Meant to Be

Meant to Be Plot Summary

Introduction

# When London Calls: A Romance of Mistaken Hearts and Found Love Julia Lichtenstein clutches her Shakespeare collection like armor as the plane descends into Heathrow, her color-coded itineraries promising ten days of perfectly planned cultural enlightenment. She's spent years believing in fairy tale romance, convinced that Mark Bixford—the golden boy who spoke of love at age six—is her destined soulmate. But London has other plans for the rule-following honor student from Newton North. When Mrs. Tennison announces the buddy system, pairing Julia with Jason Lippincott—the red-haired troublemaker who stuffed tampons in her locker and calls her "Book Licker"—her carefully constructed world begins to crack. One chaotic night at a London house party changes everything. Phones get swapped in the darkness, mysterious text messages arrive from someone named Chris, and Julia discovers that sometimes the heart's greatest adventures begin with the most unlikely companions. As Big Ben chimes and rain falls on ancient cobblestones, she'll learn that love stories don't follow guidebooks, and the boy she thought she hated might be exactly what she never knew she needed.

Chapter 1: Crossed Wires: The Night That Changed Everything

The bass pounds through the London townhouse like a heartbeat, and Julia presses against the wall, clutching her guidebooks while beautiful British teenagers swirl around her in clouds of expensive perfume and casual confidence. She shouldn't be here—honor students don't crash parties on their first night abroad—but Jason Lippincott had somehow charmed duplicate room keys from the hotel staff and made her compliance mandatory. "Live a little, Book Licker," he'd grinned, his copper curls wild beneath that ever-present Red Sox cap. Now she watches him work the room with effortless charisma, making friends with prep school boys and charming girls with pink-streaked hair who laugh like silver bells at his Boston accent. The alcohol burns her throat—her first real drink—and the room spins slightly as she navigates through bodies pressed too close together. Someone hands her another cup, and another, and suddenly she's "über-Julia," spinning elaborate lies about being a Manhattan supermodel on a photo shoot. Boys gather around her, enchanted by her mysterious American allure, and she gives out her phone number freely, including to a gorgeous literary type named Chris who quotes poetry and makes her pulse quicken. The night explodes into chaos when a drunken boy crashes through a glass table, triggering a street brawl between teenagers and angry football fans. Julia and Jason sprint through London's winding alleys, her borrowed heels clicking against wet cobblestones as shouts echo behind them. Her purse tears open, scattering contents across the pavement—guidebooks, pens, her beloved pocket Shakespeare all lost to the London night. "I've got it," Jason pants, scooping up her phone as they flee into the maze of narrow streets. Neither notices the switch in the darkness—two identical devices, two different lives, now hopelessly tangled. Back at the hotel, Julia's head pounds with more than alcohol as her phone buzzes with a message from an unknown number: "Great meeting u tonight. Can't stop thinking about ur smile." The signature reads simply "C," and her heart hammers against her ribs. Someone noticed her tonight—not perfect Mark from her fantasies, but someone real who saw her smile in a crowded room and wanted more.

Chapter 2: Chasing Shadows: The Mystery of Chris Unfolds

Mrs. Tennison's voice cuts through the morning fog like a rusty blade, announcing cultural partnerships that make Julia's stomach drop. Jason Lippincott—her assigned buddy for the next week—appears at her door wearing expensive cashmere instead of his usual rumpled clothes, grinning like he's won some cosmic lottery. "Cheer up, sunshine," he says, reading her expression perfectly. "Maybe I'll teach you how to have actual fun." But as they navigate London's labyrinthine streets, something unexpected happens. Jason knows the city's hidden rhythms, its secret corners. He leads her to dusty record shops and underground venues, places where artsy types might lurk with their poetry and burnt caramel mochas. Her phone buzzes constantly with romantic messages from Chris—literary quotes and dreamy observations that make her pulse race—while Jason watches with knowing smirks that she can't quite decode. At the Globe Theatre, they interrogate an elderly ticket clerk named Felix about St. Bonaventure's Academy, following Chris's cryptic references to school productions. Their excitement crashes when they discover it's an all-girls school, but Jason's quick thinking with a security guard yields two possible café locations, sending them on a treasure hunt through London's coffee culture. The first Starbucks near the Globe holds only elderly book club members discussing Nicholas Sparks novels. But at the second location, Julia's heart stops. There, by the window with horn-rimmed glasses and a pocket Shakespeare, sits the most devastatingly handsome boy she's ever seen. Chris—it has to be Chris—exactly as she'd imagined him from their text exchanges. Panic overwhelms her as reality crashes into fantasy. How can she approach this intellectual Adonis when their entire relationship is built on lies about being a supermodel? She flees, leaving Jason bewildered by her sudden cowardice, the boy of her dreams sitting mere feet away while she discovers that courage comes in different forms—and she's desperately short of the kind that matters most.

