A Walk to Remember - [F1 - Daniel Ricciardo]

Chapter 21

Authors Note: apologies for the hiatus. Back to posting Friday nights (PST) enjoy!

      Scarlett was able to make it just in time to the graduation ceremony for her students. Ben and Jenny came up and thanked her for showing up when they knew she had the F1 opportunity.
     Later that evening, she was lounging on the couch trying to forget about the press conference when her phone rang. Her chest tightened immediately as she picked it up off the coffee table. She let out a sigh of relief as it was only Liam.
     "Hey," She said as casually as she could.
     "Well if it isn't the talk of the paddock" he laughed seemingly at her expense.
     She let out an exasperated sigh. "That's not true" Scarlett retorted.
     "Have you not seen anything online?" Liam asked incredulously.
     Scarlett let out yet another sigh. "Oh lord, what is going on?" She said as she quickly lowered her phone, put Liam on speaker and opened google and just typed 'F1 news' into google.
     She was met with a photo of herself with a shocked yet embarrassed look on her face. "Tension during media day" stated one of the many headlines that were flooding her phone screen.
     "You've got to be kidding me" she almost yelled as she shook her head to herself. While she scrolled through the seemingly endless articles, speculating why she was at the paddock and questioning her credibility.
     One line of an article caught her attention. 'The woman in question from the Monaco photos was spotted at the press conference, Daniel clearly had no interest in her. The real question now is: is she a professional stalker?'
     There was a long break of silence before Liam spoke. "Is everything okay over there?" He asked sounding concerned.
     "No," Scarlett said quietly, trying to not tear up. Her journalistic integrity was now in question. The pressure of writing a good article was now at the forefront. She needed to prove herself, if she didn't, she would only ever be remembered as a crazy stalker, and that would not be a good thing for her future career prospects.
     "Do you need anything?" Liam asked. "I'm out with a friend from university who's in town, but I can swing by your place later," he said casually.
     "I'll be fine," she said quickly. She could hear the faint sound of a woman calling his name on the other end of the phone call. "Have fun" she said rather sharply as she quickly hung up and pulled out her laptop and notes. And sprawled them across the coffee table.
     She popped on her headphones, blasted some music and started to brainstorm some ideas for her article.
She started typing
global warming/climate change issues
Race factors
Team issues
     She shook her head in disapproval at her own ideas. She quickly snapped her laptop closed. She needed to get an idea quickly.
     She got ready for bed and laid down on her bed. Closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep. Moments from the past couple of days flooded her brain.
     Seeing Daniel for the first time in the paddock, then getting screamed at by his crazy new girlfriend, making an absolute fool of herself on her first day of being a journalist and then her mind drifted back to her students' smiling faces when she made it back in time for their graduation. A smile wiped away her bad memories and she fell asleep and mentally prepared to rock her next day in the paddock
     Scarlett quickly flipped down the visor of her old Volkswagen gulf, to check her makeup and hair one final time. She looked good and professional. She stepped out of her car, and slung her brown messenger bag over her shoulder. She brushed off the crumbs from her breakfast that she had to eat on her way to the track. Her crisp white shirt was tucked into a pair of flowy dark green dress pants and a pair of crisp white tennis shoes. She looked effortlessly chic and professional. She was proud of the look when Mia called her this morning and helped her get ready.
     Just like the day before she entered the paddock with a swipe of her pass and when she stepped through the turnstiles. She immediately had a couple of cameras following her through the paddock. She sped up as the camera's flashed and the other reporters pelted her with questions.
     She didn't respond to any of the questions as she walked down the paddock. She was getting fed up and overwhelmed. She could feel a panic attack coming on. Her chest tightened her breath quickened. She frantically looked around the paddock to see if there was someplace she could take refuge.
     As she scanned the paddock she made eye contact with Charles who was standing with Pierre.
     Her eyes widened in a help me sort of way. Charles quickly nudged Pierre and pointed in Scarlett's direction. They looked at each other quickly discussed something, then looked back at Scarlett. They grabbed two of the scooters that were leaning against the wall of one of the motor homes, they hoped to start to catch up to Scarlett.
     "I'll race you to the end of the paddock" Charles announced rather loudly as he passed the group of reporters. Obviously trying to draw the attention away from Scarlett.
     "You're going down" Pierre laughed as he lightly bumped his scooter into Charles. Pierre pulled out and passed Charles who was now beside Scarlett. Pierre winked quickly and took off down the paddock laughing.
     "Hide between some of the motor homes" Charles quietly said to Scarlett before he took off after Pierre.
     The reporters were now distracted by the silliness of Pierre and Charles.
