Hello hello hello! From the depths of my soul! I am back with another story idea. The horror I know! But when I get a brain fart, I have to write so this is the result. Enjoy!

Two months.

It's been two months since Betty Cooper acquired the book that laid securely in her hands. The book at which was handwritten by the only hands of Leonardo Cooper, the wonderful man that is her grandfather- sorry, was. She was still getting used to the idea but didn't know if she would ever be able to accept the word was. The book that held all have his secrets of producing world-class Italian food. In his beloved restaurant Leo that was nestled in the deep downtown of New York City surrounded by voices of the city. The voices being the people of New York and the sirens that filled the streets. Betty looked down from the window of the train she was taking from Boston to New York. She ran her fingers down the cover the book feeling her eyes burn as memories of her grandfather surged in her memory burning her with the pain that she had felt from the moment he lost his life. Since she heard the doctor's final words and apologizes that would do nothing to bring the man back.

Betty sniffled as she opened the book to see his smiling face peeking up at her with love in his eyes. The kind of love this man gave his family was very rare and so special. Why did he have to go and leave her behind? When they had so many plans that will never be able to fulfill now? She continued to fill through the book landing on different recipes that were paired with memories of laughter, tears, and love. She landed on a page and felt her lips began to tremble as she took in the words. Leo was a very wise man. He would often say that the best food is made with heart. The best way is love your customers is to fill them with good food. Love and food were the only things that matter in life. They provided the substance that made the world go around and the way the world warmed itself from the coldness that life often brought. Such as his death two months ago.

Two months ago when her world ended and two months ago when it was announced that Leo's had been left to her through her grandfather's will along with his apartment that was waiting for her when she arrived. The only thing she had to do was to finish her education at Harvard in which she had graduated from almost two weeks ago. It should have been the proudest moment of her life, but yet it was one of the most chilling. Mainly because of the void that was there in his wake.

Betty wiped away the tear that escaped her eye as she remembered the night of his death. It was Easter Sunday and the family, him, her mom and her, had sat down for dinner with a glorious ham in which he had cooked himself on a beautiful display in the middle of the table. Betty had just handed her mom the mashed potatoes when Leo began to pull that tie around his neck and his face began turning a deep red followed by gasping for air. Alice Cooper jumped up running around the table to him as the poor man began clutching his chest. Alice Cooper shouted at Betty to call 9-1-1 and Betty could barely remember what happened after that until they received the words: It was a heart attack. It was fast and sudden, but with irreversible damage to his heart that made it too weak to beat on his own and that his time was short. As the doctor said those words, a code blue sounded from inside the room. The room they were standing out of. The doctors ran back inside followed by several nurses that seemed to come out of nowhere. Betty could do nothing but watch through tear-filled eyes as shouts from the doctor sounded in the halls. A few minutes later, the doctor reappeared with deep pity in his brown eyes. A pity that told her the truth before the doctor even uttered the words. He was gone. Her beautiful happy to go grandfather was gone. She would never be able to hear the deep laughter the rumbled up from somewhere deep inside of him again. She would never be able to call him on Sundays to tell him about her week or her assignment or tell him that she loved him...again.

The next several days moved like a blur from making the funeral arrangements to the actual funeral itself. The night she went into the bedroom he was staying to find the book laying on a desk nearby wide open on a blank page. A page never to filled with another word from Leo Cooper. That was when it really hit her. She sat there for hours. Crying deeply in the depths of his room clutching the book to her chest. The book that she only knew about because it was one of the secrets he had shared with her and only her. A few days later, they sat across the table from Leo's lawyer when she found out that he had left the restaurant to her with only one condition.

Luckily for her, Betty was only weeks away from graduation and a week ago after her final class received the call from the lawyers stating that the deed and keys were available for her to pick up at her convenience and that was where she was headed at the moment as soon as the train docked at Grand Central Station which would be at noon or what she hoped to be at noon. Betty looked up at the pelting rain that escaped a heavily clouded sky with the New York skyline in the background. It was like the weather was mirroring her sorrow. A voice sounded through the intercom announcing their arrival at the station followed by a bell signaling that the train had reached its stop.

