Sparks - Daniel Ricciardo

Twelve

📍26th April 2021 - London, UK

After the whirlwind weekend which was Imola, Daniel and Amber had once again parted ways to go back to their day to day responsibilities. Daniel had decided to take a trip back to his home in Monaco with Michael and Blake, meeting up with their friend Scotty from time to time in between training, hiking, climbing, swimming and anything else Daniel could get his teeth stuck into.

Amber had returned to London, alone, as she spent some days in solitary in order to get her work done and handed in when it was requested of her. She also had to attend some meetings in the office, meeting with her supervisors after many months of not venturing inside the workplace.

Amber enjoyed being along and for once, she didn't feel as if she'd been abandoned or left alone, like she did when Liam would cancel their plans the evening before. Although she hadn't spoken much to Daniel since they parted ways in the Italian airport, giving each other a friendly goodbye in the suspecting eyes of the surrounding group, instead of the goodbye which lasted a little while longer than it should've on that particular Monday morning in Amber's hotel room.

Lando had been ecstatic about his podium finish in Imola and wanted to reciprocate it again for the following race in Portugal. Daniel was feeling a tad frustrated as he wanted to push harder and harder to make it to the front of the pack but the two Ferrari's in front of him blocked that from happening.

Amber sat on her dining room table as she wrote endlessly for hours, having a good writing day compared with previous days where she would sit and scratch her head for ages to conjure anything up to write down on the piece of paper in front of her.

Amber picked up her freshly brewed coffee, the smell of coffee beans descending around her Scandinavian styled apartment, as she took her first sip of the rich, velvety, liquid, trying hard not to burn her mouth in the process.

To her surprise, a familiar name appeared across her phone screen as the loud tone of her speaker and the harsh vibrations from the device echoed against the platform in which it was situated.

She contemplated whether she should answer and by the time she had plucked up enough courage, the call had ended and the phone stopped ringing. Rolling her eyes and scolding herself mentally, she did the unthinkable and called him back immediately.

"I thought you were ignoring me." Daniel said as his opening line as he looked over his balcony in Monaco. "It wouldn't have been the first time."

Daniel's abrupt rudeness caused Amber to smile, only because his vengeful words didn't come from a bad place, he was merely joking as Daniel could finally relax at the sound of Amber's small giggle down the phone, understanding she had taken the joke well.

"If you keep your tone like that, I might just have to start ignoring you." Amber shot back at she pulled her reading glasses onto the top of her head, tucking the hairs which crowned around her face in the process. "Now, what does the ever so busy Daniel Ricciardo want to talk to me about?"

Daniel chuckled before firing his question over to Amber, the nervousness escalating from his chest towards his throat.

"Are you coming this weekend?" Daniel asked with a small cough in his throat. "I mean, did Fran mention it to you?"

Amber smiled at Daniel's curiosity as she rested her head against the palm of her hand as she pressed her phone tightly to her ear with her other hand.

"I can't." Amber said in one breath as she looked across the pages in front of her. "I've got so much work to do and I've been given some more projects with deadlines I know I'm not going to be able to meet..." Whilst Amber ranted about her level of workload, Daniel looked across at the ocean across from his Monegasque home.