Amore Mio ➤ Daniel Ricciardo

I love you

1
Incoming mails. Elvira saw the mails filling her inbox, but she didn't care. She had a pen in her hands and held it above her lip. It felt like her inbox was a spam account; every minute a new email appeared. She blew up her cheeks and looked outside; the weather was sad and grey.

The second free practice just started. How was Daniel doing? They haven't spoken since Tuesday. Elvira didn't make an effort to contact him, but Daniel didn't do that either. It was Friday, the last day of the week, the day before the weekend. Elvira opened a new tap and logged in to the F1 website to have a look at the results. Daniel didn't start yet. She closed the tap and let out a deep breath.

The lack of contact between her and Daniel was bothering her. Usually, he would text her before training or randomly in the middle of the day if Elvira didn't have the chance to send him something first. She somehow felt anxious to contact him. Every time she wanted to text him, her heart started to race, or her hand palms became sweaty. She couldn't find the encourage to text him, and it was freaking her out.

'You are the love of my life.'

Her mind kept repeating that sentence in his voice. Three days ago he told her she was the love of his life. Three days ago, and it felt like ages ago. A small smile played on her lips when she thought back about that moment. Was she nervous about texting him because of that? He was her best friend after all, so why should she be nervous about that?

Elvira straightened her back and made sure all her work was saved. She grabbed the horn of her work phone and dialled Lufthansa while closing all of her tabs.

"Good afternoon, Lufthansa customer service. How can I help you?" A friendly voice spoke when it connected.

"Hello, Elvira Hånson is speaking. I would like to change my flight from Paris to Graz Airport in Austria. Are there any flights earlier I can take?" Elvira asked politely.

After a ten minute conversation, she got confirmed she could catch an earlier flight. Elvira left her office and walked towards the exit.

"Megan, cancel all my plans until Tuesday," she told her assistant. "Reschedule to the following days and give yourself a day off, please." She smiled at her when she passed her.

Elvira was the first person to leave the office on a Friday, it was early in the noon. But she had a good reason to leave early: she had to see Daniel. And not in the late evening, like they had agreed, but she had to see him as soon as possible. According to her own calculations, she would arrive in Spielberg at six o'clock, four hours earlier than planned.

2
Michael texted Elvira the details of the hotel. She told him she wanted to surprise Daniel, Michael agreed with it that it would be fun to do that, so he shared the details and made sure Daniel stayed in his hotel room. Michael made sure there was a driver to pick her up from the airport. The first plan was that Daniel was picking her up, but since it was a surprise for him, he couldn't be there.

Elvira tightened her jaw when she exited the lift. Her eyes scanned the sign of the second floor, left for the rooms 200-210 and right for the rooms 211-220. She went to her right and scanned the doors. A nervous feeling went through her body. When she found the room, she removed the earphones from her ears and put it in her bag. It is now or never. She travelled all the way from Paris to Spielberg, and now she's feeling nervous to see him? There is no way back, Elvira.

She brought up her hand to the door and knocked two times on it. Memories of Monaco came up, the time they were in a fight, and she was in Monaco while he was in Paris. What if he isn't here? She bounced her leg and nervously looked around.

The door opened, and Daniel faced a good looking woman with a suitcase next to her. "Hey, what are you doing here?" He let out and smiled, surprised. His mind had a short circuit. Did I forget the time? Did I not see the text she already arrived? "Come in," he said and pointed behind him, to the room. He was confused, did he forget something? It didn't make sense.