     Scarlett quickly stepped between orange and blue-coloured motor homes, She wandered further down between the two to almost the other end of the motor homes. She was about to step out and start walking down the other side of the paddock.
     When She found herself at a window and noticed Daniel was sitting across a desk, a rather serious-looking man who was a bit on the heavier side, he had his greying hair slicked back and wore an orange polo shirt.
     Scarlett couldn't hear the conversation but Daniel had his head hung down, Scarlett watched as Daniel sadly stood up out of his chair and walked out of the room shaking his head. The man stayed behind in his desk. He sat down in his chair and rubbed his face with both hands, he looked exhausted from the conversation with Daniel.
     Just then, Daniel stepped out onto the pavement of the paddock. Scarlett was still between the motor homes, not really hidden out of view, she turned to look at him.
     Daniel was pacing and running his fingers through his hair, obviously frustrated and upset.
     She hated to see him like that, even though things had ended the way they did. She took a step back to try to get away without being noticed,
     He quickly turned to face her, and as soon as their eyes locked a wave of anger passed through him "what the hell are you doing here?" he spat at Scarlett
     Her eyes widened and she stammered to get a sentence out. "Excuse me" is all she could muster.
     "You heard me, seeing you here is just making all of this worse." He snapped.
     She blinked. "I'm just here to do my job, I won't get in your way." She said as her voice fluttered, as her heart felt like it was breaking in her chest for the hundredth time.
     He shot her a frustrated look, "I'd like to imagine you don't exist, I can't have the drama right now." He said as he stopped pacing the area in front of the motor home.
     "My journalist integrity has been brought into question. I don't need any of this right now either." She shot back at him.
     "You have no business being here, you don't know anything about this world" He yelled. He took a step closer to Scarlett and looked down into her eyes. "You don't belong here. Go back to teaching" Then he looked away, breaking their eye contact "Just leave" he spat not looking at her.
     Scarlett turned to walk in the opposite direction from Daniel. Her eyes burned as she walked away.
     Then from behind her, she heard Daniel mutter to himself. "Those articles were right, you are just a crazy stalker."
     That was it, Scarlett thought, she whirled around and stormed back to him, she yelled back "Worry about yourself, I'm doing just fine on my own." She turned back and stormed in the opposite direction. She walked by Daniels' blonde who was running towards him to see what the commotion was about.
      She shot Scarlett a nasty look, "You have gotten enough attention, Keep walking" She said as she passed her on her way to Daniel's side.
     Scarlett scoffed and looked over her shoulder quickly to see the blonde trying to hug Daniel, he shrugged her off and walked away into the motorhome without her.
     She took some time to cool down before qualifying started. Scarlett huddled around a screen with a couple of other journalists and took some notes during the first session.
     There were five minutes left in the first session of qualifying and Scarlett was still trying to keep up with what was going on. Soon a Yellow flag popped on the screen, it showed Daniel's car in the gravel, she watched as he hopped out of his vehicle and slammed his fist onto the back of it in anger. He tore off his helmet, kicked some gravel then followed the marshal back to the pitlane.
     She shook her head as the car was cleared from the track and then went on watching the rest of the qualifying sessions. Max qualified first, to no surprise of her fellow reporters.
     Scarlett now had to prepare for some quick interviews with the drivers. She was shown to her spot in the media area. To the left of her was a reporter who seemed to know what he was doing. The man was named Will as he quickly introduced himself before setting up his camera and microphone with a couple of people.
     Scarlett looked from the set up next to her, then to her area, which was just her phone to help record the interview and her notebook with some questions she had prepared during qualifications. A buzz of her phone caught her attention and she saw an email from her boss Mark. It was a list of scheduled interviews.
Hi Scarlett,
Here is your list of interviews for today.
Lando Norris
Pierre Gasly
Max Verstappen
Lance Stroll
Daniel Ricciardo
Best of Luck, 
Mark Stevens
     Now knowing what her interview schedule looked like she was able to take the 20 minutes before the drivers arrive to get some more specific questions. She got to Daniels's name on her paper, and hesitated, how could she possibly get through this interview. Her palms were already starting to sweat, and the interview was a long time away. She had 4 to get through before the one with Daniel.
     Scarlett was busy reworking the questions she had for Daniel and crossing one out furiously when someone's subtle throat clear caught her attention. She looked up from her notebook and saw her first interview of the day, Lando Norris. Scarlett smiled weakly in greeting and quickly stood up and cleared her own throat with a cough.
     "Sorry about that. Congratulations Lando on your third-place finish in qualification" She smiled.
     "Thanks" He grinned
     "How are you feeling about the circuit here in Montreal?" She asked.
