AJ knew his plan wasn’t really ‘perfect’. As much as he would have liked to think it was. All he knew was that he needed Lauren in his life, he depended on her, he loved her, he truly ‘needed’ her. It was something he’d never felt before. With Lauren he felt true intimacy, of course before he met Lauren he thought he’d had that with others but he hadn’t. Not in the true sense of the word. Intimacy is defined as sharing oneself fully with someone else, mentally, physically, psychologically and emotionally. That’s what he had with Lauren. At least before Chrisy came back into his life. He knew the first step to getting Lauren back was getting rid of Christy. He knew in his heart that she needed more help then he could ever give her anyway. So in the end this would be the best thing for her, he needed to get her into a drug treatment center. It wasn’t just about getting the heroin out of her system physically. She needed to learn how to resist it for the rest of her life, to learn how to say no to someone next time they offered it to her and to know what to do next time she got that ‘insane need’ feeling. Even if she stayed clean for months former addicts always get ‘insane need’ feelings at some time in their lives. Drug recovery is a life long process, it doesn’t happen after 2 weeks in detox. ‘Insane needs’ are when you get this indescribable feeling, it’s like this emptiness deep inside you that nothing except heroin will fill. It’s kinda like being really really hungry with no food around, only 10 times worse. AJ knew if he checked Christy into a detox center they would know how to handle this and her. They would be able to teach her things to help her not only deal with withdrawal but deal with the rest of her life now that she didn’t have heroin as a crutch.
After a week of calling and begging AJ secured a spot in a detox center for Christy. Little had he known before that beds in top facilities were hard to come by, even if money was no issue. So now that he had Christy out of his house he had to figure out how to get Lauren to come back.
“Hey Nick” AJ had decided to phone his friend
“Bone, hey, wassup!?!” Nick asked
“Um.. I kinda have this problem, like big problem man” AJ answered
“What, what’s wrong?” Nick asked
“Well, it’s kinda a long story but the gist is that Lauren left me but I really really want her back and I know she wants to come back but I have to show her or prove to her that she should come back” AJ explained
“Wow, I guess alot happened to ya since we last talked, that’s one problem you got there dude, what are you going to do?” Nick asked
“That’s part of the problem I don’t know what to do” AJ replied
“Well why don’t you buy her flowers or chocolates or something man, or you want us to help? We could sing” Nick added
“Hey yeah! I think I got it, thanks man!” AJ replied excitedly
“So what are you going to do?”
“You’ll see, thanks again, oh if you guys wanna contact me for some reason hopefully I won’t be around for the next week or so, I’ll talk to ya later Nick” AJ thanked his friend and hung up he had things to do and plan. I’ll he had to do was hope like hell that his plan worked.
“Hey, I’d like to order flowers” The first step to AJ’s plan was phoning the florist
“What kind sir?” Stacey, the order-taker at the florist’s asked
“Ahhh, roses, O.K., I want umm... 10 red ones and then in the middle of the red ones I want a white one, a yellow one and a pink one, can you do that?” AJ asked
“Of course sir and when and where would you like these delivered?”
AJ told Stacey where he wanted the flowers delivered, he wanted them to be sent, the next day, to Lauren’s parents house, as he knew she would be staying there.
*5 days later*
“Hey baby can you had me the sun block?” Lauren asked as she and AJ lay on the beach in the Bahamas
“Sure, darlin’, I’m so glad were here together like this, I can’t believe I almost lost you, I love you more than I can articulate” AJ whispered in Lauren's ear
“I love you do baby, and let’s just say I'm here for 2 reasons the first is that even though I left I never ever stopped loving you and I think you knew that and secondly you did a damn fine job of reminding me why I fell in love with you in the beginning.” Lauren replied as she thought of the things AJ had done to try and ‘win her back’ even though deep down they both knew he had never lost her.
On the first day of his ‘win her back’ campaign he sent flowers, roses to be exact in them was a card on the card he had personally written a message.
My Dearest Lauren; These are obviously for you! The red roses represent the intense passion and love I feel for you. Just so you know, that’s why there’s so many of them. The white rose represents the purity and honesty in our relationship, the yellow rose is for the friendship we share. By the way I am so grateful for that and if despite my pervasive efforts you won’t take me back completely then I just pray that I don’t lose your friendship, your my best friend Lauren, no matter what! And finally the pink rose represents your playfulness and willingness to accept spontaneity that I definitely appreciate about you. Lauren my house...OUR house is deficiently missing something great without you there. Just know that the doors and my arms are wide open and greatly anticipating your return! I love you. AJ
Lauren knew she’d go back to him, it wasn’t the actual flowers but the letter. The fact that he’d spent time and put thought into that letter, especially the fact that he could express his feelings so openly. It was all it took. Yet in traditional AJ style he continued to overwhelm her with gifts and romantic gestures. The second day he sent her chocolates, not just a nice ordinary box of chocolates but 10 boxes! In his note which was attached to the top of the box he said he had wanted to make sure there was enough for everyone! The third day he serenaded her under her window. It was 1 in the morning, but that didn’t stop him from singing to her, yeah it woke up all her neighbors but what the hell it was the quintessential romantic gesture, sure it was cliched but it was also insanely cute! On the third day he mailed her plane tickets to the Bahamas, after a lot of talking, planning and shopping on the fifth day they were laying on the beach in the Bahamas!