Betty took in a deep breath getting up from her seat reaching for her carry on and waited for a cute elderly couple to pass, the man tipped his hat in thanks at her as he walked, before stepping out into the aisle and made her way off the train and into the station. Betty was greeted by the sounds of the station. People were walking and talking amongst themselves some asking guards for directions and some talking with excitement as the greeted a love on. An occasion hiss from the trains could be heard and she closed her eyes at the feeling she was home. Betty looked around the room looking for the sign pointing her way which was to her left and that was the way she went to get her bags. Soon she was walking out of the station into the pouring rain and she wished that hadn't left her umbrella back at her apartment. Well, it could be worse, She thought to herself. She hurried over to the line of cabs with hopes of catching a free one and luck seemed to be on her side when she opened the door of one and slid inside. Betty shivered at the cold air of cab hitting her damp skin. She wiped away the rivers of water from her forehead to see the cab driver staring at her with an amused look. And damn he was a hot one too. With dark hair and dreamy blue eyes. Looks that spelled trouble for her already broken heart. That was a story for another day.

"What?" She snapped at him feeling a bit self-conscious. Yes, she might have looked a little bit worse for wear but it's not her fault. She didn't control the weather or a four-hour train ride that had her up at crack of dawn.

"It's raining outside," He said pointing out the window to the wet streets that laid around them.

Betty stared at the man for a moment trying to decide what to say, but her mouth did it for her and soon words were flying out of her lips. "Is that what that is?" She asked her following his finger out the window. "Because I literally had no clue," She added.

The cab driver snickered at her answer. "Now, that is an answer I wish I could get instead of hostile hmms or no answer at all. Where's your umbrella?" He asked her.

"I forgot it," Betty grumbled laying her head back on the headrest. She groaned internally at the small ache in her neck from her night of tossing and turning due to the nerves that swelled up in the pit of her stomach as she thought about her move to the city.

"Here you go."

Betty opened her eyes to see him holding out a roll of paper towel for us and gave him a smile as she took them from him. "Thank you," She said tearing one off and using it to try her face. It was the only part that paper towel would help.

"Is this your first time to the city?" He asked her and Betty shook her head.

"Hardly," She answered wiping off a drop of water off her nose.

"So where to?"

Betty gave him the address and soon the cab was moving through the streets only to get stuck in a traffic jam because some idiot didn't know how to drive in the rain. It was an hour later when the cab finally pulled up to the curve outside of the building of interest. She dug out her wallet pulling out a few bills and a few extra for the kindness of the towel placing the cash in his hands.

"Sorry about the traffic," He said as she opened the door and Betty shook her head.

"That was not your fault and thank you for the towels," Betty said before climbing out of the car and back out into the pouring rain once again. She hurried out of the way of a massive swarm of pedestrians that surrounded her to a large glass door with fancy gold handle that awaited her to open. She walked inside to a lavish lobby that seemed almost too pristine for the top magazines for the world. The tiles were so glossy that she could see the reflections of the light in them before the turned to a long carpeted hallway with flimsy plants along the wall for decoration to go with the pictures on the wall.

"Can I help you, Miss?"

The sudden voice made Betty jump pulling her from the awe of the beautiful building around. She looked to see a young red-headed girl, that reminded her of her best Friend Archie Andrews, looking over up from her large desk staring curiously at her. Betty felt her cheeks burn from embarrassment.

"Hi," She greeted walking up to the front of the desk. "Yes," She nodded at the girl who was looking at her expectingly. "I am here to see Mr. Perkins." She answered.

"Name?" the girl asked turning to her computer typing something into it.

"Betty Cooper."

The girl typed a few more things before shaking her head at her. "I am sorry, but I am not finding a Betty Cooper on our schedule. Do you have an appointment?" She asked in a voice that Betty was quickly finding annoying.

