INVISIBLE STRING ☆ DANIEL RICCIARDO

twelve

MONTE CARLO, MONACO; MAY 29th 2022

Monaco truly was something else. Isla had heard countless stories about the country from her friends and people she's worked with, how it was a rich mans playground. She truly thought they were all just over exaggerating the beauty and the lifestyle. But oh how wrong she was.

Isla would say she fell in love with the country the moment they arrived, the scenery, the boats and all the cars and people. The country screamed money. But what had grabbed her attention the most was how lavishly everyone dressed, she could get used to a place like this.

She had arrived along with Luisinha on the Wednesday before the race weekend, immediately going to Landos apartment after he had picked them both up. They spent their evening having dinner and taking a short walk around the surrounding areas of Monaco, it was safe to say that Isla was mesmerized.

The woman had also managed to give Daniel a heads up that she was there that weekend, prompting him to invite her for dinner with him on Thursday. She hadn't felt that nervous to be around someone in ages, and she wasn't exactly sure why she was panicking about it that much.

He had taken her to a quiet little cafe that had felt almost hidden away from the world, which made his choice of place make a lot of sense.

"I'm really glad you texted." Daniel speaks as he places both of their coffee mugs on the table and takes he seat across from her.

Isla takes a small sip, pleasantly surprised by how good it tasted. "I told you I was a woman of my word."

"Can we just start over?" he huffs after a few moments of silence. "We can forget all about it, if that's what you want. I just don't want this to be weird."

"It's not going to be weird, I promise." she smiles softly. "But when you say start over, you mean like back in Italy or all the way to New York 'cause-"

"Hilarious, Isla, really. They should give you your own stand up show, honestly."

She lifts her mug at him with a loud laugh, eliciting one of his own before she says. "I've tried but the Kardashians are taking up all the TV space nowadays."

They only spent a couple of hours together that night as Daniel needed to prepare for the commencing race weekend. The Monaco GP seemed to be a touchy subject for him, he had told her all about how Redbull had fucked up his race here years ago as well as the story of his redemption.

Isla had to admit, she had found a new sense of admiration for the man and how he always tried to see the positives to everything. All good, all ways, he had told her.

She had also quickly learned how different street races were to circuit races, almost the whole country had been blocked off for it and the people were absolutely crazy about it. Granted, Monaco wasn't all that big, but still she found it crazy. Along with it, the insane amount of love the people had for Ferrari and their home grown Charles Leclerc.

Luisinha had the time of her life when she finally introduced her to Isa, who was Carlos Sainz' partner. Apparently he and Lando were really good friends, which meant that Isa and Lu often got roped into their plans and had managed to become good friends themselves.

Isla instantly loved the Spaniard, the pair of them bonding over fashion and their opinions on different designers. One of the first things the blonde had said to her was complimenting her on her fashion month successes, claiming that she had loved every single look, whether it be on the runway or off.

Isa had even brought up her fashion podcast to the model, who was very determined to start learning Spanish just so she could listen to it.

They had also met Daniel's mother that weekend, whose favorite race was always Monaco and she apparently made the effort to be at every single one. Isla thought it was really sweet how big of an effort Grace put for her son, even though he was a fully grown man. It made her miss her own mother a lot.