Love & Business: Part III

Teddy Bears

Sophia's POV

"You must be Sophia Lodge," the Italian venture capitalist, Antonio Santoro, greeted me while shaking my hand.

He then turned to Hunter, "and you, Hunter Lodge."

"Yes, sir," Hunter said as he shook his hand.

"Tell me, Mr. Lodge, do you kill animals?"

Hunter raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"You know, like man who eh...kill animals? Hunter," he joked in his thick, Italian accent.

Hunter smiled, "I see that you're full of jokes Mr. Santoro."

He calmed down from his laughter. "I try."

He suddenly clapped out of nowhere and started laughing again. "Enough talking, let's get straight to business. Tell me why you come to the international conference."

"Well, we are hoping to drop a branch in Italy and we need someone to run it."

He shook his head.

"Not interested," he said as he started looking away.

I panicked and grabbed Hunter's hand. "It's ok honey, we can find someone else."

At first, Hunter looked at me confused but a devious smile came on his face.

I watched as Mr. Santoro's eyes slowly lingered on our intertwined hands.

"Excuse me but what were your last names again?"

"Lodge," I said.

A smile came to his fave.

"And you two are married, right?"

"Yes, sir."

He nodded and it looked like he was having an internal conflict with himself. He finally sighed.

"Change of mind. I am interested. I don't know if you have noticed but I have a soft spot for couples who work together. My late love used to work with me."

We pretended to be surprised.

"Bring over a copy of the business plan to my office tomorrow and I'll see what I can make happen."

"Thank you, Mr. Santoro!" I exclaimed before he walked away with a smile on his face.

I turned to Hunter. "We did it!"

He nodded with a satisfied look. "Yes, we did."

He looked down at our laced hands and I quickly pulled mine away.

"I only did that because Mr. Santoro was watching," I clarified.

He scoffed before walking away.

I internally groaned at myself. Why did I even feel the need to say that?

After blowing some air out my cheeks, I walked to where Hunter was standing to greet a few peers.

This carried on for an hour before we were in the car, heading back to the hotel.

I turned to Hunter.

"We need to get Blaze's teddy."

He kept sending me voice notes and videos asking me if I bought it yet.

If he only knew how to spell words, it would be over for me. He would text me every second he got.

He nodded before redirecting the driver to a toy store.

As we walked in, one of the workers immediately asked us to take a picture with her. We agreed and quickly took the photo.

"You don't happen to have a teddy bear of the Russian president by chance?" Hunter asked one of the most random questions I've ever heard before.