Love Slave to the Mafia Boss's Passion 18

Guided by Instinct

Opening up the responses to the request form, I started going through them one by one and sorting

them based on the detail of the request. As I read the requests, my brain began thinking about ways

that I could complete my work without meeting the client in person. I could paint from a photograph and

some requests actually wanted me to paint based on a photograph so I could work on those requests

without any issues. For other requests, would doing some kind of video call help act as a reasonably

good alternate method? Honestly, I haven’t tried it before, but it might be worth a shot.

The issue was that most clients probably didn’t know the process of getting their portrait painted.

Perhaps, I could get back to them to ask if it was fine if I didn’t paint them in person. There were so

many requests that I had to find some way to prioritize them. I hated to admit it, but Hayden was right. I

wondered how many portraits I could finish in a month. Perhaps one per week? That would make it four

per month. If I rushed a little, perhaps I could do six or eight?

Judging by the number of requests, the booking would be full for almost a year. That’s just crazy. I

spent a good portion of the night working on sorting the request and reaching out via email to the Nôvel/Dr(a)ma.Org - Content owner.

clients to ask them more about their requests and expressing my sincere apologies and regret for not

being able to meet them in person. I didn’t know how the clients would react, but I couldn’t do anything

else but pray for the best.

The truth was, I probably needed to brush up my skills before I could start on a real commission. It has

been a while since I’ve last sketched or painted a portrait. The most realistic date to start working on

my first commission would be around a week’s time from now.

I felt tired and that spat that I had with Hayden just now didn’t help out with anything at all. After taking

a quick shower, I went straight to bed. Little Hayden was peacefully sleeping in his small little bed in my

living room by now and I envied how easily he could drift off to sleep. It was like he could fall asleep

anywhere and at any time. Unlike that little puppy, sleep did not come easy to me that night.

My mind was too filled with thoughts about my work and now and then my thoughts would drift off to

Hayden. I wondered what he was doing and if he was sleeping well. Hopefully, he wasn’t having trouble

sleeping like I did. Then again, I don’t think that little argument we had just now would disturb him at all.

Then why is it bothering me so much?

I shut my eyes tightly as I covered my eyes with my hand and rolled around from side to side on the

bed. This is useless, I can’t seem to go to sleep no matter how hard I tried. I sat up in bed as my head

started to throb a little painfully. Am I about to get a migraine? Seriously?

Earlier, I was too shocked and too busy trying to get the truth out from him. In the end, I forgot to thank

him properly for all that he’s done to help me out. Sure, perhaps he did a little too much and kept it all a

secret from me. However, I knew that he meant well, and I owed him at least a word of thanks. From

how I reacted and what I said to him, he must have thought that I was such an unappreciative and

selfish person. I felt horrible…

Tomorrow is a Saturday so Hayden should be home all day tomorrow. That meant that I had the whole

day to find a way to apologize to him properly. Wait, what if he decides to go out?

The surest way was to catch him very early in the morning. Thanks to Auntie, I now knew where

Hayden’s room is so if I head there early in the morning, I was sure to catch him before he woke up. I

was convinced that that was the best plan. However, with that plan in mind, I still couldn’t go to sleep.

As time ticked by, I felt more and more anxious.

Before any thought ran through my mind, I had gotten up from my bed. I wrapped a loose robe over my

short night gown before running out of my room in my slippers. It was late at night, and I wasn’t sure if

Hayden was already asleep or not but that didn’t stop me from proceeding along the hallway that led to

Hayden’s wing of the mansion.

While on my way to his bedroom, my brain tried to figure out what I would say to him exactly. This

wasn’t an easy task. Hayden is such an unpredictable person. It was so hard to figure out what he was

thinking or feeling and that made it so hard to handle him. If I said the wrong thing, I’ll end up angering

him more than before and that would be a disaster. I wasn’t sure of anything apart from the fact that I

wanted and needed to see him right away.

I didn’t realize that I had been in such a rush to get to Hayden’s bedroom until I was standing right in

front of the door to his bedroom with my chest heaving up and down. The sound of my shallow pants

was the only sound in the silent and deserted hallway. I can’t believe that I just ran all the way here.

What has gotten into me?

It was like I had so much foolish courage before but now that I was standing right outside of his room, I

suddenly felt quite scared. What did I do just now? How did I end up here and at this hour? This is just

too crazy…

--To be continued…