Maybe Someday

Maybe Someday Plot Summary

Introduction

# Unheard Melodies: When Hearts Beat in Silent Harmony The guitar strings sang through the darkness, carrying melodies that only one person could feel but never hear. Ridge Lawson pressed the instrument against his chest, letting vibrations tell him stories his ears never could. Across the courtyard, Sydney Blake sat on her balcony night after night, drawn to this mysterious musician whose silent world spoke louder than any voice she'd ever known. But tonight was different. Tonight, Sydney's twenty-second birthday had shattered into fragments of betrayal and heartbreak. Hunter and Tori—her boyfriend and best friend—had destroyed her world with their secret affair, leaving her homeless in the rain with nothing but two suitcases and the haunting realization that the person she'd trusted most had been lying for months. As she stood in the storm, broken and desperate, Ridge watched from his balcony, guitar in hand, about to make a choice that would change both their lives forever. He'd been carrying a secret too—he'd witnessed Hunter and Tori's betrayal weeks ago, torn between protecting a stranger and crossing boundaries he'd never dared breach.

Chapter 1: Betrayal on a Birthday: Sydney's World Shatters

Rain hammered the pavement as Sydney Blake clutched her phone, reading the text that would destroy everything. The message was simple, devastating: "Something has been going on between your roommate and your boyfriend for a while." The sender was Ridge Lawson, the mysterious guitarist from across the courtyard who'd been her silent soundtrack for weeks. Sydney's hands shook as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. Twenty-two years old today, and about to discover that birthdays could be funeral pyres for the life you thought you knew. She pushed open the bedroom door and found them—Hunter and Tori, naked and tangled together, their faces frozen in the particular horror of being caught. The confrontation was swift and brutal. Hunter couldn't deny it. Tori offered pathetic justifications about feelings and loneliness. Sydney's fist connected with her best friend's nose before she even realized she'd thrown the punch. Blood splattered across the sheets where trust had died. Within an hour, Sydney stood in the rain with everything she owned, watching a cab driver abandon her when she realized her purse was still in the apartment she could never return to. The storm soaked through her clothes, each drop a cold reminder that she had nowhere left to go. That's when Ridge appeared. He moved through the rain like he belonged to it, retrieving her purse from the apartment where Hunter waited with clenched fists. Ridge took the punch meant for Sydney, his jaw snapping back as Hunter's rage found its target. But Ridge's dark eyes never left Sydney's face as he handed her the purse and gestured toward his building.

Chapter 2: Acoustic Connections: Finding Refuge Across the Courtyard

Ridge's apartment felt like stepping into another dimension where silence held its own music and communication flowed through fingertips rather than voices. Warren, Ridge's roommate, welcomed Sydney with the casual acceptance of someone accustomed to strays finding their way home. Bridgette, Warren's sharp-tongued girlfriend, assumed Sydney was deaf like Ridge and spoke in exaggerated gestures that made Sydney feel invisible in the most comfortable way. The revelation hit Sydney slowly, then all at once. Ridge was deaf. The mysterious musician who'd been her nightly soundtrack experienced music through vibrations, through the press of guitar against chest, through the visual poetry of his fingers dancing across strings. His deafness wasn't a limitation—it was a different language entirely. Their first real conversation happened through text messages, Ridge's fingers flying over his phone with the speed of someone who'd learned to make technology his voice. He asked about her lyrics, the words she'd been singing along to his melodies from her balcony, and Sydney felt exposed in a way that had nothing to do with being seen and everything to do with being truly understood. The apartment became her sanctuary, but Ridge became something more dangerous. She watched him communicate with Warren through sign language, witnessed the way he felt music through his entire body, and began to understand that she was witnessing something sacred. When he played guitar, pressing the instrument against his chest to feel the vibrations, Sydney realized she was falling for more than just his music. Ridge needed a lyricist. His band, Sounds of Cedar, had been struggling with writer's block, and Sydney possessed a natural gift for capturing emotion in words. Their first collaboration was electric—Ridge would play while Sydney wrote, their creative energies feeding off each other in ways neither had experienced before.

Chapter 3: Lyrics and Longing: The Birth of Creative Partnership

Music became their shared language, more intimate than words and more dangerous than silence. Ridge would position himself to feel Sydney's heartbeat as she sang, his hands resting on her throat to sense the vibrations of her voice. For Ridge, it was the closest he'd ever come to hearing music the way others experienced it. For Sydney, it was the most profound intimacy she'd ever shared. The songs they created together told stories neither dared speak aloud. Lyrics about longing, about impossible love, about the space between wanting and having. Each word they wrote was a confession wrapped in metaphor, a truth disguised as art. Ridge's melodies gave life to Sydney's poetry, while her words gave meaning to his silent compositions. Their writing sessions developed a rhythm as natural as breathing. Ridge on the floor with his guitar, Sydney on the bed with her notebook, the space between them crackling with unspoken desire. She learned to read his expressions—the way his jaw tightened when he disagreed with a lyrical choice, how his eyes lit up when she found the perfect phrase to match his music. But Ridge carried a secret that complicated everything. For five years, he'd been devoted to Maggie, his girlfriend who lived two hours away. Maggie was beautiful, intelligent, and battling cystic fibrosis with the kind of quiet courage that made Ridge feel both protective and necessary. Their relationship was built on his desire to be her hero, to shield her from a world that had already dealt her an unfair hand. When Brennan, Ridge's brother and the band's lead singer, sent back their first completed song as a rough recording, Sydney heard her words transformed into something magical. Ridge watched her listen, saw tears stream down her face as she experienced the power of their collaboration, and felt something shift in his chest—a recognition that what they'd created together was more than music. The lyrics they wrote after that carried a new intensity, dripping with longing and regret. They maintained careful physical distance during their sessions, but the emotional intimacy only deepened. Every song became a conversation they couldn't have, every melody a touch they couldn't share.

