Reiner - Mini Disaster

Since I knew that sitting here wasn’t going to give me any answers, I decided to ask the man himself. I knocked on his door until he told me to ‘come in’. Reiner was sitting behind his desk when I entered his office.

“Umm…is there anything that I can help you out with today?” I asked as I stood in front of his desk.

“No,” Reiner replied without looking up from the document that he was reading.

He seemed busy enough. Was there really nothing that I could help him out with?

“How about some coffee…or tea?” I offered hesitantly.

Or me?

Ok, that’s an old joke that’s not funny in this situation. It wasn’t like I could play that joke on Reiner. I sighed at how useless I apparently was.

“Coffee…” he said without looking my way.

“Ok. Please wait a moment,” I replied enthusiastically.

The first task that my new boss gave to me was to make coffee. It wasn’t the most challenging job in the world, but I was glad to have something to do. I hoped that he would give me some real work after this though. I headed to the pantry to make him a cup of coffee.

I stood in front of the coffee machine without a clue of what to do. Of course, I knew pretty much how to use the machine to make coffee. The real issue was, I had just realized that I didn’t know how Reiner liked his coffee and I was so happy that he gave me a task that I forgot to ask. Would I look like a complete food if I went back to ask him for his preference now? Probably. He’s also busy working so that was probably a bad idea.

After debating various options with myself, I decided to go with making expresso. Plain and black.

While I waited for the machine to do its job, I started feeling slightly depressed. I was already aware that I knew very little about Reiner, but this reminder was a harsh blow. Unlike how Reiner knew so much about me and my preferences, I didn’t know anything about his at all.

Placing the cup of coffee on a small tray, I made my way back to his office. If I didn’t know anything about his preferences, now was the perfect time to start finding out and studying up on that. I’m his secretary now so it was the perfect opportunity to get to know Reiner. That is if he’s even willing to open up himself to me…even if just a little…

I knocked on the door of his office and soon he beckoned for me to come in. Balancing a coffee tray while pushing the heavy door open proved to be quite a challenge but I managed.

“Here’s a cup of coffee for you,” I said before smiling at him.

Carefully, I placed the coffee cup onto his table. Honestly, I had a feeling that Reiner wouldn’t like the coffee that I made even though it usually lived up to many people’s standards. Reiner was still working and didn’t pay any attention to me or the coffee that I had placed on the table. The silence between us made me feel nervous. I knew that he was busy, but it just felt like I wasn’t there anymore because he did not acknowledge my presence.

“R…sorry, Knight, is there something that I can help you with?” I asked in a small voice.

A few seconds past by until finally, Reiner put down the document that he was reading and glanced up my way. I pursed my lips together anxiously as his eyes glanced down to the coffee cup that I had served. Slowly, he picked up the cup and sniffed the coffee. If I had to describe the look on his face, I would say that he looked suspicious of the content in the cup.

If he wasn’t my boss right now, I would love to tell him outright that it wasn’t poisoned or anything, so it was fine for him to at least take a sip. However, since he was my boss, I decided to hold my tongue.

“The coffee smells off…” Reiner said coldly.

The coffee cup returned to the table with a small thud where I knew that it would be left untouched until either I clear it away or the maid does. What does he even mean by it smells ‘off’? The coffee wasn’t fancy, but it was at least passable. There is nothing ‘off’ about it!

Reiner didn’t even bother to reply to my question earlier about work. He was now busy reading another report, this time off of his computer screen. By that time, I’ve had enough of his cold treatment and figured that I didn’t have a place in his office. I bowed my head slightly and turned to leave the room silently.

Well, that was a mini disaster on its own.

I flopped down onto my chair and allowed depressing thoughts to flood my head for a moment. I couldn’t help but wondered if the other girls in my batch had a boss as cold as mine and then I realized that they probably didn’t. Reiner didn’t seem to need me for anything and although it was my second day at work, I still didn’t know what his job was exactly.

Seeing that there was nothing for me to do, I decided to make my way to the secretarial department.

Maybe the woman from earlier would have something for me to do to kill the time. I felt like I could do anything at that point in time. I could photocopy stuff, make some more coffee, or run random errands.

Anything to make me feel like my existence was useful.

After helping out with random tasks, lunch time finally arrived. I wondered if Reiner was still working. As if led by instinct, I made my way back to Reiner’s office to check up on him. I hoped that he’s not too busy with work to forget pausing to have lunch.

--To be continued…