Red Hot! (Sebastian Vettel)

1. The Beginning

London, June 2020

Libby Valentine stood silently staring into the rectangular hole in the ground that was soon to become the final resting place of the man she loved. The rain teemed down, soaking through her thin black jacket and the dress she wore underneath. Her waistlength chocolate brown hair was so saturated that it resembled a bundle of sodden rat's tails. She watched as Brandon's father, Keith, his brothers Damon and Will, cousin Alex and best friends, Asif and Peter, carried his coffin across the small but fairly full cemetery. She could hear his mother, Donna, and his sister, Verity, wailing with grief over to her left. She would not cry herself. She had to be strong. She could not break. The Valentine women were made of strong stuff.

She turned her head as she felt a hand slip into hers. She looked into a pair of dark brown eyes that were so like her own.

"Are you ok?" her twin sister, Emmie, asked her, worry etched onto her face. Libby nodded, although the truth was she didn't know if she would ever be ok again. Brandon had been the other half of her, the Yin to her Yang, the Lennon to her McCartney. She didn't know what she was going to do without him. They'd been planning on getting married, although he had never gotten around to officially proposing, and they'd spoken about trying for a baby the following year. None of that was going to happen now. Brandon was dead and she knew she would never love another man. "It's ok to not be ok Libs," Emmie continued. "I'm here for you. I love you."

"I love you too," Libby replied, squeezing her sister's hand tightly.

Libby zoned out as the Reverend began to drone on and on. All she wanted to do was get out of there, go home to the flat she'd shared with Brandon, get roaring drunk and pass out. And that's exactly what she was going to do later, but first she had to get through the burial, then the wake.

As the Reverend continued she thought back to that day three weeks earlier when her heart had been shattered into a million pieces. It had started like any other day. She'd woken with Brandon's arms wrapped around her. She'd turned in his arms and pressed her lips to his. They'd kissed for a few minutes before they'd both had to get up and get ready to leave for work. They'd shared a shower to save water, which had inevitably led to them making love up against the white tiled wall. Once they were dressed they'd drank coffee together and eaten some toast. Brandon had left first as he'd an early appointment to show a client around a house that his family Estate Agent business was selling. He'd kissed her quickly on the cheek and climbed into his white Audi R8.

Within half an hour of leaving he was dead, his car hit by an out of control HGV, whose driver had had a heart attack behind the wheel. Libby had just arrived at the headquarters of the large BMW dealership that she worked at as PA to the CEO, Emilian Guenther. She'd sat down at her desk and just been in the process of switching her computer on when her mobile phone had rung. Seeing that it was Brandon's father, Keith, she'd answered it. Less than a minute later she'd dropped the phone in shock, her life had changed forever.

"Libs! Hello?" She snapped out of her stupor and turned to her sister.  Emmie gestured towards the grave where Brandon's family were lining up, one by one, taking a handful of dirt out of a box and dropping it onto the coffin which had been lowered into the ground.   Libby walked slowly over.   She took a small handful of dirt and stopped, looking down into Brandon's grave. 

It suddenly hit her that he was never coming back.   Her Brandon was gone.   She felt the tears she'd fought so desperately to hold back spilling from her eyes.  Dropping down to her knees she began to sob.   "Brandon, no!" she cried.