Present Day
Harrison shook his head, that was how it always ended. He still couldn’t figure out what happened, but as he finished his bourbon, Harrison found himself wondering what he needed to do to fix it. Before he could catch himself, he chucked the Waterford Crystal glass out over the balcony, watching it shatter into a million pieces like his heart. Harrison resolved to himself that he’d win her back. He’d atone for his sins, and he would marry her. Since he knew where she worked, he’d start off with some peace offerings, maybe some flowers, some candy, a few edible arrangements because he remembered her love of anything covered in chocolate. Hopefully she would throw him a bone and agree to meet with him for coffee. A smile drifted over his lips as the perfect plan came to him. It might be a high stakes game of chicken, but he had to win.
Several days later, Sarah sat at her desk finishing up the charts from the last two days. She always hated call nights just because it took several days to get her body back to normal sense of being. A knock at her door caused her to look up as her assistant Jim came bounding into her office looking way too happy for this hour.
“Delivery for you.” Jim said in his singsong voice.
Sarah looked at the huge arrangement of pink roses. Inwardly she groaned because she knew who they were from. Sarah wasn’t prepared for this. In all her thoughts about seeing Harrison again, never in her mind did she see him sending flowers to her.
“Someone’s been a very good girl. So, who’s the lucky guy or girl, but I’m betting on a guy.”
“Someone I used to know. Someone who broke my heart a long time ago, and unfortunately, I ran into him the other night when I delivered his best friend’s baby.”
“Well, girlfriend you go and flaunt what your momma gave you.”
Sarah couldn’t help but laugh at her assistant. She reached over and took the card that accompanied the flowers.
Sarah:
I am so glad that I got to see you again.
I don’t know what I’ve done to you, but I want
To make it right. Please call me 678-555-8786
Love,
Harrison
Sarah sat there motionless staring at the card in her hand. Tears threatened to fall, but she had shed too many tears over one Harrison Cooper. She would not let him control her emotions anymore. Frustrated by the whole situation, Sarah crumpled up the card and dropped it in her trash can. No matter what she still felt for Harrison, her son and her career had to come first.
As the days passed, the gifts continued to role in. She was impressed, even after ten years he still remembered all her favorites. While she continued to stew with anger and frustration, Sarah took a little delight in the fact that the staff enjoyed all the treats he sent and the flowers were sprucing up the rooms of the lonely hospital patients. Every day she went home, Sarah was reminded of Harrison when she looked at her son. He was the spitting image of Harrison and her heart continued to bleed a little more each day as she realized that she wasn’t being fair to him, but for her own sanity, she had to keep her guard up and her heart closed.
Harrison stood in the batting cages beneath the stadium taking out his frustrations with Sarah on the baseballs. His hands were raw from the number of swings he was taking, but with each swing he could feel a little of the frustration slip away. He felt at home here in the batting cage practicing his craft. He knew what he had planned, but the waiting was killing him. Harrison had tried to see Sarah at work, but had been politely turned away. His gifts had for all purposes been ignored. He had hoped that she would reach out to him first, but so far there had been nothing but radio silence. He continued to smash ball after ball, letting the crack of the bat continue to soothe him. Harrison was so consumed by his concentration that he failed to hear his best friend come in the batting cage.
“You know, if you keep doing this, you’re going to have to replace all of the balls the team owns.”
“Yeah, well, if I wasn’t dealing with all of this external shit then I wouldn’t need to hit this many balls. Nothing seems to be working.”
“Well, you have one other option. It is extreme but it could work or it could get you a restraining order. You could always wait for her to leave work and follow her home, but that’s risky.”
“Thanks, I’ll keep trying my way. I’ll back off and maybe it will give her some time, but I have a plan. I just have to try and be patient. At least spring training will be here before we know it, and I’ll be able to get some semblance of normalcy in my life.”
“Okay. Anyway, the reason I came by was that Alexa wanted you to come for dinner to see your Goddaughter.”
“Wait. What?”
“That’s right big guy. We want you to be her godfather. Not that we expect anything to happen to us, but there is no one more than you we want to take care of Emily for us if something did.”
Harrison had to fight back the tears that were forming in his eyes. Quickly wiping them away, he looked at Rhett and pulled him into a hug. “I’m truly honored and there is nothing I would like more than to take on this responsibility.”
Harrison showed up to dinner with pink balloons and a six-foot-tall teddy bear in tow. He figured he might as well spoil somebody else’s kids since he most likely wasn’t going to have any of his own. Dinner was wonderful. The best part was sitting in the rocker holding little Emily while she slept in his arms.
“You know, fatherhood looks good on you.” Alexa said.
“Well, this is probably as close as you’re going to get to seeing me like this.”
“So, Rhett told me all about Dr. Buckley and you. For what it’s worth, I’m really sorry”
“Thanks. I don’t think we’ll ever make it back together, but I wish she would talk to me and at least tell me what happened so that I could finally have some closure. I mean, do you know how many hot brunettes I turn down because of her.”
Alexa laughed. “Maybe you should stop being the player, and give up the game for a while or even permanently. If you still feel this way, how do you think she feels if every time she turns around your ugly mug is plastered on the front of the society section with a different girl? Maybe she doesn’t want to talk to you because she thinks that’s who you are, and it hurts too much to see the man she loves with other women. She may also think you can’t be tamed and doesn’t want to waste her time.”
“I never thought about it like that, but honestly I’m tired of the lifestyle. I’m not saying I’m looking for a wife, but a steady girlfriend would be nice.”
“Someone you could bring to dinner that doesn’t look like she just got off the pole would be a nice change.”
“Hey, I have put many a girl through nursing school.” Harrison said with a chuckle not wanting to wake Emily.
“Seriously though, don’t listen to the bone head in the next room. I have an idea that may work for you.”
“I’m all ears because I’m out of ideas.”
“So here it is, her boss is about to be your boss and you said they were committed to resigning you to a long-term deal. Well, as part of the negotiations you should insist that he provide a fifteen-minute sit down with the good doctor. What’s the worst he can say?”
Harrison laughed out loud. “It’s funny how great minds think alike. I already had that exact same thought. I realize it’s a high stakes game, but it may be my only shot at talking to her and hopefully happiness.”