Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Social conduct for hate-free inter-colleague teamwork
Short: SCHIT
Penalties shall be chosen and levied individually by the contracting parties within reasonable limits.
Gareth had never been a good sleeper.
He had too much to do. Too much to learn. Too much to achieve. Closing his eyes and lying around aimlessly for eight hours seemed like the biggest waste of time.
Unfortunately, it meant he was often incredibly tired – today, even more so than usual.
The last few nights had been a complete disaster, leaving him with an enduring headache.
The various emails from his father, who was still complaining about the amount they were going to pay Devreaux – where the hell did he get those numbers?
! – and the prospect of seeing Hazel again this evening to discuss Fox’s final contract in front of the team captain and Penny…
none of this made him any happier. The thought of going to dinner with his parents afterward to introduce them to his girlfriend made him even less happy.
He hadn’t seen Lacey in a week and a half. He hadn't even realized that until she texted him during his lunch break with a hundred apologies, saying she unfortunately had to cancel dinner tonight because her replacement at the opera was sick and she had to perform after all.
Gareth texted back that it was no problem and that he would call her shortly after lunch to reschedule. When he sent the message and informed his parents, an unexpected weight fell off his chest.
Was it…relief?
Yes, relief at not having to see his parents.
His father couldn’t tell Lacey horrible anecdotes about his many failures and his mother couldn’t look at him glowingly and proclaim how happy she was that he had finally found a woman who lived up to his standards.
And Penny couldn’t tell him once more that Lacey was too nice. Whatever that meant!
“Mr. Clark, your lunch date is waiting downstairs in the cafeteria.”
Gareth glanced up. Freddie was standing in his doorway.
“Thanks, Cravitz,” he mumbled and rose.
He usually spent his lunch breaks at his desk, but Cian and Connor had asked if they could meet for lunch to make sure Gareth was getting enough nutrients… He’d wanted to say no, the way he always said no when his friends told him he should meet with them for his own good.
Gareth didn’t take them seriously. He assumed they were deliberately annoying him because he had more important things to do.
But…
Do you listen when they tell you you’re acting like a shit? That you should stop working when you are spending time with them?
He couldn’t get Hazel’s voice out of his head. Nor her smell and sighs. If even Hazel no longer recognized him, how bad had he really become?
He’d been friends with Cian and Connor for so long that they were naturally a part of his life, but he obviously wasn’t a part of theirs if they felt they had to force him to spend time with them.
And it bothered him. Fuck, a lot of things had been bothering him since that damn Hazel contract, which was supposed to make his life easier, not harder!
“Hey, Clark.” Thomas Lyle, the Hawks’ general manager, stopped him in the hallway.
“Coach mentioned that we might want to make a trade before the season starts. Blake Ford is playing horribly, and we need a second goalie who can shine when Moreau is sidelined. I’d like to discuss it so we can start searching for a replacement. ”
“Not right now. But let Penny know, and we’ll set up a time. We can watch him during training camp.”
Lyle raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Aren’t you on your lunch break? I thought we could…”
“I have plans, sorry,” he said, and those words shouldn’t have been so damn difficult for him.
“Let’s assume Party A broke the rules, and Party B locked her in her bedroom because of it. How long can Party B keep her there without committing a crime?”
Gareth frowned. “How serious was the violation?”
“Huge. Party A didn’t get home until ten, even though I told her to be home by eight. I think eternity is a reasonable punishment, but I wanted to hear your expert opinions from you both first.”
“I’d threaten with half an eternity before I exploded,” Gareth said.
“Half an eternity is too tame for me.”
Connor sighed heavily. “You’re both stupid. Cian, you can’t lock your daughter in her room for the rest of her life because she was late.”
“Why not?” The Irishman pointed his fork at Connor’s chest, which, as always, was clad in a white shirt. “When Mother Gothel does it, it’s okay, but when I…”
“Ada isn’t Rapunzel, Cian, and Mother Gothel was killed for holding the poor princess captive — and I hate you for knowing that!”
“You weren’t the one who had to watch the movie with her for a third time. Cian isn’t to blame,” Gareth pointed out.
“I never would have had to watch the movie the first time if you’d been there, Mr. Workaholic,” Connor retorted sourly. “Because then we would have played poker, like we were supposed to.”
