Twins for Brother's Best Friend Page 3

  I promised that we would work on something together and she promised to come up with new ways to save the business. Mad stayed with me until I felt better and had assured that I would not cry any more. To ensure this, she took the whole pile of bills and filed them away in a cabinet for later.

  As Mad left my office, I focused on breathing slowly and trying to get back to work. My company may be in trouble, but Mad was there to help me. And I was one hell of a coder, so I would do what I did best – immerse myself in writing code.

  Typing away on my laptop, I didn’t notice when the day got over. I realized how late it was only when the lights outside went off, and my staff waved their goodbyes to each other. I forced a smile and reciprocated the gesture. They were all smiling as they left, going back to their homes or families to relax and unwind. I felt horrible for keeping them in the dark. But I had no choice. I didn’t want them to walk out on me, even though it wasn’t fair of me to keep them hanging either.

  As I sat there dreaming sadly, I noticed Mad walking toward me, her black leather backpack on her back and her motorcycle helmet in one hand. I turned off my computer and stood up.

  “You ready to go?” she asked from the doorway of my office.

  “Yeah,” I answered and grabbed my bag. Together, we walked out of the office and I locked the doors behind us.

  “What are you doing tonight?” Mad asked me as we walked to her motorcycle, which was parked in front of the building.

  “I’m not sure. I’ll probably open a bottle of wine, get drunk and sell myself on the internet for some extra money,” I joked. Honestly though, I had been thinking of doing this for the past month.

  Mad scoffed. “Or, you let me brainstorm and we can save you from a life of online whoring.”

  I chuckled. “Thanks, Mads,” I said with a lot of appreciation for her presence in my life.

  “You’re welcome,” she winked before slipping on her helmet. “Be safe, Greta.”

  “You too.”

  She gave me a little army salute and climbed on her bike. The engine roared to life, and she sped off and disappeared around the corner.

  I drew in a few deep breaths and made my way to the bus stop. I had been contemplating my next move for a while, so I knew that there was only one thing I could do. As much as I dreaded doing it, I had no choice. I retrieved my phone from my pocket and dialed my brother’s number. I bit my lip as his phone rang for a few seconds before he answered.

  “Hey, sis.” He was sounding more cheerful than usual.

  “Hey,” I said and ran my fingers through my hair, the blonde tresses falling to the side.

  “How are things?” he asked.

  “It’s okay, I guess. I don’t know.”

  “What’s going on, sis?” he asked in a concerned tone.

  I closed my eyes and sighed. “Can I borrow some money until the end of the month?”

  Without hesitation he asked, “How much do you need?”

  “How much can you give me?” I asked, cringing at my own desperation.

  “I can give you however much you need. You just need to tell me,” he answered.

  “Same as last time?” I pleaded.

  “Okay. I’ll transfer it right now,” he answered matter of fact. I was jealous of how easy it was for him, which wasn’t fair of me. I hated how my desperation and depression made me think of badly of the people I loved. They didn’t deserve hate from me for trying to help me.

  Back when Tamara had taken off with my two clients, I had asked Garrett for money and I knew that I’d never be able to pay him back, despite his insistence that he didn’t need it back. I was his sister after all, he’d say each time. While I was really grateful to my brother for having my back, I couldn’t keep asking him for money for the rest of my life.

  “So I take it you haven’t had any luck with finding new clients,” he interrupted my thoughts.

  “No, I haven’t. Mad and I are going to exchange some ideas tomorrow in the boardroom. It’s crunch time right now, Gar,” I answered. “I’ve even considered other means of making extra money.”

  “Like what?”

  “Selling myself on the internet, or donating my body to science…I haven’t decided,” I answered.

  “That’s a little extreme though. I never took you for a webcam girl,” he said in a disapproving tone.

  I cringed at the thought and shook my head. “You wouldn’t happen to know how much it pays to donate your body to science, do you?”

  “If you’re donating it, it wouldn’t pay anything,” Garrett pointed out. “Besides, you’d have to be dead to do that.”

