Reiner – Ride with My Knight

“Did you drive here?” Kat asked.

“Not today…” I replied.

“It’s late. Why don’t you sleep over at my place? It’s close by…” Kat offered kindly.

“Thanks, but I’d rather head back. I have to work tomorrow so…” I said before trailing off with a ‘you know’ look.

“Oh, right. Your day job and all,” Kat murmured in understanding.

I gave her a tired smile because that was all that I could manage at that moment.

“Let’s go…” I told her as I got up from my chair.

It was late but since many people got off work at this time in the entertainment district there were many cabs running at this hour. Getting a ride back to the mansion should be a breeze. It might be a little expensive though, but that was fine by me.

I stretched my arms up high above my head as I walked out of the bar with Kat at my side. The silhouette of a very tall man standing right outside the bar’s entrance stopped me in my tracks.

“Who’s this?” Kat asked as she looked the man up and down with sparkling eyes.

Why is he here? How did he find me here?

“Knight…why are you here?” I asked with a mix of confusion and disbelief.

Was Reiner really here? Why?

Kat elbowed me before she leaned in to whisper in my ear.

“Who is he? Do you know him? He’s so hot and so tall…” she whispered, speaking very fast.

“He’s…Knight…” I replied with Reiner’s codename.

“Huh? First you have prince charming and now you have a Knight too?” Kat teased before laughing.

“It’s not like that. He’s…umm…he’s my boss…” I tried to explain.

“Your boss?” Kat said, clearly shocked.

Ok, Reiner doesn’t look anything like Jamie. Jamie is also my boss, so I didn’t blame Kat for her confusion. She probably didn’t expect my boss to be so young and so hot.

“He’s my boss from my daytime job…” I quickly clarified.

“Oh…I see…wow…” Kat said as her eyes returned to Reiner.

“Hi, my name is Kat and I work here with Natalia. It’s nice to meet you,” Kat said flirtingly as she smiled up at Reiner.

“I’m Knight. Thank you for taking care of Natalia,” Reiner replied politely.

“Sure thing…” Kat said cheerfully.

“Umm…why are you here?” I repeated my question again, hesitantly.

“I’m here to take you back to the mansion,” Reiner replied bluntly.

“It’s very late. You didn’t have to come pick me up…” I said softly.

“It’s late and you don’t have a car. How do you plan to get back?” Reiner asked as if he was interrogating me.

Suddenly, it sounded like I did something wrong, and I was now in very big and deep trouble. However, I didn’t do anything wrong, and I didn’t ask him to pick me up or anything. He can’t just turn up and blame me for everything.

“Well…” I murmured.

“Never mind. Come…” Reiner said impatiently as he reached out a hand and quickly grabbed my wrist.

“Umm…ok. I’ll be heading home first. See you later, Kat,” I turned to bid farewell to my friend as Reiner began dragging me away from the bar.

Not wanting to make a scene right in front of the bar, I let Reiner led me to where he parked his car.

Wordlessly, Reiner continued dragging me behind him. He opened the car door for me and made sure that I got in before he closed the door. Still stunned at Reiner’s sudden appearance at my workplace, I wasn’t quite sure what to do. My exhaustion was quickly catching up to me and I didn’t want to get into an argument with him. Reiner got into the car and began driving us home without saying a word to me.

Since it was clear that he wasn’t going to explain anything to me, I decided to ask the question that I had on my mind.

“How did you know where to find me?” I asked a little suspiciously.

“I asked Queen,” Reiner replied with his eyes on the road.

“Oh…I see…” I mumbled.

Our conversation died there with Reiner not saying another word and I wasn’t sure what I should say to him. It felt strange that Reiner came to pick me up; however, what I felt wasn’t an unpleasant feeling. I glanced over at him and wondered if he was just worried about me. I kept telling me that he didn’t need to be and that his actions would just be misleading. As a matter of fact, I just told him that again last night.

Is he trying to mislead me on purpose? I narrowed my eyes at him as I continued to watch the handsome side-view of his face. It wasn’t a short ride to the mansion, and I knew that I had some time left to think up something to talk to him about.

“You should quit working in a place like that,” Reiner spoke up before I could start another conversation with him.

His sudden suggestion more than surprised me. It started to tick me off…

“Why?” I demanded to know.

“Why would you want to work in a place like that?” Reiner asked in return.

“What do you mean by ‘a place like that’?” I asked as my mood more than soured.

“A bar where shady people gather. Did you bust your ass studying and working just to become a bar girl?” Reiner said without even bothering to look at me.

What’s wrong with being a bar girl? We worked hard and we did legal work to earn our pay. We never caused trouble for anyone.

“My preferences aside, I would appreciate it if you stopped insulting the bar, the people who work there and our customers,” I snapped heatedly.

“Take my word of advice and stop working there. You’re not going to come across any good people there, Natalia,” Reiner advised sternly.

“That’s rich coming from someone who abandoned me the moment that I got here. You didn’t seem to worry or care about me then. Where would I go? What would I do with my life? I’d have you know that while you were turning your back on me those people at the bar took me in. Kat is the first friend that I made on this island. She’s my friend, all the staffs are my friends, so don’t go insulting bar girls,” I said quite loudly.

--To be continued…

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