A World Alone - D.R.

seven

Daniel usually enjoyed his media duties but this weekend, they were becoming very tedious. His mind was constantly on his phone and on the girl he had met in Germany. He could feel the buzz of his phone in his shorts pocket and all he wanted to do was check it to see what Jade was saying.

His answers to every question were very short today. He couldn't be bothered to answer the actual question or pay lip service to the journalists. He was embracing his inner Kimi and was enjoying it.

No wonder the Finn decided to answer questions the way he did. You didn't need to bother thinking about what you were actually saying. Ellie coughed from behind the camera and he caught her disapproving glare. He sighed, pulled his thoughts away from Jade and her dark hair, and back to the strengths of himself and the car at the Hungaroring.

The Interview finished and Ellie walked back with him to the motorhome. She was unusually quiet but Daniel didn't really care much as he was in the middle of a pun battle with Jade over WhatsApp.

Daniel relaxed on the sofa in his room and Ellie sat beside him, not sure whether to pull the phone out from his hand or not. Dan started chuckling at the phone screen and she simply reached over and took it from him.

"The fuck?" he asked her.

"You have work to do," she deadpanned, dropping his phone into her handbag. "Once you've finished, you can have it back."

"I'm not a five-year-old," Daniel protested, sitting up.

Ellie handed him a stack of postcards of his face to sign and said: "Look, I get it. She's pretty and you like her. But she's just another girl from the road. You'll be off again soon and she won't like that and she'll stop talking to you."

She spoke gently but firmly, adding: "You're like a brother to me and I don't want you getting hurt by her."

Dan stayed silent, ignoring what Ellie just said. He knew that his connection with Jade went deeper than just a weekend and that was all that mattered. He grabbed a Sharpie from the table in front of him and started inking his signature on the cards.

"Look, Dan..." Ellie started. "I know you think she's different but she hardly looked at you. She isn't worth all this," she said, gesturing around the room.

"Ellie, no offence but it's none of your business," he said shortly, not looking up from the table.

Ellie sighed and stood up. She watched for a few seconds as he finished a few more signatures and walked out the door. She had emails to reply to but she sure as hell wasn't going to get them done there while Dan and her were apparently in a mood with each other. She could get them done down in the hospitality area instead. With a coffee. That sounded nice.

Daniel sat back on the sofa after the door slammed shut. Luckily for him, Ellie had left her handbag by the side of the sofa and even though his mother had raised him to know that going through someone else's possessions was wrong, it was his phone in her bag.

Before he could think again, he dove across the sofa and retrieved it. He heard Ellie's heeled footsteps outside the door and he shoved the phone under his thigh and carried on signing the cards laid out in front of him. He didn't look up when Ellie entered to retrieve her bag.

The door closed and Daniel pressed the button on the side to light up the phone screen. He had two new messages, one from Jade and the other from his mother. He sat back and texted both of them for a little while before coming to the conclusion that he should be finishing the postcards.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Ellie was right. He couldn't put Jade first over work. He sighed and put pen to paper again, playing some music on his phone while he did so.