Love & Business

Trust is Earned

I had just finished showering and put on zebra-print pants with a vest. I had morning sickness this morning again and a headache that just wasn't going away.

When I came out of my room, I saw Hunter leaving his room to head to his office.

"Good morning," I said as I walked to him.

He looked at me surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here?"

"I mean why are you here and not at work?"

"Morning sickness."

"Sophia..."

"I'm fine. It's normal. Most pregnancies have it."

"But I still want you to make an appointment. For the baby's sake of course."

"Hunter, I just found out I was pregnant yesterday. It's fine."

If Hunter was going to be like this through my whole pregnancy, I don't know what I'll do.

"Why are you home? The last time I checked, you weren't the pregnant one." I said following him into my office.

"Working from home today."

"Let's cut to the chase. What meeting are you avoiding today?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said as he logged into his account.

I folded my arms and looked at him.

"Okay fine. I'm supposed to go to this CEO convention that I'm not in the mood to go." he finally admitted.

"I knew that, I just wanted to hear you say it."

"Huh?"

"Did you forget I'm also a CEO?"

He gave me a death glare and I laughed. I sat down and let him work for a little while before I decided to annoy him.

"Hunter?"

"What?"

"Hi."

He stopped then turned to me. "Don't you have work to do or some other person that hates you to annoy?"

I pretended to think for a while. "Nope, you're the only one."

He typed something on his computer then looked at me. "Check your email."

I checked it and it was over 5 PDFs with over 20 pages each. "What are these?"

"I need you to read them over and see if everything is okay."

"We have lawyers for that."

"No, the lawyer doesn't cover those. You need to check and see which projects will be beneficial to us and which ones aren't."

"And what are you going to do with the ones that aren't beneficial?" I asked.

"I'll cut them."

"Hunter you can't! We already had this conversation with the Harlem project."

"We're running a business, not a charity. When it comes to business you don't mix feelings with it. You should know out of all people since you did the same to me."

I dropped my shoulders. Every second he gets, he chooses to punish me. I walked out because I didn't want to start another argument. I went to the kitchen to start reading the files.

"Good morning Mrs. Lodge. I thought you left already." Ms. Turner said.

"No, I wasn't feeling well so I stayed home."

"Alright, do you want me to fix you a cup of coffee?"

The mention of coffee made me want to throw up again. "No, but some tea would be nice."

She looked at me surprised but nodded anyway. I never drink tea, it's always coffee. She must be thinking I was acting weird. Hunter and I needed to decide when we were going to start telling people I was pregnant because my bump will show eventually.

The doorbell rang then a few seconds after, and out of breath Kennedy ran in. I looked at her confused.

"You are a hard woman to get in contact with you know?" she said.

"What are you talking about?"

"I came here but your maid said you already left so I went to your office. When I reached, your assistant said you were home so I had to come back here."

"I'm sorry. Was there something you needed?" I asked.

"I thought we were supposed to be friends?"

I looked at her confused. "We are."

She dropped a magazine on the table in front of me. It was a magazine with Hunter and I on the cover.

"You really weren't going to tell me you and Hunter won Best Business Couple?"

I gave her back the magazine then looked back to my computer. "It's not that important." 

"Not that important?"

At that moment Hunter walked in. "Hey Kennedy, I didn't know you were here."

She shoved the magazine into his chest. He looked at it for a moment then gave it back to her. "Is there something wrong with it?"

"What is wrong with you two?" she shouted.

"Kennedy calm down," I said.

"No, I will not calm down. You two have to celebrate this accomplishment. Who knows what Zach and I would've done if we were on that cover."

Hunter and I looked at each other.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Kennedy," I said.

"Nonsense! When was the last time you two have been on a date?" she asked.

The only time we've come close to a date is when I ate the Chinese in his office while he worked.

"I'm sure with your busy schedules it's impossible to plan anything." she continued and I nodded. "That's why I'll be the one to plan it!"

"What?" I shouted out in shock. "You don't have to do that Kennedy. It's fine."

"No, I want to. School's on break now so I have plenty of free time. I'll text you guys the details. Bye!" she said then left.

I turned to Hunter who looked like he was still processing everything.

"What the hell just happened?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I guess we're going on a date."

"No, we're not."

"Yes, we are. Kennedy is planning it."

"We can just skip it and tell her we went."

"And why would I do that?" I asked.

He tilted his head in confusion.

"I want to go on this date. We barely go on dates."

"That's because we aren't actually together!" he shouted.

"It seems like we are," I said then went for my tea.

He started to laugh. "You're really funny."

"About what?"

"You really don't get it do you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Hunter, I'm not asking you to fall in love with me but I am asking if we could at least be friends. We're going to have a baby together, we can't be enemies. We'll mess up the child's life before it even begins."

"Friendship is built on trust and right now, trusting you is the last thing I want to do," he said then left.

He was right, friendship was built on trust.