Chapter 3: Unlikely Partners: Jason's Hidden Depths Revealed

Jason surprises her by leading the way to an underground skate park beneath a London bridge, where street art explodes across concrete walls in brilliant riots of color. Julia expects mockery of her guidebook obsession, but instead he engages thoughtfully with the graffiti's artistic merit, using words like "juxtaposition" that reveal hidden depths beneath his class clown facade. A scruffy musician sits in the corner strumming "Here, There and Everywhere," and Jason approaches with casual confidence. He borrows the guitar and settles onto a concrete ledge, his fingers finding the strings with surprising skill. When he begins singing "Oh! Darling," his voice cuts through the London fog with unexpected beauty, every note perfect and pure. Julia watches, mesmerized, as this boy she thought she knew transforms into someone entirely different. His freckles seem to dance as he hits the high notes, his eyes sparkling with genuine joy rather than mischievous calculation. The song ends, and she realizes she's been holding her breath, something warm and dangerous unfurling in her chest. "Where did you learn to play like that?" she asks, but Jason just shrugs, dismissing his talent with characteristic deflection. Their afternoon takes another unexpected turn at the Tower of London, where Jason shares his knowledge of political history, discussing the injustice of imprisonment without trial with passion that surprises her. But their fragile friendship shatters when he learns about her crush on Mark Bixford through Sarah Finder's gossip network. "Mark's perfect, right?" Jason's voice turns bitter. "Perfect hair, perfect smile, perfect everything." Julia's fierce defense triggers a shouting match that ends with her crashing into a suit of armor, the medieval metal clanging like a death knell for whatever understanding they'd begun to build. Mrs. Tennison's public scolding leaves Julia humiliated while Jason disappears into the crowd, their tentative connection severed by pride and the sharp edges of unspoken truths.

Chapter 4: Heart vs Mind: When Fantasy Meets Reality

Julia finds Jason drunk outside Prohibition, lime juice burning his eyes from a ridiculous shot called "the stuntman." Despite their earlier fight, she can't abandon him stumbling through London's streets alone, his usual coordination replaced by alcohol-induced vulnerability that makes her chest tight with unexpected protectiveness. She becomes his keeper, half-carrying him back to the hotel while he rambles about underground clubs and slurs his gratitude. In the elevator, Sarah Finder witnesses their intimate embrace, her knowing look promising future complications that Julia's too exhausted to worry about. In Jason's room, she tends to his hangover with water and careful positioning on his stomach, but when she reaches for her room key, her fingers find only a torn pocket and empty space. The key is lost somewhere along her evening run through London's maze of streets, leaving her stranded with no choice but to stay. She creates a makeshift bed on the floor, but the decorative rug's knots dig into her back like tiny accusations. Exhaustion wins over propriety, and Julia climbs carefully onto the bed beside Jason's sleeping form, telling herself it's just practical, just temporary, just survival. But when morning light filters through the curtains, she discovers they've curled together like puzzle pieces—his arm around her waist, her cheek nestled against his shoulder. The intimacy terrifies her more than any street brawl or broken rule. She escapes before he wakes, stealing his clothes and fleeing to her own room, but the warmth of his embrace lingers like a secret she can't quite forget. The realization hits like cold water: she's developing feelings for Jason Lippincott, the boy she's supposed to hate, while chasing a fantasy romance built on lies and mistaken identity. Her carefully ordered world tilts on its axis, and Julia discovers that the heart follows no guidebook, respects no itinerary, and cares nothing for the perfect plans that have always kept her safe.