  “Things definitely aren’t that bad yet,” I chuckled.

  “Good to know,” he said. “Look, I’ll keep an eye out for you and I’ll let you know. As long as you don’t actually consider being a webcam girl.”

  “It pays well,” I said sarcastically.

  “I’m serious, Greta. You’re better than that,” Garrett told me. “Plus, you’ll break Mom’s heart.”

  “I know, I know!” I exclaimed. Just then, I saw my bus approaching. “My bus is here. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Be safe, okay?”

  “I will. And thank you.”

  “Any time, sis,” he said.

  I disconnected, slid my phone into my pocket and boarded the bus. As I sat down on an empty seat, I felt my phone buzz, and when I took it out, I saw that it was a message from my bank, informing me about the successful transfer of funds from Garrett’s account. I sighed with relief and leaned my head against the backrest, as the bus drove off, taking me home.

  We were safe for another month, I told myself in a hopeful tone.

  3

  Isaac

  I entered the bar and immediately scanned it for Garrett. Luckily, the place wasn’t too crowded yet, so I decided to wait for him. I walked to our usual booth, which was thankfully, unoccupied, and made myself comfortable.

  The young waitress who normally served us approached the table, and when I looked at her, I could not remember her name. I racked my mind for it as she came to the table and started chatting.

  “Are you alone tonight?” she asked, tucking a loose strand of dark brown hair behind her ear. She was smiling more than she usually did, which I found a little unsettling. I figured she was trying to flirt with me, as I had noticed her looking at me whenever we would come to the bar. As much as I loved some attention, I did not want any more of it tonight.

  “No, my friend is on his way,” I answered. “We’ll have two beers, please.”

  “Sure thing,” she said with a wink and went back to the bar. I exhaled slowly and shifted in my seat.

  “Sorry I’m late!” Garrett said, running to the booth, and sat down. “I had to do a quick transfer.”

  “Siphoning off your money into the Caymans account?” I joked.

  “Something like that,” he chuckled with an exaggerated wink. Just then, the waitress came over with the beers and I thanked her. She winked at me before she left. That signal made me want to get on the topic straightaway.

  I took a sip of beer and muttered, “How did this happen, Garrett? How could the will appear out of the blue now, with only sixteen months left to meet the terms?”

  “I don’t know, buddy,” Garrett answered in a dejected tone. “Maybe someone really did misfile it, and with the move, it was found again. An honest mistake.”

  “Or,” I said, sounding like a cynical old man, “Andrew had something to do with it. He probably hid it on purpose. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least, to be honest.”

  “Or someone else kept it hidden so that you would never see it.”

  “Someone who had full access to all the files,” I mumbled.

  “Someone who had more to gain out of the deal,” Garrett said, nodding.

  “Like Andrew.”

  “Or someone whom you’d pissed off and wanted to see you go down in flames.”

  “Like Andrew.”

  Ga
rrett shook his head, exasperated. “You don’t know that.”

  I frowned at Garrett’s inability to see my point. “Why are you defending him? The son-of-a-bitch was so smug about it when I confronted him this afternoon.”

  Garrett’s eyes widened. “You talked to him? I hope you didn’t accuse him.”

  I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms, angry at Garrett. He sighed and put his face in his hands.

  “Oh, come on! You can’t go and accuse people of things without any proof! I’m a lawyer, listen to me, please!” Garrett exclaimed.

  “I know it was him,” I insisted, slamming my hand on the table, making Garrett’s beer spill a bit. The sound was loud enough to be heard across the room, so the young waitress looked our way. I felt a bit guilty at losing my cool in a public place. I apologized and wiped the table with a napkin.

  I put on a calmer voice. “The only thing I don’t know is why he didn’t wait until the sixteen months were over. Then he could have been guaranteed to get control of the company.”

  Garrett nodded. “But that would give you grounds to get it overturned in court. If he was indeed planning this, he would be smart enough to avoid that.”

