Love & Business: Part II

Mine

"You should've seen his face after I did it!" Moya said as she sipped her fruit punch.

I laughed as she told me about the time she beat up her ex for cheating. That girl was fearless. We found ourselves back in Hibiscus Mall again, trying to go to all the stores we didn't get to go to the last time we were here.

I had Blaze wrapped in my arms while Moya pushed his stroller to head into the next store.

Moya and I both wore denim jeans with black T-shirts. The only difference was that her shirt had a middle finger while mine just had some irrelevant words written in white. This time, our matching was a total coincidence since we came to the mall separately.

She handed me a small jewelry bag.

"What's this?" I asked as I took out a small bracelet made of wooden beads.

"My sister made it for you. I wasn't going to give you at first but I knew I'd be in deep trouble with her if I came back home with it. You don't have to wear it."

I stared at the small, inexpensive gift. From all the gifts I've ever received over the years, this was probably the first one that was ever homemade. Everyone always wanted to buy me expensive things as if I couldn't afford to get them myself. With homemade gifts, it's different. I can't go into the store and buy it because it's unique, one of a kind.

Moya frowned. "Jeez, I know you don't like it but don't be that mean. My sister is only seven and she stayed up past her bedtime to make it."

I looked back up at her. I can't believe she thought was my reaction was negative. I quickly shook my head. "Are you kidding me? I love it!"

I quickly put the stretchy bracelet around my wrist and hugged her. "Thank you."

She chuckled before wrapping her warm arms around me. "Don't thank me."

After that, we pulled away and walked into a men's clothing store but it didn't pique my interest. The clothes in here were extremely far from Hunter's style. Everything was brightly colored and there wasn't one black shirt in sight. A smile came on my face as I imagined how Hunter would react to this.

"What are you smiling for?" Moya asked as a beautiful smile came on her face as well.

I bit my bottom lip as I tried to suppress my smile. I shook my head and was about to reply when I heard my name.

"Soph!" I heard the familiar voice call out and when I turned back, it was Kennedy and Ava. My smile quickly came back as I saw them.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?"

"I should ask you the same question," Kennedy said as she gave me a smile that looked forced.

I turned to Moya who was just awkwardly standing next to me so I quickly introduced her. "Moya, this is Kennedy and Ava. Kennedy and Ava, this is Moya."

The three exchanged waves before I turned to Moya.

I handed one of the bags to Ava. I had bought one of those dolls that were trending right now. I don't know why all the kids were so intrigued by it. Her eyes widened as she saw it.

"No way!" she quickly hugged me. "Thank you, Ms. Bass."

I smiled before hugging her back.

"Ready to head to the next store?" I asked Moya and she nodded.

"Wait! Mind if we tag along?" Kennedy asked.

Ava gave her a confused look. "I thought you said you wanted to go home."

Kennedy snapped her head at her almost immediately and gave her a death glare. "Well, I changed my mind."

I turned to Moya to see if she approved of Kennedy tagging along and she gave me a simple shrug which I took as a 'yes'.

I nodded my head. "Sure."

My arms were starting to get tired so I gently placed Blaze back in his stroller. He had fallen asleep and I didn't even notice.

After that, we walked to the next store which was a women's clothing store. Moya lifted a white blouse in front of me as she closed one eye. "Nah."

As I was about to turn, Kennedy bumped into me. She lifted a bright pink dress that wasn't really my style and pushed it on me. "This looks good, doesn't it Soph?"

I nodded my head to make her feel good then Moya walked up to us.

"I don't really think that's her style."

Kennedy turned to her. "And I don't really think I asked. I think I know about her a lot more than you since she's my best friend!"

I could tell Moya was starting to get slightly annoyed since her fingers kept rolling into her fist. I quickly pulled Kennedy to the side.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you talk to her like that?" I whispered and shouted at the same time.

"Why are you two shopping in the mall together, acting as if you're childhood friends?"

I blinked. "Excuse me? Am I not allowed to have other friends?"

Her face looked guilty for a while before she got mad again. "Are you trying to replace me or something? Am I not good enough to be Sophia Lodge's best friend anymore?"

I kept my mouth shut because she was just talking pure nonsense. This was so childish. My phone rang and I picked it up.

"Mrs. Lodge, is it possible you can come in now?" Jannette asked on the other end.

"Can't this wait? I'm kind of in the middle of something?"

"No, there is a problem with one of the employees and she insists on only talking to you."

I rolled my eyes. "Tell her to schedule a meeting then we'll talk."

"Ma'am, please. She is sobbing loudly and most of the workers on the floor are not able to concentrate. Plus, think about the visitors when they see this. They might think we make our employees cry and this can ruin your image since she is in your building, on your floor."

"Okay, okay, I get it. I'll be there in thirty," I said before hanging up.

I sighed before looking back up to Kennedy who was still watching me. "I have to go. Let's talk about this some other time."

I walked over to Moya who was staring at Blaze with a smile. "I have to go. Take him home and stay with him until I come back."

She frowned when I said that I have to go but nodded nonetheless. I kissed Blaze and ruffled Ava's hair before rushing out with one of the bodyguards while the other stayed with the girls.

...

I pushed forward a tissue box to the woman who has been crying in front of me for the past 5 minutes. She hadn't said a word to me about why she was crying and unfortunately, I was not feeling patient today. Kennedy's rude behavior had triggered it mostly.

My arms were folded across my chest while my eyebrow was raised. I took a quick look at my watch and saw office hours were coming to an end. "Ma'am, I don't have all day."

"He-he fired me!" she blurted out.

"Who?"

"Mr. Lodge. Please hire me under your division."

I laughed. "Why would I do that? He had to have had reasons. Care to share?"

She hesitated for a while before looking down. "I-I accidentally entered the wrong data into the statistics report."

Hunter always fires his employees for the simplest reasons. I sighed then helped the poor girl find a new job.