His friends shook their heads, quick to agree she looked lovely. Sandy was a bit taken aback. Craig spoke about her to his friends as if she was just a surgical project to him, an achievement to put onto the wall of his office. His friends seemed nice, but she felt uneasy to have the surgery procedure brought up, especially with complete strangers to her. There’d been no mention of it when he was chatting with her friends back at the studio.
Doing her best to not seem as disappointed as she actually felt, she sat with him at the table and even enjoyed some of the hors d’oeuvres the club had to offer, all the while wondering if she’d just been telling herself she meant more to him than she actually did.
Chapter Eleven
Craig noticed Sandy got strangely silent once they were hanging out with his friends at The Executive. He didn’t know what was wrong, but he suspected she was just tired from a long day of work and spending time with people. After sitting and enjoying some hors d’oeuvres, he called for a car and took her back home to her apartment. As he had last time, he waited outside until she was inside the building. She was less talkative with him in the car this time as well, which did make his worry a little bit, but he thought she would tell him if something was seriously wrong.
When he didn’t hear from her over the next several days, he started to worry. Normally, she texted him when the weekend came, even if they couldn’t spend time together due to work or something. But all of his texts went unanswered.
“Is something wrong?” he finally asked her, thinking there surely had to be something going on. “Are you okay?”
This finally received a response, but it wasn’t the sort of response he wanted… “I’m perfectly fine,” Sandy wrote. “I just need some time to fully recover from finding out what you really think of me.”
Craig had no idea what she meant. “Did I do something that upset you?” he asked her, honestly wanting to know. “Did one of my friends say something? I told them to be on their best behavior.” He tried to lighten the mood a bit.
“Oh, you didn’t do anything I wouldn’t expect from a doctor like you,” she replied.
Now he was feeling very much like he’d unknowingly struck a nerve somehow. “I’m sorry if I offended you in any way,” he texted. “It wasn’t my intention.”
“Please,” she texted him back. “I just need some space to think things over. I think I got a little ahead of myself.”
Craig didn’t like the sound of this, but of course he was willing to give her space if she needed it. He didn’t want to be pushy and scare her away, especially not permanently. “Okay. Thank you for letting me know. I’m sorry.”
She didn’t say anything in response to him, which he didn’t think was too surprising. He didn’t have any plans for the weekend without her, though, so he didn’t know what he was supposed to do to pass the time and enjoy his days off. He couldn’t just spend all of his time at the club; it wasn’t healthy to sit in a place like that all the time, even if the atmosphere was pleasant.
“Bad news,” he texted his friends instead of going straight there. He didn’t want to make every time they hung out about himself. “Sandy is upset at me. I don’t know what I did wrong, but she said she wants space to think things over.”
“Aw, man. I’m sorry to hear that,” Tim replied right away. “She did seem kind of quiet. I thought she was just overwhelmed.”
Craig wondered for a moment if she’d simply been overwhelmed, but he thought it had to be more than that in order for her to be angry and avoiding him now. “I’m trying to remember if I said something stupid.”
“Not to my knowledge,” Doug replied. “I’m sorry, man. :( That’s a real bummer. I hope she comes around eventually.”
At least his friends sympathized with him, but they didn’t know her the way he did. They didn’t know what it was like to be missing her as much as he was. Craig felt powerless to fix the situation, and this was something he definitely wasn’t used to feeling. He was usually very in control. I wonder if she thought I was too controlling? He thought. But no, I never forced her to do anything. I always asked her first.
He wished he had some female friends, and then he thought he could ask his mother about it. She hadn’t met Sandy yet, but she still might be knowledgeable about how women felt about certain things. Short of talking to his receptionist, his mother was his best bet.
“It sounds to me like you might benefit from talking with her friends,” his mom suggested over the phone with him. “They know her best. She’s probably talked to them about how she’s feeling, too. And may I just say I’m so happy you’ve found a girlfriend. I hope it works out between you two so I can actually meet her sometime soon.”
Craig didn’t know why he was surprised to hear her say such things. She’d only been gently nudging him to get a girlfriend for years now. And now I’ve gone and ruined it, he thought.
He didn’t have any of the contact information for her friends, but he knew where he could find them. He took a car to the building where The Banana Peel was written and produced. He sat in the lobby, working on his laptop during the afternoon, waiting for the cast members to come down stairs to leave at the end of the day. He hoped this didn’t classify as stalking, but he didn’t think there was anything wrong with sitting and working while he waited to talk to someone. He thought it was a lot better than just going upstairs and knocking on doors.
Finally, at around six o’clock, Sandy’s friends and cast mates started coming out the front door. He didn’t see her amongst them, which was for the best in this case. He approached the woman he remembered being named Trish and have a small, slightly shy wave to her. “Hey, remember me? I was wondering if we could talk for a second?” He adjusted his black messenger bag on his shoulder. The laptop was much heavier when it was carried in a bag than it was when it was on his lap.
