Nathaniel - Footage

"What do you think you're doing?" I immediately asked Elizabeth the moment she turned around.

She looked so innocent and guilty at the same. Like a mouse caught in a trap.

"I- What are you?" She asked me the same question, obviously avoiding to answer mine.

"No, I asked first and I want an answer." I demanded, my voice was slightly louder than I intended it to be which caught the attention of a few people who stood near us.

She stayed silent for a moment as if pondering whether or not to answer me or deflect my questions even further.

"Nathaniel! What are you doing over here?" Someone behind me suddenly asked.

It was Chiara.

"Who is she and why does she know your name?" Elizabeth yelled out which drew nearly everyone's attention.

I didn't answer, I couldn't. Not with everyone else watching us like we were a soap opera.

Elizabeth must have noticed the tension around the bar because she suddenly whipped around to our gawkers and shouted at them, "Wohin schaust du!". (What are you looking at!)

I didn't even know she could speak whatever language that was, but it sounded a lot like German.

A language that I couldn't speak.

Whatever she said had gotten through the audience and they went on with their lives as if nothing had ever happen.

"Who is she, Nathaniel?" Chiara asked, not getting the hint that Elizabeth was already fuming and what made matters worse was that Chiara had decided to cling unto me for no apparent reason.

I guess the detective was a lightweight, judging by her lack common sense towards the situation and predicament I was in.

"Hey, I asked first! who do you think you are holding my husband that way?"

"Husband? You didn't tell me you were married." She said confused but still clung unto me either way with no sign of her letting go anytime soon.

"Okay, you know what? I'm leaving, have fun with her Nathaniel!" She said, leaving hastily without sparing me even a second glass.

"Elizabeth!" I called out to her, but she didn't respond and continued walking away.

I turned towards the detective and made the move to get out of her grasp, which was easy due to her drunken state. "I have to go, okay?" I told her as I made her sit in the bar stool.

"Could you call her a cab? Thanks." I asked the bartender. Thankfully, he knew English and nodded before I rushed out of the bar and looked for any signs of Elizabeth.

She hadn't gotten that far yet and seemed to be waiting at the bus stop.

Before I could call out to her, she noticed me and frowned even more, "Why don't you go back to that girl you were with earlier." She snarled in a sarcastic tone.

"Can we talk? Please." I pleaded as I looked into her eyes which turned soft ever so slightly as she nodded quietly. "Thank you." I told her as she scooted a little from the bench she was sitting on to make room for me.

Even though I asked for us to talk, we stayed silent.

I didn't know why or how but we knew silence was what we both needed from each other in order to calm down properly.

"Yo, Palmers!" Someone called out to us and beeped their horn.

It was David and Ryan.

Somehow, they got a car which was possibly rented and managed to have found us. David was the one driving and parked the car before they both came out and walked over to us.

"Looking good, Lizzie. Green suits you." Ryan complimented her, this was enough to bring a smile to her face.

"Thanks, Ryan." She gushed as both stood up to meet up with them.

Elizabeth and Ryan continued talking with each other while I struck a conversation with David.

"Did you do what I asked?" I started first, he nodded.

"Yep, and you were right about the suspect being a woman."

"What else did you see?"

"Based on the footage, it seems she took out the bodyguards first but there were no signs of her killing them.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, she spent the night luring each and everyone outside. She waited in the lobby for an entire hour until one of the bodyguards came down to get himself a drink. The woman started talking to him and they both left the hotel."

"And then what?"

"She came back a few minutes later, but she didn't look like as if she had just killed someone, her hair and dress was still perfect."

"And the bodyguard?"

"Nowhere to be seen. The others would send one down to see why he was taking so long but she did the same to them. Finally, the last one got fed up, went down and disappeared as well leaving Leon Schmid completely alone."

"Did you see her face?"

"No, her hair was covering her face."

"What was her hair color then?"

"I have no idea. The lady at the reception told me that their cameras have been broken for a while. Apparently, it only lost color but still functioned perfectly so they didn't bother getting it fixed."

"Are they fucking serious?"

"Yep."

"Fantastic." I said, sarcastically. Numerous plans started going through my head to see what our next step should be.

"Hey Palmer!" Ryan called out to me.

"What?"

"Let's call it day, yeah? I've been wanting to get to the hotel already and Lizzie here said that the food is heaven. We gotta go!" He said, excitedly. The mention of Elizabeth's name pulled my brain out of work mode and back to the situation we had earlier.

I took a brief look at her but she still refused to meet my eyes and instead walked over to the rented car and got in.

The rest of the trip was basically David and Ryan bickering all over again.

And honestly? I much prefer that then sit through another awkward silence with Elizabeth.

Who really was that man that she was with?

It wasn't long when we finally arrived at the hotel and we both said our goodbyes to Ryan and David when they went off to their own rooms.

"Nate..." Elizabeth began when I closed the door.

"Who was he?"

"Just some random guy at the bar..."

"It didn't look random."

"We weren't going to do anything."

"Then why hide at the storage room?"

"Privacy." She said, shrugging. Her voice was a little humorous but no traces of her joking around at all.

"Elizabeth." I said her name, I was tipsy and my tone screamed exhaustion from being jet lagged.

She stopped trying to reason and instead turned around to look at me, she didn't look as angry as before but she did look a little hurt.

"Who was that woman you were with?"

"That would be the leading detective of the case."

"Why were you drinking with her?"

"She offered and I'm too nice to say no to free stuff." I told her, half-jokingly. Elizabeth was not amused, that was until she said "Since when are you nice?"

"I'm always nice, I agreed to marry you, didn't I?"

"Fair. If you want to be with that detective then go ahead, I already have a citizenship in US so I won't need to be married to you any further."

Well that hit me like a ton of bricks.

I knew that what she had just said meant well, but it still hurts to think that she technically doesn't need me anymore.

And I will never admit this, but, I enjoy having her as my housemate. Heck, I love being married to her, she is my best friend.

"Nate, are you okay?" Elizabeth's voice pulled me out of my trance and instead of answering her, I simply stared at her face.

Beautiful.

After what may have seemed like forever, I answered "Yeah, I'm fine. And just for the record, If you want to be with that guy, you can go ahead and do it as well."

"Yeah, no. That guy was a jerk." She said, finally smiling and looking at me in the eyes where I found myself staring yet again.

"Um, I'm gonna go...take a shower." Lizzie said, breaking the silence that surrounded us.

She didn't bother to wait for my answer and instead turned around and made her way to the bathroom.

I didn't move until I heard the shower turn on, and that was when I finally realized that I was still staring.

What the fuck is wrong with me?