【Ｆ１ ＩＭＡＧＩＮＥＳ】

[Ｄａｎｉｅｌ Ｒｉｃｃｉａｒｄｏ]

"You okay there?"
I whipped around, finding a man standing under an umbrella as he stared at me, who was sitting on the side of the road after my car's engine gave up on its pathetic existence.
I sighed. At least with this rain, he couldn't tell I was crying.
"Not really," I laughed pitifully, "My engine went to live in engine hell."
"Hell?" The man asked with a laugh and I nodded as he moved to cover me with the umbrella.
"Well, yeah. This engine has given me more trouble than I can start thinking of. And I've barely had the car for two years."
"Do you need any help?"
I looked up at him, "Actually yeah," I showed him my phone, which was dead, "Can I borrow your phone to call my brother? He's waiting for me."
The man nodded and smiled, and it was then that I felt there was something oddly familiar about his face, but I couldn't figure out what, "If you know his number, go ahead."
He handed me his unlocked phone, and I started typing my brother's number, finding he already had it saved. My head snapped in his direction, "How do you know my brother?"
He stared back, peering at the phone, "You're Max's sister?!"
We both laughed at the situation, "Yeah that should be me, I'm Y/N."
The man smiled, "I'm Daniel. Man, what are the odds?"
I laughed, "Let me just call my brother and we'll try and work the maths out after I found a way to solve this."
I started the call, waiting and praying for Max to pick up his phone for once.
"Daniel? You okay man?"
"It's Y/N actually," I said sheepishly and heard Max huff.
"How on earth? I thought you didn't know any drivers besides me and Lando!"
"We can discuss the hows and whys later, I have an issue here Maxie. My engine's gone, for good I think."
I heard Max cursing everything, "And you're outside in this rain? You're going to be sick and mom will kill me!"
"I'm fine, I already called the tow truck, but I need a ride back to your place. Can you come to get me?"
"I can take you!" Daniel offered with a smile, "I was heading down there anyway, so I can take you."
"Daniel's taking you?" Max asked and I hummed, "Alright, I mean, it was time I introduced you two really. You would have already met him if you came to see your brother race but it is what it is."
I huffed, "You can act just like a little kid sometimes, Max. But I promise to attend all the races I can this season."
"I'll hold you to that. Ask Daniel to let me know once the tow truck gets there okay?"
I hummed in agreement, "I'll see you later, Max."
"See you!"