Betty shook her head. "Sorry, I don't-" She started but what cut off by the receptionist.

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Perkins will not see anyone without an appointment and his calendar is filled until the fifth which is two weeks away," She explained looking up from her screen.

"Mr. Perkins knows that I am coming. I personally spoke to him this morning. All I am doing is picking up keys from is all which is why I don't have an appointment, so could you just get him for me?" Betty asked putting on her best smile even though she was already getting tired of the bullshit.

"I will try, but I will not make any promises. He is a very busy man," She said before reaching for the phone punching in a few numbers. Betty watched the girl have a brief conversation with a few nods of her head before ending the call. The girl turned back up to her. "If you will please have a seat in the lobby down the hall to the right. Mr. Perkins is currently with a client, but as soon as he is finished he will be right out. There is also a coffee machine, so feel free to help yourself while you wait."

Coffee. The girl just said the magic word. "I will do that," Betty smiled thinking about the treat awaiting her. "Thank you for your help," She said pulling away from the desk and soon the phone rang again and the girl was busy once again. Betty went down the hall turning the corner and the lovely looking coffee pot came into view like the lighthouse of her life. To her, it honestly had the signal light flashing saying drink me! You need it! Yes, coffee was her addiction and would be the first one to tell someone that she had a coffee problem. But she didn't care. She liked what she liked. She also knew that coffee companies around the world just made bank from her during the week of her final. Come on, finals at Harvard are stressful. The strong aroma hit her nose as she poured herself a cup, the scent was strong enough to give her a warm boost that sent shivers down her body. She had just placed a lid on her cup when a door to her left opened up and the voice of Mr. Perkins filled her ears laughing as he said goodbye to whoever he was speaking to and soon he was speaking to her.

"Already hitting the coffee pot huh?"

Betty turned around holding up her cup. "You know it," She smiling walking over the man who had his hand stretched out. "How are you doing, Mr. Perkins?" Betty asked him while she shook his hand.

"I told you to call me Martin, young lady and I am doing well," He said stepping back opening the door wider to his off. "I thought I was expecting you at earlier." Martin moved over to his desk sitting down in his large leather chair.

"I would have been here sooner if it hadn't been for traffic. Someone had an accident," Betty explained.

"Ah, so that was what made the power blink earlier," Martin said shaking his head. "Some of the New Yorkers shouldn't have driver's licenses. So are you ready to gain the keys to your grandfather's kingdom?"

"I'm ready as I'll ever be I guess," Betty sighed and Martin turned around in his chair reaching to a shelf and she guessed by the zipping sound Martin was going into a safe. After a few minutes of rummaging, Martin turned around placing a folder on his desk followed by a key ring filled with several keys. He turned the folder upside holding out pen for her to use.

"All you need to do is sign on a few lines stating that it was you, Elizabeth Cooper, who I was issuing these keys too," Martin instructed pointing to places where she needed to slap down her chicken scratch that she called her signature. Soon the folder was closed and he was holding out the keys for her to take.

"Alright, there are several keys on here that will go to several different things around the restaurant such as the storages and the wine cellar. Also, the key to his apartment which is across the street is on here too. There was a spare key, but we were unable to find it." He explained placing the keys into her hand.

Betty smiled. "He must have lost it at some point because he was good at losing things," She said swallowing against a lump in her hand feeling the weight of the legacy built before her in her mere hand.

Martin chuckled fondly. "That he was. When you get the place up and running again. Give me a call. I could go for a nice cheesy pizza with some garlic bread. That man could cook like no other."

Betty nodded. "I most certainly will. Thank you for everything, Martin," She said with a warm smile.

Martin shook his head pulling his glasses off of his face. "Don't thank me," He said. "Thank the man that was my best friend for the past 20 years. Also, don't worry about any kind of failure. I know he taught you well. He often boasted about how you were following in his footprints. Do you need a ride? I can get you a cab?" He offered.

