Broken Soul ☆ Daniel Ricciardo

41 | Change of plans

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Rosie Darling - L.A.:
'I left my heart in LA, in your one-bedroom apartment. Right there where we started, you looked at me and I'm done. Now we're riding through the city, off the feelings that you give me'

The first days in Australia flew by and Emilia had never felt this happy before. Daniel showed her around his property and the neighbourhood he lived in, she saw him ride a motorbike across the little track he built himself in his garden and to top it all off, their friends were arriving in a few minutes. Daniel's house was big enough to accommodate Gia and Michael (the last one almost had his own room here because of his work duties) and Isabel while Nick would stay at his own place a few miles away. They were all meeting up for a barbecue this evening and while Emilia was preparing the side dishes in the kitchen, Daniel was setting up the table outside. It was a lovely day, a little hot but they could jump in the pool after dinner anyway.

Michael, Gia and Isabel were the first to arrive and because of his job and just the fact that he was Daniel's best friend, Michael had his own key to get into the house. Emilia looked up from the salad she was making to see her best friends run into the kitchen to greet her. She quickly washed her hands and finally embraced the two girls. She had seen Gia a couple of weeks ago, but it had been a very long time since she had seen Isabel in the flesh, so it took a while before the girls finally let go of each other. "It's so great to see you again, Mil! I must say, you look amazing in this kitchen, it's like it's your home already.." Isabel joked and Emilia playfully pushed her friend before she returned to the salad.

"Can we help you with anything?" Gia asked and Emilia looked around for a while. She had prepared some bread and dips already, the potatoes and vegetables were in the oven at the moment and she was currently working on the salad. "Maybe one of you can cut some fruit while the other prepares the drinks?" Emilia asked them and the girls nodded before they got to work. Emilia could hear laughter coming from the hallway and she figured Nick had just arrived as well. She hadn't seen him since their trip to LA this summer, but she had talked to him over FaceTime a few times when Daniel was calling him. "Hey there!" He said when he entered the kitchen and the girls all went over to greet him.

"Nice to all be back together again!" Michael added and Emilia looked around the kitchen with a smile on her face. This was the group of people that had changed her life for the better the last six months. If she hadn't gone on the trip with Gia and Isabel, she probably would still be a miserable mess, working herself to death. Emilia now realised her change didn't only affect her mentally, her work had improved as well. The last two years she had been working extremely hard, but changing her view on her work, resulted in her making different choices which led to signing some huge names to her company and even winning an award for it.

It felt amazing to see that two different friend groups had blended so well and even two couples had formed from it. Emilia glanced over to Daniel and she could see the pure joy on his face when he laughed at one of Nick's jokes. That is why the group would never be complete without him: even though Daniel often called himself the funny one, his jokes had nothing on Nick's and everyone was creasing within minutes when he was around. "Okay, everything is done. Would you all like to grab a dish and head outside? I'm just taking the vegetables and potatoes out of the oven". Emilia said and everyone grabbed something to bring towards the beautifully decorated table outside.

Daniel and Michael were on barbecue duty so they started roasting the meat immediately. "Look at us bro, we are proper grown-ups now. Both wifed up, throwing barbecue parties for our shared friend group". Daniel said and both of the boys chuckled at the image in front of them. "I'm happy though.. I would have never believed you if you had told me at the beginning of the year that both of us would have girlfriends over in Australia for Christmas to meet our parents". Michael added and Daniel agreed. "I think I would have laughed straight in your face". Daniel looked over at Emilia and he couldn't help but smile. She was rearranging everything on the table and all he could think about was having her around for the rest of his life.