I cannot believe that I am actually writing again. I really thought I was done, but Viper209n inspired me to continue. I doubt there are any of you still out there, but if you are, please review so I will continue on. I need the encouragement. It has been so long, I am not sure if your current email address are still linked up to this site.
Anyway, my apologies.
The Heavy Lifting – Original Airdate – February 9th, 2006All Italics are Josh's words!
Every year he dreaded it. Valentine's Day. The one holiday that always gets him in some sort of trouble with Kirsten. It was never enough. She always sets her expectations too high and he always seems to let her down. He hates this holiday.
He couldn't think about it now. He had much bigger issues to face. They were going to lose their chance with the hospital board. He wanted to build this hospital in the worst way. Mostly his desires were stirred by the constant need to help others. He hated to admit it, but a part of him desired The Newport Group to gain a monumental project under his title as CEO. He needed to succeed at this. How did Kirsten do it all these years? It made him a bit jealous, not that he would ever admit that.
His only strand of hope was Maya Griffin, the daughter of the key ingredient to get this project cooking. He was changing. He struggled to keep his feet grounded and his stance in place. He didn't want Matt to use her. He didn't want him to lead her on. He made that quite clear when Matt came into his office early in the morning. He was desperate, now knowing how many of Caleb's clients felt.
He hated those men. He hated when they did this to Kirsten. He hated when they bought her dinner and flirted with her relentlessly. His blood boiled when their hands touched her in any way.
Now, he admittedly wants Matt to do these same things to Maya. Thankfully Matt genuinely likes her. Now he doesn't have to explore the possibility of having him use her. Would he be okay with that if it came down to it?
Kirsten spent the day working as well. She and Julie were setting up for the Valentine's Day event. As much as she hated to think about it, she knew Sandy would once again disappoint her by not embracing the holiday.
She and Julie were walking along the beach when Julie started to mention another plan to stalk Dr. Roberts.
"Julie, the last time you went on a stealth mission, you toppled a dessert tray." She said, trying to point out to Julie that her behavior over the last few weeks has been ridiculous.
"Yeah, but it got his attention."
"Men and women are different creatures Julie." She hated to admit this next point, but this was the game she always played with Sandy. "You are going to have to wait for him to come to terms with the idea of you and him on his own. For some reason it takes men longer to figure things out."
"Yeah, right." Julie responded, knowing Sandy didn't waste any time making a move on Kirsten.
"I'm serious." Kirsten again wanted to reiterate how bad Sandy was in the Valentine's Day department. "When I said Sandy is not a big fan of Valentine's Day, I meant it. He always botches it up." She expressed her frustrations, knowing Sandy's behavior was not typical of ALL men.
"Do you ever think he does it on purpose?"
"I know he does it on purpose. He knows it pisses me off, but that is worth his expressions of how much he hates how hyped up people feel about expressing themselves on this one day." She knew deep down Sandy was right, but she didn't care. She loved the whole idea of Valentine's Day.
"Sometimes, I think Sandy is smarter than I give him credit for." Julie smiles knowingly, that Kirsten would get over it.
The next morning Kirsten was starting to stress. She loved throwing events, but anything less than perfect was not acceptable in her eyes. As she was on the phone with a vendor, she heard Matt & Sandy enter the house from shooting some hoops. Sandy was such a kid sometimes, she thought.
"Hey, honey, are the kids home?" Sandy asked when she hung up the phone.
"No, they're on the way to the bait shop for the wake." Once again she was reminded how hard Johnny's death must be on all of them. "Hey, matt, how's it going?" She decided to change the subject.
"Women troubles." Matt said frustrated that Maya was giving him a hard time about going out with him again. He knew he should have called her.
"Oh, well, maybe I can play cupid." Kirsten offered.
"That's a great idea." The wheels were already spinning.
"Really, Sandy?" Kirsten knew she had him. "And what is it that you say about Valentine's Day? That it's a vacuous, commercially driven, hollow shell of a holiday?" She repeated his words that stung her heart.
"Well, sometimes we all need a little vacuous, commercially driven diversion, and this would be one of those times." He was desperate.
