Life as I knew it stopped the moment that Brian walked out my living room door. I watched him walk out and I didn't say a thing. I never ran to stop him. I never tried to get him to come back. I couldn't breath. In shock, I stood in the living room and stared at the front door. My feet firmly planted to the ground, I felt a tear escape my eyes, the first since I turned sixteen. It wasn't until ten minutes later that I realized what had happened. Brian had left me.

I began to wonder if I had that effect on people. First my mom walked out on me when I was seven. Then my dad committed suicide so he wouldn't have to deal with that pain. I was only ten and I had lost both parents. I was taken care of by my grandpa. I was a small, lonely child. Soon after I turned sixteen, my best friend decided that I had to many issues and she didn't want to deal with them anymore, so she left me too. Three of the most impressionable people in my life had left me. And the worst was yet to come.

My grandpa was found in his office dead two weeks before I turned nineteen. He died of a heart attack. Still, as my old best friend had taught me when she left, I held it in. It was at his funeral that I met Brian. I stood over Grandpa's casket, fingering the engraved lines on the top. I felt someone step up behind me and I turned and looked into his beautiful green eyes for the first time. I felt a shock go through my stomach and tried to push it away. It wouldn't be the last time that would happen. He stared at me for a second before speaking, "You must be Beth." I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. "I'm Brian. I worked for your grandfather. I'm very sorry about what happened. He was an amazing man, almost like a father to me."

"He was my best friend. But, he was old and everyone's got to die sometime right?" "I do believe you're trying to be brave," Brian could see right through me from the very beginning. "You don't have to, you know. No one is going to shun you if you cry over your grandfather." "That's rather assumptious of you. Do I look like an open book?" "Yes, actually. Look, I'm very sorry for making an assumption. I just came to apologize and meet my new boss." I looked at him curiously, "New boss?" "Yeah, I'm figuring that he left everything to you because you're the only person he ever talked about with pride. If he left his restaurant to you then I now work for you. You're not going to sell it, are you? Because he loved that place." "No, I had no intention on selling it." I walked away, deciding on whether I liked this man or not. I decided against it as it was dangerous to show emotion to anyone.