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.
The Russian president?
Both the worker and I gave him a confused look.
"I guess not," he mumbled as he looked around.
My eyes immediately landed on a rack full of brown, medium-sized, teddy bears.
A smile came to my face. Blaze is going to love this.
I picked up one and ran to show Hunter.
"Isn't it cute?"
He picked it up and then examined it. "It's alright."
I rolled my eyes before grabbing it back from him.
"Hey, what's your problem?" He shouted.
I ignored him and walked to the cashier to pay for it.
Before I could pull out my card, his card was stretched to the cashier.
I quickly pulled back his. "It's fine, I can afford a teddy for my kid."
He pulled back my card and pushed forward his. "So can I."
I glared at him before pulling back his and pushing forward mine again. We continued to switch cards before we turned to the cashier who looked terrified.
"Pick one," we ordered simultaneously.
"You should pick mine because it probably has more money on it," Hunter said while flashing a smile at her.
A rolled my eyes. "Oh please, mine has more than his. I didn't have to pay a million dollars for a silly mistake."
He sent me one of the more venomous glares I've ever seen from him so far. I knew I hit a soft spot.
"It's on the house!" She shouted. "Please, the both of you just leave!"
We both looked around and saw all of the six customers staring at us looking baffled.
We overdid it, didn't we?
I grabbed the bag before walking out. A few minutes later, Hunter came out while pushing his wallet back into his pocket.
"You didn't pay them, did you?"
"Sophia, this is our reputation. We can't have people knowing that we argue like this."
We both got in the car.
"You wouldn't have had to pay if you'd just made me buy the teddy bear."
"I wouldn't have had to pay if you'd put your pride aside and let me pay."
I turned to him. "You're unbelievable Hunter. There's no way you're talking to me about pride."
"Let's not even get into that," he said before going on his phone.
I looked outside the window until we reached the hotel. I had made sure not to say a word to him.
I went straight to the bed and hugged the teddy bear. I missed Blaze. He was my real-life teddy bear.
It's only been a day and Hunter and I are already biting each other's heads off.
A few minutes later, a knock was heard on the door. I looked up to see Hunter standing with his hands in his pockets while giving me a stern look.
"We need to talk," he simply said before walking back outside.
I sighed before raising myself from the bed and walking to the living room where he was sitting.
He patted the empty spot on the chair next to him. I was hesitant to be so close to him but sat down anyway.
"There cannot be a repeat of today."
"Is that all? Great," I said before getting up.
He quickly grabbed my wrist and pulled me back down.
"In a case which this ever occurs again...we have to apologize to each other."
"No," I said without thinking.
"That's exactly why we have to apologize to each other. We both hate putting our pride aside to apologize therefore we won't put ourselves in positions in which we have to."
What he was saying did make sense and I didn't hate the fact that he would have to be apologizing to me.
"On your knees," I said.
"Excuse me?"
I gave him an insidious look. "You have to apologize to me on your knees."
He glowered at me before a smile came on his face. "Fine but it's only fair you do the same."
I nodded. "Fair enough."
He leaned back on the chair with a smirk. "Go ahead then."
"Wh-wh-what?" I stuttered.
"We argued today so you have to apologize."
"Hunter-"
He cleared his throat and then I sighed before going to my knees.
"I'm sorry," I muttered before quickly getting up.
"Your turn," I smiled as we switched positions.
He got on his knees, looking completely humiliated. "I'm sorry."
"That's my boy," I said as I patted his hair and went back into the bedroom.
...
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