Fated| H.S

"We hit the border in six hours," he said. He leaned over the table, crowding my space just enough that a few loose, long curls fell forward into his face. He brushed them back with a slow, careless hand, that petty smirk fixing on me. "You go back to whatever life you're hiding from, and I go disappear into some shitty hotel. Clean break."

I didn't even blink, looking straight into those heavy green eyes of his. "I know the schedule."

He let out a dry laugh, his gaze dropping to my mouth before snapping back up. "Right. So what the hell are we doing?"

"I think you know exactly what we're doing."

His smirk widened just a fraction, a dark, amused glint in his eyes as he leaned a hair closer, mocking the reality of it all.

"Then I guess we're fated, angel."

//

Five days. That's all Valarie Cavalli wanted before reality caught up. After a year studying art in Paris, she booked a ticket on a slow luxury train to Florence, desperate to avoid the suffocating high-society expectations waiting for her at home.

Then Harry sat down across from her.

He's quiet, cynical, and walking away from a massive music career she knows nothing about. They don't swap names or backgrounds-just heavy looks and sarcastic attitude over cheap wine while the train cuts across Europe.

By the fourth night, the rules of their clean break start to blur. With only 24 hours left before the tracks end, they stop pretending this is just a way to pass the time.

But when the train finally pulls into the station, how do you walk away from the one person you were actually supposed to find?