Reiner – A Visit from his Fiancée

“Your order will be here soon. Please enjoy your evening,” I said to her politely.

“Running away?” she asked as her eyes narrowed at me.

She did not just say that to me…

“From what? From you?” I asked before smiling at her.

Me? Running away from her? What a joke…

“I’ve ordered my drink. Are you interested to know who I am now?” she asked.

I guess she doesn’t know that I know who she is. Knowing and caring are two separate things, though.

“I’m not sure why I should be interested but…since you did order a drink…” I said before shrugging my shoulders.

“My name is Rachael,” she stated.

“Hi, Rachael. You already know my name…I’m Natalia,” I said cheerfully as I stuck out a hand towards her across the bar counter.

Her eyes never left my face as she stared at me. In the end, she never shook my hand.

“Natalia…”

I heard Kat’s familiar voice call out my name and turned to see her standing close by with a slightly confused look on her face. It was plain to see that even she knew that something was going down between the two of us.

“I see…you’re busy. Umm…never mind,” Kat mumbled as if she was speaking to herself before she turned on her heels and walked away.

“Is there something that I can help you with, Rachael?” I asked innocently.

I wondered how much Rachael knew about my relationship with Reiner and what she thought about us.

Before I found out about that, I’m not going to give anything away.

“I am Knight’s fiancée,” she stated as her eyes stared deeply into mine.

I didn’t know what she was searching for in my eyes, but I was sure that she wouldn’t find what she was looking for. No matter what, I don’t regret, and I don’t’ feel any guilt about the relationship that I have with Reiner.

“I see. It’s a coincidence meeting you here. I work as his personal secretary. He’s never told me about you before…” I replied with a trained smile on my lips.

The way she stared at me told me that she understood the implications behind my words.

“Is that all?” she asked, and I realized that she wasn’t going to play nice about all this.

As for me, I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to handle this.

“Well, that doesn’t exactly depend on me…” I replied as I cocked my head to the side in wonder.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Rachael asked as her eyes narrowed sharply at me.

It means exactly like it sounds like…

“You should ask your fiancé about it. That is what it means. Right now, I’m not Knight’s secretary. I’m working another job so if you want to talk to me, you’ll have to wait until I’m done with my work,” I replied, completely unfazed.

“I’ll wait. I have all the time in the world,” she replied.

I nodded with an impressed look on my face before I smiled at her and her determined words.

“Well, that’s good to know,” I said casually before flashing her a smile.

I walked away before she could say anything else to me. For the rest of the night, I’m going to make sure that some other waitress deals with her as a customer so that I wouldn’t have to deal with her.

Why did Rachael turn up here to see me? What does she want from me?

My mind wondered how much she knew about Reiner and me while I continued to work throughout the night. I cursed inwardly when I realized that Reiner would be here to pick me up. Should I let him meet Rachael here or was that going to be a bad move? What should I do?

The biggest problem was that I wasn’t sure how Reiner felt about Rachael. Did he love her? They were obviously deeply involved with each other but how far does that really go? If I can just figure that out, then maybe I’ll be able to figure out my next move on how to progress my relationship with Reiner. My eyes wandered back to the attractive girl sitting at the counter bar as my mind conjured up an idea.

What if…

My eyes narrowed as I got lost in my own thoughts. If I play this right then perhaps, I can get her to tell me what her relationship is really like with Reiner. Reiner has been spending a lot of time with me and many of his nights with me as well. I wondered if he seriously had time for another woman on top of his work and me.

“You seem so distracted…” Kat whispered.

I jumped in surprised. She was right. I was distracted by my own thoughts that I hadn’t even realized when she came to stand by my side. I laughed a little at my own foolishness before flashing her a reassuring smile.

“I’m fine. I’m just…tired…” I replied, half truthfully.

“That woman…is she bothering you?” Kat asked as her eyes rested on Rachael who was still sitting at the counter bar.

I already knew how perceptive Kat could be, so I wasn’t completely surprised that she figured out what was going on. However, never in her wildest dreams would she figure out that the woman sitting there is my direct competitor in love and that she was formally Knight’s fiancée.

Customers called out to us, and we had to get back to work. I made a silent promise to myself to get Kat an awesome and tasty cake for her birthday before my mind went straight back to thinking about how to deal with Rachael. They say that we have to search for opportunities even in times of crisis and I was sure that that was meant to apply in these types of situations. I could avoid talking to Rachael but that wouldn’t solve anything in the longer term. It was better for me to face her and talk to her.

Now that I’ve decided to talk to her, I knew exactly what I had to do first. After letting one of my colleagues know that I had to step out for a while, I headed to the staff room at the back of the bar. I just had to make a quick phone call.

--To be continued…