Maeve
Daniel and I didn't say anything about the previous night when we woke up. Instead, he simply placed a kiss on my forehead before going to his room to get ready for the day. It was a miracle that we had both finally slept through the night, or so I assumed by how easy it was for us both to wake up. I had a good feeling about today. It made me smile all the way down to breakfast and through the meal before we had to get in the transpo vans.
The team even said I looked good. Everyone commented on how confident I seemed and Pyrita was pretty happy with my warm up before having to get in the car for FP1. I knew what I needed to do then.
"I want fast laps." I told GP as I entered the garage with Pyrita hot on my tail.
"Fast laps? For FP1?" I shook my head.
"All of it. I want fast laps." Christian was standing next to GP as they had been discussing something prior to me entering the garage. I made sure to stare at him, making known how serious I was.
"Give her the fast laps. Daniel can run the endurance program for this race." I smiled, happy that he agreed with me.
"Thank you. I'll see you in the car." I patted his shoulder before going to Pyrita to get my last drink before getting in the car.
"Hello Princess, ready to ace FP1?" Daniel came into the garage with Michael next to him.
"Trying to top all FP this week. I asked for the fast laps." Daniel raised an eyebrow at that.
"You don't want the endurance program? You always want the endurance program..." I shrugged.
"I just want to try it once. I hope that's ok." Daniel placed both of his hands on my shoulders.
"Maeve, you race for yourself. That's our deal, we don't let anything on track affect us off track. Deal?" Pyrita and Michael suspiciously stepped away the second Daniel stepped towards me, taking up a conversation with the mechanics prepping the car on my side of the garage.
"Deal, Us at the top though, right?" He laughed, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me in for a hug.
"Absolutely. We're at the top of the world, you and I!" He sang, making me laugh and started singing the Juliana Theory song together, he let go of me to dance like an idiot as we sang together.
The team turned around to look at us and our karaoke moment, of course I just joined in. Michael only made it better by commandeering the stereo in the garage to properly play the song with 15 minutes before we had to be in the car. He had to have used Daniel's iPod because the song switched to another one of our favorites, One Week by Barenaked Ladies. The cameras seemed to show up then, taking a video inside the garage as Daniel and I were currently terrorizing the team in the garage. They didn't seem to care as they laughed and a few sang lines with us. Daniel and I eventually met up just outside of the garage as Constantinople from Might They Be Giants started playing, jokingly ballroom dancing outside of the garage in pitlane just before FP1 would start.
"Alright you two! In the cars!" Christian laughed as he walked past us to go to the pitwall.
"Yes dad!" We both said together with a laugh.
"I didn't realize I brought my kids to work today!" Christian jokes without turning around.
"No holding back." Daniel told me as we stopped dancing, holding both his fists up for me to pound.
"Same to you." I brought my fists up to his before we both went into our separate garages.
FP1 went just as I hoped. I topped the time chart with ease and was smiling when I stepped out of the car during the intermission. The team seemed to be in high spirits and I was dismissed back to my room.
"You seem better this week." Angela noted as she sat me down in front of her laptop to answer some questions for an article with sky sports.
"Yeah. I'm sorry for Monaco. It was just a rough week." Angela didn't say anything after that. She was thrilled to have me here to work with her it seemed.
I couldn't blame her. Turning back into the shell of a human that I had been in my teen years was equally scary to me as it was to those around me. Thinking back on it now, no one knew what to do or say. Daniel was the only one that really tried and went out of his way to help. It wasn't because no one else cared, it was simply because no one knew what to do. Even Daniel seemed at a loss for the whole week until the incident on Sunday night.
Watching Daniel's eyes widen after I flinched from his movements is what broke me out of my emotionless illusion. Never in my life did I want my best friend to think that I thought he would hurt me. There was just something in the way he said that he wasn't my father that put the very man in front of me. I couldn't see Daniel for who he really was in that moment, but the reaction he gave to me wincing as his arms raised took me far away from that. His reaction was from someone who cared for me unconditionally, not the maniacal actions of my father. I felt awful the second I realized what had happened, what I had been doing for the past week. Desperately, I had to explain to Daniel the one part of my life I had never discussed with him. No one wants to hear about the depressing back history of a broken person. I had avoided it for so long as to not confuse or force Daniel to know anything about what I had been through growing up. Pity was what I was avoiding ever since I left that part of me behind.
Snapping back to current time, Angela was finished with my small press requirement for the day before leaving me to go meet with the head of PR for the team.
"I'm going to get your lunch. I should be back in about 20 minutes." Pyrita announced as she followed Angela out of the room, leaving me alone.
