After a series of events that i would rather not talk about, Brian’s position changed yet again on November 17, 2013. He became a Product Owner ( PO ). i remember that night well. It was the night of the End of the Year party. i did not normally check emails when i was off the clock, but i did that night. The email said it was a promotion. i knew better. Something happened. At the time i did not know what but Brian was so happy being the Support Manager. If i knew Him at all, there was no way in hell that He would have willingly took another position.
i let it sink in for a day or so, waiting for Him to message me and say “Hey, wanna talk?” That message never came. Being the concerned person that i am, i went to Him. i opened His office door and sawl Him sitting at this little desk. He was so sad looking, so depressed. His chin quivered and all i could do was go and hug Him. i did not think about it. It was instinct. He was always so strong and composed. i wanted to do whatever was needed to make Him smile again, to laugh.
Fast forward….
Needless to say that was one of the lowest parts of Brian’s life. He was giving up on everything. Work…Friends….Family….i could not let Him do that to Himself. i bugged Him everyday. i used my 15 min break and brought Him tea. Just the way He liked it. i made Him talk to me during these breaks. About anything…just to talk to to me, to distract Him. On Saturdays, when i was working and He was home, i would send Him a picture message of a glass of tea and captioned it “Tea Time!” at the same time i would have brought Him tea if He was in the office. Eventually He opened up to me and told me what happened. It did not change my opinion of Him. This surprised Him that i was so supportive no matter what.
We became even closer friends during this time. i never let Him go longer than 3 days to wallow in His self pity. He had to do something with me. i did not care what. Dinner, movie, game night, lunch, something. He even thought about getting another job somewhere. i begged Him not to leave, to give it time, that everything happens for a reason. He made a promise to not do anything rash until He came back from His parent’s house over the holidays. i made Him promise to wait until He came back for 2 reasons. 1.) It forced Him to come back. i was so scared that He would move back to Michigan and i would never see or hear from Him again. 2.) It gave Him time to adjust to the situation. While He was with His parents, i still sent Him a tea picture every “normal day” at the same time. ( Later Brian told me that He looked forward to these pictures. One day i woke up late and forgot to send it and He said His heart fell :( ).
One of the Tea Time images i sent Him while He was in MI with His family.
He came back, as promised. i told Him that i was so happy that He did. All He said was “I made a promise, didn’t I?” This was one of the first times that i can specifically remember a man keeping their promise to me. That impacted me greatly.
After reflecting on this time later, we both came to the conclusion that if i was not so persistent in distracting Him, we would not be together today.