  I pursed my lips. “You’re giving him the benefit of the doubt, again.”

  “No,” Garrett insisted in earnest. “He made a smart move. Now, you have a limited amount of time to try and meet the terms, which gives Andrew and the rest of the Board members the upper hand in a court battle,” Garrett explained.

  Saddened, I lowered my gaze and ran my finger up and down the length of the beer bottle. “Where the hell am I supposed to find a woman to have my baby? I haven’t seriously dated anyone in years. I just don’t have the time for it, Gar.”

  “That waitress looks pretty keen,” Garrett grinned, pointing to her with his beer bottle.

  I laughed despite the sadness in my heart. “I’m serious, Garrett. I’ve even contemplated calling up all my ex-girlfriends and apologizing to them even if I had done nothing wrong. I wanna tell them that I am ready to settle down. Quickly!”

  Garrett scoffed and shook his head. “Man! Anyone but your exes, please. Trust me, you don’t want to go down those roads again.”

  “Kate wasn’t so bad,” I pointed out. “She’s the most normal of the lot.”

  Now Garrett rolled his eyes. “And you want a nice and ‘normal’ woman to have your kid, right?”

  I shrugged my shoulders at the hopelessness of my situation and took a swig of beer. But then an idea came to my head.

  “I could adopt, couldn’t I?”

  Garrett sighed and shook his head. “No, that won’t work. As it is, adoption takes such a long time. Then there’s your situation. Even if they ignore that you’re a single, workaholic male, I don’t think any adoption agency would let you become a father if they came to know the real reason for your application. Also, a strict interpretation of the will implies that you should have a biological heir.”

  I shrugged my shoulders and drew in a deep breath.

  “Though there is one other thing you could try….” Garrett said pensively.

  “What?” My eyes widened in anticipation.

  “You get a surrogate to have the kid for you.”

  My thoughts trailed as I considered this idea. It was not a bad idea. Biologically, it would be my child, and whoever carried the child would not have any part in my, or the baby’s, life after birth. “Yes….”

  “Isaac,” Garrett said, and I looked at him, snapping out of my thoughts and coming back to reality. “Can I ask you a serious question?”

  “Of course,” I answered.

  “Are you even ready to be a father? Think about it. You’d be doing it all alone, raising your child while also running the company. Can you do that?”

  I placed my hands on the table and smiled at Garrett. “I’m not willing to walk away from my uncle’s legacy, nor mine. I have thought about having kids. It would be nice to have a family and enjoy that phase of my life. To have what I missed when I was growing up. But this…this just accelerates that timeline. Instead of a ten-year plan to build a family, I just have a year and a half.”

  Garrett’s eyes widened. “Yeah, that’s wild!”

  I scoffed. “I’ve seen people and how they are with their families. They take their families for granted. I don’t want to be that way. I promised myself that I would never become the guy who neglects his kid. If I do this, I am all in. I may not end up winning ‘Father of the Year,’ but I’ll love my kid with all my heart and do everything I can to make sure that it’s taken care of.”

  A smile formed on Garrett’s lips and he nodded with admiration. “I know you’d make a great dad, Isaac. For now, surrogacy sounds like your best chance. Although, you’ll have to pay a pretty penny for making things happen as quickly as you want.”

  “I know, and the money doesn’t matter. I’ve got plenty of it,” I said with determination and emptied my bottle. I noticed that Garrett’s bottle was still half full. He was playing with the bottle, rolling it in his hands as if he was in deep thought. I raised an eyebrow.

  “You know,” Garrett said, sizing me up. “I might know someone who’d agree to the surrogacy.”

  “Who on Earth do you know that would want to do something like this?” I asked with a frown.

  “Greta.”

  The mention of her name made my whole body tense. It opened up a floodgate of memories. Garrett’s little sister had always intrigued me when we were kids. She was really smart, and though some people thought that she was too nerdy, she was very funny and witty. Over the years, I had heard from Garrett on her wellbeing and whereabouts. I knew that she had started her own software company and was doing pretty well.

