Reiner – Surprised or Impressed?

He probably wouldn’t care where I went but he did scold me a couple of times for getting home late into the night. Sooner or later, I’d have to tell him that I won’t be riding back with him. Sooner better than later, I guess. I might as well tell him now.

“You don’t have to wait for me after work today. I’ll go back to the mansion by myself,” I said.

Reiner glanced over at me for a split of a second before his eyes returned to the road ahead.

“I see…” he replied curtly.

After a few seconds of silence, I was sure that Reiner wouldn’t say anything more on the topic and that surprised me a little. I had thought that he would ask me about where I was going to go after work or how I was going to get back. Apparently, that didn’t bother him, and he clearly thought that it wasn’t his business. He’s not wrong about it not being his business but I still found it surprising for him not to care at all.

I turned to look out the window at the scenery that was passing by while also trying to hide the disappointed look on my face. Reiner did not mention anything about what transpired between us last night, and of course, I wouldn’t bring it up. His attitude towards me didn’t change. That was fine by me, I didn’t expect him to suddenly be lovey-dovey with me because we had a little bit of sex last night. Still, this indifferent attitude of his was driving me insane from frustration.

I tried making small talk with Reiner for the rest of the ride, but he didn’t respond much to me. Apart from an occasional 'ok’ or a nod here and there, Reiner was pretty much silent all the way. A sense of relief and freedom filled my heart when I finally got out of the car. That ride felt suffocating in more ways than one. I guess you’re back to square one again, Natalia. Good luck girl…

Reiner went straight to work once he entered his office. I followed quietly after him into his office.

Reiner didn’t chase me out of his office which meant that he wanted me to help out with his work. It didn’t seem like I’ve made any progress in our personal relationship; however, I was proud to say that I made progress in our professional relationship. He now trusted me enough to share his work with me.

I sat down in front of the pile of documents that I was processing late into the night last night. Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath and renewed my determination to find the solution to this problem. I’m going to prove to Reiner that I am useful and that I can do my job well. I won’t fail at this task no matter what.

“How should we proceed today?” I asked brightly as I turned to look at him.

Reiner’s face was stern, and he seemed to be very focused on something as he stared at his computer screen. I wondered what he was looking at. Slowly, I approached him.

“Knight? What are you looking at?” I asked curiously.

“Nothing. What were you saying just now?” Reiner asked.

“Oh, since we’ve entered in enough of the sample data, I was wondering what we should do next…” I replied as I awaited his instructions.

He was supposed to be my boss after all.

“What do you think we should do?” Reiner asked instead of replying to my question.

“Umm…I guess we have to find some trends in the data. I can do some preliminary analysis for you if you want. Like matching some data to find links between profiles, death rates, and some indicators of compatibility. Although, I’m not sure what indicators to use to indicate that people are compatible with each other yet. I’m not even sure if that sort of thing is captured in the data. It might be but probably not completely captured. Maybe we should use the data to identify some high-level trends and narrow down some agents and pull them in to ask them some questions…” I began explaining and soon enough, I couldn’t stop my ideas and thoughts from pouring out.

I stopped at the sudden realization that I have probably said too much. Reiner stared at me with raised eyebrows, and I knew that I had more than surprised him with my endless stream of words just now.

“Sorry…for saying too much…” I murmured softly.

“No…I’m just surprised…” he replied, and I could feel his eyes still on me.

Yeah, I get that a lot so…

“Haha…you didn’t think that I could, you know, ‘think’, right?” I said, trying to put his surprise into words.

Reiner seemed even more surprised and shocked at what I had just said. Did I hit the nail on the head or was I completely wrong about my speculation?

“Not exactly. I just didn’t think that you could ‘think’ this well…” Reiner said, and I could tell that he tried to carefully pick out his words.

Honestly, how would I have survived working for Edward if I just ran around after him like a brainless chicken. If Reiner thought that he was a tough boss to work for, he clearly had never seen Edward at work. Everything Edward did was like rocket science and brain surgery on repeat.

“Like I said, you don’t have to worry. I get that a lot…I’m really used to it,” I said as I brushed it off.

“Right…” Reiner muttered.

“Yea, so back to my ideas. What do you think?” I inquired.

“They’re good. Let’s do that,” Reiner readily agreed.

“Alright. Cool…” I replied being flashing him a proud smile.

I went straight to work based on what I had just told Reiner. It didn’t matter if he fully understood my rambling from just now because I knew that by the end of the day, if I really put my mind to it, I could come up with a list of agents that might be worth interviewing to find out more about this issue.

Apart from helping with his work, as Reiner’s secretary, I also managed his schedule. Based on his schedule today, Reiner had many back-to-back meetings in the afternoon which should keep him occupied right to the end of the workday.

--To be continued…