Reiner – Divergence

“Good morning,” I replied politely.

“You’re up extra early today,” Queen commented before smiling gently at me.

It looked like she had countless questions that she wanted to ask me. On my end, I didn’t want to talk to her or anyone else for that matter right now.

“Yeah. I’ll be leaving first. See you later,” I replied vaguely as I shifted to go.

“Umm…did something happen?” Queen asked with a sad and worried look in her eyes.

“No. Nothing happened,” I replied in short.

Queen gave me a troubled look, but I decided that I didn’t have anything else to discuss with her about.

I turned to leave in a hurry before she could ask me more about what happened last night between Reiner and me. I wouldn’t tell her anything even if she asked anyways. I felt her eyes following my movement as I quickly walked away and exited the mansion.

…

Queen sat on the sofa in the living with a magazine in her hand. She had no idea why she was holding the magazine because she wasn’t even reading it. Natalia came back crying last night although she tried to hide it, Queen saw her face. Reiner rushed in after her after he picked her up from the bar that she was working at. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that something happened between the two.

Reiner refused to comment or tell her anything as per usual.

A frown creased Queen’s brows before she threw the magazine down onto the coffee table in front of her. At that exact moment, Reiner walked into the living room.

“Natalia isn’t here yet?” Reiner asked casually.

Queen turned towards her son, and she didn’t know whether she wanted to roll her eyes at him or just scream at him for his foolishness. She chose to do a bit of both.

“Natalia? She already left,” Queen snapped before rolling her eyes upwards.

“I see…” Reiner replied emotionlessly.

“What happened? You asked me where she was working and I told you, then what happened?” Queen asked as she glared at her son.

“Nothing happened. I picked her up,” Reiner replied flatly.

“You picked her up? Nothing happened? Then why was she crying last night? I saw her. She was crying,” Queen demanded to know.

“I told her to go back home. That’s all,” Reiner replied.

Queen watched as Reiner turned to leave as if the conversation was already over.

“Rachael’s coming over for dinner on Saturday,” Queen said, loud enough for Reiner to hear.

Reiner paused in his steps for a moment but continued to walk away without responding.

“You hear me? Rachael is coming over to have dinner with us this Saturday,” Queen repeated sternly.

“I’m going to work,” Reiner replied without turning back to look at this mother.

…

Reiner drove to the office alone and headed straight for his private office when he arrived at the building. Natalia had left before him, and she was probably waiting for him in his office. He reviewed the work that she left on his desk and thought that her plan to interview the agents was a good move.

After looking through the agents that she had shortlisted for him to talk to, he felt that it all made sense.

She was very selective in her screening and the criteria that she used was very logical and clear.

He opened the door to his office after thinking through what he wanted to say to her. However, Natalia wasn’t sitting at her desk like she usually did. Reiner strode quickly to his personal office only to find that Natalia wasn’t in there either. He frowned and took out his phone to give her a call only to realize that he didn’t even have her number.

He swore under his breath as he grabbed the phone off his table and began dialing an internal number.

After a few beeps, someone on the other end of the line picked up his call.

“This is the secretarial department; how can I help you?” a woman politely spoke through the phone.

“This is Knight. Do you know where Natalia is. She’s my secretary,” Reiner inquired impatiently.

“Hold on a second. Oh, Miss Natalia is on leave today. She called in earlier today to inform us that she’s taking the day off,” the woman replied.

“Did she tell you why?” Reiner pressed.

“Umm…no reason is recorded here. She didn’t tell you that she’s taking the day off?” the woman asked in a surprised tone.

“She did. It probably just slipped my mind,” he lied.

“Right, I see,” the woman replied casually.

“Can you give me her number?” Reiner asked.

“Umm…sure. Hold on a second,” the woman replied after a pause. It was strange for a manager not to have his secretary’s number.

“Thank you,” Reiner replied after the woman had given him Natalia’s mobile number.

Reiner put down the phone and the line disconnected.

Where did she go?

Reiner looked around his empty office as a sense of dread filled his stomach.

…

“I’m sorry for calling you all the way out here and it’s daytime,” I said before laughing a little nervously.

“You make me sound like I’m a vampire or something. I can take some sunlight, trust me,” Kat joked before laughing carefreely.

“It was a busy night last night and you have to work again tonight and all…” I said apologetically.

“No worries. I’m actually very excited. Let’s check out a bunch of places today,” Kat said excitedly.

“Yeah…” I mumbled in agreement.

“Don’t look so down. We’ll find a place that you like for sure!” Kat said encouragingly.

That wasn’t really why I was feeling down but I still appreciated her efforts in cheering me up.

“Thanks again for coming out with me on such short notice…” I thanked her again.

“I’m free so don’t worry about it,” she replied.

Based on Kat’s suggestion, we visited an agent that she used when she was on her search for her apartment. After filling out a form stating my special requests, requirements, and budget constraints, the woman printed out a list of properties from her system and began going through the options with me.

--To be continued…