Reiner – Perceptive Man

“Your boss seems overly protective of you. I never imagined that Knight would be a boss like that,”

Charles said with a teasing laugh.

I served him his beer before he invited me to take the seat opposite him at his table. Charles had probably figured that if he made sure to be the first customer of the night, he could get some time to chat properly with me while the bar wasn’t too busy. I took the seat as invited and smiled at Charles. I knew that sooner or later; he would ask me about Reiner.

“You’re right. I’m sorry that things got a little awkward back there…” I apologized softly.

“I found it very surprising at first, but it actually makes a lot of sense. I would feel the same way if I had a secretary as beautiful as you,” Charles said and the way his eyes met mine told me that he wasn’t just joking around.

I didn’t miss the hidden meaning in his words, and I wasn’t so dumb that I couldn’t read between the lines. Now, what and how much should I tell him?

“I’m not so sure…about that…” I mumbled softly after breaking eye contact with him.

Not sure where I should look, I glanced down at my hands that were clenched together on my lap. I wondered what Charles was thinking or feeling and how he could appear so calm and collected.

Perhaps what happened didn’t have any affect on him at all. It would be great if that was the case.

“Is he the reason why you were so distracted the other day?” Charles asked suddenly.

I glanced down because I couldn’t meet his eyes. Charles was very perceptive, and it seemed like he had seen through everything including my own confused feelings. I knew that I couldn’t lie to him, so I didn’t even bother trying.

“Yes,” I confessed in short.

I wasn’t sure what I expected Charles to say, so I was a little surprise when he didn’t say anything, he just nodded and took it at face value.

“I’m not surprised that he is interested in you the same way that I’m interested in you,” Charles said with a thoughtful face.

Once again, I was surprised that he didn’t seem bothered. However, I think he got it a little wrong because Reiner didn’t think of me that way, although, I’ve confessed to him a couple of times directly and indirectly.

“Knight isn’t interested in me. He…doesn’t think of me like that,” I quickly corrected.

“What makes you think that?” Charles asked as he arched an eyebrow curiously at me.

“Well, he told me as much…” I replied in a soft mumble.

“I see. Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t be so sure…” Charles said with a small laugh.

I wished that he was right. If only he was right, then Reiner and I wouldn’t be stuck in this situation.

We’ll be together as a happy couple or something along those lines.

“I’m not sure…” I whispered.

Charles just looked at me with an amused smile on his face. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking, but one thing’s for sure, he didn’t view Reiner as his competitor at all. Feeling very embarrassed and not wanting to discuss this topic any further, I made up some excuse that I had to start working now so that I could leave the table. However, just when I turned to leave, Charles called after me.

“Natalia, can I drive you home?” he asked.

“Sure, thank you for the offer,” I replied.

I turned around to face him and saw that he was smiling warmly at me. He really is such an amazing guy. Since then, it had become a new norm for Charles to drive me back to my place whenever he came to the bar. He would wait for me to get off work before driving me back to my apartment. Not so surprisingly, I enjoyed spending time talking to him during our ride home.

…

Charles was also here tonight, and he came early. After chatting with him and sharing some small talk, I made an excuse to get away to spend some time with Kat and to prepare for when the bar would get busier later in the night. Although I made an excuse to get away by using the excuse that work was busy, it wasn’t really a lie. As it got later into the night, bar was packed with people. It made me started to think that Jamie must be a very rich guy if his business is doing this well.

I glanced over at Jamie, who was laughing very loudly with two blonde girls. He really was living the life. Despite her guy troubles the other day, Kat seemed to have gotten over it already, and she was cheerfully chatting with another hot customer. The tables were full and so was the dance floor. It was pretty hectic. I served food and drinks to our customers both on the dance floor and also those seated at the tables.

Halfway through the night, my feet were already killing me, and my arms felt like they were going to fall off. I never had a moment of break and I kept thinking to myself that I should tell Jamie that we were understaffed. He should hire more people. Seriously, I made it my number one agenda to talk to Jamie about this when we had free time.

“Kat stopped flirting and came over here! Help me out…” I snapped at her.

She looked at me with wide, innocent eyes, as if she didn’t know what I was talking about. However, she did wave goodbye to the hot customer that she was chatting to and proceeded back to the bar to help me serve food and drinks. By closing time, I was fully exhausted. I couldn’t wait for the last of the customers to leave so that we could close our doors and I could change out of my clothes.

The high heels that I had on were killing me and I promised myself that when I get my paycheck, I would invest in more comfortable high heels. My feet were not used to wearing shoes made of synthetic leather. I guess I really need to invest and cough up the price genuine leather shoes. I flopped down on an empty chair as I sighed.

Jamie walked in at that perfect moment, and I thought that this was the perfect opportunity for me to talk to him.

“Jamie, I think we’re overworked, and we’re understaffed,” I said while trying not to sound too whiny.

“I agree. I almost died out there. We need more people here, Jamie,” Kat quickly supported my point.

--To be continued…