INVISIBLE STRING ☆ DANIEL RICCIARDO

forty-one

NEW YORK CITY, USA; OCTOBER 26th 2022

If there was one thing Isla had missed the most recently, it was girl time. It seemed like ever since summer break, too much had been going on for them to properly have time together. From Isla and Amani's fallout, to Lu's breakup; and sure, they had time together during fashion month, but that was still work.

Isla had said her goodbyes to Daniel only a day prior in Texas, he was off to Mexico and she had promised to spend time with her best friends since Lu was finally back in the US. It was quite the tearful exchange since they wouldn't be seeing each other until Abu Dhabi.

"Lia, I'll start crying too now if you don't stop." Daniel had joked as he wiped a few stray tears outside the airport.

Isla wraps her arms around him tighter, snuggling her head further into his chest. "I'll hold you while you do that."

Daniel chuckles and presses a kiss to her temples, squeezing her just as tightly as she was. The pressure slightly lifts her off the ground, eliciting a squeal from the woman as he starts swaying her left and right.

"I hope you know this isn't gonna get me to let go."

"Oh, I know. This is for the sake of my back leaning over for you." Isla lightly smack his back but he only picks her up a little higher before finally setting her down again. "You're gonna miss your flight."

"Okay, okay. I'm going." She pulls his head down and places a quick kiss to his lips. "I'll see you in three weeks."

Daniel smiles, giving her one last kiss. "Three weeks."

"I better see you on that podium, Ricky." she winks, walking backwards towards her gate.

"Now I wish I never told you about Talladega Nights." her boyfriend shakes his head at her. "I promise I'll try my best for you."

In the span of said weeks apart, Amani's apartment had turned into a big mess. Seeing as she lived in a one bedroom apartment, it usually meant all three of them were cramped in the small space. Ever since Amani had upgraded her bed size, none of them had seemed to mind— especially Milo.

"I think we just not move for the rest of the week." Amani comments, her eyes focused on the New Girl rerun playing on her bedroom TV.

The three girls were snuggled on her king size bed, Lu tightly squeezed in the middle and subsequently earning all the cuddles. They had spent the past few morning and evenings in a similar state, only taking the time to go out for a nice brunch and sometimes dinner.

Isla sits up properly to look at both of them. "Should we cancel our reservation?"

"Maybe we can push it to tomorrow?" Luisinha suggests. "We can order in from the Thai place down the street."

"Oh, how I love being a horrible influence."

Lu immediately shoves a cushion into her friends face, grabbing her phone and Islas so they could rearrange their dinner plans. In the span of an hour, the three women had migrated through to the living room, pad thai and wine glasses in hand.

"We're literally so lame." Amani scoffs through a mouthful of food, her two best friends laughing along as she flicked through the TV channels.