Chapter 73 Chapter 73

Chapter 73 Chapter 73
Paris
The train carriage was hot and completely packed with people.
I had been sitting in the same cramped seat for over an hour, and my stomach had been turning with a frantic kind of nervous excitement the entire time. A businessman was snoring loudly to my left and a group of students were laughing over a card game behind me, but I couldn’t focus on any of it. I just kept my eyes glued to the window, watching the green hills of Yorkshire blur past and change into the grey, industrial outskirts of Manchester.
It had only been a few weeks since we said goodbye in my dorm room, but it felt like a lifetime. The daily texts and the eleven o’clock phone calls were great, but they weren’t enough. I missed his touch. I missed the way he looked at me. My fingers were actually trembling as I checked the time on my phone for the twentieth time.
4:45 PM. We were finally pulling into Manchester Piccadilly Station.
The train screeched to a halt, and I didn’t even wait for the aisle to completely clear out. I grabbed my weekend duffel bag from the overhead rack and squeezed my way through the crowd toward the doors. The moment my boots hit the concrete platform, my eyes started scanning the sea of strangers. The station was massive and chaotic, filled with the loud echoes of announcements and the rushing footsteps of commuters.
And then I saw him.
He was leaning against a concrete pillar near the exit gates, looking completely out of place among the rushing business people. He wore his classic black leather jacket and a dark t-shirt, and his brooding eyes were scanning the crowd with an intense focus. He looked tired, but the exact moment his gaze landed on me, his whole face changed.
I dropped my duffel bag right there on the platform and ran.
Fabian didn’t hesitate either. He moved forward with long, desperate strides, and before I could even say his name, he caught me. He wrapped his strong arms around my waist and lifted me completely off my feet, pulling me against his chest so tightly that the breath knocked right out of my lungs. I buried my face in the crook of his neck, inhaling the familiar, comforting scent of his cologne and tobacco.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered roughly into my hair. His voice was shaking a little, and his grip only tightened as he lowered my feet back to the ground.
He didn’t let me go though. He cupped my face with his large hands and leaned down, capturing my lips in a kiss that was immediate, heavy, and completely desperate. It wasn’t a gentle greeting. It was a breathless, frantic claim, a way of erasing every single mile that had kept us apart for the last month. My hands flew to the back of his neck, tangling in his soft, dark hair as I kissed him back with the exact same hunger. The rest of the busy station completely vanished around us.
When he finally pulled away, his forehead rested against mine, and we were both breathing heavily.
“You’re actually here,” he muttered, his thumbs wiping away a stray tear that had slipped down my cheek from sheer relief.
“I’m here,” I gasped, offering him a brilliant, watery smile. “I’m not letting you go all weekend.”
“Good,” he said, finally releasing his grip just enough to pick up my dropped duffel bag. He grabbed my hand, locking his fingers firmly with mine, and led me out toward the car park.
The drive back to the university housing block was a blur of traffic and neon signs. Fabian kept one hand on the steering wheel and used the other to hold my hand over the center console, his thumb stroking my knuckles in that rhythmic, soothing motion I had missed so terribly. He told me that Colton was actually out for the evening because of a late politics seminar and a group project meeting. Colton had texted him earlier saying he would have loved to be there to welcome me properly, but his schedule was completely jammed until late.
Honestly, as much as I wanted to see my best friend, I was secretly thrilled. It meant we had the entire dorm room completely to ourselves.
When we finally walked into Room 412, I couldn’t help but giggle. The thick black duct tape was still stuck perfectly to the linoleum floor, dividing the room into two completely separate worlds. Colton’s side was surprisingly neat, with his expensive bags and textbooks arranged precisely, while Fabian’s side looked exactly like his old bedroom, complete with the birthday photo collage blanket spread across his bed.
“The tape is real,” I laughed, pointing at the floor.
“I told you it was,” Fabian said, tossing my bag onto his desk chair. He closed the heavy dorm door and locked it with a sharp click. “I don’t play around when it comes to my space.”
I turned around to face him, but before I could make another joke about his prison rules, Fabian crossed the distance between us. He grabbed me by the waist and pressed me back against the locked door, his mouth finding mine again with a renewed intensity. The playful mood instantly melted into something thick, heavy, and completely overwhelming.
The physical longing we had been suppressing for weeks exploded to the surface in an instant. My jacket was pulled from my shoulders and dropped to the floor, and his hands were hot against my waist as he lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his hips naturally, and he carried me across the room, the black duct tape on the floor completely forgotten as he lowered me onto his twin bed.
The mattress squeaked loudly under our weight, but neither of us cared.
The entire night became a desperate attempt to make up for all the weeks of separation in a single evening. Every touch was heavy with emotion, and every kiss felt like a reassurance that we were still the same Paris and Fabian who had fallen in love by the pond back home. There was no distance, no university schedules, and no classes or friends. There was just the weight of his body against mine, the sound of our ragged breathing in the dark room, and the intense physical connection that belonged only to us.
Later, the room was completely dark except for the amber glow of the streetlights filtering through the window blinds. I was lying with my head rested on Fabian’s bare chest, listening to the steady, comforting thumping of his heart. His long arm was wrapped securely around my shoulders, pulling me into his side as his fingers traced lazy circles on my bare arm.
“We’re going to make it work, right?” I whispered into the quiet room. The vulnerability slipped out before I could stop it, the lingering exhaustion of the weeks finally catching up to me.
Fabian leaned down and kissed the top of my head, his grip tightening protectively. “We’re already making it work, babe. A few miles aren’t going to change anything. I love you.”
“I love you too,” I murmured, closing my eyes and letting the warmth of his skin lull me toward sleep.
For one night, the ninety-minute gap felt completely nonexistent, and I was exactly where I belonged.