Reiner – Silent Treatment

Reiner didn’t seem to like it that I knew Charles or that I was a little close to him, but he was engaged to someone else and wanted me to go away. Charles was interested in me, but I haven’t decided to progress with our relationship yet. Mostly because of my lingering feelings for Reiner.

How do I explain such a messed-up situation? The answer was simple: I couldn’t clear up anything.

Amazing. Truly amazing.

…

The hand of the clock is ticking by so slowly today. My eyes stared at the hand of the clock as the seconds ticked by. Was it just me or was the clock ticking much slower right now than on other days? I hated myself and how rotten I felt inside. I knew that it was my fault and not the clock’s fault that time was slipping by so painfully slowly. Since the two men went into Reiner’s office, all I was able to achieve was moving my ass from the sofa to the chair behind my desk.

From this location, I could stare up at the clock on the opposite wall like I had nothing else better to do in my life. The room was so silent that I could hear the sound of the clock ticking. How long is the meeting going to last? It was scheduled for an hour…does that mean that I have to stare at this clock for another 50 minutes? Only 10 minutes had passed?

I’m going crazy…

What are those two talking about? They’re just talking about work, and everything is going smooth and professionally well, right?

…they’re not talking about me, right?

I had my own immediate problems to work on too such as figuring out what kind of face to make or what to say when the two men finally step out of that room at the end of their meeting. Why did Reiner have to act so mad and aggressive like that? It was so abnormal and out of place, so obviously, anyone would have found it suspicious.

What should I do now?!

I banged my forehead onto the table in front of me before pulling at my long hair with both of my hands.

So many worries went through my head that I didn’t know where to start. One thing for sure, Reiner is going to interrogate me endlessly about my relationship with Charles and then he’s going to give me a hard time for it. Although he doesn’t have the right to do so, he probably will…

By the time that the door to Reiner’s personal office opened, I had burned out almost all of my braincells while trying to figure out how to best deal with this overly complicated situation. When the two men walked out of the door, I didn’t have it in me to initiative any type of conversation. I just stood up from my desk and plastered on a polite smile.

“Thank you for meeting me today,” Reiner said professionally.

He didn’t sound super friendly but at least he was professional enough about it. The hostility that he eluded wasn’t completely gone but it seemed well under control now. It better be, it has been more than an hour already. Their meeting ran over time, and I was thankful that Reiner didn’t have another meeting to go to. As for me, I just wanted to go home. Screw working at the bar for tonight, I just want to hide away from the world. Kat’s going to kill me but that was way better than risking Reiner’s wrath.

“Likewise. The discussion was fun and I’m very hopeful about this project. Let’s work together,” Charles replied equally professionally.

I stayed silent throughout their entire exchange. Reiner reached out his hand and Charles took it in a formal handshake. The two seemed to be getting along well on the surface; however, there was a lot of tension in the air, and it felt like a snowy blizzard had just blown into the room although the windows were not even open and there wasn’t a snowstorm outside. It wasn’t even snowing, and I didn’t even know if it snowed on this island. Probably not.

“I’ll see you at the bar, Natalia,” Charles said before beaming a smile at me.

“Umm…sure. Feel free to drop by some time…” I replied stiffly.

With a nod my way, Charles left the room, and I was left alone with Reiner. Was it just me or did Charles’ overly familiar and personal farewell to me just made matters worse for me?

I could feel Reiner’s stare burning into my back and knew that he was glaring at me from behind.

Great, how do I face him now? I prayed that he wouldn’t ask me any questions because I didn’t have any satisfactory answers to give him. Honesty didn’t seem to be a virtue that would work well in this case.

Slowly and hesitantly, I turned to face Reiner. I bit my lower lip as he stared at my nervous and uncomfortable face. Reiner did not say anything as his eyes continued staring at me.

“Umm….” I murmured as I tried to figure out how to break this silence between us before it killed me.

To my utmost surprise, Reiner turned away from be before disappearing into his personal office. The door closed behind him firmly and I was left all alone once more in the room. My head cocked slightly to the side as I stared at the closed door in wonder.

What is going on now?

For some reason that I couldn’t phantom, Reiner refused to talk to me and had decided to spend the rest of the day in his office. Perhaps he just wanted time alone to work. That was what I told myself although I knew that that probably wasn’t true at all. He’s intentionally avoiding me, and I couldn’t say that he was acting like himself.

I had expected that he would deal with this head on and ask me some very interrogative questions;

however, that wasn’t the case. Although I was confused and slightly worried, I was also relieved that I didn’t have to get into another argument with Reiner.

That day, I left work and headed home alone. Reiner did not come out of his office, and I did not see him before leaving. The eventful workday came to an uneventful close.

--To be continued…