You

 The young man sat on the back steps with a heavy ‘hmph’. “Why is it that all the best ones have to get stolen away?” He asked the empty yard. “First, it was Jay, then Mia, Renee, Tommy and Arnie.” His head hung low. Though no one was around, he still felt a need to at least try to hide his tears. “I know,” he whispered, picturing the face of his lost love in a puddle on the ground. “I know, Beau. You didn’t want me to cry. But losing you... it was the worst. It is the worst. Because you... you were the best. The best of all of them.” Each word he spoke was harder to get out then the last as tears streamed down his face.

The young man took a breath, trying hard to steady himself. He wanted to keep going and push through, but he wanted... no needed, to do so without having his voice quiver or break. He figured he owed Beau at least that much. “You,” he started again, “are the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten. Just you.” A montage of images, many of them moving, flashed through his mind. Of Beau, of the both of them together, happy and in love. The small smile that stretched across his lips was tinged with sadness. But he was ok with that. “If this is the price I have to pay, then so be it. Because anything is worth the chance to love and be loved by you.”

He remembered one time when they were together, laying quietly as the sunlight streaming in through the window warmed them. “You want to know something?”
“Tell me.” The young man had whispered against his lover’s lips.
“You’re my forever love.”
Just the sound of the words, spoken in Beau’s voice, almost melted him. “You’re my forever love,” he’d argued playfully. “And my every day Valentine.”
Beau’s giggle was etched in his memory, along with the cheeky smile.
“It just fits that your name is literally Valentine.” The young man smiled, both back in that moment, and again then, as he remembered the moment and relived it in his mind.

“Beau Valentine.” The name tasted like sugary syrup on his tongue, the sound a sweet symphony to his ears. “My Beau Valentine.” Beau’s smile had melted him too.

“My Beau Valentine,” the young man told the imagined reflection of his love. “My everyday valentine, my forever love. Because I choose you. Every day and forever.”