Kirsten ignored him, doing this more for Matt than Sandy. "What's her name? I'll have a ticket to the party delivered."
"It's Maya Griffin."
"Whose father is the head of the physician's board? I don't know." She hesitated.
"If anybody can do it, you can." Sandy pushed.
"This girl doesn't need my help getting a date. It'll never work." She argued, not wanting to put herself in this situation.
"You know what, Kirsten? Don't worry about it. I'm sure that we can come up with something else." Matt said defeated as he walked out of the room.
Kirsten felt bad and knew the ball was in her court. She moved closer to Sandy as she lowered her voice. It was time to make a deal. "I'll get Maya to the party, if you try and embrace the holiday." She needed to verbalize the rules. "No whining, no snarky comments. Candies. Candles. Lingerie. Nice lingerie." She knew better than to leave it at that. He was a man. He needed specifics. She hated that she had to do this. "Nothing red, see-through or remotely edible." The last part was a joke, but felt the need to lighten the situation.
Sandy reminded her that he was the funny one. "Not even a little see-through?"
He wouldn't crack a smile, pretending he was completely serious. She broke first, laughing at his joke. Her smile illuminated the room. "You know 'see through' is not my style." She said shyly, although she questioned her last statement. "Is it yours? Is it a secret fantasy you never told me about?"
Now his lips curved upwards. "You should know by now what my likes and dislikes are."
He didn't mean anything by that, but it struck a nerve. "Well if you ever actually bought me lingerie, you would know my likes and dislikes." She was half joking, but wanted to make her point. "Come to think of it, have you been paying attention at all to what I wear in the bedroom?"
He was too smart for this. "I am not going to speak another word. I know this conversation is only going in a bad direction." He pulled her close. "You got a deal." He leaned in, sealing it with a short kiss.
A little bit later, Kirsten found her Victoria's Secret catalog and figured to assist Sandy in not screwing this up. After circling a few things that she likes, she called Maya and set up a meeting with her.
On her way out, she caught Sandy in his office. She walked thought the wooden frame, doing everything in her power not to show any sense of playfulness. She threw the catalog on his desk. As quickly as she entered, she tried to exit.
"What's this?" Sandy called out after her.
"Suggestions. So you don't disappoint me." She said as he stared at her back.
"Where are you going?" He tried stopping her, knowing it was a lost battle. "Maybe we should look at this together."
She spun around. "Unlike you, I don't need assistance keeping up my end of the deal."
Although not an easy task, Maya agreed to attend the event, even though Matt disappointed her in the past. Kirsten completely understood her point. She probably wouldn't have given Matt another chance either. But she needed to make sure Sandy didn't win this war.
After Sandy returned from Victoria's Secret, he walked in the kitchen and Seth was sitting at the table. He had his own lingerie bag.
"I see you've picked up a little something for your lady, and I for mine." Sandy said starting the conversation. Seth looked upset and wanted him to open up.
"Uh, your lady is my mother, and I really don't want to talk about it." Sandy was right.
"Women's underwear has gotten very complicated. Thongs. Bikinis. Briefs. Who knew women's panties were such a minefield?" Sandy always knew to go a different way with the conversation.
"Don't say panties." Seth tried to ignore him.
"So? You and Summer good?" The direct approach always worked best.
"We will be."
"What did you do this time?" He knew this had to be Seth's fault.
"A certain circumstance was not fully disclosed, and my omission was discovered."
Could he be more vague, Sandy thought. "You got caught in a lie."
"In a nutshell, yeah, but I don't see why she's making such a big deal about it. It's not like it's the first time."
Sandy knew this one going to be one of those moments that defined him as a father. "Well, maybe she thinks of you as a man, not a kid. Kids lie all the time, but a man's only as good as his word."
"Well, summer deserves a good man." He said defeated.
"Summer has a good man." Sandy reassured.
"She does?"
"Yeah."
"Why didn't you tell me? How long have you known?" The joke signaled that Seth was done with this conversation.
