#ls18fluff

You watched as the river flowed gently, the crystal-clear water meandering gracefully between rocks. You could see the pebbles below the water, laying contently on the river bed, some adorned with moss which had slowly covered more and more pebbles over time. The sound of running water and gentle rustling of leaves in the breeze subdued the loud sounds in your brain, allowing you to shut everything that you were feeling out. The fragrant scent of wildflowers and mud filled your senses as you breathed in, causing a sigh of content to leave your mouth. The natural canopy provided by the trees above allowed you to sit there calmly, shading the sun from your face and body as you watched the ripples of the water. 

You heard a gasp and sudden movement from the man sat beside you. You looked in his direction, looking into his eyes and following his eyesight to the creature that had landed by him and startled him so much. You started laughing softly. “It's not funny, don't laugh.”

“You're scared of a tiny little frog?” You asked, leaning over to pick it up. “Hi little buddy.” You spoke gently to the frog as it sat contently in your hand, bringing it up to eye level with you and looking at it. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the man sit back down. “Do you want to hold him?”

He was silent, so you looked up at him, seeing the anxious look in his eyes. “What if I hurt it? I don't want to do that.”

You smiled softly. “You trust me?”

He thought for a moment before gently nodding. “I guess, why?”

You signalled for him to hold out his hand, which he did, before gently moving your hand over so the frog could move onto him. You watched as his brown eyes softened, his mouth turning into a grin as he held the tiny creature in his hand. “It’s kind of cute…”

“I hope this doesn't sound weird but may I take a photo of it in your hand? Your face won't be in the picture, of course, but I like infodumping about animals, plants, buildings and history on my Instagram pages that I'm an admin on.”

“Pages, plural?”

“Yes, I have 2. One for nature and history and I have one where I post personal stuff.” He nodded, before allowing you to take some photos. You did, answering his questions about the type of frog as you took photos, him offering to take one of you holding it afterwards, which you gladly accepted. Placing your camera back in your bag after turning it off, you looked back at him as he spoke again. You placed the frog on your knee, luckily having chosen to wear shorts so your clothes weren't getting dirty from the little creature that rested contently on you. 

“Why do you come here?”

“It's… an escape.” He looked at you, his expression unreadable so you continued talking. “When everything gets too loud, when family gets overwhelming, when work is stressful, it's nice to be able to escape here and just listen to the breeze and the water, the trees. It's all just so calming. What about you?”

He nodded, understanding exactly where you came from. “Same.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

He pondered your question for a moment before he decided to explain. “Where I work… people can be quite harsh sometimes. It's like I can never do anything without people hating me. They call me a nepo baby.” He paused, chuckling bitterly. “I know that it sounds stupid, getting frustrated over it, but people always say I don't deserve my job, that the only reason I'm here is because of nepotism. It's mental.” He sighed, looking in your direction, eyes scanning you. “What about you? What's going on with you?”

“My dad, well, step dad's trying to convince me to give him my business now that it's successful. Just like handing it over to him willingly. He invited me over to ask me to willingly give up the thing I built from the ground up.”

“Really? Why would he do that?”

You lifted your hands up, making quotation marks with your hands. “Women shouldn't run businesses, they should marry, have kids and stay at home doing housework.” He snorted, thinking you were joking. “I'm serious.”

“People still think like that?” He looked confused, watching as you nodded, sighing in response to that. Unfortunately, some people were still like that. And it pissed you off a lot.

“Unfortunately, I always wondered why mama willingly gave up working despite absolutely loving her job after they got married.” You shrugged. “He won’t be getting my company though. No way in hell. He only wants it for the money.” You paused, checking your phone. “Speaking of my business. I’ve got a business meeting party thing tonight so I will have to go.”

“It was lovely meeting you.” He smiled at you as you placed the frog on the rock, picking up your tote bag and heading out. 

You went straight home, thinking that he looked familiar but you couldn’t quite put your finger on it. Sat in your hotel room, you decided to paint a bit before you headed for the business event. You wore quite a basic smart casual outfit - some white pants with a green shirt and matching blazer. Your hair was left down and you wore some basic makeup, not feeling like going over the top. 

