Bargaining with the Bride (Honeybrook Love, Inc. 1)

"Garret," Brooks answered, a trill of female laughter still sounding softly behind him. “How are you?” There was a click and then whooshing of wind and cars passing on the street.

"Am I catching you at a bad time?"

Brooks sighed. "No, this is perfect. She's been here all week and I can't figure out a way to ask her to leave. She rearranged my furniture, man."

"Too bad." Normally he might have laughed at his brother’s complete indignation, but he was too caught up. If they could just get to the point—

"Hey, I've seen you freak out about much worse. Remember the girl? Carla or something? Who flipped at the company party?” Brooks said.

"Cindy. And she was only mad because it was her birthday," he winced. That was bad, but not the worst. The worst was when she'd left after shredding all of his lab reports, screaming about his work habits at the top of her lungs. "But, as much as I love dredging up my romantic failures, that's not why I called."

At least not entirely...

"Oh? Shoot." Brooks said.

How to go about asking the question? Brooks couldn't say a word about intra-office dating, but it definitely wasn't something he felt like discussing with his sibling. Hell, he still hadn’t told him that Deanna had left. So he stuck to the semi-almost-kind-of version of the truth.

"I'm having trouble with an experiment and I need a secondary opinion," he said.

There was momentary silence, and then Brooks said, "I'm flattered you'd ask, but I think you and I both know you're barking up the wrong tree there. I'm just the pretty face to put on your ingenious science."

"Just hear me out, okay? Say, hypothetically, you had a result that you didn't expect. As if you'd accounted for all possible results, and then there was a new complication. What would you do?"

"Aren't you supposed to, I don't know, revise your hypothesis or something?" He could hear the confusion in Brooks’ voice, but Garret nodded all the same.

"Or terminate the experiment," Garret said.

“I thought that was only if it became self-aware.”

“You watch too many movies,” Garret said.

"Okay, well,” the whooshing of cars filled the line again, and then Brooks asked, “How important are the results to you? Can you get them another way?"

Garret thought on that for a long moment. The "results" were important to him. More important than he'd realized before. And if it was a choice between revising his hypothesis and getting rid of the project all together...

"Thanks for your help, man. I owe you," Garret said, his mind whirring at a million miles an hour.

"That doesn't really—" Brooks started, but Garret cut him off.

"Hey, I have to go. I really appreciate the advice."

"Yes, as always, I'm sure I've been a fountain of wisdom," Brooks said goodbye, confusion still coating every word, but Garret didn't have time to explain himself. He could only act. After all, there was so much to do and so little time...

It was all so clear to him now. He was going about everything so incorrectly, focusing on his feelings rather than the final result. Rachael was his friend and she needed him, but he needed her too. This was an experiment, an effort to gain results and improve the company.

With anything else, this was the stage where he would completely immerse himself in his work. He’d set limitations for his involvement, but in order for the business to succeed, he couldn’t give up now. On the contrary, now was the time to press the boards.

Fully embrace the biosphere.

He just had to do it before Rachael had the chance to refuse.

He stalked into his living room and roused his snoring pug.

"Tesla," He said, and the dog stared up at him lazily. "Get your ball. We're going on an adventure."

* * *

Barking.