Right. He’d had a meeting with a player’s agent. But Ada would have won at poker anyway; none of them had the inner strength to let the thirteen-year-old lose, so it hadn’t seemed that important to him to show up…
But maybe it should have been.
Fuck. Hazel really needed to vacate his damn mind!
“God, she’s becoming a real teenager,” Cian said, ignoring them both. “And I don’t know if I’m ready for it. Her favorite phrase used to be chocolate, please, now it’s you’re annoying, Dad! What am I supposed to do with that?”
“Maybe you should take the direct feedback to heart and admit you’re annoying,” Gareth suggested innocently.
Connor nodded earnestly. “That’s the most sensible thing that’s come out of Gareth’s mouth today.”
“You can both go to hell,” Cian stated matter-of-factly. “That kid’s already too clever for me. She waits until I come back weakened from a court appearance, then she stares at me wide-eyed and demands terrible things from me.”
“She wants a goat and maybe a second turtle, Cian, not nuclear weapons,” Connor noted.
“It starts with the turtle, and if I’m not careful, next thing she’ll want to date and drive a tank.”
“A tank?”
“The step from owning a turtle to driving a tank isn’t that big.”
“Is that why you’re in such a bad mood? Over a turtle?” Connor asked.
“Yes!”
Gareth tilted his head and studied his friend. Cian, the charming ray of sunshine among their trio, was usually in an unnervingly good mood. But this outburst was extremely uncharacteristic of him, except…
“Tell me, has Ada’s mother contacted you again?”
Cian opened his mouth as he threw his napkin on the table. “Sometimes it pisses me off that you know when we’re lying.”
Gareth shrugged. “Sorry. So, she called?”
Cian sighed heavily. “Yes. She…she wants to see Ada. Preferably every other weekend.”
“Isn’t that good?” Connor asked, confused. “You are always saying that you wish she’d make more of an effort with Ada.”
“Yeah, but...”
Gareth’s phone vibrated, and he pulled it closer to look at the screen — but halfway through, he changed his mind and put it in his pocket.
Cian stopped talking and when Gareth looked up, he saw his friends staring at him in shock.
“What?”
“Don’t you want to see who’s calling?” Connor asked hollowly.
Gareth blinked, his fingers twitching. Yes. He did. His inner workaholic had a real problem leaving the phone out of his pocket. But… “What Cian wanted to say sounded important,” he replied slowly. “I wanted to…listen.”
“Since when?” Connor asked, confused.
Gareth pressed his lips together. “Since today. I’m trying.”
Cian looked at him as if he’d just announced he’d talked Ada out of the turtle and into the nuclear weapons.
Fuck. That he was listening shouldn’t be anything special. How could he not have noticed that he hardly ever did it anymore? Because it was too damn exhausting to listen to the constant criticism of his character? By doing so, though, he was also missing other important things.
“You wanted to talk about your ex, Cian?” he reminded his friend, looking at him expectantly.
“Okay, yeah…” Cian still looked skeptical, but he nodded. “She has a new guy who lives in Texas. She wants to see Ada and is practically demanding that I move to Texas to make that possible. As compensation for hoarding our daughter for the past thirteen years.”
“Fuck,” Connor commented.
“She can’t make you do that,” Gareth said, shaking his head. “But if I have to talk to her…”
“She hates you more than me, Gare,” Cian reminded him, amused.
“You tell her once that she’s a deceitful, selfish bitch, and she takes it personally,” he replied dryly. But it had been the truth. She had hurt Cian so badly and left him alone with all the responsibility of a baby. Someone had to say it out loud.
“Yeah, women are weird that way,” Connor said sarcastically. “But he’s right. She can’t make you.”
“No.” Cian rubbed his face. “But she can still do enough damage. She’ll tell Ada it’s my fault that she rarely gets to see her.
” He shook his head, his frown deepening with every second.
“Let’s talk about something else. This topic depresses me.
I find it much more exciting that Gareth is suddenly prioritizing us over his phone. ”
“Yeah, I was almost moved to tears,” Connor agreed, eyeing Gareth skeptically. “What happened, Gare? Did you have a near-death experience, and all you saw were us, not your day planner and phone?”
He laughed dryly. In fact, it had felt a bit like that. “What’s so weird about me wanting to make more of an effort?”
“Everything,” Cian replied.