Chapter 4: Forbidden Harmonies: Crossing Emotional Boundaries

The kiss happened like a song reaching its crescendo—inevitable and earth-shattering. They were lying on Ridge's bed, sharing earbuds, listening to their latest creation when the space between them became impossible to ignore. Ridge's hand found her jaw, his fingers traced her neck, and suddenly they were breathing the same air, sharing the same desperate need. Ridge's lips moved against hers with a hunger that spoke of weeks of restraint finally breaking. Sydney's hands tangled in his hair, pulling him closer, deeper, into a moment that felt both wrong and absolutely right. The kiss tasted like forbidden fruit and felt like coming home. When they finally broke apart, both were gasping, both were crying, and both understood they'd crossed a line that couldn't be uncrossed. The guilt hit Ridge first, the weight of Maggie's trust crushing down on him like a physical blow. He pulled away, saw the devastation in Sydney's eyes, and wrote "I'm so sorry" on her palm before fleeing to his room. Sydney was left alone with the taste of him on her lips and the knowledge that she'd become everything she'd sworn never to be. Their confrontation the next morning was raw and honest. Ridge confessed his feelings while reaffirming his commitment to Maggie. Sydney admitted her attraction while acknowledging the impossibility of their situation. They agreed to continue working together, to push past their feelings for the sake of their music, but both knew they were lying to themselves. The songs they wrote after the kiss carried a new desperation. Ridge playing from the floor while Sydney wrote on the bed, maintaining physical distance that only made the emotional pull stronger. Every chord progression was a caress they couldn't share, every lyric a promise they couldn't make. Warren watched their struggle with growing frustration. He'd introduced Ridge to Maggie years earlier, after his own brief relationship with her had ended badly. He knew Ridge's loyalty and devotion, and watching his best friend torn between duty and desire was painful to witness.

Chapter 5: Maggie's Arrival: The Reality of Divided Hearts

Maggie Carson arrived like sunshine breaking through storm clouds, beautiful and kind and everything Ridge needed her to be. Sydney watched from the shadows as Ridge's girlfriend filled the apartment with laughter and light, her presence a stark reminder of the reality Sydney had been trying to ignore. Maggie was everything Sydney wasn't—petite where Sydney was tall, dark where Sydney was light, established in Ridge's life where Sydney was an interloper. But worse than her beauty was her genuine kindness, the way she welcomed Sydney with open arms and treated her like a friend rather than a threat. It would have been easier to hate her if she'd been cruel. The night they all went out together was torture disguised as fun. Sydney watched Ridge and Maggie dance, saw the way he looked at his girlfriend with five years of love and devotion, and felt her heart break in new and creative ways. Warren, drunk and honest, made comments about Ridge's feelings for Sydney that thankfully went unheard by their target. Ridge's internal struggle was visible to anyone who knew how to look. He held Maggie close while his eyes sought Sydney across the room. He laughed at Maggie's jokes while his body remained attuned to Sydney's every movement. The guilt was eating him alive, but he couldn't stop himself from wanting what he couldn't have. The morning after brought its own torture. Sydney walked into the kitchen to find Ridge holding Maggie, kissing her with the tenderness of someone who'd found his home in another person's arms. The casual intimacy between them, the way they moved around each other like two parts of the same whole, made Sydney understand the futility of her feelings. Ridge's reaction to seeing Sydney witness their intimacy was telling—guilt flashed across his features before he forced himself to focus on Maggie. The moment crystallized everything Sydney had been trying to deny: Ridge loved Maggie completely, and whatever he felt for Sydney would always be secondary to that fundamental truth.

