The Maid: Mafia Romance (Series)

My Beloved

Fuck that mobile phone. Giovanni had thought that by giving his lover the latest and greatest mobile phone, it could bridge the gap between their relationship. They could become closer. Not just physically, but on an emotional level. He wanted to be closer to her, connected with her. But this…

What the fuck was happening here? These past few days, Jay was on her fucking phone twenty-four seven. Did girls her age become obsessed with these kinds of gadgets? Or was he just too fucking old to appreciate them? Fucking hell, he was only twenty-seven. Technology was something to be used and maybe appreciated, but it shouldn’t rule one’s life. He didn’t depend on it. But Jay…

Fuck!

This issue was doing his head in. He needed advice. Out of his four underlings, Bobby seemed the most likely candidate to offer sound advice.

Giovanni dialed his phone and barked into the line. “Come to my office. I have important matters to discuss.”

Three heartbeats later, Bobby appeared at his door.

“Come in and shut the door. I don’t want the others to hear about this.”

“Am I getting a pay raise, Boss?” Bobby whispered his question in excitement.

“No!”

“Then why can’t the others hear?”

Giovanni was having second thoughts as to whether Bobby was the best person to consult in his dilemma.

“Because it’s about something else.”

“Is this about Jenny?”

A light appeared in Giovanni’s eyes. Maybe he’d made the right choice after all. Bobby really was perceptive in these things.

“Bobby, what am I doing wrong?” he complained to his underling, his body going slack all of a sudden. He had no energy to even think straight. How must he go about solving this problem?

He could throw that phone away, but that would be fucking mean. He’d already given that phone to her. He couldn’t possibly take it back. Those ideas swirled round and round like uncooked soup in his mind, and now he was back to square one.

“What did ya do, Boss?” Bobby asked for more information, sitting down comfortably on the settee, a good distance from him. A safe distance, in fact, since he might not know when he would explode when it came to Bobby. That one underling of his always managed to rub him the wrong way, but Bobby was a good source of information.

Exactly how much information should he disclose to Bobby, though? He didn’t want to look like a fool in front of his underling. Being a mafia boss, he had to uphold a certain reputation. No acting like a fucking teen with raging hormones just because his lover paid more attention to her phone than him. But this reputation of his got fucking exhausting sometimes. He just wanted to sulk, for once.

“Jay’s not paying attention to me. She spends more time on her phone than with me.” Yep! He sounded like some poor jealous kid who just lost his delicious candy to another man.

It’s a fucking phone for fucking sake, he had to remind himself. Keep your cool, you loser.

“Her last mid-year exam is coming up. She might be using the phone to do research,” Bobby suggested, getting up from his seat and moving toward him.

Still, this didn’t help solve his problem one bit.

“She could come to me for research. I know shitloads of shit,” he boasted.

“Do you know anything about what she’s studying?”

His mind came up blank.

Fuck! Did he really know so little about his lover? He remembered a conversation from way back when she first came to live with him. “Something to do with numbers.”

“Not just numbers. Accounting, Boss.” Bobby shot him down. “That’s why, sir, Giuseppe has his own accountant.”

“Bloody fucking accounting,” Giovanni spat out. He knew numbers. If he were this bad, he wouldn’t have gotten this far.

“And have you even gotten a University degree, Boss?”

“I don’t need some fucking University degree to make a living. I’m already living the high life.” Damned shit, he was pissed. Bobby was kicking too close to home. He knew he didn’t have some University degree to make Giuseppe proud. But he had a good sound mind in his head. Plus, he wasn’t one to dwell on the past. He was a man of the future. And if Bobby was smarter, he should move farther away from him, because any closer and he would kick the shit out of him. “And if you don’t stop spouting shit about me, in front of me, I’ll kick your ass.”

“Sorry, Boss. I was only stating my honest opinion.” Bobby moved swiftly back to his seat.

“Keep your honest opinion to yourself. It’s not needed.” And now he was fucking annoyed. Fuck this feeling! How could he feel jealous of a damned phone? He was disgusted with himself. Jay was doing things to him he wasn’t aware of. And he fucking hated it. This stupid feeling that he’d never felt before. But she’d intoxicated him, and he couldn’t help feeling stupid when he was around her. “And why the fuck are we talking about my lack of tertiary education? We’re swaying from the main topic here. It’s Jay. Jay and that bloody phone.” Giovanni put emphasis on the main culprit, the mobile phone.

