“R…” I whimpered his name as I turned around in his arms to face him.
“Go to sleep, Natalia…” Reiner whispered to me before he kissed my forehead.
His arms wrapped a little tighter around my body before I felt the pressure from his hand behind my head. With slight force, he pushed my head to burry my face against his chest. It felt so good and so secure to be held in his arms like this. It was like he wanted to shield me from all my troubles with his large body. I breathed in his familiar scent as I nuzzled my face against his hard and muscular chest.
“I love you…” I whispered.
I felt Reiner nodding his head above me as his large hand stroked along my back in a slow and steady motion. When I woke up the next morning, I was still wrapped up in his embrace. For the many nights that followed, he held me just like that until sleep claimed me.
…
When the help that we were waiting eagerly for finally arrived, I was disappointed beyond measure. I stared at the lone figure of a young man who stood in our office at the orphanage while I tried to hold in my scream of frustration.
This man is the man that’s supposed to manage this place?!
Huh?!
No offense to the man but it would take a properly staffed and experienced team to properly run this place. Instead of the team that I thought would be on the way, King had sent just this one man. Plus, he seemed so young. He’s probably my age or only a few years older if he had a young face.
“Umm…is someone else with you?” I asked while daring to hope that perhaps a parade of people was on their way here.
“No. I’m the only one dispatched here,” the man replied with a smile.
“Right…” I mumbled.
“I’m Knight and this is Natalia,” Reiner introduced us smoothly.
“Oh yes, I know who you are. I’m Nick,” the guy called Nick introduced himself with a slightly shy smile.
I eyed the young man up and down while I tried to keep my biases at bay. Maybe he’s super experienced at managing orphanages…
“Thank you for joining our team, Nick. I look forward to working with you. Let’s get started right away after you’ve settled in,” Reiner said with a welcoming smile before he extended his hand towards the young man.
Nick looked visibly flustered before he reached his hand out and shook Reiner’s larger hand. I offered Nick a polite smile and he returned it. Now what?
“Umm…I’m not sure if you got the message from King already but there’s no one else available at the moment who can help out on this project so I’m the only one who got sent here. Well, basically because I volunteered. This project will probably be rough but I’m really willing to do anything to make it succeed so…looking forward to working with you too. I’ve heard great things about you two,” Nick said before smiling humbly at us.
Great. We have a newbie on our hands and the world is about to fall apart. Although I appreciated Nick’s positive attitude and his willingness to come all the way out here to help out, I was still disappointed that a full team did not arrive to just take the orphanage out of our inexperienced hands.
“Thank you, Nick,” I managed to say before I flashed him a kind smile.
When Nick left us to go settle into his accommodation, Reiner grinned at me before he patted my back to comfort me. He could probably tell that I was very disappointed after I’ve been looking forward to some solid help to arrive for the past week.
“Did you know about this?” I asked him accusingly.
“Sort of…he’s not a bad guy, though. I’m sure that he’ll be helpful,” Reiner tried to reassure me.
“I was truly expecting a capable team to arrive, and you know, magic will happen or something and everything will be fine,” I murmured without bothering to hide how devasted I felt.
“I don’t know what you think but, I think we’re holding everything together quite well as is. It was tough on us, but everything is running quite smoothly now. With Nick’s help, I’m sure that things will be even better,” Reiner said with a smile.
“Do you really think so?” I asked hopefully.
“Of course. I mean, this place probably can’t work on any cost savings yet and we probably can’t take in any new children right now, but day-to-day operations shouldn’t be a problem anymore. That’s a great achievement already if you ask me,” Reiner said convincingly.
“I guess…” I mumbled softly.
“Let’s try to get Nick up to speed as much as possible in a week’s time,” Reiner suggested.
“Sounds like a plan. Then what?” I asked.
“We fly back home, and we talk this over with King,” Reiner replied firmly.
“Hmm…ok…let’s do that,” I agreed.
“Do you want to eat back at our place, or do you want to eat out tonight?” Reiner asked.
“Let’s eat out…I don’t want to bother you to cook when you’re tired,” I replied without hesitation.
“Should we invite Nick?” Reiner suggested.
“Sure, let’s do that. He’s part of our team now,” I agreed with a firm nod of my head.
…
Surprisingly, Nick turned out to be a very useful and helpful asset to the team. He was a fast learner and he seemed to absorb everything that Reiner told him like a sponge. The most impressive thing wasn’t his ability to learn and perform tasks fast, but it was his drive and motivation. It totally slipped my mind at first that he did mention that he volunteered to take up this project.
“Nick, you mentioned that you volunteered to help out on this project, right?” I asked him during lunch break.
“Yup. I’m an orphan too…so yeah…” he explained in short.
Well, that didn’t need any more explanation. I smiled at him, and he smiled back before shoving more food into his mouth.
“Thank you for helping us out. Thank you for helping the children,” I thanked him with all my heart.
I felt very guilty for looking down on the help that he could provide when he first arrived. That incorrect first impression that I had about him quickly changed.
–To be continued…