When it Rains | Daniel Ricciardo

Chapter 9 - Dirty.Ugly.

We flew the next day to Bahrain, Mike sat next to me and I had Daniel and Nico in front of me. They wanted to be with the team for this one which I thought was quite nice. Ryan had spent the whole of last night apologizing to me. He made us dinner and even set up candles around the lounge. It was incredibly romantic if I do say so myself.

Throughout his speech I didn't really say anything. I just listened and took in the words he was saying. He said that after last weekend something in him had changed, 'an eyeopener' of sorts. He never intended to hurt me the way he did and his jealousy had just gotten the better of him. He mentioned that the attention I get from the guys has always bugged him, but that it wasn't something I needed to change, more something he needed to start letting go of because I was an amazing person that is bound to attract people with my personality. 

It felt like finally, we were starting to break down some of those walls he's put up and that he was finally letting me in. I apologized to him for not being more understanding during this time and to be more aware of his triggers. We are okay again, but I'm still a bit hurt inside, besides the obvious pain in my shoulder and the bruises on my neck, I still feel a little broken.

The race weekend went by so quickly this time, I refused to go for drinks after the team dinner on Friday and instead opted for a Skype chat with Jen and a big mug of coffee. We chatted till about 11pm her side which made it 1am in Bahrain. Faceplant - so much for an early night. Saturday's qualifying went so well for the boys earning spots in the 3rd and 4th row.

I fell asleep before supper and woke up for a late snack where I found Mike at the bar downstairs, we had a chat over a beer and I went straight to sleep afterwards.

The bruises on my neck had turned light shades of purply yellow. The marks on my wrists were gone so I at least could wear the team shirt without seventeen bracelets or a jacket, but the big one on my collarbone was still pretty gross - I'll hold on the details of that one. 

I had a shower after the race because it's fucking hot outside, Dan Nico and I are going to go for a drink to celebrate a good weekend. I opted for a light nude jersey with a high pollar neck and long sleeves. I had to hurry, Dan just texted me saying he was on his way. I slipped some underwear on and had just hooked the clasp of my bra when a very flushed face Daniel popped into my doorway. "Sorry. The um. the..uh door was slightly open. sorry." He turned around with his hand in front of his face and stood in the lounge area of the room. I grabbed my jersey and pulled some jeans on as quickly as I could. Shit that was.. weird.

Now completely embarrassed I walked to an even more mortified Daniel.

"Hi," I said giggling.

"Can I look yet?" I pulled his hand away from his face. "Hey, I'm so sorry. Your door was-"

"It's okay Dan, not like I was naked." I cut him off awkwardly laughing.

His eyes focused in on something and his brows furrowed, just then I looked down and realized that the colour of my jersey was yellow and not nude. Not nude. Not the nude one with the high neck. I was wearing a yellow jersey with a loose rounded neckline and Daniel was staring at the very obvious purply yellow finger marks around my neck.

Too overwhelmed to react to the situation, I just sat there staring deeply into his eyes that held a million questions. He saw the worry flash in my eyes when I knew he knew, but didn't say anything either. We both just sat there, I covered my neck with my left hand, but Daniel in turn, roughly pulled at it causing a shriek to escape my mouth and my other hand to fly up and favour my shoulder.

"Alexia!" Daniel shouted, getting off the chair on to his knees in front of me. "What? What did I do? I'm sorry!"

Gaining my breath, I reopened my eyes letting the tears that had come somewhere between the shock and the pain fall down my cheeks. "You were never supposed to see this." I struggle to sit straight, my shoulder is killing me. He removes my right hand from my shoulder slowly, "Daniel, don't." His fingers hook on the edge of my jersey collar and he pulls it down to reveal my best kept secret. I feel naked. Not like before, but like he had just uncovered the most private part of my life. The dirty, ugly side of my life that no one should see.