A Walk to Remember - [F1 - Daniel Ricciardo]

Chapter 26

Authors Note: enjoy! Thanks for the support. Always love to know your thoughts. Next chapter very soon!

The elevator dinged before the doors to the elevator opened, Scarlett smoothed out the front of her black lace gown that she was able to find shopping earlier in the day. It had ruffles up the floor length skirts, and cap sleeves. It showed just enough cleavage to be appropriate. She checked her reflection in the mirrored walls of the elevators. Scarlett quickly looked at Max who was talking on the phone with Kelly.

"Okay, we are heading out to the lobby now, have a good night." He said

"Bye" Scarlett exaggerated as she laughed.
Max ended the call. "Kelly says Hi, and has made sure I make sure you have a decent time tonight." He chuckled as he put his phone inside his Tuxedo jacket.

Max left the elevator first and held the doors open  from the lobby and the car that was waiting for them.

There was a red carpet waiting at the entrance of the gala. Max had to walk the carpet for his media duties. Scarlett was escorted right inside of the venue. She wandered around the immaculately set tables and decor that seemed to be fancier than the last charity dinner in Montreal.

At the bar she ran into Pierre and Charles.
"Looking good Ms. Fisher" Charles winked at her.
Pierre just gave her a once over and smiled approvignly. Scarletts cheeks flushed at the attention.

"I'll take a tequila and..." She trailed off looking around the room as she attempted to decide what she would need to drink to get through this night. Her eyes spotted Daniel walking through the door.  She turned her attention back to the bartender. "A Tequlia on teh rocks please" She said with a smile. "Make that two please." She added quickly which caused pierre and charles to laugh.

"Whats the hurry" Pierre chuckled.
Scarlett took a swing of the first drink, looked to Daniel then back to Pierre and flashed her eyebrows. She finished off her first drink and put it down on the bar.

Charles laughed "Ahhh, noted. Hey Max!" he waved at Max who was approaching.
Max rubbed his eyes. "Man, something about those red carpets, you never get used to them. The flashes are ridiculous."

Charles and Pierre nodded in agreement. Max ordered his drink and the group chatted before everyone was told to sit at their assigned tables.

The dinner was a bore, but at least Scarlett enjoyed the food. After the dinner wrapped up, Max who had spent the first part of the evening not letting Scarlett out of his sight, had to go and schmooze with some donors. This finally allowed Scarlett try to find Daniel.

She searched the crowd, yet there was no sign of Daniel. Scarlett walked around the edge of the very full room, dodging dancers, the occasional drunk person and a lot of stuffy looking white men talking about the good ol' days.

After a while of walking around looking for Daniel, Scarlett was tapped on the shoulder.

"Care to dance?" She heard before she even turned around. Surprised to find Lando Norris standing there. He held out his hand, and Scarlett had never felt older in her life. He was only about 6 years younger than her. But he clearly was trying to flirt with her, and Scarlett had zero interest in this young man standing in front of her. But what else did she have to do this evening. Max was busy and the one person she wanted to talk to wasn't there.

She smiled graciously and took his hand. He pulled her onto the dancefloor. Like every other well mannered man, he placed his hand on her back and took her other hand in his. He slowly swayed around the dancefloor. Scarlett was scanning the crowd over his right shoulder. As Lando span her she noticed Daniel at the back of the crowd staring at her.

In that moment, Scarlett stopped in her tracks. She looked at Lando, "I'm sorry but I need to go." She let go of his hand and walked directly to Daniel.

"You really do move on quick" He said as she approached.

"I didn't move on, Lando asked me to dance, I accepted. You know you don't need to be interested inthe person you are dancing with in order to just dance with them" She noticed she was rambling. She stopped and looked at Daniel in the eyes.

"Ahhh" he said quietly as he looked around the crowded room.

"Daniel, I want to apologize for insinuating you were my leftover. I don't know what it is, but Liam and Alex bring out the worst in me. It's no excuse, I still used poor language to describe you" she said pleadingly looking up at him. "No matter what we have gone through, I would never speak poorly of you" she added quietly.

Daniel laughed. "What we went through," he paused. "Very dramatic of you Scarlett." He gave her a look that she couldn't place. "You moved on from me with Liam, you only came back into my world when you found out I was an F1 driver." He said rather plainly, his eyes quickly flashed with an anger.

Scarletts mouth gaped open, she couldn't believe what she was hearing from Daniel, it was true the Liam part, but was he insinuating that she was a stalker? She had enough of this. She inhaled and looked around the room. She noticed a door to a balcony off the main room that they were in. She looked back to Daniel and motioned with her head to follow her.

Her dress swished out to the balcony, she turned to see Daniel approach. The lighting and the tuxedo brought back memories of Mia and Kyles wedding. She exhaled and was ready to  give Daniel a piece of her mind.

"Look I'm beginning to believe that you are afraid anyone that enters your life is here to use you. You forget that there might be some people who actually liked you, and weren't in your life because of your fame or money. I liked you, I thought about you every moment for two whole months after I met you in Monaco. You consumed my every thought." She paused for a moment to catch her breath, Daniel was staring at her, no hint of emotion on his face. "I liked you dammit" She said exasperated.

"I'm noticing a past tense in that statement" Daniel said as he looked to his feet then back up at Scarlett.

"You are." Scarlett said firmly. "After Monaco I was crazy about you, I didn't even know you were a F1 driver until the day Max showed up at my school. I had zero clue, but I couldn't stop thinking about you. I was so hurt, I wanted to talk to you, but nothing...." She trailed off.
"But-" Daniel tried to cut in.

"I'm not done" Scarlet said holding out her hand to stop him from continuing. "I was then dragged through the media from that p ress conference, I was so embarrassed. My heart was torn out of my chest seeing you with Alex in the paddock in Montreal, then to top it off it was then stomped on, when I found our Dates in the bathroom. Yet still nothing from you..."

"Seriously-" Daniel tried to say something.
Scarlett carried on talking "I am now in your world, not for you, but for me. This career is my dream. I am here to support that and take a chance I have never had before. I wanted to apologize if I hurt you today. I need to focus on my job the next three weeks. Its the only chance I have. Or else I'm going back to teaching. Which honestly isn't the worst thing, but it isn't my dream. I don't need anymore chaos, drama or bad press to tarnish my reputation. Seeing you everywhere is so hard for me, you need to know that. But right now I need space for myself I can't keep feeling like I need to talk to you when you clearly felt like you never needed to talk to me." She said trying to hold back tears.

"Sorry to interrupt the conversation" A voice from the doorway sounded. Scarlett turned around to see Max waiting. "The car is here, we need to get going" He said giving Daniel an apologetic look.

Scarlett quickly looked at Daniel, one tear fell down her cheek as she turned. She could see Daniel take one step towards her, yet he paused consumed in his own thoughts and emotions, she could see that he decided to not chase after her.  She quickly followed Max to the car.

The way back to the hotel was spent in complete silence. Scarlett leaned her head against the window  and the conversation with Daniel played through her head. She wanted him in her life, it was clear that they just couldn't work. And this career opportunity was far too important to not focus her full attention on.