     "I'm feeling pretty confident, the track seems to be great for the McLaren car, well for mine at least" he trailed off with a small laugh in his voice.
     Scarlett's eyes widened, she was a little taken aback by his comment about his own teammate. The interview finished up and she quickly took some notes on what he said before Pierre walked up to her area.
     His smile was wide and he had joy in his eyes, Scarlett returned his smile and started with her questions. He was kind and well-spoken throughout the interview. After they finished, he was walking away, when he turned back and quickly jogged back to Scarlett.
     "I just wanted to apologize for the comment I made in the press conference the other day, I was just poking fun at Daniel," He said in a hushed tone.
     "Oh" was all Scarlett could say, as she was taken aback by his apology.
     Just then, the person with Pierre came back over and tried to get him to his next interview. Before he was dragged off he turned to Scarlett "I know Daniel was disappointed after he didn't hear back from you after the wedding" he said quickly as he was getting dragged to the next area of the media tent.
     Scarlett blinked blankly as she took in what Pierre said. She shook her head to refocus as  Max walked up smiling. She laughed at his goofy grin.
     "Congratulations," She said in greeting.
     "Thanks, Scarlett," He said as he gave her a quick hug.
     Scarlett went through some technical questions before Max was signalled by his handler to move to the next one. "I guess since I'm new here my interviews aren't much of a priority" Scarlett joked as she realized that she would need to earn the time by proving herself with her work.
     "Hey don't stress too much, this world can be a lot, I know that you can handle it," He said with a reassuring pat on her shoulder.
     "Thanks" She smiled.
     "As a friend, I wanted to make sure you're okay though, It's been a crazy couple of days. Media pressure is tough. Are you okay?" He asked as he checked over his shoulder to see where his handler went.
     "I'm okay, just a lot of drama that I don't need, just need to get through this weekend and avoid any more speculation" She laughed half-heartedly. She was still thinking about what Pierre said.
     Max said his goodbyes and Scarlett was excited about her next interview. She had a lot of Canadian questions for Lance Stroll. A fellow Canadian would make for a more lighthearted interview.
     Scarlett was sad to see Lance leave her area in the media tent, she looked upland and could see Daniel walking over. She swallowed hard and took a breath, wiped her hands off on her pants and prepared to talk to him.
     Daniel looked visibly frustrated when he approached Scarlett. "Let's keep this professional," he said with a cold tone.
     Scarlett nodded curtly, then she jumped right into questions.  "How are you feeling going into tomorrow's race?" She asked immediately, not leaving any time for any small talk.
     Daniel's eyes widened slightly as he was taken aback by the question right out of the gate. "Honestly not that great," he said simply.
     "Why is that?" She asked leading him to give more detail.
     "Initially I felt really good about things," He looked at her for a second then looked away, "In free practice, I felt good, the moment qualifying started, something wasn't right. I realized I screwed up one turn, overcorrected then..."
     "-Scarlett!" A booming voice came from behind her. "Babe, there you are. Can we chat for a second?" She then realized it was Liam.
     She looked at Daniel apologetically and turned to face Liam who came up and hugged her. Scarlett sigh and wriggled out of his arms. "Liam, Stop I'm working" She hissed under her breath, not the time.
     "Working?" He said incredulously looking over to Daniel who was now visibly pissed off.
     Scarlett looked over at Daniel with an apologetic look. "This is super unprofessional. You need to leave" she urged Liam.
     "Fine, anything for you sweetheart," He said sweetly as he kissed her cheek and then left.
     Daniel was looking over at his handler when Scarlett turned back around to him. He pulled out his phone to check the time. A quick flash of his lock screen background caught her attention. She could have sworn that it was still the photo of the sunrise in Monaco. Her heart fluttered slightly.
     "I'm done here," he said to his handler who approached. He quickly looked at Scarlett with a cold look and left the media tent.
     Scarlett was left standing there speechless.
     She then started to feel anger fill her body. She pulled out her phone, dialled Liam and slipped out of the media tent.
     "Hello?" Liam answered the call on the first ring.
     "Seriously what the hell was that all about?" She yelled into the phone. "I was working, you embarrassed me in front of other journalists and drivers, does my work not mean anything to you?" She said exasperated.
     "Look, everything will be fine Scar, don't stress, F1 can be intense, don't let it get to you," He said calmly on the other line. "Off topic, but my friend Alex from university is in town, I thought we would all get dinner together on Tuesday night before leaving back to England. It would be a good time and a way to destress from the weekend. A double date would be fun."
     Scarlett didn't know what to say, she kept quiet for a second. She sighed. "Fine, but please don't interrupt an interview again," She said sternly as she hung up.