The day was finally here! Rachel had been bouncing off the walls all morning. Santana was used to Rachel's normal perky self when she woke up in the morning, but this morning something was different. Of course it wasn't a bad different...just different. Rachel had been almost too excited to sleep last night, which was horrible after the long week she had had. Finally almost everything at the studio was finished, the only thing left to do at this point was to shoot the music video for Brock's song and then the traveling and interviews would start. Hopefully Santana would be able to come on some of the trips that could be extended into mini-vacations.
What was so great about this day? Today was the day that Rachel had finally put the plans in motion to propose to Santana. Really! The woman had been waiting roughly a month for a ring that she didn't even know she wanted. The book was done, well it had been done for a week now and the dinner idea was set. Even though Santana would never go for anything in public, Rachel had set up a dinner for them at the lodge with Leroy and Bayani's help. Luckily there were several private booths. Rachel smirked as she leaned against the kitchen counter, waiting on the water for the coffee press to boil. Bayani had been able to score her the best booth in the whole lodge. So maybe being the almost step daughter of the guy who practically owns and operates the lodge has its perks.
Anyway, Rachel was completely in love with the booth. The only thing that was missing was the beautiful fireplace that set the perfect ambiance for the booth. It was definitely too hot, even with the air conditioner running full force, to have one of the main fireplaces in the lodge lit. Therefore, Rachel would just have to settle for the waterfall that you could see out of the window just a couple of yards away. The only thing that would matter tonight would be Santana. Santana whom Rachel was in the process of trying to get breakfast and coffee fed to so that she could get going. She had a huge meeting this morning with a very large company that wants to use some of her work for a few product placements in some ads and shows they are working on. Rachel honestly didn't know a huge amount about the deal, just that one of Santana's first private clients contacted Artie, who had practically became Santana's agent, and asked about purchasing some of Santana's work. They intended to either make the paintings a main focal point or have the actor directly address who the artist of the painting was.
She dared to try and not show it, but Rachel could tell that Santana was truly excited, because this meeting could lead to another huge boost in sales. They didn't need the money, but this could lead to the restaurant that Rachel had mentioned to Santana a while back. In today's economy it could cost well over a million dollars to open a restaurant and the least investors that Santana needed the better. Investors were great but, Santana liked to do things on her own as much as possible. If she was going to try something and it failed, she didn't want the guilt of wasting other peoples money to be hanging out over her head. It was just better if she done it on her own.
"Santana!" Rachel yelled after she glanced at the kitchen clock and noticed that it was fifteen after nine. Santana's meeting started at ten thirty and the woman was still doing something upstairs. If she didn't leave soon she was going to be late since she still had to make the roughly forty-five minute drive to St. Lawrence since the meeting was being held there at one of the lawyer office buildings.
"What woman?! I'm almost finished, I will be down a in minute." Santana yelled while leaning over the loft railing.
Rachel sighed, glancing at the clock again before she began to impatiently tap her foot. Once Santana was out the door, she also had to head out to the studio. It didn't matter that she was proposing today, she still had to go in and do some work with Quinn. Hopefully all they would be doing would be going over an interview schedule and then she would be able to come home and get ready. Santana was already aware of the dinner tonight, however she just thought it was a simple date night. Boy was she in for a surprise.
"Lopez, let's get a mov-"
"I'm here. I'm ready. You look beautiful and that coffee smells amazing." Santana grinned as she held up her silver travel coffee cup. Rachel huffed and obliged Santana's request for a kiss before she began to fill her cup up for her.
"Are you coming straight home after your meeting?" Rachel asked as she proceeded to fix herself a travel cup of coffee as well.
"I'm going to run to the art store and see if George has any new paint for me. I also need some more stretcher bars, canvas, all that stuff, especially if today's meeting goes well. I will be home with plenty of time to take care of the dogs and get ready for date night." Santana smiled. Rachel could see it in her eyes over the brim of her travel cup.
"Okay, well you need to get going and I need to finish getting ready and head to the studio." Rachel stepped forward, connecting her lips with Santana's. She deepened the kiss when Santana parted her lips allowing Rachel access with her tongue. Santana pulled back slightly, gently biting Rachel's bottom lip. "What was that?" Rachel asked in dazed confusion.