"Just show her." Sandy said getting up. "I got to pick up a few more things for your mother. I promised her the best Valentine's day ever." He grabbed his bag, or so he thought, and exited the kitchen.
After picking up flowers & chocolate, Sandy was proud of himself. He managed not to screw this up. He walked into his bedroom, knowing Kirsten was probably in there.
As Sandy turned the corner Kirsten was thrilled to see he finally embraced it. Although completely strong armed into it, there he was with all the things he requested. "Oh!" Kirsten exclaimed.
"For you." He handed her the chocolate and flowers. As he pulled the bag from behind his back, he continued. "Too bad you're already dressed. I was hoping you'd wear this." He knew they didn't have time, but wanted to make sure she knew he always wanted her.
"Oh!" She was so excited about receiving this type of gift from Sandy. "Is it the black one with the beige trim or the beige one with the black trim?"
"Find out." Sandy was equally excited.
As Kirsten pulled out something he never saw before, he was stunned. Kirsten was beyond shocked. The lingerie seemed sophomoric. How could he screw this up, she thought. Then a few things crossed her mind, which made the next words flow out of her mouth, wishing they were not true. "This is a fantasy I'm not aware of."
"I didn't buy that." His first thought was that she wasn't going to believe him.
"Oh, thank God." She exclaimed, a little too quickly.
He raised his eyebrows. "Kirsten, I know things are a bit off. Our lives seem to be on opposite schedules from what we are used to, but you know me. "
"It's just seems so…" She struggled with the next words. "Amateur?" She finished unsure if she was making a clear point. Her head was filled with ideas of Sandy having desires of sleeping with much younger girls.
He closed the space between them, wanting to make her understand. "Nothing about our sex life is amateur." He kissed her passionately. She didn't fully reciprocate, wanting to hear more, wanting to understand how this piece of lingerie ended up in her bedroom. "Even our first time was a perfectly performed dance. I love that about us." He searched her eyes for an honest answer. "Okay?"
"Yes." She said, still questioning it. "But how…"
Before she could continue, the light bulb went off and Sandy now figured out the mix up. "Oh God." A few realizations set in. The first realization was that he grabbed the wrong bag when he had that talk with Seth in the kitchen. The second being now he had to explain to Kirsten that Seth had bought lingerie for Summer. The third realization, and probably the worst one in Kirsten's eyes, was that Seth was going to see Kirsten's lingerie. She was going to die from sheer embarrassment.
Kirsten could see the wheels turning and wanted an answer. "What?"
He backed into a corner. "It's Seth."
"Huh?"
"The bag." He further explained. "It's Seth's bag." He was hoping she was not going to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. He knew better. She was smarter than him.
"Seth has my lingerie? He is going to see it?"
"Probably." He said, starting to smile. He couldn't help but see the humor in this.
"How can you think this is funny? Not only is Seth going to know what I wear to turn you on, even if it is just for a short moment, but he is also buying this for summer?" She said holding up the hanger.
"Don't get so upset." He said in an effort to extinguish the fire what was about to start.
"I am upset. You can be perfectly romantic on most days of the year, but you somehow manage to screw up this one day." She started to raise her voice.
"It's not ruined." He said, thinking she was making a bigger deal out of this than it should be. "You are letting this mix up ruin it." He really hated Valentine's Day. "Give me a little bit of time to fix it. Let's go to the event and try and have a good time." He never thought the day would come where he would be convincing her to have a good time at a Newpsie convention.
Once again, he was reminded how times have certainly changed.
At the event, Kirsten was extremely busy. It always started out like that. Once everything was running, she would have some time to enjoy herself. Sandy took this as an opportunity to corner Seth.
"So did Summer give you back the bag?"
"The conversation kind of went in a different direction after that." Seth explained, knowing the lingerie was the least of his problems.
Sandy was annoyed. He wanted to fix this, but deep down he didn't think it was a big deal. His lawyer skills were going to have to shine tonight.
Kirsten barely saw Sandy and a part of her needed space from him. She spotted Ryan and wanted to start a conversation with him. As time passed, Ryan has been much more open with them. She asked if he was alone tonight.