Chapter 6: Vibrations of Truth: Ridge's Haunting Past Revealed

The truth about Ridge's silence came out in fragments during their late-night writing sessions, his fingers flying over his phone as he revealed secrets he'd never shared with anyone. Ridge's deafness wasn't just about his inability to hear—it was about survival, protection, and a childhood that had taught him when speaking could be dangerous. At nine years old, Ridge had stopped speaking aloud because his father was ashamed of how his deaf son's voice sounded. The final straw came when his father, drunk and violent, hit six-year-old Brennan for not properly translating Ridge's desire to stop vocalizing his words. Ridge chose silence to protect his little brother, sacrificing his own voice to shield Brennan from their father's rage. The origin of their band name, Sounds of Cedar, carried its own heartbreak. As a five-year-old, Ridge would lie on the cedar floor of their childhood home, ear pressed to the wood, feeling the vibrations of music from his parents' parties. He waited for the music to stop so he could sneak out and care for baby Brennan, learning to read rhythm and melody through his body rather than his ears. These revelations explained everything about Ridge—his protective nature, his reluctance to speak, his incredible ability to feel music in ways others couldn't imagine. They also explained why he'd taken Sydney in without question, why he understood abandonment and betrayal on a cellular level. Sydney found herself falling deeper, not just for Ridge's talent or his looks, but for the wounded boy who'd grown into a man capable of turning pain into beautiful music. Every song they wrote together became a healing, every shared moment a small victory over the cruelties of their pasts. But the weight of their connection was becoming unbearable. Ridge's loyalty to Maggie warred with his growing feelings for Sydney, while Sydney struggled with the knowledge that she was falling in love with someone who could never fully be hers.

Chapter 7: Impossible Choices: When Music Cannot Mend What's Broken

The breaking point arrived during Warren's birthday party, alcohol loosening inhibitions and Maggie's presence highlighting every reason why their connection was doomed. Sydney, drunk and heartbroken, made a comment about Ridge's brother that revealed too much of her pain. Ridge's reaction—raw jealousy and hurt—showed how far they'd both fallen into dangerous territory. Later that night, disaster struck with the cruel efficiency of fate. While helping a sick and intoxicated Maggie, Sydney discovered Ridge's laptop open with all their private conversations displayed on the screen. Every intimate text, every confession of growing feelings, every moment of their emotional affair was laid bare for Maggie to read. The confrontation was brutal in its quiet devastation. Maggie didn't scream or throw accusations. Instead, she packed her things with the dignity of someone who had faced worse battles than a cheating boyfriend. Her silence was more damning than any words could have been. Ridge returned to find Maggie gone and Sydney destroyed by guilt. The woman he loved was in the hospital after a diabetes-related collapse brought on by stress and alcohol, while the woman he was falling for blamed herself for destroying an innocent person's happiness. Warren's anger was swift and merciless. He demanded that Sydney leave immediately, his loyalty to Maggie and his frustration with the situation boiling over in cruel words that made Sydney feel like the other woman she had never intended to become. Ridge, torn between his guilt over Maggie and his feelings for Sydney, made the choice that honor demanded. He asked Sydney to move out, the words harsh and delivered in the heat of crisis. Sydney packed her belongings once again, this time leaving behind not just a home but the man who had become her entire world. The separation was agonizing for both of them. Ridge threw himself into caring for Maggie, driving to San Antonio to be by her side as she recovered. But even as he held Maggie's hand and whispered apologies, his heart remained divided. The guilt of loving two women simultaneously was eating him alive.

Summary

In the end, Ridge and Maggie's relationship couldn't survive the weight of divided hearts and unspoken truths. Maggie, with the wisdom of someone who had faced mortality too young, recognized that Ridge's devotion came from a desire to save her rather than true partnership. She released him from their relationship, understanding that they had been holding each other back from the lives they truly wanted. Months later, Ridge planned a surprise performance at a small venue, playing the songs he and Sydney had written together. When Sydney appeared in the audience, drawn by Warren's careful orchestration, Ridge sang their story—the attraction, the guilt, the separation, and the enduring love that had survived it all. His final song asked for one simple word: "when." Sydney's response came in sign language, the visual poetry she had learned in his absence, signing "when" repeatedly as tears streamed down her face. Their love story became a testament to the idea that the heart speaks its own language, one that transcends sound and silence alike. Sometimes the most beautiful melodies are born from the spaces between notes, and the most profound love stories are those that survive every test fate can devise.

About Author

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Colleen Hoover

Hoover interrogates the boundaries of contemporary fiction with an unwavering commitment to emotional storytelling that resonates across genres. Her narratives often explore complex themes such as love, resilience, and personal growth, capturing the intricate layers of the human condition. This depth is particularly evident in her psychological thriller "Verity," where she deftly blends suspense with raw human emotion. Such narrative complexity is a hallmark of her writing, ensuring her works consistently earn bestseller status and wide acclaim.\n\nHer method involves using multiple perspectives to illuminate character motivations and struggles, which makes her stories both relatable and profound. By delving into topics like grief, mental illness, and personal healing, Hoover crafts narratives that are simultaneously heart-wrenching and uplifting. Her early book, "Slammed", set a precedent for her emotionally charged style, quickly gaining popularity and allowing her to transition from social work to full-time writing. This bio highlights her trajectory from a social work counselor to a celebrated author, with over 20 million books sold globally.\n\nReaders benefit from Hoover’s unique storytelling ability, finding both solace and understanding within her pages. Her initiatives, such as The Bookworm Box, extend her influence beyond literature by combining philanthropy with her passion for books, underscoring her impact not just as a writer but as a community leader. Through her engaging and emotionally intense narratives, Hoover reaches a diverse audience, offering both entertainment and deep psychological insights that leave a lasting impression.

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