I handed Daniel back his phone as I shivered and cursed at myself for not wearing anything warmer. "Max asked you to please text him when the tow truck gets here."
Daniel nodded, offering me a smile and I smiled back, "And thank you, you didn't have to stop and help me. I could have been a serial killer."
Daniel laughed, "A pretty cute one, so that's okay," I blushed brightly before Daniel handed me his umbrella, "Give me just a sec, hold this."
He dashed back to his car, opened the boot, and got something, walking back to me, "Here, put this on and get out of your wet shirt, otherwise, you'll get sick."
I frowned lightly, "It's okay, there's-"
"Nonsense, who knows when the tow truck will get here. In the meantime, you get your stuff in my car and we wait inside. Now go and change inside the car or something."
I took the sweatshirt, which smelled amazing, and dashed to the back seat of my car, taking out my drenching shirt and putting on the sweatshirt, before grabbing my purse and my duffel bag and climbing out of the car.
I felt immediately warmer with the sweatshirt and I smiled in appreciation at Daniel, "Thank you, this is actually better. After all this, I owe you a dinner."
"Nonsense, but I'll take it just to get dinner with you" he laughed as he opened his boot and I placed my things inside, before we both climbed inside his car, "I'm glad I could help. Max always speaks highly of you, and it's a shame you didn't get to go to any of our races."
I sighed, "Yeah, I've been studying and working, so I didn't have much time, but now that I've got my degree and am already working here in my field I have more time."
Daniel looked at me, "You moved here?"
I nodded, "Yeah, Max helped me get everything sorted. I'm a writer and editor, so I can pretty much work on the road, which gives me time to come see my younger brother do what he loves."
Daniel smiled brightly, "A writer?! Is it possible that I have read any of your books?"
I blushed brightly, offering him a shake of my head, "I don't think so. You've probably read some of the books I edited though. But ask Max, he always gets signed copies of my books."
"What do you write about?"
"It's usually fantasy, suspense, mystery, crimes, that sort of thing. I tried writing a romance once and it was a disaster, so I put it to the side."
Daniel smiled brightly, "I do love a good murder mystery book."
I laughed, "Yeah, then you came to the right place. Ask Max to borrow one of the books and if you like them I promise to get signed copies for you."
Daniel smiled, "Really?"
I nodded, "After today, it's the least I can do."
We chatted for a little longer before the tow company showed up and told me to which auto shop they were taking my car and that either my insurance company or the shop themselves would call me to tell me when to pick up the car.
I sighed as I sat in Daniel's passenger seat and he offered me a smile, "Hey, it's all good, no need to worry."
I offered him a smile as well, "Yeah, no, I just hate that Max will tell me he was right. And he might become insufferable about it until the end of time."
Daniel laughed, "What about?"
I sighed, "I drove here from the Netherlands and I got a Monaco license plate and whatnot for the car, but even back home it gave me all sorts of trouble, and when Max told me I should just get a new car I told him that at the shop they guaranteed the car would be perfectly fine from then on. Max said they were giving me bullshit and I told him to cram it. He was right."
Daniel shrugged, "So what? Maybe sell the car for parts and get a new one, if the car gives you that much trouble, and you won't have to hear Max boast about being right anymore."
"That might be a good idea," I looked at his side profile as he drove, "but we've been yapping about me long enough. What about you?"
Daniel shrugged, "I'm an Australian F1 driver, I currently drive for AlphaTauri, I was Max's teammate a while back and I don't think there's much else to it, really."
I pouted, "Oh, come on, there has to be something more!"
"Well, I'm single and I laugh whenever my nephew or my niece falls, I have a pretty good video of my nephew falling and me laughing my ass off."
I shook my head, chuckling, "Totally get that. Kids falling is one of my favorite things!"
Daniel smiled, "Max invited me over today to meet you actually, but we beat him to it."
I laughed, "We kinda did. But thank God we did, otherwise I don't know how that would have ended up for me."
Daniel laughed, "With you soaking wet on the side of the road?"
I laughed lightly, "Well, now I'm half wet on your car seat-"
Daniel howled with laughter as we stopped at a red light, and only then did I realize what I'd said, blushing furiously. "Oh my God! I didn't-"
"That was pure gold!" Daniel laughed, a few tears escaping his eyes as I shrunk into the seat, wishing the ground would swallow me whole.
"I'm never speaking again. Not in front of you."
Daniel turned into Max's parking lot, laughing still, "It's a shame, you got a beautiful voice."
I blushed even more as Daniel parked the car in Max's garage, "Still not talking? Maybe texting is better then, mind giving me your number?"
I blushed brightly as he extended me his phone, but typed in my number, watching him save it before he texted me.
I sighed as we climbed out of the car, I got my things from the boot, and then we took the elevator to Max's apartment.
Once there, we rang his doorbell and when Max opened the door, he was looking between us with a raised eyebrow. I dumped the duffel bag on Max's hands, "That's the cat tree I promised, have fun putting it together."
Max huffed, reaching to hug me, "You're an absolute menace."
He and Daniel greeted each other before we entered, and immediately I heard Penelope running from her room, shouting my name, "Y/N!"
I laughed, picking her up in my arms, and hugging her tightly, "Hi, P! How's Max been? Is he behaving?"
Penelope laughed as I put her down, "Maxie is good! We made cookies this morning!"
Then Penelope spotted Daniel behind me and promptly ran to hug him, which made my heart melt.
Max stared at me once more, and I sighed, "I was drenched from cursing at my car, Daniel lent me his shirt."
"Do you need a shower?"
I turned around, finding Kelly standing behind me with a smile. We hugged each other tightly before she smiled, "I see you've met Daniel."
I laughed, nodding my head at the man who was laughing with Penelope, "He saved me, I'm not even joking."
"I told you to sell that piece of junk and get a new car," Max sang and I glared at him, "I'm just saying. I was right."
I rolled my eyes at him, "Yeah, shut it."
Penelope then pulled my hand and Daniel's "Can I do your make-up? Mommy got me a make-up kit and Maxie said I could do all of your make-up once you got here!"
Daniel and I shared a look as Kelly and Max went to the kitchen, laughing, "I mean, sure, of course!"
"I call the pink eyeshadow!" Daniel said as we followed Penelope to her room and I laughed.
"That's not fair, I wanted pink!"
"You both get pink! You can match!"