Gareth’s gaze flew to the door — and caught Hazel’s sweet smile.
Shit. How much had she heard?
Chapter Eight
Social conduct for hate-free inter-colleague teamwork
For short: SCHIT
Paragraph 8:
A favor must be returned with an equal favor.
Iknow she’s a fantastic lawyer — the one you advised me not to hire back then.
Hazel gnashed her teeth. She was glad she hadn’t knocked because the conversation she’d overheard had been extremely enlightening.
She’d known it. Always had. But hearing the confirmation still hurt more than she cared to admit. It only gave her the right to be angry with Gareth because the job with the Hawks wasn’t the only one that bastard had cost her!
She just didn’t understand why — and it drove her crazy. Gareth hadn’t been mad when they’d broken up. It hadn’t even bothered him! It had beenokaywith him. So why had he made her job search hell when she’d moved to LA?
“Ms. Barrow,” Clark Senior greeted her, surprised but friendly. “It’s good to see you again.”
She smiled tightly, doubting he meant it. They’d only met twice, once on the Harvard campus, when she and Gareth had still been together, a few days before Hazel broke up with Gareth.
The second time was when she’d had an interview with him that never turned into a job. Thanks to Gareth.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked politely, immensely pleased to see Gareth’s face screamingyes. “You can keep talking, I’ll wait.”
The faster they concluded and signed their peace agreement, the faster she could…check off Gareth as a completed task. Yes, that was exactly what she wanted to do, check him off. She was so tired of being angry at him. Wasting her thoughts on him was killing her.
Gareth snorted and rubbed his face with both hands. He looked exhausted. It wasn’t even nine-thirty, and he already looked like he didn’t have the energy to make it through the rest of the day. It was strange to see him like that. Gareth had never seemedexhaustedbefore, even after only two hours of sleep. He’d had too much drive, too much to prove, and had had so much fun doing the smallest, most ridiculous things. Perhaps he’d lost that along with his integrity the day he’d made sure she’d never get a job with the LA Hawks.
“No, you’re not a bother,” Mr. Clark replied lightly. “I don’t think I’ll get anywhere here, so if you have a meeting…”
“We don’t,” Gareth said sharply, glaring at Hazel. “You can’t just barge in here, Hazel.”
“Ah, I see you’re still as inflexible as ever.” She raised her eyebrows innocently. “But since even your father thinks you should appease me somehow, surely you won’t mind squeezingme into your incredibly full and ridiculously important schedule?”
Clark Senior smiled hesitantly. “Take advantage of my next half hour, Ms. Barrow,” he said, standing and picking up a red folder from the table before saying to Gareth, “One more thing: Your mother would like to meet your girlfriend.”
Hazel suppressed a snort. Gareth would never introduce a girlfriend to his mother! As far as she knew, there hadn’t been a single one who…
“All right,” Gareth said impatiently. “Have her call and suggest a time.”
“Wonderful.”
With her mouth gaping, she stared at him.
She was vaguely aware when Mr. Clark left the office, but found it difficult to focus on anything other than Gareth’s neutral expression. He was going to introduce his girlfriend to his parents?
“Either go or sit, Hazel,” Gareth instructed impatiently. “Either way: close the door.”
“Isn’t point one in our contract that we have to be nicer to each other?” she asked sweetly, trying to shut out the thoughts in her mind: He was going to introduce his girlfriend to his parents. She didn’t give a damn. “It’s written down here in black and white.” She closed the door, strode across the room, placed her briefcase on Gareth’s infuriatingly tidy desk, and pulled out the contract she’d sacrificed her Sunday for. But that didn’t matter. Finally knowing how to behave in every eventuality in Gareth’s presence would make her life so much easier. Because she never knew, otherwise.
Gareth pulled the contract toward him and pointed at paragraph one before reading: “Both parties must be nice to each other when a) other people are within earshot, b) one of the contracting parties says ‘time out’ because they don’t havethe energy to argue for personal reasons, or c) it’s one party’s birthday.”
She smiled broadly. “Oh, right. Does that mean you shouldn’t have yelled at me in front of your father?” she asked innocently.