It felt like a good time to take a short nap, just to refresh my brain. It was evidence after just a few minutes that sleep wouldn't come that easy. I was starting to realize that I didn't like sleeping alone. Daniel was always the one that held me as I slept, the only times I ever seemed to sleep through the night without losing my mind. It meant that I was starting to rely on Daniel much more heavily than I had in the past. Even now, I couldn't stop myself from getting up and knocking on his driver's room door. It was as if my body had a mind of its own that I couldn't stop , I was the passenger instead of the driver.
"Hey Maeve! Great practice today." Michael smiled at me as he opened the door wider for me to step in.
"Yeah, fast laps. I'm gonna have to call you Miss Friday if you keep this up." Daniel laughed from his spot on the couch with his limbs sprawled out.
"Ew. Do not call me that." I scoffed as I walked over to the couch and inelegantly dropped my body straight on top of his, making him groan.
"I'm trying to nap here! When did you gain five kilos?" I gasped again as I looked over my shoulder at his face that I had squished into the couch.
"First of all, never comment on a woman's weight you idiot," Michael laughed at the two of us," Second, you two enjoy the encroaching argument, I'm going to grab lunch."
Michael left the room, and Daniel and I argued in our usual way.
"Yeah, never comment on a woman's weight Daniel." I pushed down with my elbow into his side, making him groan again. I only laughed, barely sliding down from my actions.
"Maeve. I'm serious. It's sleep time." I just giggled and crossed my arms as I laid on top of him.
"Come on. I know you got a good night's sleep last night. I sure did. It felt like the first time in years." Daniel wrapped his arms around my waist then, spreading his fingers out across my stomach and the fire proof undershirt I had on.
"I did get a good night's sleep, but I'm trying to sleep now. So let me sleep and get off of me!" I shook my head as he had to spit out some of my hair.
"Last chance, Maeve..." He warned, making me poke him in the side with my elbow.
Never did I expect him to move the way he did next. My body was picked up by my waist as Daniel flipped me around him. My back hit the seat cushions of the couch. His elbows and forearms braced either side of my face as his left knee landed between my legs with his right bracing himself to prevent all of his weight from falling on me.
"Well that wasn't what I expected..." I whispered, afraid of being too loud in the short amount of space between us. It was something that had happened before, being in this close of proximity to Daniel was more intimate that I like. Still my hands had moved up to grasp his upper arms and make sure I wouldn't fall in the move.
"I warned you..." he replied in a whisper back.
I stared into Daniel's eyes and saw the realization of the position he had put us in. He didn't realize that his actions would put us so close together. Now that he saw it, he was biting his lip.
"Does this mean we can admit that we only sleep when we're in the same bed?" I don't know where the courage for that statement came from. I bit my own lip as he blinked at my words.
"I don't know. Can we?" He looked down, just for a flash at my lips.
Holy shit... Daniel has to like me. Everything he had done in the last six months was pointing to that. Everything he did was because he cared. More than I'd ever think he would too. Now he was pinning me against the couch in his driver's room in Canada, pretending like this was a normal friend action.
"That was me telling you that I only sleep when you're holding me..." my words hung in the air. Daniel's eyes flickered down again for the smallest fraction of a second before clearing his throat.
"You could always come into my room... I think I sleep better while holding a beautiful woman always...."
I winced internally. After being completely dead set on the revelation that my best friend did have feelings for me, I realized that he was making a shitty joke. I didn't know if it was to cover his feelings or he had been lonely in the last few years of being single.
"Then call that girl you've been talking to." I rolled my eyes playfully and took that moment to push him off of me. He landed with a thud on his right side on the floor.
"Did you really come in here just to hurt me?! Really Maeve, I just want a nap!" I laughed loudly while he pulled himself up into a sitting position.
"Don't be a big baby. Come on up," I patted the edge of the cushion with a smile on my face,"I promise I won't push you off this time." He stared at me, a small smile and a playful glint in his eye.
"What if I don't want to anymore? You do take up so much of the couch." I rolled my eyes as I went to stand, swinging my legs over the side of the couch in front of him.
"So I see how it is, I'm welcome in your bed, but not your couch. I can leave." He sputtered some unintelligible words before reaching out desperately with both hands to grab my wrists and stop me from standing.
"Please," His voice sounded truly desperate," Stay." He immediately loosened his grip on my wrists, biting his lip again as I stared at him.
"Don't throw a fit, Get up here."
Deciding to ignore everything that had just happened seemed like the best plan of action. Daniel seemed to ignore it too as he stood, retying the arms of his suit around his waist, and joined me on the couch. He sat opposite of my corner, stretching his legs out to squeeze between my body and the back of the couch. I did the same on the inner edge of the couch next to his body.
"Well sorry, we just admitted that we can only sleep when we're with each other. I need my pre car time nap." He groaned as he settled in beside me.
"Glad we're in agreement," I smiled at him. My mind suddenly went to the ultimate test, knowing that I had to tell him my real feelings because of how close we are really getting,"So my room or yours tonight?" He blinked, staring at me with a distressed face.
