Reiner - Take Me Home

“Go home…” Reiner said as he stood up from the chair.

He turned on his heels and began walking away without looking back. As far as he was concerned, the conversation between them was over. He didn’t want to stay to answer any of her questions or confirm any of her suspicions.

“I won’t give up. We’re going to get married no mater what!” Rachael called out stubbornly from behind him.

Reiner ignored her words complete as he continued walking away. The situation had gotten much worse than he initially estimated. Rachael was supposed to help him until he was done with what he had intended which was to send Natalia back home. She was never supposed to be in love with him.

When he broke off their engagement years ago, he had been certain that she was happy and relieved to have the freedom to choose her life partner on her own. How did things turn out like this?

…

It ended up being a very busy night at the bar and I didn’t get a chance to talk properly to Charles again until it was closing time. Charles was no longer at the bar when it came close to closing time. He probably left sometime during the night while I wasn’t paying attention. It didn’t worry me at all because I knew that he would keep his word and that he would be waiting for me right outside the bar after I had finished working for the night.

“You have to tell me all about it,” Kat hissed into my ear as she grabbed my arm tightly.

“All about…what?” I asked, not quite sure I understood what she was referring to.

“How he is in bed, of course!” Kat replied with widened eyes.

I was sure that she was getting the wrong idea about this whole ride back home thing.

“There won’t be anything to tell. We’re not…going to do…those things…” I replied sternly.

“You never know. They say one thing leads to another…” Kat replied with a grin.

“I’m heading back. You should head back home too,” I said curtly to end our conversation.

…

I gathered my things and headed out of the bar. Not surprisingly, Charles was standing there, and he flashed a smile my way when he spotted me walking out of the bar. I felt his eyes on me and I began to wonder if what they said was true about one thing leading to another…

“Sorry, have you been waiting for long?” I asked with an apologetic smile.

“No need to be sorry. I was the one who offered to drive you back,” Charles replied.

I walked at his side as he led me towards where his car was parked. It was late and it was quite dark apart from the streetlights. The decorative lights of all the bars had been switched off by that time because it was past closing time.

“Watch your step,” Charles warned.

“Sure…” I mumbled in reply.

It was a short walk to his car. I didn’t know much about Charles, but I could tell from the car that he drove that he was more than well-off. Unless the price of cars on this island varied widely from other countries or where I came from, then this car costed a small fortune for sure. I glanced over at Charles, and he offered me a kind smile.

Yeah, I guess he doesn’t owe me an explanation of how he funded the purchase of his car or anything like that.

“Watch your head,” Charles advised as he opened the passenger door for me.

Just like all sports car, the car was low compared to normal ones and watching my head was what I always had to do when I entered these types of cars. Zak loved these types of cars and so I had a lot of experiences from getting in and out his cars.

“Thank you,” I whispered before the door closed.

Charles got into the driver’s seat before turning to ask me for my address. That was when I realized that I had to give him the address to my place. It felt quite strange that no one else knew where I was living now except for Kat and now Charles was going to be the second person to know.

“Let me type it in for you…” I offered and he readily agreed.

“Do you live far from here?” He asked.

“Sort of. Sorry for the trouble…” I replied.

“Not at all. I was just curious. This is somewhere in the business district, isn’t it?” Charles asked as he eyed the address that I had just typed in on the map.

“Yes…it’s closer to the office for my day job,” I explained.

“I see. It looks like a good location,” Charles said before he began driving.

“Yeah, it’s very convenient. I just moved there but I think I’ll get used to it in no time,” I replied confidently.

“I bet you’re working hard on your day job too,” Charles said.

I wondered if he would answer me if I asked for his help regarding my work. Charles would probably know something about it, and he was the only one that I knew besides Reiner that may know something about improving an agent’s survival rate.

“Umm…I don’t know if I can ask you this but…at work, we’re trying to improve agents’ chances of survival on missions. So, I was wondering if you have any ideas about this,” I asked a little hesitantly.

Charles was silent as he seemed to ponder my question. I looked at him as he continued to drive with his eyes on the road ahead.

“What do you want to know about it, specifically?” Charles asked.

He didn’t seem against sharing me some of his knowledge, so I decided to continue on with the conversation on this topic.

“You told me before that trust and compatibility between team members can determine the team’s survival on missions. I would like to know how we can tell whether agents are compatible with each other, you know, before we put them into the same team,” I inquired seriously.

--To be continued…