I will love again

Part 18 - Sick

While the dark haired teenager could barely wait for the weekend to be over, Nathalie wished it to be twice as long. She had woken up on Friday evening around ten o'clock and was totally disoriented. Then she had reached for her phone and slowly realized, that she had fallen asleep right after lunch, and that she had a lot of work left to do.

When the assistant finally had made it out of bed and after a long bathroom break, to look halfway decent, she rushed towards the office to be stopped by Gabriel the moment she exited her room.

"Woah, where do you think you're going?", he shouted in shock as he caught her by her shoulders because she almost ran into him.

"Did you guard the door to my room in case I-I would try to get out?", she interrogated angrily. But the man she loved so deeply just smiled at her sweetly.

"I was on my way to check on you. Are you feeling better?" he said in a low voice to not wake the bodyguard, who was as usual asleep around nine.

She nodded. "Much better. Hopefully I can get a bit of my work done now." As to remind her of taking care of herself, her stomach began to growl.

Gabriel gazed down and said: "Tummy says eat, so you will have some dinner. You can do your work on Monday. Come, we have a look into the fridge. I remember ordering chocolate cake this afternoon and I would bet, that there are still two pieces left."

He held out his arm and Nathalie, whose face had lit up a lot at the word chocolate cake, hooked her hand into it and followed him with a teasing: "Two pieces left? And what are 'you' going to eat?"

"Don't try to steal my cake, woman. I don't go easy on those who dare!", he mused and she giggled and leaned her head against his arm. Gabriel noticed but just went with it.

In the kitchen he indeed pulled two large pieces of cake out of the fridge and handed her one.

"Would you like some wine to it? I know, it's not what usually is served with chocolate cake, but this one goes really good with the dark chocolate.", he showed her the open bottle.

"I'd love to, but I can't. I get into a strange mood, if I drink wine and I don't want to cry anymore. But don't let me hold you back!"

He chuckled and poured a glass for himself.

"Would you at least have a tiny zip to tell me if you like the combination?" The tall man held out the glass to her.

Sighing she shook her head. "Seriously, I can't", the cake is more than enough remembering that doctor telling me what I should eat and what I shouldn't. How do people do that?"

"What?"

"Live of only healthy food. How do you do that?", she blurted out.

Chuckling Gabriel bent over and whispered into her ear: "I sneak into the kitchen at night and secretly eat chocolate cake and drink wine!"

Now Nathalie giggled. "So, this isn't the first time?"

He shook his head. "Nope"

Then he told her about his arrangement with Marinette. She was sceptical at first but then agreed.

"It will be good for her and I won't feel bad, if I can't get everything done", she muttered more to herself.

"Exactly. And now, off to bed with you. Maybe you can get out of your room tomorrow and go outside to breathe some fresh air", Gabriel now suggested.

"We'll see!", she said and yawned. "Unbelievable, that I just got out of bed!"

Without Gabriel noticing, she sneaked into the office for about two hours at night on Saturday and Sunday, to finish off the left over work. So on Monday, despite not feeling well, she was on time at her desk and even a little ahead of her tasks. So when Marinette entered the office with a sheepish smile after school, she had already prepared a little schedule that the teenager could work after to get into the things she needed to learn.