Me Without You

Prologue

New York, August 1999

"Blink 182 are the best band ever. Give it up, Scarls."

"No! Take That are amazing. Blink 182 are nothing compared to them." I shot my fiance a scowl, but it was a cute scowl, an "I love you" scowl in disguise. That's how we were. We may have been engaged, but that didn't stop us from routinely insulting and annoying each other. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, we acted serious around each other. That was pretty the same percentage of time, we were a couple in harmony. People may say that couples who don't argue are weird, but we only argued once every two years, and it worked well for us.

Danny chuckled, an infectious, throaty laugh, which was one of the first things that attracted me to him. "I should write about that in my journal. Blink 182 or Take That? A Debate, by Danny Blake Carter."

"Oh yeah," I grin.

"Then we could recite it at the wedding."

Everything was done. We had had the bridal shower, the bachelor(ette) parties, and everywhere done up to perfection. The day we'd been waiting for was only three days away.

Well. That was the day Danny and I had been waiting for. Secretly, I'd wanted to marry him since the first day I saw him, and his head of golden hair, on the first day of college, when he was studying journalism and I was training to be a nurse. As soon as I heard that wonderful British accent - a London boy, through and through -  I knew I was in love with him.

And beyond my luck, here we were. Six years on, about to get married.

"Babe, give it up. Even you won't have that done in three days. We've got way too much to do."

"I'm sure we could skip the rehearsal dinner for a quick recital. Maybe we could even do the recital in bed, you know, shake things up a bit."

I burst into peals of laughter. "Well, I have to work tomorrow."

We were laughing so hard we didn't see what was happening. By the time the silver car was spotted, it was too late.

"Danny! Stop!" I shrieked. But it was too late. The car smashed into ours at full speed, and then everything I could see - the sky, Danny's handsome, chiselled face, the CD player - melted away.