Chapter 5: Shattered Illusions: The Truth About Perfect Love

Mark Bixford materializes by the hotel pool like a golden-haired mirage, and Julia's decade-long fantasy comes crashing down around her chlorine-scented shoulders. She's built him into something mythical—the boy who spoke of literary love at age six, who would understand her passion for books and beauty and all things romantic. The reality cuts deeper than any blade. Mark's favorite "Beatles" song is John Lennon's "Imagine." He hasn't read a book since high school graduation. The profound romantic she'd imagined was just a child parroting soap opera dialogue, hoping for a kindergarten kiss that meant nothing beyond playground politics. "I like a girl with a wild side," he says, his hand sliding toward places it shouldn't go, his words hitting like ice water. He's heard about the airplane bathroom incident that never happened, twisted by teenage gossip into something sordid that makes her skin crawl with shame and disappointment. Julia runs through London's winding streets, her fairy tale crumbling with each pounding footstep. She finds herself at 42 Ebury Street, the address Jason had pointed out from the London Eye—his childhood home, where Christmas trees once stood and mothers once sang lullabies before abandoning their sons to boarding schools and father's new girlfriends. Through the window, she sees another family, another little girl learning to read. The image blurs with memories of her own father, and Julia finally understands that perfect love stories exist only in books, that real life is messier and more complicated than any romance novel ever dared to be. A piece of paper sticks to her shoe—grape gum holding a receipt with Jason's handwriting. The Shakespeare quote is there, written correctly this time: "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind." He'd been here, standing where she stands now, looking in at lives that might have been, carrying his own broken dreams through London's ancient streets. The revelation hits like lightning splitting the sky: she's fallen for Jason Lippincott, completely and irrevocably, while chasing shadows and building castles from sand.

Chapter 6: Burned Bridges: Words That Cut Too Deep

The Spice of Life pub thrums with music and conversation, but Julia sits frozen at the bar, staring at the beautiful blonde beside her. Chris—not Christopher, but Christina—laughs like silver bells and quotes Churchill with casual brilliance, everything Julia pretended to be in those carefully crafted text messages. "I'm waiting for a guy named Jason," Chris explains, her pink-streaked hair catching the light. "Met him at a party. He's been texting me all week." The truth unravels like a dropped stitch in Julia's carefully knitted world. The phone swap, the mistaken identity, the week-long chase across London—all of it built on crossed wires and misunderstood signals. She's been texting Jason's admirer while he received her messages, both of them chasing phantoms that never existed. Mark appears like a predator scenting prey, his practiced charm immediately focused on Chris's statuesque beauty. Julia watches her childhood fantasy transform into something ugly and grasping, his smooth words revealing the shallow player Jason had tried to warn her about. The cab ride back to the hotel becomes a battlefield, two weeks of misunderstanding and hurt exploding in the cramped space between them. Jason's eyes blaze with anger and something deeper—pain that Julia recognizes because it mirrors her own shattered heart. "You live in a fantasy world," he spits, his usual humor stripped away to reveal raw honesty. "Nobody's good enough for you. You'll end up alone with your books and four million number-two pencils." The words hit like physical blows, but Julia strikes back with venom born of heartbreak. She attacks his mother's abandonment, the wound she knows will cut deepest, and watches his face crumble before rebuilding into cold stone. "Your dad would be so proud," Jason says quietly, and the cruelty in his voice makes her gasp. "Fuck you," she whispers—her first real curse word, delivered like a prayer or a benediction as their fragile connection burns to ash around them.

