"No, I doubt it," Brian growled, exhausted with this constant battle.

"Then what happened?" I asked him, as I walked up and looked him in the eyes concerned. He sighed, as his countenance dropped, and handed me the note. As I read it, my eyes widened in disbelief and amazement. Then, an amazing wave of anger burst over me. "How could anyone do this?!" I exclaimed. "Brian, how could she do this to you? This is not prudent!" I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, afraid that this was somehow all my fault.

"I know, I know... God, something told me that something like this would happen," Brian sighed, looking around the room. Tears started falling down my face, and I tried to conceal them from Brian; but when he turned back to me he noticed my crying. "Corinne, what's wrong?" he asked softly. He came close to me and brushed a loving hand over my face.

"Oh, nothing Brian. I just... I'm just so sorry. I regret ever doing this!" I cried. Brian was taken aback in shock.

"What? What do you mean? What do you regret?" he asked me, worried and confused.

I looked him straight in the eyes, still crying, and said, "I regret... I regret that day on the basketball court... and I regret the day I fell in love with you." I started sobbing. "I regret the day you came after me and said you loved me, and... and I regret breaking you two up, because if it wasn't for me, you'd still be together and happy, and you wouldn't have to go through all of this!" I exclaimed, crying heavily. Brian's mouth dropped open in shock. He couldn't believe what I had just said to him.

"Oh God honey, no!" he cried, hugging me in his arms. "Don't you ever regret anything! If it wasn't for you, I'd be the unhappiest guy alive right now! Me and Sarah might still be together, but there's no way we'd be happy! To tell you the truth, I'm so glad you came along, because now I know I couldn't stay with Sarah... my heart is with you!" he cried. I sobbed into his shoulder and he gently pulled away and held my face in his hands. Looking in my eyes, he whispered, "This is not your fault... it never was and it never will be. This is between Sarah and I, and you have nothing to do with it!" He sighed gently and continued, "I love you so much Corinne, you have no idea. To even imagine life without you right now is unthinkable. Don't blame yourself for anything... you're the best thing I've got going for me right now!" He looked deep into my tear-clod eyes, and I felt like breaking down right there. No one had ever spoken to me like that before, and I was so amazed and happy by it, it made my heart ache.

"God, I love you so much!" I cried again as Brian hugged me back in his arms. "How did I ever end up with such an amazing guy like you?" I asked. Brian just hushed me and rubbed my back soothingly as I cried gently. After a while my tears subsided, and the two of us were left, rocking in each other's arms. I looked around the room again, and it made me so uneasy to look at it. "Brian... what about your house?" I whispered.

Brian's grip loosened from around me, and he lifted his head to look around. "It needed to be cleaned anyway," he said with a smile. I laughed slightly; I couldn't believe how well he was taking this.

"Was she always like this?" I asked. Brian looked at the floor and sighed, clenching his jaw. He looked back up at me, and smiled slightly.

"Not this bad. She had her moments... she always had a temper... I just never knew she'd do something this extreme." He turned his back to me and looked around the room. Tears started filling his eyes as memories came back to him. He'd gone through so much with Sarah, and now he didn't even remember why.

"Brian, we should probably look at the upstairs," I said, interrupting his thoughts. He looked down and blinked slightly, trying to make the tears go away before he turned back around.

"Yeah, you're probably right," he said, turning around and looking at me. I knew he had been crying, but I didn't say anything to him. "Come on," he said, taking my hand. At that, we both walked up the stairs; Slowly, but surely; to look around.

"Tyke! Get off the couch, you rascal!" I yelled, moving Tyke and vacuuming the spot where he was lying. The upstairs wasn't as bad as we'd expected (though some areas are already declaring it a hurricane site). Brian's been running around the house trying to clean, so I decided I'd help him out, (though I knew he hated it). I was in the living room vacuuming the floor and furniture, and I'd already cleaned up everything broken and torn. Brian came running down the stairs with trash bags in his hands, and stopped dead to stare at me. "Corinne!" he yelled.