The floodgates opened. "Marissa and I have been fighting a lot, mainly about whether Johnny was just a friend or if it was more than that. She says it wasn't. I don't think she's lying to me, but I think she might be lying to herself. Now that he's gone, how do we move forward, or if?" He felt a little sense of relief. It felt good to talk about it. Kirsten knew him better than most people and it was okay for him to express his frustrations.
Kirsten was surprised, but easily recovered. After all, her business was match making. "Well, the night's not over. Maybe there's a little pit stop you could make on the way home." She meant to rectify things with Marissa.
"Yeah, actually there is. Thanks." Ryan's mind was on Sadie.
Sandy was standing off to the side, watching the whole exchange between Ryan and Kirsten. He loved how easily she transited from the unsure guardian to the supportive, loving parent.
He leaned in close wrapping his arms around her. Although she loved how he felt, she was still a bit upset. She knew she was acting childish, but Sandy's track record is sadly pathetic when it comes to ruining Valentine's Day.
He had to stay in a safe territory. He did not want to bring up what was plaguing her mind. "How's Ryan?"
"Oh, he has a lot on his mind, as usual." Kirsten said, knowing that was all she had to say to Sandy regarding teen drama. Sandy didn't really buy into the whole thing. She figured it was because he didn't have to grow up in Newport.
He decided to change the subject , his eyes now focused on Matt & Maya. This drama was at least the profitable kind. "Oh, whoa! Matt and Maya seem to be getting along."
"Do you think they're talking about business?" She decided not to dwell on their elephant in the room.
"Yeah!" He figured he had to make a joke to lighten the mood. Humor would always fix things with Kirsten. " I think right now he's saying how our design offers more space for emergency care and outpatient services."
She played along. "I think she's more concerned about wheelchair access in the lobby."
"Aw, she's a good soul."
He wrapped his arms tighter, lowering his lips to her ear. "Dance with me?"
She spun around, wanting to look him in the eye. She didn't say anything, pretending she was contemplating the offer.
He stopped this charade. "You know, you can play hard to get all you want. I already won that game years ago." He pulled back, reaching for her hand. "Come dance with me." He started leading her to the dance floor.
She obliged, not wanting to give him anything. She wanted him to speak. She wanted him to fix how she felt even if things were honestly screwed up to no fault of Sandy's.
They did this a million times before. The held this stance through all their good and bad moments. From the outside looking in, they always looked perfect. They fit like a glove, their bodies intertwining, knowing a comfort that most would never get to experience in a lifetime.
That is what frustrated Kirsten to no end. For two people who knew each other so well, how can they sometimes feel so off? Everything about their life lately was not in sync with each other. Roles were reversed and times have certainly changed. Kirsten just figured it was going to just take some adjusting.
"What are you thinking about?" Sandy interrupted her thoughts.
"Nothing." She lied. Why was she lying? She didn't even understand what she was hiding. It was no secret that things were different, but it was, again, the elephant in the room. Neither of them was willing to open that can of worms.
"Just checking." He simply stated as he swayed with her to the music. Her hands were a bit cold so he covered her smaller one with his, moving it to his chest. "You are still right here." He said moving her hand closer to his heart.
She smiled sweetly, loving how he can take her to a place full of love and emotion. "Good." She said, but wanting him to understand, she continued. "But sometimes I want to be right here." She moved her hand to his head, tapping her pointer finger on his temple. She looked deep into his eyes, hoping she got her point across. She moved that same hand to the wisps of hair threatening to fall in front of his eyes. As she brushed the stray pieces away, she spoke. "I don't want to get lost. I don't want us to get lost."
He knew what she meant. They were lost for the majority of the previous year. He never wanted to live that nightmare again. "We won't."
He leaned in to kiss her. It wasn't rushed or passionate. He felt it to be assuring. Kirsten tried to get lost in the moment, but Sandy's last words were not convincing.
Please review. I know it can be time consuming but I would greatly appreciate it. Also, be nice! Being out of the game has hindered my writing style. If I continue, I promise it to get better.
