Chapter 1

The buzz started like a distant hum, a notification I almost swiped away.

Then another, and another, until my phone vibrated itself off the cheap particleboard table in my Austin studio apartment.

"Maya, you SEEING this?!" my friend Chloe texted, all caps.

I tapped the link.

My stomach dropped.

It was us.

College us.

Ethan, all bright eyes and a cheap guitar, me with a hopeful smile and lyrics scrawled on my arm.

The video was grainy, shot on some ancient phone in our dorm room, "Maythan's Music Manifesto!" the title card declared in goofy, hand-drawn letters.

"We're gonna conquer the world," young Ethan proclaimed, arm slung around me, his voice cracking with earnestness.

"Or at least get a record deal," I' d giggled, leaning into him.

"And we'll always be together," he' d added, looking straight into the camera, then at me, his gaze intense. "Promise."

The internet was losing its collective mind.

#MaythanForever trended.

Comments flooded in, thousands per minute.

"OMG, the chemistry!"

"They were SO PURE!"

"Ethan, what did you DO?! Bring her back!"

"A love story for the ages, tragically cut short."

My heart hammered, a sick, familiar ache spreading through my chest.

Three years.

Three years since he' d ripped that promise, and my heart, to shreds for fame.

Now, this ghost from the past was everywhere, a digital resurrection of a dream I' d buried deep.

I was scrolling through the comments, a weird mix of nausea and a strange, detached curiosity, when my phone rang.

Unknown number.

I let it go to voicemail.

It rang again.

And again.

On the fourth try, I picked up, annoyed.

"Hello?"

A pause, then a voice I knew too well, a voice that had haunted my quietest moments.

"Maya?"

Ethan.

His voice was lower now, smoother, the pop star polish evident even through the phone.

"It's me. Ethan."

"I know who it is," I said, my tone flat.

"Did you... did you see the video?" he asked, a strange note in his voice, almost hesitant.

"Hard to miss," I replied, staring out at the Austin skyline, the city lights blurring.

"I... I' m in Austin, Maya," he said, his voice dropping to a near whisper. "I flew in. I needed to see you."

My blood ran cold.

"Why?"

"That video... it just... it brought everything back. Us. What we had."

I could hear the manufactured emotion, the practiced sincerity. Or maybe, just maybe, a sliver of genuine regret. It was hard to tell with him anymore.

"There is no 'us,' Ethan," I said, my voice harder than I intended.

"Please, Maya. Just let me see you. Talk to you. I' m... I' m outside your old place. The one near campus?"

Of course, he' d go there. He wouldn't know I'd moved on, in every sense of the word.

"I don't live there anymore, Ethan."

"Oh." He sounded genuinely surprised. "Where... where are you?"

A heavy sigh escaped me. Part of me wanted to hang up, to block him, to scream. Another, smaller, treacherous part felt a flicker of something I couldn't name.

"Look, Ethan, this is a bad idea."

"Just one coffee, Maya. For old times' sake. I messed up. I know I messed up. I see that now. I' ve been seeing it for a long time."

His voice was thick with what sounded like unshed tears. The king of pop, brought low by a ten-year-old vlog.

The irony wasn't lost on me.

Before I could answer, my front door opened.

Liam walked in, my husband, his arms full of groceries, a warm, easy smile on his face that faltered when he saw my expression.

Liam, Ethan' s older, much more grounded, infinitely more decent cousin.

The successful tech entrepreneur who' d found my lost lyric notebook in a Boston coffee shop and, piece by piece, helped me find myself again.

He put the bags down, his brow furrowing. "Everything okay, babe?"

Ethan was still on the line, "Maya? Are you there? Please."

I looked at Liam, his steady, loving gaze a balm to the old wounds Ethan' s call had ripped open.

"Yeah," I said, my voice clear and strong, meeting Liam' s eyes. "Everything' s fine."

Then, into the phone, "Actually, Ethan, I can't meet. I'm married now."

Silence on the other end.

A long, stunned silence.

Then, a choked sound. "Married? To who?"

I almost laughed. The audacity.

"That' s really none of your business, Ethan," I said, and hung up.

Liam was beside me in an instant, his hand on my arm. "What was that about?"

I showed him my phone, the trending hashtag, the viral video.

He watched a few seconds of it, his expression unreadable. Then he looked at me.

"So, 'Maythan' is back, huh?" he said, a small, teasing smile playing on his lips, though his eyes were serious.

"Apparently," I said, leaning into him, the familiar scent of his cologne, clean and reassuring, chasing away the ghosts. "The internet is a strange place."

"And Ethan?"

"He' s in Austin. He wanted to see me."

Liam' s arm tightened around me. "And you told him you' re busy being married to a much cooler, smarter guy?"

I laughed, the tension finally breaking. "Something like that. I mentioned the 'married' part."

"Good," he said, kissing my temple. "Some sparks are best left un-rekindled."

But the internet, it seemed, disagreed. And the Golden Note Awards were just around the corner.