"In Memory Of"

We didn't know him too well. We met him at Denny's one night. He was the manager there. We went in for dinner. We had never been there before. Right away though, we knew that he was gay. He gave us that look. You might know the one. The look that says, "Hey, I'm gay. You are too, aren't you?"

A couple of days after we met him, I came across his profile on an online chat site. We chatted some. Just small talk. Nothing important. We chatted a few more times over the following weeks. We even made tentative plans to go and have dinner together some time. Some place other than Denny's.

Then, nothing. Just like that, he was gone. I never saw him online again. I figured he was just really busy or maybe his computer was on the fritz or something. I didn't think too much about it, really. Until we went back to Denny's a few weeks later.

There, behind the register, hanging on the wall, in the middle of a wreath of flowers, was his picture. The words, "In Memory Of" circled the wreath of flowers in sparkling silver letters.