Prologue

“Hey Doctor, so how is it?” Shane sat down, and she could not help the widening smile on her face. Everything was going great, Carmen had gone for her fitting and the gang had all gone with her. She wanted an element of surprise, and sometimes she would often wonder what sight would greet her when she walked up the carpet. She would imagine Carmen as a bride, glowing and dewy-eyed, dressed in an elegant sexy gown with the veil trailing behind her. She had never thought of the day she would marry someone, because she hadn’t believed in that constitution. Look at Bette and Tina. They married, and now it had fallen apart. But with Carmen, she wanted to try, to give her a promise that would last.

“Miss McCutcheon, how have your throat been feeling recently?” Shane was taken aback by the question, not just because of the sudden nature but also because her throat hadn’t been feeling well at all. She shifted slightly in her seat and met the doctor’s eyes.

“My voice is hoarse and I’ve been having a sore throat…so…yeah I attributed it to stress, a hectic lifestyle. I’m getting married next Wednesday,”  Shane smiled uneasily as she studied the doctor’s solemn face. “Doctor, is something wrong with me?” There was a thick, impenetrable silence in the room. Shane hated hospitals. The sterile, unfeeling rooms with the white walls, the smell of medicine and death that would not go away. And now she couldn’t to go to hospitals without Dana invading her thoughts. Dana who had died alone in her struggle with breast cancer.

“Miss McCutcheon, I would suggest you be prepared for this. Make sure your partner, your friends or your family are there to give you support because this will be difficult……”

Shane sat there and suddenly she felt as though the world was passing her by and time was slipping through her fingers. She could hear the ticking of the minute hand of the clock reveberating in her ears. Every word from the doctor was like a blow, bleeding her dry. All her hopes, all her plans. She could not help the bitter smile on her face. That was God’s joke on her. First on Dana, now on her. And then what she thought about was not the pain and turmoil facing her, but the loss and loneliness Carmen would eventually have to deal with when her time came.