Beckett Imaran Oliver is a hopeless romantic and he has his parents to blame for that.

They met in Introduction to Theatre history while studying at the same college. The way his father told him, the one and only time he told the story; it was love at first sight. But, like all great love stories, there was conflict. Shatara Singh was already engaged when James Oliver met her. It's a marriage set up by her parents, but she complies. It's tradition. That doesn't stop James from pursuing her though.

At first he tries simply to be her friend, helping her study or offering to get her tea since she didn't like coffee, and she resists. To her, it's more trouble than it's worth to even befriend let alone allow herself to fall in love with the man. Eventually though, like the hero of the story, he wins her over. There is the problem of her fiancé, and worse still, her parents.

The choice of when to announce their relationship is taken from them though, when Shatara gets pregnant (Beck actually infers this part, all his dad tells him is that he was born right after his parents got married.) James and Shatara elope and move down to the LA area where James still has some family. Shatara's parents disown her when she runs away and although it is heartbreaking, she took solace in her new family where she was married to the man she loved and had a beautiful son.

Beck imagines that his mother was a phenomenal woman. He thinks that she would have been proud of his accomplishments so far in life and that she would have supported his decision to pursue acting (though, considering where his parent's met and his dad's job, he sometimes wonder if it was a choice at all.) Beck imagines that she would love who he turned out to be. Beck imagines all these things because she dies way before he had a chance to show her.