"Well, uh-" He was saved by a knock on his door and Pyrita walking in.
"Thought you'd be in here. Come on, I have your lunch." I nodded, standing up and leaving a stupified Daniel to stare after me.
"Ci vediamo dopo pranzo, Ricciardo." (See you after lunch, Ricciardo.) I smiled, making sure to use the Italian pronunciation of his name as I walked towards the door.
"O nella mia stanza stasera..." (Or in my room tonight...) I followed it up with as I crossed through the door,
I smiled to myself as I followed Pyrita back into my driver's room. She started unpacking the tray with food on it as I sat down on the couch.
"What was that about?" She asked, handing me the first plate and placing a drink next to me on the side table.
"Nothing. Just messing with him..."
She left it at that and I made it through lunch with a smile on my face. Going downstairs was more entertaining than I thought it would be. Daniel stared at me the entire time we were in our individual driver's briefings as if no one could see him. I thought I had broken him until we were both down with a few minutes before we had to get in the cars. He sauntered over with a smile on his face as if he had not been staring.
"I'm coming for you in this round." He held up his fists for a bump and I only laughed.
"I dunno, Canada feels like my track now. I know you have a win here and all, but maybe the rookies deserve a chance... grandpa..." his jaw dropped.
"I'm not that much older than you! You make me feel so old all the time." He told me as he placed his hands on his hips.
"Because the F2 rookies coming to F1 next year won't make you feel like that?" He frowned and I pulled him in for a hug.
"Don't worry, grandpa usually gives the best advice." I comforted him as I wrapped my arms around his waist.
"I'd rather be the cool, charming, get-all-the-girls, and give great driving advice older brother..." he laughed as he wrapped his hands around my shoulders.
"Sure. But that only works until you're 30." He pulled back to stare at me.
"I do not know why you're torturing me today, but..." he looked around before leaning down to my ear.
"Keep doing it because it's working. Whatever you're trying to do is working..." he pulled back, giving me a wink before stepping out of my arms and to his side of the garage again.
I felt my cheeks warm as I stared at him with an open mouth, trying to figure out the meaning in his words. They were certainly much more sultry and consuming than he usually was when we were joking around. Alas, the car called as Pyrita came over with my drink, Balaclava, helmet, and gloves. I put on my balaclava before getting in the car, letting her hand over the rest that I needed before I went out on the track.
Daniel wasn't kidding when he said he was coming for me. Despite doing only half the laps I had, he was right on my tail whenever we were near each other. He still took the time to wave if we passed one another on the track. It was the most fun I had ever had in a free practice session. Even coming in, Daniel was already waiting there and talking with Simon about his laps and data. I practically sprinted over.
"Still beat ya!" I gave him finger guns before going back to GP to go over my data. He and Simon just laughed as I walked away.
"Someone really is in a good mood today. keep it up and you might get your first win this week." GP noted as I stood next to him by the monitors.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I am in a great mood, but I'm not counting my chips quite yet." He gave me a smile.
"Wanna share why you're in this great mood? Maybe we can make sure whatever it is happens every week? Unless it was just the singing and dancing the crowd seemed to love this morning..." I pursed my lips as I looked over my data.
"Yeah, the whole garage seemed to love it." I agreed with him as I looked over the screens.
"So did the fans." I looked at him, confused.
"The fans? They don't have a great view in the garage. How would they have seen?" GP chuckled.
"You were on camera the entire time. The commentators had some great things to say as well." I bit my lip and turned back to the data.
"Well what can I say, the camera loves us."
I was finally able to see just how much the camera loved us when I got back to my driver's room to shower and change. I had a small round of the media pen, but Angela gave me some time to decompress before going down. I was able to sit here and watch the replay of the pre FP1 broadcast.
What is going on here? I think we have the Terror Twins leading the Red Bull garage in a round of karaoke before stepping into their cars.
I watched as Daniel was dancing like a maniac next to me as I laughed, clapping along to the beat and singing with Michael to whatever song had been playing.
It's nice to see everyone in good spirits down here. It feels like things weren't the same despite the overwhelming success from this garage. Maybe they have some tricks up their sleeve for this week.
The camera focused in as Daniel held his arms up for me to step into on my phone screen. I shrugged before stepping into his arms as he fake ballroom danced with me around our garage.
Well at least we can be thankful they chose to contain themselves to their garage for the most part this week. Did you see Daniel literally carry Maeve away yesterday in the middle of an interview? Seems like there's something going on between those two.
I ignored the commentary and instead focused on the smiles on both Daniel's and my face in the video. We looked genuinely happy, like we were happy together. We would be happy together, I decided then. It was time to address everything that has been happening between Daniel and I now.