The young woman stared at her superior slightly feeling guilty and embarrassed, but as soon as Gabriel noticed her troubled face he rushed to fix it, even though just a few seconds ago Nathalie specifically told the designer not to bother her.
But he still misbehaved and grabbed the face of his assistant who suddenly became flustered just by his action.

"Sir-"
"Hush Nathalie...I want to say that I'm also not used to me acting like this but-...obviously both of us need to get used to...being closer friends... I'm sure we'll figure it out." He smiled "Right?"
"Right." She repeated with the same smile and even a blush causing her boss to chuckle a little:
"Anyways...now it's getting really late...let's sleep."

The grey haired man said as he lifted up the blanket and got under it, then he waited for his assistant to join him but she just stared at him whilst being all frozen in one single spot.

"Nathalie? Aren't you gonna come and sleep?" Gabriel asked with an embarrassing laugh trying to ease the tension between them, but this probably only made it worse since Nathalie couldn't answer, causing the designer to feel bad about himself and almost blameworthy, so he sighed in disappointment:
"You don't want to be near me, right?"
"Wha-no-no sir that's not-"
"Oh come on, it probably is! You definitely hate me from last time and-...and I can't blame you-..."
"No-no I swear it's not!"
"WELL THEN WHAT IS IT!" Gabriel shouted without even noticing, therefore when his assistant started to get scared it completely took the designer by surprise, but soon enough he realized that he messed up, so in order to fix his mistake he whispered: "Sorry...I really need to work on my patience."
"Yes, I mean no, I mean-...I mean that I really lov-like the idea of us being...closer but-...but I don't know...I just can't imagine you loving me!" She hesitated "After all, I won't ever be as good as Emilie."

Nathalie sighed as she sat on the edge of the bed and stared down at the floor in order to keep herself from showing her boss those newly formed tears she had. But even though the young woman thought that this way she could've escaped her superior's eyes, she couldn't, because Gabriel almost instantly crawled near her and took his assistant's face into his palm which unfortunately caused Nathalie's watery eyes to show.

"Sir please-"
"Hush." He demanded in a harsh tone "I don't want to hear you compare yourself with my wife! You two are very different people, and even I myself wouldn't be able to compare you with her."
"O-oh-..." the young woman didn't quite know how to feel "You mean this in a good way?"
"Well of course! You're important to me because you help me take care of Adrien and also my company, without you I wouldn't be able to be who I am today...but then without Emilie I wouldn't be able to have Adrien and also sort of you...because, you know...she told me to hire you!"
"Yes, I remember how nice she was at my job interview."

They both smiled at each other thinking of the blond woman who wasn't with them at the current moment physically, but she sure was in both Nathalie's and Gabriel's heart.

"Anyways...now we should really sleep!"
The designer chuckled as he by now has said that sentence many times, but this time they finally ended up sleeping.

Nathalie lied down next to him, but rather far away so they wouldn't touch, or at least that was the point...which soon became pointless when Gabriel reached to place his arms around her waist and pull the woman close.
Almost instantly Nathalie tensed making her boss pull back and apologize:

"Sorry I thought-"
"No it's fine...I'm just simply not used to...that, especially not from you."
"Oh alright, then maybe...can I try again?"
"Certainly."

The young woman said with a smirk as she rolled around to see her superior who also had the exact same smirk painted on his face, so without thinking much Gabriel secured his hands around her back and pulled Nathalie tight against him.

Thankfully this time she didn't pull back or tense up, instead she just accepted his affection , allowing the designer to go further with his flirting:

"Oh Miss..." he began whilst slowly dragging his thumb down his assistant's lips "...what were we thinking there? You smirking at me? Real brave huh?"
"I-...I wasn't really thinking-"
"And I like that Nathalie, there's no need to apologize. Just don't hold yourself back and actually love me, alright? I promise to do the same."

The young woman couldn't find the right words in return to her boss's kind speech, and she even began sobbing whilst constantly apologizing for her pathetic behavior. But Gabriel again and again simply told her to stop feeling bad, quit the apologizing, and just: "Calm down already for gods sake! Nathalie you don't need to say anything in return, you don't need to 'make up' for anything! You've done enough for me already, so instead let 'me' make up for my mistakes!"
"B-but s-sir-....there's n-no n-need-"
"Nathalie!" He grabbed her face, making the woman shut up right away "What did I say just a second ago?"
"T-to let y-you 'make up' for y-your m-mistakes."
"Exactly sweetheart! You see you remember so well!" Gabriel teased as he suddenly without a warning kissed his assistant on the cheek and before she could've even reacted he snuggled his face into her silky hair "Now let's close those wonderful crystal eyes whilst I hold you tight, alright?"
"Mhm."  Was all Nathalie could mumble as the butterflies in her stomach were making her feel almost sick, but in a good way of course.

I mean she really felt amazing.
Her 'love' just told her how much he appreciated her, in addition she was sleeping in his bed whilst he held her so close that the assistant almost thought she would 'melt' from the way her face was heating up, and soon enough even her whole body felt hot.
Wayyyyy too hot!

To be continued-