At the time when Ren and Saya were still talking, Evie was busy getting all sorts of food from the grill. Ragnar joined her after a short second.
“Are you getting that much?” Ragnar asked when he saw the mountains of food on Evie’s plate.
Evie nodded before she briefly looked over in Ren’s direction. “You left them alone?”
Ragnar’s brows rose. “Is that a problem?”
“. . .” Evie was silent. She didn’t know why she asked that question. In the first place, Ragnar could do whatever he wanted and she had no business to butt her nose into Ren’s business. She then closed her lips tightly before she could say anything more.
“Are you bothered that they’re alone?” Ragnar asked, face and voice serious.
“Why would I be?” Evie was confused at Ragnar’s line of questioning though her expression remained blank.
Ragnar shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because I thought that you liked him. Am I wrong?”
“. . . Like him?” Evie was baffled. “Do I seem like I like him?” she really didn’t know because she hadn’t experienced that foreign feeling.
And there was no way that something like love would blossom between two people who met each other for only a couple of months.
She had to admit that she felt admiration for Ren. But something like ‘like,’ that was a big word that she didn’t want to expound.
“Is that so?” Ragnar blinked slowly. “Then how about me?”
Evie tilted her head to the side. “What about you?”
“Do you like me?”
Evie nodded without hesitation and thought. “I like you as a client.” And your money, she mused to herself. Ragnar already had Silvia, and she treated his question as a joke or a tease. So her answer.
“. . .” Ragnar was silent before he sighed when Evie resumed picking food.
“I guess that works . . . for now.” Ragnar thought to himself. However, he wasn’t really serious about the prospect since he didn’t plan on making Evie his mistress.
But imagining Evie and Ren together didn’t sit well with him either. Ren was shrewd and a user, and he was afraid that he would just use Evie for his goal.
“Let me take some off your hand.” Offered Ragnar, and before Evie could protest, he took the plates and went back to their seat.
Evie could do nothing but let Ragnar do as he pleased. It was a big help that Ragnar offered since there was still some food she wanted to try.
On the food selection, Evie was minding her own business when someone patted her shoulder. Looking over her side, she saw the pretty face of Saya.
Something told Evie that behind Saya’s smile, was something else entirely. The way she stared at her felt like a sharp knife piercing right through her.
“Is something the matter?” Evie asked.
Saya retrieved her hand and smiled. She wasn’t antagonistic towards her fellow women. In fact, she was nice toward women. It was just that . . . her jealousy was tearing her apart. She needed to act – NOW, or her nerves would never let her be in peace!
There were still some ways for Ren to be with her. But for that to happen, she needed to know something first.
“You’re Evie from the restaurant, right?” Saya asked. Ren might be cold, indifferent, and hard to win over, but he had a weakness.
Everyone had a weakness.
Saya inwardly smirked. And that weakness was the girl he was trying to protect.
Evie was surprised that it was Saya again, and she was asking for her real identity once more.
“You’ve mistaken me for someone else,” replied Evie without a second thought. Ren had already kept her secrets before, and she trusted him to keep them until his grave.
Ren was a man with few words and sometimes . . . often times a shrewd man that would use anyone for his own goals. But he wasn’t a man that would gossip about anyone’s secrets. At least that was how he appeared to her for the few months that she had known him as her classmates.
“Is that so?” Saya wasn’t disheartened the least. All she needed was a chance . . . a chance to prove that she was indeed Evie. And that was it – everything would set into place.
Saya was convinced that Ren’s weakness was Evie, while the latter’s weakness was her identity. Her mask was the proof. Or if not, she could always find something. Anything that would get her what she wanted.
“You’re here for Sharina’s blade, right?” Saya asked with a sweet voice.
Evie didn’t know what to say because this was Ragnar’s mission. “I’m sorry. I’m tight lip as to why we’re here. If you want, you can ask Ren.”
She passed the mantle to Ren. It was not her problem, and she didn’t want to be implicated with her line of questioning. Saya belonged to Black Lion after all. Everything they did was confidential.
Saya beamed. “Is that right? Anyway, I hope you take care of Ren. He could be so serious at times that he forgot about himself and the people around him.”
“Ren doesn’t need someone to take care of him. He’s really capable,” Evie only told the truth, and she thought that it was anger that crossed Saya’s eyes. It was too fast to notice, and maybe she just saw it wrong.
Saya giggled, hiding the fury that set her heart afire, and anger smoldered within until it burst forth.
“I know, Ren. We’ve been together for four years,” she said, voice calm, resisting the rising of her tone. “I know her more than you do.”
Evie clamped her lips tight and didn’t know what to say. Why was she antagonistic towards her again?
But the big question was . . . why did she felt anger and something more when she slapped on her face that she knew Ren more than she did?
“Do you need something?”
Both women looked over at the towering Orc, who appeared out of nowhere.
Saya took a step back when Ragnar looked at her under the bridge of his nose. He was tall and intimidating.
But he looked familiar, and Saya didn’t know where she had seen him. She just couldn’t put a finger as to who exactly.
“Ah. Sorry. I really thought that she was the Evie I knew. I just wanted to say hi,” said Saya before she said her goodbye and left.
Watching her back, Ragnar couldn’t help but shake his head.
“I guess she’s threatened,” he muttered.
“Threatened?” Evie didn’t know what Ragnar was talking about, and she hovered her eyes around her, wanting to know if there was something around her that could cause fear.
Evie really didn’t know since she truly believed that there was nothing for Saya to be threatened about.
Ragnar sighed into the heavens.
“I don’t know if your naivety is a blessing or a curse.”