

I took a deep breath taking it all in, I didn't even know his sister was expecting let alone actually had a baby. I missed his family; they had taken me in as one of their own years ago when Danny and I were together and his Mum and I had an especially close bond and we hadn't seen each other since the race a few months ago.

Id become attached to Daniel in the past week, I didn't know what I was going home to and going home without him was stressing me more and if anything, I was feeling like I should go to Australia just to be close to home. I felt sane when he was near, like I wasn't going to break down and lose the plot at any unhinged moment.

"Let's go." I agreed, "It's not like I have any work to go home to."

I laughed but it didn't convince him, he just drew me a concerned look.

****

The flight to Perth in Australia was long but I was able to close my eyes for the majority of the way. Roughly an hour before the descent I decided to sit up and stay awake.

"Rest well?" Danny smirked, running his hand through the ends of my hair. I smiled at him in return and looked out the window.

"I'm... a little bit nervous." I confessed.

He nodded his head and pulled me in, kissing my forehead and squeezing my hand.

He was always so comforting; he knew exactly what to do to give me the reassurance at that moment. He didn't try and give me advice when I didn't need it, he knew when to speak and when to comfort. I admired that about him.

Australia was muggy, even for it being 1am by the time we landed the weather felt thick and made me feel queasy. I spent the majority of the time fanning myself with the magazine I had taken on the plane and avoiding eye contact with Daniel as he laughed at my stereotypical behaviour.

The immigration line was long for me yet I stood and watched Daniel slide through with ease on his Australian passport. He was in charge of getting the luggage at the other side while I was merely in charge of getting my passport stamped and out to him at the other side. The line was filled with a lot of Americans, most were families which passed through quickly but the odd solo passenger held us up as they were asked extensive questions. When I reached the front, I told them I was here for pleasure, my boyfriend was an Australian citizen and was travelling with me. They looked at all my previous stamps for flying in to Australia and added a fresh one to the collection with no questions asked.

It reminded me how much I missed calling him something so personal, my boyfriend, my partner, it felt normal. It wasn't entirely a lie, maybe just an extension of what we really were? What we almost were? I was almost there about letting myself back in to his life, I just had personal hesitations about hurting him again. I wasn't stable enough as much as I wanted to be, I didn't know how to deal with my own emotions without it causing me to go in to a downwards spiral. Like a firework not quite able to leave the ground and exploding at everyone's feet. I did it once to him before, I couldn't be responsible for hurting him by doing the same again.