Love Slave to the Mafia Boss’s Passion

I stared at the plain white paper in front of me with my lips pursed together tightly as my mind struggled to come up with any ideas for the website. Although I had readily promised Hayden that I would have ideas to show him when he got back, I had clearly underestimated the task. After almost an hour of thinking, I wasn’t sure what I wanted the website to look like. Apart from the basic functionalities that I could reference from other similar sites, I had no idea how to make my website stand out. The biggest issue was how to make the website represent my style of art.

My plan was to sketch out a few website layouts to show Hayden later today but so far, the page was white, pristine, and very empty. I shouldn’t have promised him anything so easily. Changing my approach a little, I turned on the laptop and started researching website of other artists to see how they showcased their online portfolio. Some website had forms for visitors to fill in to request for commissions as well. That might be a good idea if I’m trying to make some money from taking on commissions.

Since painting my grandmother, I had started to like sketching and painting portraits so maybe there’s a market and demand for that? After spending almost another hour checking out various relevant websites, I decided to go with something white, plain, and very simple for my own website. Hopefully, after adding in photos of my art works, the website will somehow automatically come to life on its own…

I wasn’t sure if Hayden would buy any of the ideas that I had or the direction of my thought, but my hand started moving to sketch out some basic homepage layouts for my website. When I chose to major in art, I had many worries include those related to making a living out of it. We were poor so choosing to be an artist at the time felt like an incredibly selfish choice to make. However, my sweet grandmother was so supportive of it.

Now was the time of judgement. It’s time to see if I can start to support myself independently by being an artist. Hopefully, I can go back to teaching my art classes again soon too. I wasn’t sure if that was an option anymore, but I hoped that it was because I did enjoy teaching my classes.

A few minutes later, I had a website design sketched out but after looking at it I let out a sigh. The sound of the page tearing cut through the silent room as I tore the page out of the notebook before crumbling it and tossing it into the nearby bin. Time to try again…NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.

It was like a little miracle had just occurred when I managed to sketch out three layouts that I thought were good enough for me to show Hayden. Now that the designs were done, I realized that I didn’t know when Hayden would come back exactly. I haven’t heard from him since he left the room and the mansion for the hospital. After a moment of hesitation, I was dialing Hayden’s number.

“Hey…umm…I was wondering when you’ll be back…” I asked, suddenly feeling quite shy although I was just asking him a very simple question.

“I’m almost done, maybe I’ll get back in an hour or so. Wait for me?” he replied smoothly.

“Ok…did everything go well with the checkups?” I asked worriedly.

“Everything’s fine. Don’t worry,” Hayden replied before hanging up.

I stared at my phone once the line had disconnected and prayed that what he was saying was true. Suddenly, there were a few soft knocks on the door, and I instinctively knew that it must be Auntie.

“Come in!” I called out loudly.

The door opened, this time without needing to be unlocked from the outside first. Although, I spent my day in the same room as I did before, it felt very different to know that the door was now locked from the inside and not from the outside. My freedom was still limited but it felt like I had won an important battle in this war of regaining my freedom now that I was allowed to wander the mansion and its large gardens.

“We brought you clothes!” Auntie announced proudly.

I watched in amazement as the maids wheeled in a rack of clothes that were from my apartment followed my multiple racks of clothing that I had never seen before.

“Thank you so much. So fast…” I said, truly impressed.

“Oh…and this as well…” Auntie said softly as she came to stand by my side.

I peered down to see the pills that I had asked for in her hand. Looking up into her face, I smiled at her to thank her before taking the pills from her. I let out an internal sigh of relief. At least, now there would be one less thing for me to worry about.

After thanking her a couple more times, Auntie and the maids left the room. The arrival of my clothes was perfectly timed. I still had some time before Hayden got back so I decided to take a shower. Putting on a casual dress felt so good after being stuck wearing short night gowns and robes for like a week. The weather seemed perfect today, so I decided to abuse my newly granted privilege of going out into the gardens.

According to Hayden I needed a group of bodyguards to come with me though. So, where can I get ‘a group of bodyguards’?

I touched the doorknob and almost cried out with joy when it turned, and the door opened. The sight of the empty hallway never looked so pleasing to me before. The men in black were no longer stationed right in front of my door and that was a little troublesome now that I was looking for them. I walked along the hallway towards the stairs and to my pleasant surprise, a group of men in black were stationed there. Perfect!

“Hi. I want to take a stroll in the gardens so can you guys…come with me?” I asked, a little hesitantly.

These are pretty much Hayden’s orders, but I wasn’t sure if they were aware.

“Of course,” the man who seemed to be the leader of the squad replied without hesitation.

Wow, that was easy. Great!

–To be continued…