"WHAT?!?" I exclaimed, looking over at him. He just arched his eyebrows and looked at me scoldingly. "Don't give me that look!" I laughed. "I don't care if I am your guest, or any other excuse you have; I'm helping you and that's that!" Brian blushed slightly and started to laugh.

"But it makes me feel bad! I did not envision our first day alone together would be like this: cleaning my house, what fun!" he exclaimed sarcastically, flailing his arms about. I laughed at him. He set the bags he had down and walked over to me.

"You know it doesn't matter what we do, as long as I'm with you, right?" I said, as he wrapped his arms around me.

He smiled broadly, leaning his forehead against mine. "Yeah, that's just a trick girls use on us guys so they can have an excuse to yell at us later," he said. My mouth dropped open as I began to laugh at him.

"Oh, you little rat!" I said, hitting him playfully. He laughed as he backed up a little. I couldn't help but giggle at the adorable face he made every time he laughed. "That's so not true!" I continued, "Besides, it's not like we have a choice whether or not we want to clean. And I wont stand having you running around the house while I sit still! You know you can't do it all by yourself."

"Yeah, I know," he said, brushing a piece of hair out of my face. "What would I do without you?" he whispered. I blushed slightly as he kissed my cheek sweetly.

We finished cleaning the rest of the house together... for some reason Brian wouldn't let me out of his sight. We had gotten almost everything done, and we were back where we started, in the living room, picking up the rest of the mess. Tyke was running around the two of us barking excitedly as we moved things around. I laughed as he started climbing all over Brian's legs.

"Tyke! Not now! I can't pick you up!" Brian said. He was carrying the vacuum and several other items. I laughed as Tyke darted in between his legs. Brian stumbled slightly, and I got up quickly to help him.

"Tyke! Stop it you rascal!" I laughed. He just barked again, wagging his tail excitedly. Brian shook his head and sighed. I laughed at his expression, as he began walking with the vacuum again. "Brian, you dropped a cord!" I called, bending over to pick it up. (Enter Tyke, again!!) Brian turned to get the cord from me, walking in circles to avoid stepping on Tyke. "Brian! Watch it!" I laughed as he wrapped the vacuum's cord around us.

"Whoa, sorry," he said, turning about, trying to untangle us. I laughed at him as he twisted the cord around us tighter. "Okay, hold on... wait a minuet... let's see... I think I have it... okay, no I don't..." he said stumbling about. He began laughing as he realized the mess we were in.

"Yip, yip, yip!" Tyke called as he darted around us. We were both laughing, stuck in each other's arms, when Tyke came plowing into us, and we began loosing our balance. "Oh noo!" I cried, still laughing.

"No, no... hold on! Ahh!" Brian shouted. We were both yelling and laughing at the same time when, BOOM, we hit the floor. Brian landed on his back, and I landed smack-dab right on top of him. The both of us were laughing hysterically as Tyke ran up and began licking Brian's face.

"ARGH!" I laughed, lunging at Tyke, but missing. Brian was laughing so hard, he began turning red. "Brian!" I called, "Calm down!!"

"I- I can't!" he gasped between his laughter. I snickered at the way he was acting. "IT'S NOT THAT FUNNY!" I giggled. Brian just laughed more. I smiled and kissed his lips gently. Suddenly, his laughter began to subside. "Well, that worked!" I exclaimed, smiling down at him.

Brian smiled sweetly at me. "Of course it did! You're the only thing that can get me to shut up!" he exclaimed. I laughed at him. "I take it that's a good thing?" I said. Brian smiled at me, looking at me intently as he rubbed his hands on my back. "Yeah," he answered quitely. I smiled at him as he kissed me once more.

After a few attempts, we finally got untangled from the cords and off the floor. Since it was late in the day, and we were jet lagged, we decided to turn in for the night.