Teach Me Love

The Love And The Pain

Lena's POV

I called Sir Gerald to ask him to come to my house for him to meet Stef, I want them to see each other before he actually get to see her work and I don't know how this is going to go, but I know that I will have to be mostly silence, not intrude in their conversation and let Stef defend her work even though I would be dying to do it inside. But I understand, that's her thing, and she wants to do this herself, I can only admire that.

"Stef, baby, I called Sir Gerald, he's coming over, his said he was on his way." I said entering the room, seeing Stef putting a nice shirt on.

"Okay, thanks babe." She says, as I could tell she was a bit nervous.

"Don't worry, it's going to be okay. But Stef, he's going to negotiate with you, he's going to try to get the most out of you, because that's how the business works. Don't let him, babe. Your work is damn good, and it's worth a lot in good hands, so you stand up for yourself, alright?" I say, trying to coach her a little because as much as she hates when I say this, she's young, and Sir Gerald has much more experience in this. Not that he's an asshole, but he's a businessman, like I said, that's how it works.

"Don't worry Lena, I know what I'm doing." Stef says, turning around to look at me as I sigh for maybe she's too confident right now.

"What?" she asks at my sighing.

"No, nothing. You got this; I get it." I say, as I decide to trust her for maybe she does know what she's doing. In any case I'll be here, and we'll see.

*Ding dong*

"Okay, that must be him. Put your shoes on, babe, I'll go host him." I say, before I kiss her soft cheek and she smiles at me.

I walk down the stairs and through my house until I reach Sir Gerald, still very much eyeing on my portrait.

"Don't even think about it, old man." I joke as he snaps out of his trance and turn to look at me as he opens his arms to hug me.

"Ah, Lena. I still can't get over this, I wish you would think about selling it to me, darling. I'm an old man after all." he says, still trying to convince me as we pull away.

"Ha, that doesn't work with me, I'm afraid. I wouldn't sell it for anything, and you know that you can't blame me, you would do the same if you were me." I say, smiling wide at him.

"Yes, you're very right about that, dear. But you can't blame me to try, right?" he smiles back.

"I'll give you that one." I say, seeing Stef in the corner of my eyes.

"And here she is! Sir Gerald, meet Stefanie Foster. Stefanie, meet Sir Gerald Gibson." I announce as Stef approaches us smiling.

"It's very nice to meet you Sir." Stef says, extending her hand to the older man.

"Likewise, my dear. I'm thrilled to meet the maker of this masterpiece over here. I mean... I would kill to have it exposed in my house. Too bad that Lena is my best friend's daughter." The man says, joking as I smile.

"Glad to know that you won't kill me." I joke back as I think Stef is a bit taken aback that he really, really loves her work. I think she thought I was exaggerating.

"Well thank you for the compliment, Sir." Stef says, keeping it together.

"How about we go get comfortable in the living room?" I says as they both nod and I guide them inside and we all sat down as Marcus went to get us something to drink.

"So, Stefanie, you are very young, what do you do?" Sir Gerald says, getting immediately into it.

"Well, I'm a student at Harvard, I'm studying art of course, history, but I do paint on the side as well. What about you? What do you do?" she says softly, trying not to sound impress by any means, which was a really good thing.