Chapter 1
The first day of university was supposed to feel like a fresh start.
That was what everyone kept telling Maya Carter.
New campus.
New professors.
New people.
A chance to leave high school behind.
She wanted to believe it.
She really did.
Winter Harbor University buzzed with nervous excitement as first-year students wandered across campus, maps folded beneath their arms and coffees clutched tightly in their hands.
Maya adjusted the strap of her messenger bag and climbed the steps to the Communications Building.
Journalism 101.
Her first class.
Her favorite subject.
At least... it used to be.
She paused outside the lecture hall, taking one slow breath before stepping inside.
The room was already nearly full.
Conversations echoed through the rows of seats.
Someone laughed near the back.
A professor arranged notes behind the lectern.
Maya quietly scanned the room.
One empty seat.
Just one.
Her stomach dropped.
No.
Not him.
Nicholas Hayes sat near the middle of the lecture hall, leaning back in his chair while talking to another hockey player.
His notebook was already open.
Coffee rested beside his laptop.
He looked up at the same moment she did.
The conversation around him stopped.
For a brief second...
Neither of them moved.
Maya’s first instinct was to turn around.
She could drop the class.
Claim she’d walked into the wrong lecture.
Anything.
Anything except spend ninety minutes sitting beside Nicholas Hayes.
But Professor Bennett closed the classroom door.
“Good morning, everyone.”
Too late.
Maya swallowed the lump in her throat and walked down the aisle.
Every step felt heavier than the last.
Nicholas watched her approach.
His expression shifted almost imperceptibly.
Surprise.
Then something that looked a little too much like regret.
Without a word, he stood and stepped into the aisle, giving her room to reach the empty seat.
“Thanks,” she murmured automatically.
He nodded once.
“Yeah.”
That was it.
No smile.
No small talk.
Nothing.
She sat.
Placed her notebook on the desk.
Looked straight ahead.
Professor Bennett introduced herself and began outlining the semester.
Investigative reporting.
Interview techniques.
Media ethics.
Storytelling.
Normally, Maya would’ve written down every word.
Today...
She couldn’t focus.
She was painfully aware of the person sitting less than two feet away.
She hated that.
Beside her, Nicholas wasn’t doing much better.
He’d noticed Maya the second she’d walked into the room.
He hadn’t expected to see her.
Not here.
Not after everything.
He’d rehearsed a hundred apologies over the past year.
None of them seemed possible now.
Not while she stared so intently at the front of the room that she hadn’t looked at him once.
He wondered if she ever would again.
Ninety minutes stretched endlessly.
Professor Bennett called on students.
Slides changed.
Pens scratched across notebooks.
Outside, the first autumn rain tapped gently against the lecture hall windows.
Inside...
Silence settled between them.
Not uncomfortable silence.
Not awkward silence.
The kind of silence that came from years of words left unsaid.
Once...
Their hands reached for the same course outline lying between them.
Maya immediately pulled hers back.
“You can have it,” Nicholas said quietly.
She nodded without meeting his eyes.
“Thanks.”
That was the only conversation they had.
When the lecture finally ended, chairs scraped against the floor as students packed their bags.
Maya zipped hers shut as quickly as she could.
She stood.
So did Nicholas.
For the first time all morning...
Their eyes met.
A thousand memories seemed to pass between them in a single heartbeat.
Childhood birthday parties.
Snowball fights.
Summer afternoons at the harbor.
Then...
High school.
The scholarship.
The whispers.
The silence.
Maya looked away first.
Without saying a word, she walked toward the exit.
Nicholas watched her disappear into the crowd of students filling the hallway.
He let out a slow breath.
One class.
One empty seat.
And somehow...
The girl he’d spent a year trying to forget had just become the person sitting beside him every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the rest of the semester.
He wasn’t sure whether to call it bad luck.
Or the first chance he’d been given to finally tell the truth.
