Brief

When she learns of a tragedy befalling her ex-boyfriend, a young woman is transported back in time to the life they once shared and the future they could have had together.

What We Liked

- The story allows the audience to go back to a time in their lives and imagine, 'what if?' as they follow along with the lead character and her journey back to the life she once lived with her former boyfriend. It is a love story, about re-discovering a past love and holding onto it for the future;
- This would make for a film adaptation as it's a contained story that flips between the past and the present. The story would start with the moment the lead character receives the phone call that sends her thinking back to her past, as she goes to help her ex-boyfriend, and it would end in with the future they end up finding again with each other;
- This story would also make for a TV series, as each part of it would be told in each progressive episode. Audiences would follow along as the story unfolded, with more information being revealed in the flashbacks of the story, alternating between the past and the present;
- It's has a core group of characters;
- It's a love story with a happy ending;
- There is a strong female character at the center of the story;
- There are flashbacks;
- It has the basis for a solid rom-com.

Synopsis

Elle Sloan is content with married life, to a workaholic attorney named Eric. When she gets a phone call from the mother of her ex-boyfriend of a decade ago, asking for her help, she can’t say no. Luke has been in been in a terrible car crash and cannot remember anything that’s happened in the last ten years. According to him, he and Elle are still together, and he has no idea she’s married to someone else. Elle’s husband agrees to let her go visit Luke and see how she can possibly help jog his memory.

She returns to southern Indiana, and driving up to the hospital, where she’s due to meet up with Luke’s mother, thinks back on how they first met, in 2006. She and her best friend Mena had been at a coffee shop and he had been shy to talk to her, but determined to ask her out. She remembers their first date — how comfortable she was, how easy the conversation flowed between them, how they spoke about his Dad having Parkinson’s, her mother being an alcoholic.

In alternate flashbacks between the present and the past, Elle replays her life with Luke and what unfolds now.

When she goes to see him in the hospital, for the first time after his accident, it’s as if the last ten years hadn’t happened; as if they were still the loved-up couple they’d been. Luke’s family is still the same, warm loving people they always were, his best friend Monroe is still the straight-talker he always was. But she gets the feeling there’s something she doesn’t know. She remembers the early days of her courtship with Luke - how he saved her from a would-be rapist attacking her at work, how he loved her deeply and kindly, how he introduced her to his family.

Elle decides to stay longer to see Luke’s family tell him about his memory loss. Her husband doesn’t seem to mind. Luke’s best friend wants to know why she broke up with Luke in the first place - leaving him devastated. She tells him she never wanted him to be caught up in her mother’s business; that she didn’t feel she belonged with him, she felt ashamed.

She remembers how different it was to go see her mother, after spending time with his family. They had all fought and Luke never wanted to see Elle’s mother again.

Back at the hospital she feels the feelings she once had for Luke return. Her feelings lead her to kiss him. She remembers him giving her a necklace with her poetry engraved on it. Luke has a nightmare that Elle has broken up with him. She reflects on why she did break up with him — her mother had called her from the hospital saying she was dying and needed to be looked after, convincing Elle Luke was too good for her.

Luke’s family and his doctor decide to tell him what has happened. But as they’re about to, his wife Margaret bursts in. Elle hadn’t know about her — but she and Luke were in the process of a divorce. They tell Luke everything, he gets angry at Elle for lying to him.

Elle goes home to her husband, thinking about how she doesn’t really love him and that Luke has always been her true love. She catches Eric having an affair, and thanks him for making her realize she’s been short-selling herself. They divorce, she goes back to getting her degree and works on reclaiming her self-esteem. Some months later, she meets up with Mena, who’s now dating Monroe. Luke is behind them. He apologizes to Elle, gives her flowers, finds out she’s since gotten divorced too, and they confess their love for each other, kiss, and prepare to go on with their lives together.

About The Author

Sara Furlong Burr is an award-winning author of contemporary, dystopian, and young adult romance. She was born and raised in Michigan and currently still lives there with her husband, two daughters and an array of loved pets.