Shape of you (Daniel Ricciardo)

Unexpected encounters

Christian ends the meeting and Stevie decides to head into the kitchen to get to know the people working there.
She has briefly met Delores, but not the rest of the crew.

Just when she wants to go over to the kitchen somebody gently grabs her arm. The large hand that is wrapped around her wrist, sends sparks through her entire body. It can only be one person causing this.

She turns around and she sees exactly who she expected to see. She stares directly into those beautiful brown orbs that are Daniel's eyes.
"Hi there. You didn't mention you would be here and possibly work for the team last week."

"Because I didn't know it yet. I was thinking about it. I still am."

Daniel just can't wrap his head around how breathtakingly beautiful she is.
These last days he has been going back and forth, trying to make up his mind on whether to forget about her or not.
It was pointless though. He already knew he would never be able to just forget about her.

And now she is here and all he can think of is how badly he wants her to stay with the team.
"So how can we make sure you stay?" He asks her.
"I don't know, probably let me get to know the kitchen and the people working in it first."

He's not really sure how to react to that. She sounded a bit cold, like she doesn't want to talk to him.
Did he say something wrong? He was just being nice to her.

She invited Seb over for dinner last night. Does that mean she is interested in Seb and not in him? Seb told him he wasn't ready for a relationship and he knew that Daniel is interested in getting to know her. What if that was all bullshit and there is something going on between them.

He wouldn't blame Seb, but it would definitely hurt.
Just when he wants to turn around and walk away she smiles at him and puts her hand on his arm.

"I'm about 80% sure I'm going to accept the job. I was just going to meet everybody who works in the kitchen and start making plans for the menus this weekend. I'm sure we will be able to talk a bit more later. But by the looks of your press officer, you have to go."
She looks over his shoulder where Charlotte is about to lose her mind.

They only have a few more minutes before he has to be in the press conference, so he really should get going.
He can feel the warmth of her hand on his arm and he also feels those sparks again.
If only he could stay here with her touching him, but he can't. And she is right, she should get to know the people she's going to work with.

"Yeah you are right. I would love to catch up and hear all about how this all started, maybe we can have some coffee later? How do you drink yours? With lots of milk?" He asks her and she scoffs.
"Hell no, black and strong, with a bit of sugar. If I'm still here when you're done we can have a coffee."

His heart makes a little jump, so it's not that she doesn't want to talk to him and she is very likely to stay which makes him beyond happy.
He also knows Charlotte is not beyond happy with him at all right now so he really should go.
Now he doesn't mind so much, knowing he will see a lot more of Stephanie this weekend and maybe the rest of the season.

So he quickly says bye for now and follows Charlotte who is grumbling because now they have to hurry to be in time.
But not even her being cross with him can dampen his mood. Stephanie is here and it instantly made his weekend ten times better than it was.

"You know there were pictures of you with her on the beach going around social media last week right? And then people started to speculate who she was when you went over to here to celebrate your pole and she was also filmed standing with the team at your podium ceremony." Charlotte causally mentions.