THE UPPER HAND
Reid took a seat beside Maria and gave her a glance before he greeted her.
“Hey, Maria,” he said in a rather low tone than he had planned to sound.
“Hey, Reid,” she returned before stuffing her mouth full with her meal.
“How was church?” Athina asked him as she served him a plate of the meal and out of curiosity, Maria looked over at him to get his response.
She wasn’t originally sure what response she wanted to hear or if she was expectant of a particular reply but the fact still remains that she never expected his type to visit the church.
“Fine.” was his curt reply.
What more was she expecting? She thought.
Colton cleared his throat before he spoke.
“Guess where Maria had been all day?” he asked, his question directed towards Reid. “With Genevieve,” he concluded with a little laugh before filling his mouth.
Reid looked at her curiously but she wasn’t at all ready for a new session of explanation.
“What was it you had been discussing with Genevieve?” he asked with a tad bit of surprise obvious on his face.
“Nothing much, just business,” she replied quite curtly as well which caused a little tension in the air.
Reid wasn’t at all satisfied by her response as he looked so worried. He felt like Genevieve must have discussed with her about her relationship with him and about the business.
He was most especially not comfortable with Maria knowing about his private life and that he was worried if Genevieve had mentioned anything of such to her.
“You seem to have your ways either with words or with actions,” he was trying to bring it up but was going through he means of reverse psychology.
“What do you mean by that?” she asked, not even a single emotion was twirled in her tone.
“I mean, you insulted her artwork but you ended up having brunch with her. Isn’t that impressive?” Reid said, not in a way to anger her but most especially to get words from her.
Words about whatever it was their chat was about.
“Listen, Reid. I didn’t particularly insult her artwork. It had its defects and that as exactly as I saw it to be, I pointed out. It was in fact a constructive criticism. Nothing insult related,” she facepalmed like she was entirely tired of explaining herself.
“I doubt if she saw it as such. It probably seem as that to you but to her, she might have taken it otherwise, don’t you think?” Reid pushed while Colton and Athina looked back and forth between the two.
It doesn’t seem like an argument or probably, it doesn’t seem like a heated argument. They were putting forth their takes and the couple seem to love the show. Especially Colton who was chuckling lightly between his meals.
Maria dropped her cutlery and turned to face Reid who was as attentive as nothing else, willing and ready to hear from her.
“I beg to differ. She didn’t take it otherwise, at least with our chat over brunch today, she took it just as I had said my intentions towards her artwork was,” she said with a pint of pride but that definitely still wasn’t what Reid wanted to hear.
Impulsively, Maria continued.
“We in fact discussed about artworks that would be placed in the restaurant,” she concluded before taking a little bite of her chicken.
Yeah, right there! That as exactly what Reid was intending to find out.
He freezes as he was about to take a bite of his meal, causing the fork in his hand to accidentally drop to the floor.
From Reid’s initial motive of getting words from her to his changed countenance, Maria was oblivious to all as she had not noticed any of his antics neither did Colton nor Athina.
Reid bends to retrieve his fork from the floor which had shifted under the table and as he did so, his right hand grazed Maria’s bare leg which caused her to visibly shudder.
“Hey, you’re good?” Athina, who had noticed asked her but she nodded instead, signifying she was okay.
While Reid was still struggling to get the fork under the table as he was unaware of the hand-graze, he apologised as he was finding it quite difficult to get the utensil.
Again, unintentionally, his hand lightly brushed her knee which was inched close to her thighs.
Maria shrugged noticeably and jumped lightly from the effect.
What the hell was he doing?
“I’d just get you a new one,” Maria said as she felt he was taking too long to retrieve the fork so he can touch her.
She stood from her seat and walked back to the pantry to get a new one and again, her eyes darted back to the magazine and impulsively, her eyes stared hard at Reid’s sexy body which caused adrenaline to rush through her.
She was confused as to why he would do that intentionally. She breathed heavily with her eyes closed tightly.
“You’re good, man?” Colton asked Reid out of concerned as he raised his head but Reid doesn’t seem to be having it.
That was some kind of hit-bomb to him that Maria had dropped and his action to retrieve a fucking fork was a chagrin to him which caused his cheeks to turn red.
“I’m… I’m good,” he flusterred with his words. Something that had never been his trait.
Maria got back with several forks in her hand, handing over to him a fork while she gently placed the remaining forks back on the table.
It felt like drama in here and Athina was beginning to realise that.
After a lengthy minute of silence by the dining table, the dinner was finally over and the tension seems to have subsided as well.
“Thank you both for coming,” Athina said as they all walked outside and Maria smiled, hugging her.
“You should ride with Reid. It’s quite late for you to drive alone and you too lives in the same apartment which makes it all easy. I wouldn’t wanna be responsible for and impediment,” Colton suggested with a smile and Maria shook her head to negate his statement.
“No. I came with my car. You want it towed out of here?”
“That’s not a problem. Your car is safe here, you know. Just ride with him,” Athina convinced. Maria looked over at Reid who seem to not be concerned with his hands in his pocket.
“Fine!” she finally agreed.
“Bye, guys,” they both greeted before they departed.
The ride back home was as quiet as the ‘k’ in knife. None of them was willing to break the unending silence as no one spoke to the other.
A few minutes later, they got to their uulding’s parking lot which was a stepping stone, serving as an end to the silence.
“Thanks for the ride,” she said courtly as she opened the car door to get down.
“Would you be visiting the Levi building?” Reid asked before she alighted the car. She turned back to look at him as she wasn’t certain as for the reason for his question.
“Yeah. Sure, I will,” she answered, causing him to nod and she got down from the car.
“You look beautiful,” he whispered but Maria had walked a little farther for her to hear his words.
The grumbled under her breathe as her alarm chimed in its sound. She twisted and turned in bed as she stretched out as well.
She finally sat up in bed reluctantly, yawning in the process as she could still use a few more minutes of sleep but she knew that wasn’t going to happen as she needed to be at work as early as she could.
She walked to the bathroom and rushed her bath. A few minutes later, she was out and in no time, she was done dressing up.
She wore a black suit gown that has several buttons from the chest down to the length of the gown. It reveal a little part of her chest but nothing to revealing just enough to befot the work place atmosphere.
She brushed her hair into a low bun just to give her a boss lady look that she desired. She looked herself in the mirror and nodded in approval as she said her little prayer not to meet Reid on her way as it was like a usual thing since they live together in the same building.
Her little prayer seems to be answered since she didn’talk into Reid on her way out. She decides to branch at her usual coffee shop which was always saving her every morning.
“Thank you,” she muttered with a smile as the coffee was handed over to her.
She got to her restaurant where work had already begun. She smiled satisfactorily at the improvement and at the beautiful atmosphere that greeted her.
She walked to her office and there, she met her team in there in a meeting already set up by Reid.