Page 18 of Forget Me Not

The sun is setting over the horizon and all I can think as I watch the beauty of colors colliding in the sky, is how I’ve fallen in love with the best possible guy in the world, and how this in turn is making me theluckiestgirl in the world. Me. Lucky. Before today I never would have considered those two words to be compatible. Until Reed.

“Are you sure you’re okay with not telling Mags?” he asks again, merging into traffic. This is it. Tonight is the night we’re getting married.

“I’m sure.” I wasn’t. The last three days I’ve gone over it again and again, wanting to include her, not wanting her to try and stop me and not knowing which way she’d react. Mags is never big on telling me what to do, or even handing out particularly straightforward advice, but she has a way of getting into my head and making me think about things that maybe aren’t at the forefront of my mind until she digs around and yanks them up. I didn’t want anything casting a shadow over the yummy, mushy unbelievably overwhelming happiness I’ve felt since we walked out of that courthouse with our marriage license in hand. Telling Mags was a risk I couldn’t take.

“Good.” He nods, his focus on me even when his eyes are locked on the road ahead. “I kind of like that it’s just us, our little magic bubble. And after tonight, no one will ever be able to come along and pop it. No matter what they try.”

I curl my fingers tighter around his, both our hands resting in my lap. As grateful as I am for Reed coming into my life, I’ve had a nagging feeling for months that Gun is fading out of it. I’ve tried to convince myself that I’m being paranoid. That life is simply moving us in different directions right now, but that it’s temporary, that we’ll be back in the same place soon. Only the farther we go, the less likely it seems we’ll ever wind up at the same destination ever again. He’s in Georgia. I’m getting married. It’s my wedding day and my best friend isn’t here. Doesn’t even know.

I couldn’t tell him either. It seemed too big to share over the phone, or in a letter. Especially when we haven’t spoken in weeks.

I force my eyes back on the horizon. The sun is nearly gone now, but the beauty she’s leaving behind as she goes is enough to remind me of all the good in my world, all the love I have sitting right here beside me.

“Kind of symbolic, huh? This drive tonight, cruising off into the sunset together and starting the greatest adventure of our lives. So literal and so magical all at the same time.” I point at the violet and fuchsia streaks decorating the evening sky. I want to remember every part of this sunset. The ending of an era. I’m an adult. I’m out of the system. I survived. And, by some miracle, I found my happy ever after.

Bright lights force my eyes to turn away. Blinded, I panic as Reed’s hand leaves mine to grip the wheel. The truck starts to veer sideways. Tires squeal. Reed shouts and all I see are swirls of purple and pink dancing in flashes or piercing white. Then, everything is black. All the magic ceases to exist.

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