"That won't be necessary," Betty declined lightly. "I will just take the trains to where I need to go. I don't want to get stuck in another cab for a long while."

Martin nodded accepting her answer. "Very well then. Please call me if you have any questions about anything."

"You will be the first person I call if the need ever arises," Betty told him. They exchanged their goodbye and Betty was walking out of the office, down the hall, and out of the building. Betty sighed in relief seeing that rain had completely stopped leaving the air cool and damp. She walked down the sidewalk walking around people only turning one corner and that was to do down the stairs to the train she would be taking to the area she needed to be in.

It was like a blur to Betty. She was getting on the train, sitting down in a very girl seat and shortly she was getting off and climbing back up another set of stairs into the city. Except for this time, all the building lining the street stood out to her looking familiar in a cozy homy kind of way. She could smell the scent of food cooking from another restaurant just down the block from where she was standing. She looked around the street as she walked as memories of playing on the sidewalk when she would often stay with her grandfather during the summer time. The summer times that she would start looking forward to around the time of spring break. Spring break… The time she wishes she could trade in for just one more moment of memories of spending time with her Grandpa but no….She had to go with her friends to Montreal for some fun time and it turned out to be her biggest regret. Because, just one month later...Well, you should know by now.

Betty felt her eyes heat up as the laid on the building in question and then she was standing right in front of it. The burnt red bricks sticking out like a sore thumb or was it the blazing white windows gazing out the street below. Betty could see a broken window pane from where she stood remembering that it was her who broke the glass in the first place. She had caught a fly ball that day when they went to watch a baseball game and had been throwing it when it veered off and out the glass it went. She was never able to find that baseball. Anyway, her grandfather came rushing up at the sound of broken glass and he didn't even get mad at her. He got down on his knees looking over every inch of her arms and hands to make sure she wasn't cut from the flying shards. Once she was checked out and safe, he inspected the window and said that it would be fixed. But seeing as she was now staring at it from the streets several years later. He had never gotten around to it.

Her eyes slid down the building sweeping over the blue canopy that hosted white letters in a cursive fashion spelling out the name Leo's. Though she found some strange sights as she looked at the storefront. One, the open and closed sign was flipped around to the closed side and then the light that was always lit up was dark as if there were no signs of life in the bulbs. Betty felt herself begin to get choked up as she now was facing the hardest part of the equation. The part that she had been dreading the most. The part that had kept her up at night staring up at the ceiling above her bed. The part that wasn't a math problem that she was having trouble solving where she could close the book and come back later. The part that would make everything real and that was going through those doors to an empty space where grandfather was always supposed to be. The space that he had built up with his bare hand after her grandmother past away due a tumor found on her ovaries. The space that was theirs. His and Hers. Yes, the getting here was the easy part, but taking the final arrow in her heart was a bit more than she could actually take. The part she was not ready for, but she knew that she had to pull the band-aid off sometime if she wanted this to work. And that time was now. So, she mentally pulled up her big girl pants and marched over to the door as a sound of thunder pierced the air followed by the pitter patter of heavy raindrops hitting the ground. Betty looked behind her wondering if that was a good sign and she was taking it as one

It took her a few tries to find the right key and when the lock turned to its side her heart began to pound. A new rush of panic washed over her making her realize that she was not ready for this moment but tore that wall of resistance apart as she pulled open the door to walk inside. She hit by the scent of basil as the scent of the herb had been forever encrusted into the four walls around her. Betty looked around and her heart hurt at the sight of dust laying on the wooden tables that were scattered across the floor or the way the napkins had turned a yellowish color on the booths that lined that wall. The way the leafy plant was wilted in a desperate need of water. She turned to the other side where the jukebox was that she and her grandfather would often dance to after he locked the door for the night. It too was dark. Betty walked over to the first booth placing her bags on top of it. Yes, she had been carrying her bags everywhere she went, but what was she supposed to with them? Come down to the apartment drop them off only to go back the way she came ten minutes earlier. No, she didn't do things that way. She did her things her way.

