Nathalie's Breakup

Part 1 - Prologue

Nathalie had been crying a lot over those last couple of weeks. But now those tears weren't desperate and secret any longer. She had, after trying to be strong for so long, eventually cracked and had broken down.

The worst about her mental break down though was, that it happened right in front of everyone. And to say everyone wasn't just her mind, exaggerating, she literally 'did' fall on her knees, unable to stop crying, when she was standing right next to her employer and his son at one of the most important fashion shows of the year. 

On top of everything, this had been the first time after years of hiding from the public, that Gabriel himself had attended the show in the audience, had watched his creations, with her as his plus one. 

So naturally all reporters and paparazzi had mainly focused on them, had tried to figure out some, hopefully dirty, gossip. 

And then there had been this tiny problem, nothing more than a remote controlled spotlight, that hadn't worked properly and instead of shining onto the actual person on the catwalk, it had just stopped at a terrible angle and by that pointing at her and the designer. She had wanted to get up and escape the sudden attention, but to not cause a scene, the assistant had stayed in place, until she had begun to sweat and her heartbeat had become so fast, it was barely palpable any more. 

"Nathalie? Are you alright?", Gabriel had asked and she had shaken her head and now really tried to get up and leave, but she couldn't. She had just been sitting there, not able to move, when more and more people and lights had been focusing on her and at some point the pressure had been so high, that she let out a loud scream before she dropped to her knees and began to sob vigorously.

The designer had shouted angrily at the crowd surrounding them, to give them some more room, so she would get better, but the people had only been coming closer, narrowing the little free space, that was left for the distraught assistant. So Gabriel had just picked her up bridal style and carried her through the endless rows of men and women, his son's bodyguard already approaching them, pushing people out of the way as he did.

That had been more than two months ago already and finally Nathalie had started to feel at peace. Here in the quiet and isolated rehab center, without anyone trying to sneak in and get an interview from her, as it had happened at the other two, she was in before, the young woman had eventually found back to herself. 

She still didn't like socialising with the other patients and she also wouldn't attend many of the therapy offers, like crafting or gardening, but she had started to do a couple of things, she had liked spending her free time with, before her work had been everything, she could think about at all. 

So she had not only begun to write a couple of dirty short stories, which she kept a secret though, feeling ashamed, to let anyone read them, but also had she made a couple of pencil drawings, parts of human faces mainly, which turned out really good.

That was exactly, what she had been doing, when she caught the attention of a man who seemed to be around her age and was dressed in a white overall with several stains of paint. It was the guy, who was painting the walls of the therapy room, she had sneaked into, so she could be on her own instead of going to the art room, where other patients would spend there time, doing what she did.

He had walked past her and taken a glimpse at her sketch and had just calmly complimented her and just like that, they had started to talk and after their dinner the next evening, in the center's garden, they had shared a first kiss.

Four weeks later, when she was finally released, Nathalie made a life changing decision, which would shock her employer a lot.