Chapter 7: Coming Full Circle: Love Found in Unexpected Places

Jason appears in the Spice of Life like an answer to a prayer Julia didn't know she was praying, his arms full of hydrangeas—her favorite flowers, information gleaned from Phoebe's intercepted texts—and a small leather-bound book that makes her heart skip dangerous beats. "A replacement for your pocket Shakespeare," he says, his voice uncertain, vulnerable in a way she's never heard before. "I read a few pages. It didn't suck." The gifts are apologies made tangible, but his eyes hold something more precious—hope mixed with fear, the same cocktail of emotions churning in Julia's chest as she realizes how badly she's misjudged everything about this impossible, wonderful, infuriating boy. "I could never hate you," he says when she expects anger. "I realized when you freaked at me about blowing you off that you must have seen me with my cousin Fiona." The supermodel dissolves into family connection, the betrayal into misunderstanding. Jason explains the phone swap with gentle patience, the week of deception that wasn't deception at all but desperate hope—his chance to be needed, to be wanted, to matter to the girl who'd always looked right through him. "Your mystery guy was you," Julia whispers, the truth settling like peace after storm, like coming home after a long journey through foreign lands. "I really like you, Julia. A lot. I want to be with you." His confession hangs between them, brave and vulnerable and absolutely terrifying. Julia thinks of her mother reaching for new love after loss, of fairy tales that crumble under scrutiny, of the difference between fantasy and the messy, complicated, beautiful reality of human connection. "Do you care that I'm an obnoxious brat who doesn't fit any of the qualities you're looking for in your mythical Mr. Right?" Jason asks, his trademark grin wavering with uncertainty. Julia rises from her stool, pulls him close, and kisses him with all the urgency of a week spent chasing shadows when the sun was standing right beside her. His arms wrap around her waist, and she tastes grape gum and possibility and the sweet destruction of every perfect plan she ever made. "Someone once told me love isn't perfect—or predictable," she says against his lips, finally understanding that the best love stories are the ones you never see coming.

Summary

In the end, Julia learns that love stories don't follow guidebooks or color-coded itineraries, that the heart's greatest wisdom often lies in abandoning the map entirely. Jason Lippincott—class clown, rule breaker, grape gum enthusiast—becomes her greatest adventure not because he fits her criteria for perfect romance, but precisely because he shatters every expectation she ever held about love. The London streets that witnessed their chaotic courtship hold the truth Julia finally accepts: fairy tales are beautiful lies we tell ourselves to avoid the messier, more complicated reality of human connection. Real love doesn't arrive with orchestral swells and perfect timing—it shows up wearing a Red Sox cap and a crooked grin, teaching you to sing Beatles songs in dusty corners and kiss in the rain without caring who might be watching. Sometimes the heart's greatest courage lies not in finding your meant-to-be, but in choosing to be brave enough to mean something to someone else, to build love from the ground up rather than waiting for it to fall from the sky like a gift you've somehow earned through good behavior and careful planning.

About Author

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Lauren Morrill

Morrill crafts narratives that bridge the gap between youthful exploration and mature romance, effectively engaging with themes of emotional growth and the complexities of love. Her body of work, including "Meant to Be" and "It's Kind of a Cheesy Love Story," highlights her commitment to exploring heartfelt relationships, often punctuated by humor and pop culture references. By delving into both young adult and adult romance genres, Morrill enriches her stories with a blend of first love's innocence and the nuanced dynamics of adult relationships. Her dual focus allows readers to witness a spectrum of romantic experiences, from the sweet beginnings of YA novels to the deeper connections in her adult romance series, such as "More Than a Feeling."\n\nThe author's distinctive style is characterized by her love of romantic comedies and her self-professed talent for "kissing books," a niche that she has skillfully made her own. Morrill's writing offers accessible, witty narratives that resonate with those seeking both escapism and emotional authenticity. Readers benefit from her deft handling of romantic comedy elements, which ensures a delightful reading experience infused with genuine emotion. Her engaging bio reveals her multifaceted interests, including a history degree and a passion for roller derby, which enrich her storytelling with unique insights and vibrant settings.\n\nAlthough Morrill's works have not been recognized with major literary awards, they are celebrated for their positive reception among critics and readers alike. This underscores her impact on the romance genre, particularly in providing relatable and enjoyable stories for a diverse audience. Her ability to create compelling characters and engaging plots positions her as a significant figure in both the YA and adult romance literary landscapes.

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