Betty walked along the bar running her hand over the wood stopping to run her fingers over the letters of her initials that she had carved one night waiting for Leo to get done with the dishes on the slope of the counter and she was trying to catch up on her summer reading. There were pictures that littered the wall of Leo and various customers from over the year. All of them held that warm smile of Leo Cooper. Betty walked over to the one in which she was in and plucked it from the wall. Betty blinked back the tears as she stared at the picture remembering the night it was taken. It was one of her last nights of one her visit right before her first year of high school when her life turned super busy due to the harpings of Alice Cooper about her school work and how important these years were for colleges to look back on. Her final visit to the place was her junior year of college when she was at Harvard. She had made many promises to come visits that would be drowned out due to internships at various newspapers around the city of Cambridge and Boston. One of them landing her a job as a reporter at a small upcoming newspaper company that loved her due to her experience from the Riverdale Register in her hometown of Riverdale.

She slides the picture into her pocket as she continued to walk around taking in everything from wall to wall. Betty wiped away the tears that had managed to escape as she drowned in the dead silence. But it wasn't that silent at all. Betty could still hear the sound of her grandfather's laughter as he waved goodbye to his recurring customers and his little words that often made her stomach hurt from laughter. Betty shook her head at herself, but was she mental? Maybe? But it was something that she was going to hold on to as long as she could because it gave her the one thing she really needed. Hope.

After her careful inspection of the dining room, Betty made her way around the counter where she looked at everything that was left behind from the receipt tap to the order pads. She decided then that the place needed a good cleaning from floor to ceiling to make the place shiny once more. She continued walking through the kitchen area, opening and closing the many refrigerators mental jotting down everything she needed even though she had all the information in the book Leo had left behind such as recipes and various vendors where he would often get his supplies from. Soon she found herself opening the door to what was his office and boy was it a mess. There were papers everywhere with pens scattered on a small desk as well a rotary phone.

"They still make those?" She asked herself lifting the phone off playing with a dial area merely because she was curious and the phone was so cute that she couldn't bear the thought of getting rid of it. Because it was so her grandfather. Betty sat down in the worn leather chair that had some tears going up the side and spun around a few times. Giggling at the pulling feeling in her stomach from the motion but the entertainment was short lived as the jingle of bells sounded from the front that made her stop the chair. She listened closely to see if she could hear anything again and felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up at the sound of shuffling footsteps. Betty felt her heart jump up in her throat as she looked around for the bat that Leo had kept in the office for protection in case of emergencies like now. But it was nowhere to be found and Betty cursed at herself for leaving her bags up front. What if they took her things? She should have known better than to do that. Except for the purse that was hanging around her neck and that purse housed a brick She always kept that close no matter where she went other than her home. Betty grinned at herself and she could hear the footsteps growing closer and they were slowing down. Which meant they were near the door, possibly just around the corner.

Betty could feel her heart begin to pound while she pulled the purse from around her neck. She wrapping the straps around the palm of her hand several times to give herself some leverage as she lifted her hand into the air. One more footprint sounded and this time it was just outside the door. But she would not be beaten, not by anyone. So, Betty closed her eyes taking a deep breath before jumping out of the room with the bag raised in her hand to see a tall man wearing a weird looking hat standing out the door with his own hand raised up with a bat. The bat she had just been looking for. The action had caused them both to scream in fright and Betty wasted no time in clocking the dude upside the head with her bag. He cried out in pain from the contact and Betty watched with satisfaction as he clutched the side of his head which caused him to drop his bat as he fell to his knees in front of her. With her attacker in much-needed pain, Betty snatched the bat up off the floor in case if she needs it to kill him, not that she would kill anyone but she doubt she would. Her grandfather had always told her that she had a nice arm and for once she was proud to use it and would use it again if she needed too.

Uh oh! Did she kill him? Come back to find out?

Until next time my readers, please review and follow!