Chapter 1 — Boarding Pass & Bad Vibes
Heathrow Airport was buzzing — people rushing, lattes spilling, babies crying.
Clara Moretti, 27, travel blogger from Florence, was about to start her “12 Days Across Europe” journey — her followers were already flooding her feed with “You’re living my dream 😍!”
Everything was perfect until the announcement:
“Passengers Clara Moretti and Lucas Meyer, please proceed to the service desk for a seat change.”
Clara marched up with her sunshine-yellow suitcase. “Hi, yes! I requested a window seat. I need light for my travel journal.”
The attendant looked apologetic. “It seems your seat overlaps with another passenger.”
Cue: Lucas Meyer — tall, blond, German accent, eyes like storm clouds, hoodie up, expression bored enough to end civilizations.
“I paid extra for the aisle,” he said flatly.
“I get motion sickness,” she countered. “You look… stable.”
“I’m allergic to chatty seatmates.”
“Perfect! I’ll just silently judge you.”
The attendant’s smile died. “You’ll be sitting together then.”
Thirty minutes into the flight, Clara pulled out her notebook and wrote:
Day 1: Met a man who smells like cedarwood and ego. Probably German.
Lucas glanced over. “Your handwriting looks like someone fainted mid-sentence.”
“I didn’t invite you to read.”
“You placed it in my peripheral vision.”
“You placed your arrogance in my oxygen supply.”
He chuckled. “I’m Lucas. Travel planner. You?”
“Clara. Content creator.”
“So basically, you turn chaos into aesthetic captions?”
“Exactly. And you ruin them with logic.”
He smiled. “You’ll be fun to annoy for the next twelve days.”
She muttered, “May turbulence smite you.”
