Stop and Stare

River never had the luxury of dreaming.

At twenty-one, her life is built around survival: working three jobs, paying hospital bills, buying medicine for her sick mother, and raising her five-year-old brother in a cramped apartment where hope is something they ration carefully.

She doesn't have time for distractions.

Especially not Celestine Razon.

Beautiful. Rich. Untouchable. The only granddaughter of one of Las Vegas' most powerful business tycoons, Celestine is everything River knows better than to want. She walks into River's bar with emerald eyes, golden hair, and a smile that looks like trouble wrapped in diamonds.

Celestine is used to people wanting something from her.
River wants nothing.

And maybe that is exactly why Celestine can't look away.

What starts as teasing across a bar turns into late-night conversations, stolen kisses, cheap hotdogs by the river, and a dangerous kind of softness neither of them knows how to handle.

But River's world is heavy with bills, sickness, and sacrifice.

Celestine's world is chained to family expectations, old grief, and an arranged future she never chose.

They come from different lives.
Different wounds.
Different kinds of loneliness.
And yet, every time they try to walk away...

they stop.
And stare.