“Craig?” Trish asked him, looking confused to see him there, especially alone. “Sure.” She moved over to the couch and chairs where he’d been sitting.
He waited for her to take a seat on the well-worn fabric couch before he sat down beside her, a cushion between them. “Sandy is upset with me and I don’t know what I did or said,” he explained. “I was wondering if she said anything to you about it.”
Trish gave him a pitying sort of look. He could tell she didn’t mean anything by it, but it stung nonetheless. “She did say something to me,” she told him. “And I doubt she wants me to talk to you about it… But just so you know, it’s not so much one thing you said. It’s also the way you’ve acted. She thinks you don’t treat her like a normal person.”
Without any other tips, she got up and left him sitting there, pondering what she said. Craig felt just as confused as before, but it did help to know he hadn’t said something… It troubled him to know she thought he wasn’t treating her like he normally should. But what does that mean?
He didn’t stick around in the lobby because he knew it wouldn’t be long before Sandy appeared, and he didn’t want her to see him there. He didn’t think it would work in his favor for her to find him hanging around her place of work. Getting into a hired car, Craig rode to his club even though he’d told himself not to hang out there too much. He didn’t care for the drinks and the food right now; what he wanted was the consolation his friends could give him.
A quick text to his friends let them know where he was headed and they were more than happy to join him there. “I feel like I’m taking up all your free time lately,” he wrote. “And I’m sorry.”
“Not a problem, dude,” Doug texted back. “We care about you, and we know you’ve had a rough time.”
Craig wouldn’t say he’d had a particularly rough time actually, but he had been going through some dramatic stuff. He’d been hoping his life would start being happier now that he was with Sandy, but he supposed he should have taken the time to talk about that with her first. Once he was sitting around the table with his friends once more, he told them about what Trish had said and
how he was feeling about it.
“I don’t know what to do aside from miss her,” he said.
Tim looked at him thoughtfully. “There’s plenty you can do without her. Weren’t you thinking about changing up your business? You have all the time in the world for that now.”
Craig didn’t much like thinking he had all this free time now… He didn’t want it to be this way. But his friend had a good point. He’d almost forgotten about his ideas for his cosmetic surgery business. He’d wanted to surprise Sandy with it, though, and now who knew if she would ever care to learn about it?
“I guess it’s the sort of thing that will take time,” he said thoughtfully. “And in the meantime, I can also spend time with my family. My mom knows things are strained between Sandy and me. I know she’s got her fingers crossed for us, though.”
It had been a long time since a break-up or something like it had torn him up like this. He didn’t remember how he’d gotten past it before, but it was valuable for him to remember he had gotten past it. Craig didn’t want to give up on Sandy, but he told himself in order to give her space, he was going to have to loosen his mental grasp on her for a while and focus on himself and his own affairs. He hoped she missed him even a fraction of how much he missed her…
Before he set about making any changes to the business his father started years ago, Craig went to Southampton so he could discuss things with his parents. “This isn’t just because of Sandy,” he explained to them as they sat in their comfortable, if ornate, living room. “I’ve been thinking for a while about how I could help people with my skills. I know plastic surgery doesn’t have to be for superficial means. A lot of the clients we get these days are vain and a few of them are even addicted to getting work done.” He frowned and ran his fingers through his hair, getting a bit worked up in his passion. “I would feel much better about it if I knew I was making a real difference for people, not just catering to whims.”
His dad leaned back in his chair, looking at Craig thoughtfully, his mouth an unreadable line. He didn’t even frown, which would have at least let Craig know he disapproved. As it was, Craig couldn’t read his mind…
“So you want to take my company, the one I put so much blood, sweat, and tears into… and turn it into a charity clinic?” his dad asked.
Craig looked from his dad to his mom and back again. “I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a charity clinic,” he said slowly. “There’d be no charity involved. It would be more like… compassion. Dad, if you could have seen the way Sandy looked as she learned her nose didn’t have to just be back to working order, but she could look like herself again. You’d understand if you could’ve just seen her. If you could have witnessed the change in her entire being when she healed up and realized she was going to be more than okay.”
His mother shared a look with his father. “We’re glad you were able to help her,” she said. “It seems like you have a chance to do some real good in the community, Craig.”
He did a double-take. He’d expected his mom to tell him it was a lofty goal or something like that. He’d also expected his dad to outright refuse to let changes happen. He smiled at them, hoping he wasn’t misreading things. “I think I really do.”
His dad stood up from the chair and Craig instinctively stood up as well. They shook hands and his dad smiled at him. “Businesses that don’t change with the times and the needs of the clientele are doomed to fold.”
Craig nodded. “Exactly what I thought,” he replied, his heart swelling with love and gratitude for his parents. In his emotion, he hugged his dad as well, which was something the two men didn’t normally do.
He hugged his mother for good measure and she beamed proudly at him. “Donnie could learn a thing or two from you, you know. Make sure you let him know what you’re going to do.”
