Amore Mio ➤ Daniel Ricciardo

Surprise

1
"Good luck this weekend," a fan wished and smiled.

"Thank you," Daniel smiled and signed the next cap.

He was on autopilot. Moments like meeting fans, sign their stuff and smiling for photos were exhausting, and there wasn't much energy left to give the full one hundred effort. Drivers weren't only drivers, they had to act too on moments like this to give their fans the best weekend of their lives.

A woman stuck out a photo, and he grabbed it. The pen was flowing over the paper what left his signature on it. He was focusing on signing that he didn't have a look at the photo. His eyes found the eyes of the woman and gave her nod before moving to the next person. The icy blue eyes were sparkling when the brown eyes of Daniel had met shortly. He blinked and looked back at the woman, she took his attention. His eyes scanned her face, and he saw a smile growing on her face. It was a broad smile where her teeth were shown. The corner of her eyes crinkled and a piece of blonde hair left its position behind her ear.

"El?"

"G' day, Dan," she spoke. The autopilot was shut down and gave way to a real smile with twinkles in his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, surprised, but he covered it up with a laugh. "Come." His hand was pulled out in her direction.

"I was waiting for an autograph," she joked and grabbed his hand. "I got one, and I have no idea what to do next. Maybe go to Seb his sign thingy," she told him and shrugged.

He rolled his eyes and helped her with getting over the rails she was standing behind. "Nah, maybe next time." He looked at her when she was standing in front of him. "Anna will take you to the paddock, I will be there soon."

"Sure."

The corners of his mouth curled up. "I can't believe you are here." He wrapped his arms for a short time around her body.

A smirk left her mouth when letting go of him and patted his back a few times. "Go make your fans happy. I will see you soon." She turned to Daniel's assistant. "Hey, Anna."

"Good afternoon, Elvira, how are you?" Anna spoke and led Elvira out of the meet and greet area.

"I'm good. How about you?"

"Pretty fine, the third race of the year, my stress level is reaching its top." Anna let out a sigh. "But it's nice to be back."

Elvira pressed a compassionated smile on her lips and nodded. "I can imagine." She had a look at the fans behind the rails, the looks on their faces weren't satisfied towards Elvira. "Those faces can kill me."

"What else would you expect when Daniel lifts you over a fence, hugs you and sends me to lead you to the paddock? People would murder to have the same." Anna let out a laugh what Elvira made laugh too. Anna was right, but it felt wrong. "Why didn't you text Daniel or me? This is causing a lot of trouble."

Elvira widened her eyes for a second and pressed her lips to a thin line. "I know, I'm sorry. I'm here for work, and I wanted to surprise Dan because I promised him to visit him in Melbourne - what I didn't do. And my colleagues are somewhere here too, and I planned to say hi. I didn't plan to do this." She made movements, refraining to were she was now. They entered the paddock. "I'm sorry."

Anna shook her head. "No, it's alright. Daniel will probably get a shit load of a lecture. Let me get your card. I will be right back."

Elvira awkwardly stood in front of the Red Bull hospitality. She was quite familiar with how things worked around a race weekend, but visiting races in different countries made her surprise every time. The concept at each track is the same, the only thing what is different is the track - at least, that is what Elvira found out. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked around. Many people of Red Bull passed her and entered the building, she recognised some faces, but there were a lot of new ones. She saw a lot of people from other teams walking by, Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault. She was there on her own, like a tiny bird who faced the world for the first time.