Name Your Price

Chapter 4! Are You Into Men!

Many would do their best to get into Oxford University, specifically, Oxford School of Law and Milady Gaya was just part of the lucky few who had their dreams realised.

After being rendered homeless when she escaped from home due to an arranged marriage at a very early age, Milady had only one goal in mind, to become the best version of herself and be in as much control of her life as possible, knowing fully well that no one can ever be in full control of his or her own life.
Life is just too full of its many uncertainties.

Rafaela may have given up on her career as a lawyer to marry Camillio Gaya, but Milady was not ready to go down the same path as her mother who died of depression, only to be replaced by another woman soon after.

Believing that everyone was born with adequate capabilities for greatness, no matter the location, Milady opines that, even the rich need to work harder to keep their status, how much less a pauper like herself!

Milady was exhausted from crying when she suddenly got up and headed for the door without a care for anything in the world, much less her appearance.

"Sir, I need to report a robbery"
"Please come this way".

Being motioned into a small meeting room at the campus police station, Milady sat down looking worn out and the young police officer in charge felt so sorry for her, thinking she must have been attacked by someone since she's here to report a robbery.
Reaching for his recorder, he asked Milady to recount her experience while handing her a cup of warm water he just drew from the dispenser at the entrance of the meeting room.

After taking about half the cup in a single gulp, Milady took in a deep and refreshing breath from having her throat moistened by the water. The young officer couldn't be more understanding when seeing her that way.

"It all started at 8:00 am this morning when I received an emergency email indicating a sudden change in the schedule of my upcoming presentation. I was originally scheduled for 8:30 a.m but the message changed my time to 8:30 p.m. Reaching the venue at 8:00 pm, I realised I was the only one scheduled for the evening and there was no one else at the interview site. A staff member then told me I had to connect my laptop to the projector and make an online presentation to the panel. After doing as I was told, she then left and I came to the dreadful realisation that I could not retrieve any file related to the said project from my computer."

Remembering the disdainful looks of the Panel, Milady felt so cold she started to shiver. Pausing the recorder, the young officer who had his eyes on her like a hawk took notice of her current state and stood to readjust the temperature of the room to make it a little warmer.
Milady gave him a nod of appreciation to which he responded with a smile.

Sitting back and reaching for the recorder, Milady took it as a cue to continue speaking "the panel asked if I changed my morning appointment time to evening because of the missing documents, to which I responded by recounting the message earlier and only then did I reach for my phone and realised the message was not there anymore.

There was rather a message of me asking the planning committee for an extension. The said message was projected boldly on the screen for me to see"

[Sigh]

She looked so calm that the officer couldn't understand whether she was speaking of herself or telling someone else's story. Realising that this was a special 'robbery' case, the officer directed her to a part-time worker in the Cyber Security unit for possible assistance.

After leaving the student with the personnel, the officer who earlier concluded that this was not a simple case because not just anyone could hack a computer or mobile phone at will and not anyone at all could compel a hacker to go through all the said trouble making a decision. "There must be bigger hands at play in this. Poor girl!" Reaching for his cell phone, he dialled a certain number in his phonebook.

At the same time, Milady introduced herself to the worker whom she could only describe as a perfect beauty at a glance. Even a lady like her felt a little inferior deep down.
Recovering from the sudden distraction, she gave a genuine smile to the lady who gave her a forced smile in return and didn't even bother returning the courtesy of introducing herself. Looking at the lady's chest for identification, Milady found none.

Paige gestured with her chin for Milady to take a seat across from her.
With a headphone on her ears, Paige was listening to the recording of Milady's earlier statement and didn't want to miss out on anything, which was why she seemed quite reserved at the moment.
Though her personality is extremely cold, Paige never crossed the line at work by giving a cold shoulder to complainants.
To avoid listening to too many unnecessary stories and wasting precious time, Paige prefers listening to the recordings first and only asking relevant questions for further clarifications afterwards.

"Wooow! what an ice beauty!" Milady couldn't help muttering under her breath and wishing she could keep the beauty in her family by marrying her brother off to her. Or is it marrying Paige off to her brother? Aaaaahhh! Either way, there is a marriage, right?

Across the table, Paige could see the interesting character zoning out in front of her.
Not giving a second thought about what she was daydreaming about, Paige could only fleetingly wonder why a person could be so enthusiastic after being robbed.

Clearing her throat to bring Milady back from her reverie, Paige was about requesting for her phone number and student Identity card when Milady blurted out the question on her mind "are you married?" Realising she asked the wrong question, Milady immediately adjusted her sitting position as though her previous sitting position caused her to ask such an awkward question so, she decided to rephrase.

Managing a cute smile, Milady then asked "are you into men?"

Paige: [what the ...!!!]

More Chapters Ahead...