Her heart clenched with excitement. Maybe it was warning her too. Who knew? “So we’ll write one?”
“God, I must have lost my mind,” Gareth muttered, shaking his head. “But…yes. It sounds like a good idea.”
A broad smile appeared on her face. “Fantastic. We should have done this years ago! Contracts make everything better.”
Gareth laughed dryly. “It’s the first time in ages you’ve been right.”
“Gareth, Hazel, you’re out!” Lucy’s voice rang out loudly.
Hazel blinked. Oh. Had the music stopped?
Well, that didn’t matter.
“Perfect,” Hazel exclaimed, abruptly letting go of Gareth and hurrying off the dance floor. The contract was more important than winning. And Gareth needed to stop touching her.
She turned to him expectantly. “Are you coming?”
Perplexed, he blinked. “You want to write the contractnow?”
“Do you know anything better to do to pass the time at a wedding?”
He opened his mouth…and snorted. “No. I haven't the slightest clue.”
Chapter Seven
Social conduct for hate-free inter-colleague teamwork
For short: SCHIT
Paragraph 7:
When a common enemy presents itself, the contracting parties are friends for a foreseeable period. Sometimes, however, this only lasts for one sentence.
That went well! I’m really proud of you, Gareth.”
Gareth avoided Penny’s gaze as he stirred a splash of milk and a spoonful of sugar into his coffee. Basing their judgment on his demeanor, people assumed he drank his coffee black. In reality, he only drank coffee to wake up. The stuff didn’t taste good. Unfortunately, since he was a night owl, not a morning person, he didn’t have much choice.
“You talked for hours on Saturday. Like old friends.”
That almost made him laugh. They hadn't been talking, but negotiating. However, he wasn’t about to enlighten his sister to the difference. He loved Penny, but he definitely didn’t want totalk about Hazel on a Monday morning. He liked to start his week on a positive note. So he just said, “Hm.”
Unfortunately, his sister followed him with her mug of herbal tea. “So, have you two made peace?”
“Yes.” At least on paper, they had. Even though they still had to finalize and sign the contract, in his opinion, it had been one of the best weddings he’d ever attended. Normally, he would have wanted to leave after two hours at the most, but killing time with paragraphs and Hazel’s deliberately ridiculous demands had had its advantages.
Penny squeezed his arm, held it tight, and grinned at him. “Yes, that’s what she meant. She called earlier and thanked me for practically forcing you to talk. She said it was nice recalling old times and being on a personal level with you again.”
He struggled to suppress a snort. Hazel could lie convincingly. Their negotiation had been about as personal as an automated email that reached the wrong sender. They had remained every inch the lawyers Harvard had made them.
“What exactly were all your conversations about?”
Gareth raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“What old times did you talk about? The part where you were together? The part where you broke up?”
Neither. Quite the opposite. They’d even written a clause explicitly forbidding discussion of the past because nothing good had ever come of it. Penny was merely fishing for information about their relationship. She’d been doing that for a year, and frankly, he’d had enough. He wouldn’t tell her that they were contractually obligated to be nice to each other – he had the feeling Penny wouldn’t approve – and anything else…?
“Penny,” he replied impatiently, slowly leaning his shoulder against the corridor wall that connected their offices. “If you want to know what happened back when Hazel and I broke up,then ask. I have a meeting with Dad right now, so I don’t need any more bullshit.”
