Rainy day secrets

3

As Nathalie and Gabriel made their way down back to his atelier, Nathalie was starting to feel a bit anxious, she wasn't really going to feel too comfortable telling Gabriel about her past, a lot had happened that she hadn't told anyone. She was scared that there was going to be too much emotion.

"Hey, you go ahead, I'm just going to the kitchen" Gabriel had said

Nathalie had time to calm herself down and gather her thoughts before Gabriel returned back. She kicked off her heels and took a deep breath.

Gabriel was in the kitchen preparing some pastries and coffees for their little chat.
He wasn't sure of what exactly Nathalie liked, but he had taken a guess and hoped for the best.

Once he was finished he put everything on a tray and made his way through the house back to his atelier. When he got there he looked over at Nathalie as he slipped off his shoes and pulled of his blazer, and she had looked like she was in her own world.

"Nat, are you alright?"

"Hmm? Yes, yes I'm good"

"If you say so, for a moment there you spaced out, if there is something on your mind that is bothering you please feel free to talk to me, after all we're here to talk now" he had said kindly

They say in a bit of comfortable silence for a while until Gabriel decided to speak up.

" so Nat, please tell me a bit about yourself"

"Um... I don't really know where to start, but I went to school at Francois DuPont with my older brother, Michael and we lived together  in a small apartment block opposite the park close to where the Dupain Cheng bakery is.

"If you don't mind me asking, were your parents there during all of this?"

Silence

"No, my parents were killed in a car accident when I was 6 and my grandparents were all dead before I was even born, I mainly only had my brother and my friends at school" she said softly

"I'm sorry Nat, I didn't mean to intrude"

"No, no it's nothing to be sympathetic about, it's good to be able to talk to someone about it though, but enough about me for now, tell me a bit about your childhood"

"Well I was homeschooled so I didn't make any friends and I didn't have any brothers or sisters to keep me company so that's how I got into the habit of drawing and then later developed it into designing.

My parents were horribly strict, every single one of my days after homeschooling I had an extra curricular activity, it was either, playing the piano or violin or fencing and martial arts.

I was never allowed to leave the house until I was 18 because my parents thought it wasn't necessary because I had no friends to go out with. But when I turned 18 I got out of there as soon as I could to go and study far out of their reach"

Nathalie made a sharp intake of breath as Nathalie said, that it must of been horrible being cooped up inside your whole life.

"Where did you study Nat?"

"Well when I was 20 I went to go and study law at Panthéon Sorbonne in the heart of the city and once I had gotten my honors and degree, i was 25 but then I decided to not do my masters. My brother and I were starting to become short on money, even though we both had side jobs the pay just wasn't enough to cover the university fees.

I had a side job working as a waitress in Le Jules Verne on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower, the pay was great, but it just wasn't enough and then my brother worked as a cashier for La Grande Epicerie de Paris, we both earned around about the same amounts and we had our shares from the wills of our family members.

Once I stopped going to university my brother and I had decided to go look for proper sophisticated jobs, I was about 26 when we had finished compiling both of our resumes and then we both began applying for jobs.

Not long after that, I had come home from an interview and found his keys to the apartment, a credit card and a little note on the kitchen counter saying:

There's about 1000 euros left on there, use it wisely.

I'm sorry
~Michael

I was devastated, for the next week I lay in bed crying my eyes out, I didn't eat I didn't go for any interviews either, I had just given up, I thought I had lost everything.

Until one day, I was walking back home from doing the little bit of grocery shopping I had to do and another unsuccessful interview, when a man wearing bright red trousers and a red and white stripped tie bumped into me on the side walk right outside an enormous mansion with large black iron gates.

He didn't really take time to apologize and just stormed into the iron gates, I knew that he must've been the owner of such luxury.

"Oh no, that's sounds like you're describing me! But I don't remember that, I'm sorry Nat "

"Oh please, it's nothing to worry about, you looked really angry anyway, I didn't really want to talk to you to be fairly honest, whatever, back to the story"

So then once I had got home I figured I wasn't getting enough opportunities, so I posted my resume online in hope that someone would pick me up and ask for an interview and hopefully it would go well and I'd be able to earn a reasonable salary and live a semi fulfilled life" she chuckled

About 3 weeks went by and I was running out of options, I had been fired from Le Jules Verne because I missed too many shifts because of interviews, and then to make matters even worse I only had about 100 euros left on the card my brother left for me.

But just as I was about to give up all together, I had a notification from a gentleman named Gabriel  Agreste, he had asked me to come in for an interview to be his personal assistant.

The next day I put on the best clothes I could find and set off for the address I was given.

Once I got there I recognized the house, it was the same one the man with the red trousers had stormed into.

I was a bit nervous, if I hadn't know any better I could've sworn the angry man wearing red trousers was Gabriel agreste.

I don't think you remembered who I was,but after the interview you gave me some positive feedback and said you'd get back to me right away.

That might I had received an email from Gabriel agreste saying that I had got the job and that work starts tomorrow sharp at 7:30 am

I was over the moon, I was so happy to finally have a job, and to know that I'd be able to live a fulfilled life.

Or so I thought until I started working for an evil supervillain who wanted to revive his dead wife with magic jewels and then roped me into it as well and nearly killed me because I used a broken piece of jewelry " she laughed out loud at how ridiculous it sounded "and then he finally gave up because his son opened his eyes  and showed him that he had moved on.

So long story short you saved me from nearly wasting away and have gifted me with the sweetest young man and his father, my boss"

"My god Nat, I never knew. Do you know what happened to your brother?"

"Unfortunately that note was the last thing I heard from him"she said as she lifted her cellphone up and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from the back of her case. She handed it to Gabriel with slightly shaky hands.

"There's about 1000 euros left on there, use it wisely.

I'm sorry
~Michael " he read out. Oh wow Nat, this is heartbreaking. I'm sorry , I can't even imagine how you felt" he said as his face morphed into the saddest face Nathalie had ever seen in her life.

"Oh Gabriel, don't worry, I'm fine now" she said

As Gabriel grabbed her hand and held it in between his he looked up into her face and saw one small tear roll down her cheek

"Nat-"

"Hey, it's alright now, I've learned to move on" she said as she smiled and squeezed his hand