"That was a preview for tonight." Santana winked before she pecked Rachel on the lips once more before heading towards the living room to grab her file bag. Rachel watched her through the kitchen doorway admiring the way Santana's hips moved in her black dress pants before she shook her head trying to clear her thoughts. Right. Studio. She had to get to work also.
Santana sat in a stuffy conference room at a large table surrounded by Artie, his proclaimed greatest lawyers in the world, Denise whom was the owner of the gallery who hosted most of Santana's shows, two women whom Santana had yet to learn their names, and three semi-formally dressed men. There were a lot more people here than she originally anticipated. Also, she had no idea why Denise was here, it must be important if she had traveled all the way from the city last night to be here.
"Shall we get started?" One of the men stood up at the end of the table. "I'll introduce myself. My name is Peter Reed and I am the owner of Reed Productions." Santana wanted to snort, the guys hair looked like he had tried too hard to create the messy look. "To my left is Kyle York, my projects manager and to my right is Daxton Cook, my financial adviser. Before we go any further, I would just like to thank you Ms. Lopez for meeting with us today. We understand you have a busy schedule."
Santana covered her mouth with her hand to try and avoid laughing, compared to most people she didn't even have a schedule to be busy with. Artie sent her a glare, silently telling her to shut up. Yeah, she would get him for that later. "With all due respect Mr. Reed, I am not even sure why I am here. I mean I have a vague idea, but not really." Santana scooted forward in her chair and rested her hands on the table.
"Well, we have some shows and two movies coming up to start filming and we would like to contract you to do some art work for them. We are looking for some original work for background shots and some hand painted signs for some of our sets." Santana nodded along as Peter spoke, she could do that. It would be a lot of work to do the signs, but totally worth it to see some of her stuff on a television and movie sets.
"Wouldn't it be cheaper for you to like...I don't know contract unheard of artists? Give them a shot at being in the spot light and having their name on a set of credits?"
"Santana." Artie whispered harshly. "You're going to blow this deal and they already have some pretty big numbers on the table."
"Don't Santana me like that. I know what I am doing. I'm trying to be fair and honest here. Mr. Reed, I appreciate you coming to me with this, but there's so many artists out there trying to get a fraction of the recognition that I already have." Artie sighed as he leaned back in his chair, shaking his head and rubbing his eye under his glasses.
"Ms. Lopez, we are aware of those artists and since you are being honest with us, well it's only fair we are being honest with you." The older woman of the women spoke up.
"Do you work with Mr. Reed?" Santana asked the woman.
"Not regularly. Temporarily I am working with him, because he is doing a documentary. I'm Agetha Stidham and I am the director of the St. Lawrence Children's Home. This is my assistant director Chloe Asher." Chloe smiled in greeting. Santana studied her for a moment, she really looked like a mixture of Quinn and Brittany while Agetha looked like Julie Andrews'. "This is so much bigger than you being contracted for the shows. The children's home just recently bought the abandoned Tisch College of the Arts sister campus. The place was built six years ago and Tisch just didn't have enough students enrolled in this area to warrant keeping it open after the second year. The children's home needs the space, especially with the possibility of two other homes closing and combining with St. Lawrence. The documentary is going to help pay for the renovations if it does well enough. Now for the brutal honesty..with a name like yours in support of this documentary it could triple the sales, we could even get picked up by big screen theaters. Mr. Reed has graciously offered to include our new sign in his contract that we would like you to paint. We were also hoping that maybe you could do some smaller paintings and allow us to auction them off for a profit. Ms. Denise has already offered her studio up for a separate event to show some of the children's art work."
"You're very forward aren't you Mrs. Stidham? Most people would never out right ask for paintings to auction. I like your audacity." Santana bounced her head back and forth thinking, so these people wanted her name. Of course she was going to do this for Mrs. Stidham and Ms. Asher, that was a given. If she had been approached in a different setting than this, she would have done the paintings also. Santana truly appreciated Mrs. Stidham's brutal honesty. Mr. Reed and his two silent minions were going to have to work a little harder to get some original artwork and what sounded like a bit of grunt work that honestly a set builder could probably do in their sleep. "Denise what was the overall average profit from the last show that you hosted for me?"
Denise began to flip through a manila folder that Santana just now noticed laying on the table. "Um..almost six million. It was one of the best shows yet, the buyers have really taken a huge interest in your newest work. That was also a limited show, you only had eight pieces that night."
