Lifeline (Daniel Ricciardo)

Chapter 38: Replay

Fast forward two weeks from getting back from Monaco and things were returning to normality. Except this normality was better, and I felt remarkably better too.

Daniel had stayed a week at mine before I stayed with him for seven nights. Now, after a night apart with him visiting friends in Cambridge, he was arriving at mine for another week.

My hospital appointment had gone well and with a fresh set of medication and a block of treatment sessions, things were looking brighter. I was going to get through it this time.

The only aspect that wasn't quite right at the moment was Evan- he hadn't contacted me in a whole two weeks. That in itself was so incredibly unusual for I had sent him numerous messages but to no avail- if I was lucky, I had only received a blunt, often one worded reply.

Walking through the factory and upstairs to the locker rooms, I spotted his blonde mop of hair and quickened my pace to meet him, missing every other step so I'd catch up with him in time.

"Ev!" I called out in hope and miraculously he turned round.

"Hey," he said, glancing at his watch. "Look, I've got to go help the guys packing the fly away up."

"Ah, where's Jamie?" I pondered, as usually Evan stayed well clear of anything to do with packing away things in boxes; it simply wasn't his scene.

"Wife has gone into labour I do believe." Evan pulled a disgusted face before grabbing his hi vis jacket from his locker. "Can you come over tonight?"

"Do you want me over tonight? You've been blanking me since we got back."

"You didn't reply to my text I sent before you took off from Nice." He sighed. Now I felt stupid. "It's me being a bit pissed off, but it's cool."

"I'm sorry," I admitted quietly, he didn't sound 'cool'. "I'll go shopping with Dan to get some stuff and we'll come over."

"I was gonna say, if you aren't staying at his, or he isn't staying at yours then you can stay at mine. Jake is away still."

"Daniel is at mine tonight. But if you want me to stay at yours then I can, Daniel is going back down to London with Christian tomorrow anyway so he'll be up early."

"Are you not going?"

"I've got an appointment but maybe. I'll speak to him tonight." I nodded, noticing how Evan was looking tense and rather uncomfortable. As of late he'd do anything to ignore the mention of Daniel's name.

"Right. Let me know this time...don't keep me guessing. Come round at seven?" He turned the key in his locker before giving me the thumbs up. With a bit of luck he'd recovered from his mood which had only been induced by my pure irrationality.

"See you then!" I smiled, and followed him back down the stairs.

---
I finished work around five in the evening where Daniel was waiting for me in the reception of HQ, armed with a small suitcase he greeted me, giving me an attentive kiss on the lips. He took my hand, lacing his fingers with mine as we ventured over to my car.

"Just an idea," I said a few seconds later as we simultaneously put our seatbelts on, "but Evan has invited us round his tonight. So..."

"You're asking if I'd wanna go?" Daniel finished off for me as he gave me a smirk. "Sure, I do."

"Yeah? Well, the second thing is that I feel bad for turning up empty handed and so need to go shopping. I underestimated how much the boys would get through at the race reviewing yesterday. You missed out!" I replied as Daniel handed me my sunglasses from the dashboard. Unusually for the UK it was sunny as we entered the first few days of June. For once, an extra layer of clothing wasn't necessary and I could get by in just my polo. Even Daniel wasn't in a jumper.