Giovanni went quiet, carefully watching Bobby process the information. He sure hoped Bobby was processing that information and perhaps was already thinking of ways to help him deal with this problem. And he was pleased when, after a small moment, Bobby’s head shot up.

“Boss, I got it.” Bobby rushed to his side.

Giovanni moved in closer to his underling, hoping to hear a good solution. “Let’s hear it.”

“The root of the problem is you.”

Giovanni blinked and swore three times. “That’s your conclusion, after sitting there scratching your head for five minutes?”

“Yep.”

“Conclusion, my ass.” Giovanni swatted his underling’s head. “Just blame me, go on. Bring it all out. Let me hear it all.”

“If you promise not to hit me again, then I’ll say it.”

“Just fucking say it. I don’t have all day,” he whined, folding his arms and crashing into his chair.

Since he had given Bobby the all clear, Bobby poised himself against his desk and kicked off his narration with a bang to his gut. “The whole problem stems from you because you’re the one who gave her that phone. So, don’t go blaming the phone or Jenny. Blame yourself. Plus, Boss, you’ve got to admit, it’s a really cool phone. You can’t beat that. The latest edition and all. Who wouldn’t go goo-goo-ga-ga over that? If you gifted me that phone, I’d play with it twenty-four seven, too.”

“Twenty-four seven, my ass. Are you saying I’m not as cool as the phone?” His eyes twitched. He didn’t like where this conversation was heading.

“You are cool, Boss. Super cool.”

“There’s a ‘but;’ I sense it.”

“It’s your behavior.”

“What the bloody hell is wrong with my behavior?” Giovanni gasped out, perplexed at his underling’s words. “I’ve been your boss for over a decade now, and you’ve never had the guts to tell me this until now.”

“I’m used to your moods, Boss, but Jenny, she’s a sweet little thing. And you know, all that name-calling, that ain’t cool.”

“Look who’s a relationship expert.”

Bobby positively relished his moment. “I’m not really one to toot my own horn, Boss, but I’ve gone through my fair share of relationships, enough to give sound advice.”

And this was precisely why he’d chosen Bobby. “All right, then. Let’s hear it, loud and clear, since you are such a relationship expert.”

“For one, maybe you should stop calling her your coffee machine .” Bobby offered his two cents. “Her name is Jenny, after all. If I have a boyfriend, I wouldn’t want anyone calling me coffee machine all the time. That’s just degrading. That’s why she turned her attention to the mobile phone.”

“Look who’s lecturing me.” Giovanni clicked his tongue in distaste. “To be named my coffee machine is a privilege, in my book. You know how I’m obsessed with coffee.”

“In your book, Boss, but no one else’s,” Bobby muttered under his breath.

“You wanna say that louder, Bobby?” Giovanni warned.

“Just saying, Boss, that’s when she was your maid. Now she’s your lover. Shouldn’t you call her something endearing?”

“Get yourself a fucking boyfriend, Bobby, and stop bugging me with your suggestive undertones of sound advice. But on second thought…” Bobby paused at the door, waiting for him to elaborate. “You really think I should call her some sort of endearment? It doesn’t sound too cheesy, does it, if I called her like…?”

Bobby opened his eyes wide, waiting for him to finish his sentence.

“I don’t fucking know. What do you call your lover when you care for them?” Giovanni was totally fizzled. He’d never had to think about these things before.

“How about darling, honey, or, this one is my personal favorite. Pumpkin.”

“Pumpkin!” Giovanni gasped in distaste. “I ain’t fucking calling Jay, pumpkin. She ain’t some piece of vegetable.”

If anything, Jay was more like a piece of something sweet, but he still couldn’t fathom calling her ‘Sugar.’ That just sounded lame as shit.

“You just have to sit down and think it through. What name would be suitable for Jenny? I’m sure she’ll appreciate it.”

“You sure it doesn’t sound lame, if I say it?” Giovanni asked for reassurance.

“No, Boss. It’ll be totally cool.”

“All right. You can go.” Giovanni dismissed Bobby with a wave of his hand and thought about his current dilemma.

Maybe Bobby was right. Who would appreciate having a lover calling them coffee machine all the time? Jay was more than a coffee machine to him. She was his…

Beloved.

Giovanni grinned. He’d found the perfect endearment for Jay. And he couldn’t wait to call her by that name.