"Mrs. Stidham, do you have a renovation and startup estimate?" Santana clasped her hands under her chin as she watched Mrs. Stidham shuffle some papers around. The lawyers that Santana had dubbed Bob and Bobbie in her head were writing things down, presumably in order to figure out what kind of prices they could get out of Peter.
"Here, pass these down to Ms. Lopez." Mrs. Stidham slid the papers down the table. "With basic repairs, new paint, turning some of the dorms into large nurseries, updating the campus kitchen, new furniture for common rooms, offices, the dining area; the children's necessities and over all bills, we are looking at a rough estimate of three million." Santana could hear the cringe in the woman's voice.
"Okay, this is what we are going to do." Santana laid down the papers that actually was a more broken down list of everything that the home would need and looked at everyone staring back at her in anticipation. Artie smiled with barely concealed pride at Santana, she had just taken complete charge of this whole meeting. He knew that Santana prided herself on doing things for herself and there was no way that she was going to let some business men tell her what to do. "Bob and Bobbie, write this down." The two lawyers looked at her in confusion for a moment before Santana sent them a glare. "I will do the sign and I will donate ten pieces of art work that is to be auctioned off. Sixty percent of those proceeds are to go directly to the St. Lawrence Children's Home. The remaining proceeds are to be divided up between the remaining children's homes here in New York. That way, you guys get your estimates covered and everyone else gets some extra help too. Is that okay?"
"That's more than okay, you have no idea what this means to us and all the other homes in the state." Mrs. Stidham was beyond close to tears. She had no idea what to expect when they walked into this meeting this morning. Of course she had heard rumors that Santana Lopez was a spiteful celebrity and that there was no way in hell she would offer up any kind of money without wanting a large sum in return. Those people could not have been more wrong.
"I have a few requests before we move on." Santana paused as she watched Chloe nodded her head, signaling for her to continue. "I have some friends that I would like to get involved, maybe design some of the nurseries or decorate some of the dorms, help redecorate some of the class rooms to be more kid friendly. My fiance' would love to decorate a nursery I think. I'm not going to lie, I have some pretty big named friends, Artie here included. Did you know he has a production background?" Santana sent a wink in Artie's direction, maybe this meeting could go extremely well for him too. "I'm not saying that to try and be a big shot or something, I am saying that because the more names you have on this documentary, the better it could do and I am all for helping this thing be as big or bigger than it could be. Second, I would love to volunteer at the home, but the only camera's allowed are yours Mr. Reed. This isn't going to turn into a huge PR deal with the media. You can include names in your advertising and stuff but I don't want photographers out there turning it into a mad house. I mean your people has to work, the construction crews have to work and any outside media will be in the way. My last request is a formal invitation to the children's art show." Santana smiled at Denise who nodded her head.
"We would love to have you and some of your friends decorate rooms. We try to keep the rooms decorated at the home we have now, but the older kids like to tell us we have no taste." Chloe rolled her eyes as she laughed. "There's one other thing. I know we all know who you are, but standard procedure to volunteer at the home requires a background check." Chloe said quietly. She didn't want Santana to think that she was singling her out to be difficult.
"That's fine, me and who ever else decides to come with me will fill out anything you need so that we are in the clear. There's no need to write down names yet for Mr. Reed, I will have to talk to them and find out exactly who wants to volunteer or be in the documentary. We can schedule another meeting with them and their lawyers to work out more details. I also need a time frame for the paintings? And Artie you need to close my site until further notice. I have one more commissioned painting to do and then I am clear."
"Today is July twenty-fourth, we are projected to move in the week before Thanksgiving. The home has savings that can pay off the short term crews and we already made deposits with the construction crews. So how about we aim to have the auction...the second week of October? That gives us enough time for the lawyers to collect and divide up the funds and it gives us time to order everything we will need to open." Mrs. Stidham was looking at her calender while Santana done the same.
"I can work with that. I will have the paintings done by October first though, that way programs can be put together and art show invitations can be sent out. Plus, it gives my friends plenty of time to decide how they want to decorate their chosen rooms. Now. Mr. Reed, why don't you tell me about your shows and plans so we can also work out a deal." Santana gave her signature smirk. Her take charge attitude for getting shit done was now in full affect.
I know this chapter seems...out of the blue, but I promise this meeting is a setup for future things to come. Next chapter we get right back to Rachel and Jasper and all of that fun stuff.
Thank you for all your views, reviews, favorites and follows. I really appreciate it.