It's Called Leap of Faith - [Daniel Ricciardo]

1. Hello Monaco

Elza's POV

"Oh my god I hate the traffic," I huffed out loud as I finally found a free parking spot from the airport parking area. Twenty minute drive had turned into a slow forty five minute 'stuck in the traffic drive' and now I was in a real hurry. Just as I was dragging my suitcase out of the car, I heard my phone ringing.

"Hi Kate, I'll be right there. The traffic was horrible today but I'm just getting out of the parking area as we speak," I answered right away since I knew she was going to ask where I was.

"Okay perfect! Me and Ines are waiting for you in the bar on the right side of the terminal when you get through the security, you'll spot us for sure," Kate answered cheerfully.

"See you soon, and get me a glass of red wine will you?"

"Already did love," Kate knew me so well.

Why was it that I always felt like I'm carrying a gun or something when I needed to go through the airport security. It's kinda funny. Last time I actually had a bottle of vodka in my suitcase. I had forgotten it there after a road trip we'd done with the girls. I remember the security dude looking at me like I was an alien. I swear to god, I felt like the most dangerous criminal out there back then. After a short queue I made it out alive through the security area and saw my two best friends sitting in a bar. I couldn't help but smile when I saw them. We saw each other pretty often but still, every time we met I felt like the luckiest woman alive. I trusted them with everything and they always had my back no matter what. I couldn't be happier about the fact that we were able to travel together around the world. Well maybe not the world but every year we would make a trip somewhere where we had never been before. This summer it was going to be Monaco. Monaco wasn't that far away from Germany but Monaco was a small place, bit exclusive and I've always wanted to visit the small country, so the girls had finally agreed to come with me. Kate had been travelling around the world for few years now. She was a model and recently she had been offered quite many job gigs around the world. I'm pretty sure she just came from Singapore. Maybe last week? Ines was bit more like me, more down to earth kinda woman. She worked as a real estate agent and our offices were located around the same area in Munich. We sometimes had a lunch together and usually every Friday we would go out to have drinks after the work and get ready for weekend. 

"Hola, hola, my beautiful ladies!" I greeted my friends and hugged them both. "Who's ready to drink some way too expensive champagne and do absolutely nothing for a week?" I continued.

"Look at you, someone doesn't sound like she needs a vacation at all," Kate said and handed me my wine.

"I'm so exhausted honestly. Like can we not mention the word 'work' for the next eight days please?"

"Well technically it's you who just said the word but yes. It's time to forget about the real world and focus on spending all our money to just stay alive for a week," Ines laughed.

"Oh please, Monaco is not that expensive. We'll be just fine. And I think it was a good idea to rent airbnb. More space than hotel room would have offered," I said and took a big sip from my wine glass.

"Yes that's true, and I'm just excited to spend some time on that yacht. I've always actually wanted to do that, I mean you can literally just take a morning swim in the ocean," Ines pointed out.

"Last summer I had a photo shoot on this huge yacht. We stayed there for few days but it was really annoying since the boat was full of people and every single time you would try to have some quiet time, someone would just pop up around the corner. Didn't really enjoy that," Kate explained and I could easily understand where she was coming from. We all enjoyed our personal space and silence every now and then. I think I needed it the most, Kate had gotten pretty used to being around people all the time by now because of her work. I couldn't really understand how she handled it. 

"Flight 208 to Nice is now boarding on gate 16. All passengers please have your boarding passes ready and make sure you have collected all your carry on luggage."

"Oh that's our cue, let's go! The sooner we get to the plane the sooner we'll be out of Germany," I clapped my hands excitedly and sipped rest of my wine as did Ines and Kate followed my example.

"You know the plane doesn't take off any sooner whatever we sit there or not," Kate mumbled.

"Blah blah, let's go!"

• • •

The flight was thankfully very short one, only an hour and half. I hated flying. I wasn't afraid of it but I just found it super boring. And being 173 centimeters tall, the leg space often was bit too limited for my liking. 

"Hey girls, do you have anything planned after we come back home?" I asked before the girls put their headphones on.

"You already thinking of coming back home when we have barely touched 5000 feet?" Ines looked at me.

"Nah... Just thinking. I still have two more weeks vacation left after this so I was just wondering," I didn't have anything special planned for those weeks. Usually I had everything planned out months before but this time I didn't have time to come up with anything else. 

"I'm going back to work. What about you Kate?" Ines then turned her head to look at Kate.

"I think I'm going to Berlin to visit this photographer. He's very talented and he asked me to model for his friends jewelry line. We'll see," she answered. 

Rest of the flight was quiet. I think I even fell asleep for a minute because next thing I heard was the captain announcing we were ready to start landing to Nice. 

• • •

"This is amazing!" I looked at Kate who was going trough the rooms in our airbnb. 

"I know, look at the balcony and the view. The ocean looks like it's so close!" I said and opened the slide doors to the spacious balcony. You could see the small Monaco harbor from here. The sky was blue but it was already getting bit darker.

"Hello Monaco," I whispered and smiled looking at the stunning view in front of me.

Ines and Kate seemed to have all the energy in the world but I was ready to hit the bed. 

"Hey girls, I think I'm just going to take a shower and then go to bed. I'm super tired, it's already 8 pm anyways so," I told my friends as I stepped back inside the apartment. 

"I'm not really tired but as soon as I get out of these jeans and change into my pyjamas I think I'm ready to fall asleep as well," Kate agreed with me.

"So bed it is, tomorrow's a new day. Elza, was the yacht rented from Tuesday till Friday?" I heard Ines ask me as I went trough my luggage and tried to find my night gown.

"Yes, someone from the company will come and meet us at the harbor and introduce us to the crew," I explained. This was very typical situation when we traveled together. I usually took care of everything and the girls just tagged along. I think I actually had some trust issues when it came to booking flights and hotels. I always wanted to do everything myself just to make sure. 

"Crew?" Kate's head popped out from the bathroom.

"Well you didn't think we were going to be some master mariners? It's a big boat," I winked right back at her and shut the bathroom door.