Stepping into the venue, you sighed. This was something you didn’t love about running a business. Sure, you enjoyed the small delicacies and the free wine you got all evening, but you couldn’t stand the large handful of males who decided that you, a woman, couldn’t understand basic terminology so would spend the entire time mansplaining to you. Usually, you’d bring a friend, but being in Canada, away from your main place of residence, you didn’t really have anyone to bring. So you wandered around the venue quietly, other than stopping to say hi to people as you passed them, champagne in hand. That was until you saw a white-haired man approach you. 

He smiled, seeming rather friendly. He held out his hand. “Hi. Miss Martins, yes?” You nodded. “It's lovely to meet you, I'm Lawrence Stroll.” You shook his hand, smiling back. “Your step-father said that you're here on behalf of his business?”

You shook your head. “Martins Associates?”

“That's my business, not Anthony's,” you said, leading to a look of confusion on his face. “He's been trying to convince me to hand over my business to him willingly now it's doing well.”

“Oh, well I am very sorry if I insulted you there, dear. I genuinely had no idea.”

“No, it's perfectly fine. Has he been telling everyone this?”

Lawrence nodded. “Want me to go have words with the owner of this?”

“I’m meant to be talking later, so I’ll just bring it up then.”

You and Lawrence continued to talk, making friendly conversation. He talked a lot about his son, you realised. You didn’t mind, though. You didn’t usually know what to talk about. He explained about how his son is a Formula One driver and how he was super proud of him and how far he’s come over the years. He then looked around before waving somebody over. Your eyes turned from Lawrence to the person who was being waved over. When you glanced at the familiar man who you had spent time with earlier that day, you smiled. His face twisted from a look of boredom to one of relief, likely at someone he had noticed, someone who wasn’t an old man. “Y/N, this is my son, Lance Stroll. Lance, this is Miss Martins, she runs Martins Associates.”

“Miss Martins. It is very lovely to see you again.” Lance lifted your hand gently, placing a kiss to your knuckles.

“Please, call me Y/N, Mr Stroll.”

“Alright, and you can call me Lance, of course.” His dad excused himself so he turned back to you, a gentle smile on his face. “May I get you a drink?”

The rest of the night went by pretty quickly. You had done your little talk, making it very clear at the start that you owned your business, not your step-father. You then spent the rest of your evening with your new Canadian friend, who you found out also lived in Switzerland, relatively close to you as well. However, eventually, your conversation wrapped up and you had to head home to catch your plane back.

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instagram

youruser

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youruser Canada was lovely, home time now x

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mickschumacher: Hello???? The painting??????

mickschumacher: You're so talented PLEASE youruser: THANK YOU MICK!!

yourbff: You beautiful, beautiful woman. I miss you, hurry back to Switzerland xx

youruser: Of course, my love. Will come and see you as soon as I land yourbff: Thank you, darling youruser: ofc, anything for my wife x

lance_stroll: Safe travels back!! Maybe we could meet up when you're next free?

user1: Hey Lance! Thank you for fixing world hunger! user2: Lance, you amazing man, remember when you picked up that bus with your bare hands to stop it from hitting me? Thanks for that, buddy, you're a real one user3: Lance, thank you for landing my airplane safely that one time. estebanocon: Bonjour Lance, thank you for saving my cat from being abducted by aliens that one time!!! -175 more comments-

youruser: Oh my lord what is going on in my comments 😭

youruser: also @ lance_stroll, message me and we will plan something.

lance_stroll: Yes ma'am, will do x user1: HE DID IT! OUR BOY ACTUALLY DID IT landonorris: LETSGOOOO

youruser added to her story!

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habitatsandhistory

📍 Montreal, Canada

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habitatsandhistory: Today, we stumbled across a pseudacris crucifer, known more commonly as a Spring Peeper! These small tree frogs from the Hylidae family are found in woodland areas of the Eastern states of the USA and Canada. They are usually grey, tan or olive brown with an x-shaped, often irregular, brown mark on it's back. They grow to a length of between 2.5 and 3 cm in size!

This little guy was found by the river on slide 5, when it jumped up onto a nearby rock and I couldn't resist getting a photo of it! Feel free to follow for more history and nature facts!

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lance_stroll: Wowwww who's hand is that in the second photo? Must be someone pretty cool

youruser: They were alright, I guess. Not as cool as the person in the first photo

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