  In fact, we had purchased her software and it was incredible! All our programs became easier to access, which made operations incredibly easy. Though I had been skeptical of going with a startup, I changed my mind once I saw how great the program was.

  And then there was the fact that she was absolutely beautiful! A small smile formed on my lips as I remembered her sparkling hazel eyes and her warm smile that could fill you up like sunshine. Another, more intimate memory flashed in my mind…both of us in the shower. It was something I hadn’t thought about in a very long time, but was still fresh in my mind as if it had happened yesterday. I would never be able to forget it. The way her lips tasted, the curve of her hips as I held her tight, her grip on my shoulders as she moaned in my ear….

  I thought back to the time, all the way back in college. She was still in high school, so I was shocked when she walked into the bathroom as I was having a shower. Standing in front of me fully unclothed, she was trying to broker a deal for having sex. At first, I couldn’t stop thinking about Garrett’s reaction if he were to walk in and see us naked. But those thoughts faded when Greta grabbed my cock and kissed me. The pleasure of that afternoon has always been with me.

  Unfortunately, we could not have a relationship as I had to go back to San Francisco for school. Then a few weeks later, Uncle Anthony had called me and my life was suddenly upturned. On and off, I would think back to what could have happened between me and Greta, whether we would have dated and built a good, lasting relationship. But then I would think about how we would have explained the relationship to Garrett. He would not have believed that I was suddenly interested in Greta. Also, I didn’t know if she had wanted to pursue a relationship at all. She didn’t call or text me after we hooked up. In my ignorant and stupid college-guy mind, this was a sign that she wasn’t interested in more than a one-night – or in our case, afternoon – stand.

  But Uncle Anthony always used to say that things happened for a reason – as clichéd as that may sound. In my experience, things always did work out the way they were supposed to, so maybe Greta and I weren’t destined to be together, after all.

  Destiny?! I’m going soft.

  I heard Garrett clear his throat, and I snapped awake from my reminiscing. Thinking about Greta’s
naked body in the shower had worked me so much that I had to shift my legs under the table to hide the visible bump in my groin.

  “Your sister? She’d want to have my kid? Why on Earth would she do that?” I asked, trying to sound completely nonchalant.

  “She’s looking for a way to make some extra money,” Garrett answered in a low voice so as not to embarrass himself. I was concerned.

  “Why, Garrett? What’s happening to Greta? Is she OK?” I asked, leaning in.

  “No, she’s been going through some really tough times. She’s had to ask for money and I’ve tried to help her as much as I can,” he explained in a sad voice. “A few months ago, one of her employees stole the code to the program she had developed. That program was her whole business. The rogue employee took the code and left her in a bad financial state.”

  “What? Are you kidding?” I gasped.

  “And she also took two of Greta’s biggest clients. Cut a deal that completely left out Greta.”

  “Oh my God!”

  “She’s barely keeping her head above water, and it sounds like she wants to give up,” Garrett said.

  “No! She’s worked so hard and loves what she does. She can’t just give up,” I said.

  “That’s what I told her, right before she joked about becoming a webcam girl.”

  I raised an eyebrows. “She said that?”

  “Yeah. Either that or donating her body to science.”

  “I would rather her donate her body to me,” I pointed out, at which, Garrett curiously looked at me. “You know what I mean. And of course, I’ll pay her.”

  “You would do that? Help out my sister like that?” Garrett asked.

  “Of course. She’s your sister, and you’re my best friend,” I answered. “And you get to be an uncle.”

  “And you’re okay with that?” Garrett asked.

  “At least it’s not a stranger carrying my child.”

  “But that’s just it. You’re going to see me every day. Isn’t that going to be weird for you?” he asked.

  “This whole thing is weird, to be honest,” I sighed, “But at least, I know the person who’ll be carrying my child and that it’s someone I can trust.”