Love & Business: Part III

Laugh Now, Cry Later

Sophia's POV

I sat up as I slowly opened my eyes.

When I turned, neither Hunter nor Blaze was next to me. I then picked up my phone and saw that it was ten o'clock. I was late, again!

I quickly jumped up and then headed to the shower.

After I was finished, I walked over to the closet. I pretty much walked with all my good uniforms and there was no time for me to go back home.

My eyes drifted to the side of the closet filled with Hunter's button-up shirts and pants. He wouldn't mind me wearing it, would he?

There's a saying Moya always tells me, 'laugh now, cry later' and that's exactly what I will do. I'll handle whatever lecture or punishment Hunter gives me later, right now I needed to get to that board meeting.

Rushing, I put on one of Hunter's blue, button-up dress shirts along with his white pant.

The pants were still too big so I quickly put a belt on. Overall, I'd give my outfit a solid seven out of ten. Hunter doesn't even wear these colours of clothes, all he wears is black. I looked at myself in the mirror one more time before heading downstairs.

"Mommy!" I heard my son's voice call as I was out to head out. He had flour all over his face and pajamas.

"What have you done Blaze?" I asked, dusting some of the flour off of him.

"I made you pancakes. Come and eat!"

I frowned. "I'm sorry Blaze but we'll have to do this another time. Mommy is late," I said turning around.

"You always say that! You are never there!" he shouted then I felt a sharp pain in my chest.

It's happening. This is what Hunter and I didn't want. We didn't want him to feel like we were too busy for him, like how our parents made us feel. I turned to him with a smile.

"I might be late but I guess I should never be too late for you. Where are the pancakes?"

For the next ten minutes, we sat and ate pancakes. He told me about all the new things he was learning from his private teacher. After his nanny came and I kissed him goodbye before leaving for work.

When the elevator doors opened on my floor, I saw Jannette pacing around like crazy. When she saw me walking toward her, she stopped.

"Thank God! Mrs. Lodge, I thought you were in an accident or something. You're very late!" she expressed.

I rolled my eyes as I walked toward my office. "Relax Jannette."

"Ma'am, your husband is inside your office and he's very angry. All the board members have been sitting in the conference room for quite a while now. They'd threaten to begin without you but he stopped them."

I sighed before opening my office door. At first, he didn't notice me as he was on his phone then he lifted his head and anger immediately rushed on him. He quickly got up and walked toward me.

"Where the hell have you been? The meeting was supposed to start over an hour ago!"

"Well, maybe you should've woken me up this morning instead of just leaving! Plus, I had to stay with Blaze."

"Sophia, this is an important meeting-"

"What happened to family before business?"

He immediately clenched his jaw and then looked away. He knew I did the right thing by staying with Blaze. He looked back at me then widened his eyes.

"Wait, is...is that my shirt?" He looked further down. "And my pants? Sophia, what the hell?"

I raised my eyebrow. "Don't we have a meeting to attend?" I asked before walking out.

He quickly caught up to me. "You're gonna have to take them off."

I halted. "Fine," I said as I began unbuttoning the top button of the shirt.

He immediately held my hands and gave me an indescribable look with his eyes. I looked around and saw some of the employees watching us, he must've done the same because he immediately dropped his hands and walked into the conference room.

I saw Jannette wink at me with a smile.

Did she forget I am her boss? I sighed before walking into the room. When I entered, most were on their phones with the others fast asleep. Jeez, I was only an hour late.

"Sorry for my lateness," I said before sitting down next to Hunter.

They immediately jumped up as they heard my voice.

"Mrs. Lodge, that's no problem at all! We all had other things to complete. Right guys?" Mr. Daniel asked and they nodded. "Now, let's begin."

"There has been a significant increase of loss by one side and today's meeting is to address it. Otherwise, this can affect the productivity of the whole company if it is not fixed right away."

Hunter turned to me with a smirk, "told you."

I ignored him. Mr. Daniel took a big gulp of water before turning his document with shaky hands. "Well, the-the side that has suffered the loss is...Mr. Lodge's side."

I watched as the arrogant smirk slowly wiped off his face. Now it was my turn to smirk. "Still sure it's my side, hubby?"

He folded his fists and marched to Mr. Daniel. "Give it to me!"

Mr. Daniel hesitantly gave him the document. He turned through the pages vigorously until he saw what he wanted. The board members from his side of the company tried to explain themselves but he wasn't having any of this.

"Sir, if I may..." Mr. Daniel asked. "I think this can be simply resolved if Mrs. Lodge helps you back on your feet."

"No!" Hunter shouted and the room went silent.

"Hunter-" I intervened but he cut me off.

He walked close to me and put his mouth close to my ear so that the others couldn't hear. "I've never asked for your help and I'll continue not to. And if I find out you had anything to do with this, you're dead-"

I quickly moved back. "How could you assume such a thing? Why would I purposely want a part of our company to fail? For what? To get back at you?"

Nothing. That was the amount of emotions I could see in his eyes. I couldn't see if he regretted what he said or if he meant it. I shook my head before getting up and walking out.

Did he hate me that much to think I could purposely make him look bad?

I ignored everyone and went to my office. A few minutes later, Jannette walked in. Whenever she knows I'm mad, she waits a bit before she comes in and I appreciate that.

"I'm guessing things didn't go well in there, ma'am? Was it the NANA project? I swear I looked over things twice and the numbers were all good."

I smiled a bit. "You can relax Jannette, it wasn't our side," I said as I played with my ring, wondering if I should even keep wearing it.

"Excuse me? Then with all due respect ma'am, why are you mad?"

I looked up at her. "Take a guess."

She thought for a bit before realizing. "Oh, Mr. Lodge?" she asked and I nodded. "I just don't get why he's giving you such a hard time."

"That makes two of us."