Craig didn’t really think it was out of the realm of possibility for his brother either. Donnie was very much looks-focused, but it didn’t mean he didn’t care about making people happy. Otherwise, he’d be in the wrong field. “I want him to meet Sandy next time he comes to town,” Craig told his parents. “He never got the chance to meet her.”
The gears were turning so quickly in his head now. He just hoped he wasn’t moving too fast and assuming too much. If Sandy never took him back, there’d be no point in telling his brother he had to meet her. But even if that didn’t work out, the updated clinic was good news enough!
As soon as Craig was back at his office the next day, he started working with his assistants and his staff to change over the practice to one which catered to helping rather than sheer vanity. They of course didn’t word it in such a way, lest they offend their usual patrons. Slowly but surely, though, their clientele shifted. And Craig began to feel better about what he was doing at work.
Once things had shifted at the office, he got onto his computer and decided to write a nice email to his brother rather than just sending him a text or chatting briefly with him.
Hey Donnie,
It’s been a while! I hope things are going well for you. Remember the woman I was worried about after that night in the GranTurismo? Well, I went to the hospital and got her all set up with some plastic surgery rather than just leaving it to the trauma surgeons there… She and I have become pretty close, though I may have messed things up a little. I have a plan to fix things.
When’s the next time you’re coming to NYC? I’d love it if you could come and meet her. She’s a special girl to me. She’s also a very talented comedian on The Banana Peel. What are the odds we’d run into a woman like that? Mom always said I should find a girl! Thanks, Don. ;)
But seriously, I’m changing over my practice now to be focused on helping people, like Sandy, who’ve been injured or disfigured due to an accident or a birth defect. My plan is to surprise her with this, and I thought it might be a good idea if you were with me on this. I can’t imagine moving forward in our relationship if she’s still blaming you for the accident. I want to make sure she’s not mad at either of us and she knows we’re both terribly sorry for what happened.
I know it wasn’t really your fault. Accidents happen. But it would be great if you and Sandy could meet and make amends either way.
I look forward to seeing you hopefully soon!
Craig
He hit send on the email before he could talk himself out of it, hoping his brother would take this seriously and realize Sandy meant a lot to him. The best way, Craig thought, to get her to also understand that was for him to show her what he’d done to the practice in honor of her.
But he wasn’t going to get too cocky about it or get his hopes up. She might need more time and he was going to have to be patient with her… He just hoped she’d give him another chance. He appreciated Trish for putting him on the path towards fixing things, but Craig knew he couldn’t fix everything all at once.
After taking care of a few new patients – which was such a delight for him – he went back on his computer and saw he had an email back from Donnie.
Hey Bro,
Wow, it sounds like you’ve been busy. I can’t believe you’re still talking about that girl. You must really like her, huh? I’m impressed. I’m also impressed you got our old man to agree to changing the business. You know that place is his baby, right? He loves it as if it was our other brother. I think it sounds awesome, though. You’re a good guy, Craig. Mom probably wishes I’d take after you even though you’re my kid brother. Stop making me look bad, LOL.
I’d love to come see your new practice and your new girlfriend. I hope she doesn’t stay mad at you. You deserve to have a good girl at your side. Mom’s not the only one who wants happiness for you, you know.
Just let me know the time and place and I’ll be there.
Donnie
Craig smiled as he read through this email. Now the plan was in motion. He hoped it would go as well as he imagined it would. He thought Donnie and Sandy could get along if they actually sat down and talked, and Craig wa
nted his best friend and his (hopefully) girlfriend to like each other.
Chapter Twelve
A week of relative peace went by for Sandy. Peace because she didn’t have any expectations outside of work, so she could relax once she was done in the evenings. In her mind, however, it was a different matter. She couldn’t stop thinking about Craig even though she wanted to. She needed a break from him because he made her feel so confused and unsure of things when he paraded her around to his cronies like she was Frankenstein’s creation instead of his girlfriend. They’d never discussed whether or not she was his girlfriend, but she’d hoped to get to that, and now…
She wondered if she was overreacting so she spoke to Trish about it. Her friend confirmed it was wrong of him to treat her like a marvel of medicine after having spent so long getting to know each other outside of his clinic. “It’s a sweet story of how you met, actually, but it shouldn’t be the only thing he thinks of to say about you,” Trish said.
She also told Sandy about Craig stopping by their place of work to ask what he’d done wrong. At first, Sandy was alarmed to know he’d been going places where she might run into him. But then she felt somewhat touched… He’d reached out for help from her friends. He clearly cared about making things right. She didn’t think it meant he should be off the hook so easily, but she was willing to see what he planned to do.
He was giving her the space and the time she’d asked for, and she had to admit she was surprised he had respected her enough to oblige. Though he’d never struck her as the type of person to ignore her wishes, Sandy remembered a few other guys she’d either dated or just known in life who would’ve tried to fight her about having a break. It really was no wonder why she wasn’t with them anymore. I want to reach out to him, but I don’t know how. I don’t want to seem like I’m backing down. I’m still annoyed by how he talked about me.
Billionaire Hearts Club- The Complete Series Collection Page 22