Forbidden Heat

Reiner – Need for an Expert

“That’s something that you can help me study and while you’re doing that, I’m going to reach out to

some experts in this field to ask for their advice. Training courses need to be properly designed. We

have money so we can invest in this,” Reiner said confidently.

“Ok. Let’s do that. I’ll help you look into what team trainings we have now,” I agreed readily.

“Don’t wander around the training grounds or facilities on your own. If you want to go, let me know and

I’ll come with you,” Reiner ordered seriously.

“Ok. Sure, I’ll let you know…” I promised.

Just like that we both focused our efforts on working together to crack the problem in front of us.

Despite the unfavorable development that I witnessed between Reiner and his fiancée and my

confused involvement with Charles, our work wasn’t affected. Thankfully so.

Reiner seemed more open to me at work, and he turned out to be a very supportive boss. How he

worked with me was very different from the dynamic that I had working with Edward. Edward was

clearly my boss with everything that he said and did. He was outstandingly smart, efficient, and

extremely strict at times. On the other hand, when I worked with Reiner, it felt like I was working with a

friend more than my boss. We tended to work together and discuss things as we go. It reminded me of

my time working on my university projects with the other students.

At the end of the day, I received a call from the secretarial department regarding a meeting for Reiner

to meet with one of the experts that he had requested for. The meeting was scheduled for next week.

“It might be challenging for Knight to make it on time on that day…” I voiced my concern as I stared at

his very packed schedule on that day.

“I know but this happens to be the only time that the expert is free. This expert is also the number one

on Knight’s list. What should we do?” the woman on the other end of the line asked.

The problem was that the only date and time that the expert was available was right after Reiner’s

other meeting. It was back-to-back, which meant that Reiner would definitely run slightly late to the

meeting. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but Reiner’s earlier meeting wasn’t in this building. It was in

another place in the business district.

“Umm…normally, what are the options in this type of situation?” I asked the secretary who I assumed

was more senior and experienced than I am.

“Well, if this is the only time slot then, you’ll have to come up with something to entertain the guest until

your boss gets back,” the woman replied without a second thought.

“Umm…is it possible to push the meeting back by ten minutes so they can both start on time?” I asked.

“I don’t think so. It’ll just be weird…” the woman replied firmly.

“Ok…I’ll figure something out…” I replied, unable to find another way out.

“Great then. I’ll take it that it’s confirmed. Thanks for this, Natalia,” the woman thanked me and hung

up.

How do old men or women like to be entertained? This person was an expert, so I assumed that he or

she is older. Should I practice making some tea? Should I buy some cookies or some healthy snacks?

…

**Around a Week Later**

I had been so busy with work at the office that I had to skip out on working at the bar for most of the

weekdays. That meant that I had to work on both days on the weekend to make up for my absence

during the week. Kat complained a lot because she wanted to see me. She gave me a couple of calls

during the week, and I told her regrettably that I was too busy with my fulltime job to work on my

parttime one.

“You’re still busy this week at work?” Kat asked with a hint of complaint in her voice.

“Tomorrow there’s supposed to be a very important meeting for the project that I’m working on. So, I’mnovelbin

busy leading up to that too,” I replied.

“What about after that?” Kat asked.

“Things should get better. I should be freer. Sorry for not turning up to the bar more often. I’ll try my

best, I promise,” I said.

“Sure sure. I hope you make it here before I start forgetting your face,” Kat said sarcastically.

“Yes, Ma’am…” I said before she hung up.

I sighed. The expert is coming tomorrow which meant that I had to figure out how to entertain him or

her today. I headed out from my apartment to look around for some kind of healthy snack. Serving that

with tea should help kill some time while the expert waited for Reiner to come back to the office. I had

no idea how it would play out, but I would find out soon. Being a secretary was hard work.

…

“Please try to end the meeting on time and please hurry back, ok?” I reminded Reiner again as he was

leaving the office to go off to his meeting.

“Ok. I’ll try…” Reiner replied before smiling a little at me.

“Ok. Please, please…try to come back on time,” I pleaded.

“Don’t worry. The expert isn’t going to bite your head off or anything, ok?” Reiner said with a laugh.

“Ok…” I replied.

Reiner gave me another smile before he headed out of the door. I watched him leave as I prayed that

things would go well. After working on it for a week, it proved almost impossible for Reiner and me to

come up with a training program. We had no experience when it came to training agents and even if we

could think or dream up some program, we had absolutely no confidence that it was going to work. I

just hoped that the expert wouldn’t end up feeling mad from waiting for too long. We really needed the

expert’s help with this if we wanted to make any real progress.

“The expert is here. We’re heading up there right now,” the senior secretary that I talked to on the

phone before informed me via call.

--To be continued…