"This is insane," I say.
"Yeah," he agrees.
"We have no idea what we're doing."
"Not a clue."
"Your flat is probably the size of my closet."
"Probably smaller."
I laugh, and it comes out broken. "We're going to destroy each other."
"Maybe." His thumb traces my jaw. "Or maybe we'll grow old together.”
Chapter 12
The Price for Loving a Princess
Playlist:
Esme Rose: Fuck Being a Princess
Idina Menzel: Into the Unknown
Schladming, Austria, January 27
NICO
The hotel conference room door closes behind me with a soft click that sounds too final. Élise is still inside, probably wiping her face, fixing her hair, doing whatever she needs to do before she walks back out into the world like nothing just happened.
Like we didn't just blow up both our lives.
I walk back to the team hotel with my hands shoved deep in my pockets, shoulders hunched against the cold. The night race is long over, but the crowds are still celebrating. Music blares from the bars lining the street, fans spilling out onto the sidewalks with beer and flags and that wild energy Schladming always has after a night race. Someone recognizes me, yells my name, raises a glass. I wave without stopping, duck my head, keep walking.
The lobby is too bright when I walk in, all polished wood and glass and that fake alpine charm hotels like this always have. I can hear voices from the breakfast room off to the side. Team debrief must still be going.
I should go to my room. Pack. Get out of here before someone asks questions I don't know how to answer.
Instead, I walk toward the voices.
Lukas sees me first. He's leaning back in his chair, a glass of beer in one hand, phone in the other, that lazy grin already forming. "There he is. Thought you got lost."
"Something like that." I pull out a chair and sit down harder than I mean to.
Thomas is at the head of the table, Katharina next to him, both of them looking at me like they already know something's wrong. Martin's there too, flipping through notes on his phone, half-listening.
"You good?" Thomas asks.
"Yeah. Fine."
