Lifeline (Daniel Ricciardo)

Chapter 38: Replay

"We can leave a few minutes earlier and go to Waitrose?" He scratched his forehead before his finger ran along the scar which was still very prominent. "And I know I missed out watching the Canadian Grand Prix, again..."

"Sounds like a plan!" I nodded and glanced at Daniel who was now scrolling up his email inbox. Yesterday he'd met with a set of friends who had flown over from Italy for a wedding.

"Do you want to come to London tomorrow, or will that clash with your appointment?" Daniel asked. I could sense him looking at me as I slowed for a set of lights. Milton Keynes was absolutely full of them.

"I would like to come, but it depends what time you're leaving though."

"Midday. I'd like you to come but it's up to you. Christian seems pretty chill with you having the day off." Dan nodded, "he's paying for lunch. I don't really know how else to convince you. I know you don't wanna go near that place again but..."

"My appointment is at nine tomorrow so I can still go to that." I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel as I waited for the lights to turn green, "I wouldn't mind coming. If they don't try and corner me for information that is, I really don't want to be asked right now."

"They won't, at least if they try they'll have me and the boss to answer to." Daniel chuckled but in all seriousness I could see that he wasn't joking. Tomorrow he was finally going to speak to the National Transportation Safety Board- almost three months after the accident had happened. As of yet we were no closer to finding a cause for the loss of a state of the art aircraft and subsequently many good friends.

"I wouldn't want to be them."

"Yup, you know it." The Australian paused and I could tell that he was thinking. Glancing at him, he was pulling his typical thinking face, with one hand rested on the remnants of his stubble, his eyebrows raised. He remained silent for a moment before, "are you thinking of getting BBQ Pringles or just standard plain? Because I can't decide."

I burst out laughing and made an attempt to turn my laughter into a sudden cough, "have you been sat there thinking that for a good minute?"

"Yea!" He shrugged, suggesting that I was the one that needed questioning in this particular circumstance. "It's a tough decision, they are both equally awesome."

"Let's hope they're buy one get one free then." I resulted in saying, but still struggling to keep a straight face.

"Yup, I may actually say a little prayer to the Pringle Gods."

"Oh, there's such thing?"

"Definitely!" Daniel glared at me, sitting more upright in his seat. "I can't believe you aren't as worried about this as me? Besides, did you not have a Pringle God growing up in Switzerland?"

"Someone has obviously had far too much time on their hands if they're getting this worked up about crisps..." I struggled not to giggle for the second time as Dan's eyebrows became raised again.

"Actually, I did all of your washing yesterday and then ironed all of the clothes that you're keeping at mine before I went out. I was rather proud of myself and I was going to keep it as a surprise, but seeing as you're just insulting me now..."

"I...no...uh..."

"Thank you?" he said for me, pulling a grin to signify he'd won.

"Thank you, Daniel." I shook my head and bit my lip as a smile returned to my face too. Flipping Pringles.

So, as I said, things were brighter now.
---

"What do you mean you've had a bit of an accident?" I asked cautiously, replying to Daniel's outburst of typical Aussie language. I jogged down the wine aisle in Waitrose, trying to get to where the distress signal had come from. Ah, he didn't exactly need to explain what he'd done, it was fairly obvious. "Daniel, if you needed to go to the bathroom you should have just said and gone..."