"Be my gardener and live with me ?", she replied confidently without blinking an eye.
Is she serious right now ? She can't offer me to live with her, it would be madness. I can't accept such an offer, it starts from a good intention but I can't accept it.
"Nate ? Mr. Carter ? What do you say ? Are you still interested in my offer ?", Ellie said.
"Uh... Excuse-me, what did you say ?", Nate replied.
Why is he so astonished ? Was my offer incongruous ? I just want to help him, that's all.
"Sorry, I may have expressed myself badly. Actually, my gardener resigned and all my flowers have withered and I need a new gardener quickly. Moreover, I live in a quite big house. There will be enough space for you and me. So what do you think about it ?", Ellie said
"Oh! I see. But I'm not a professional gardener you know and in terms of living with you, I don't think it's a good idea. After all you don't even know me and I wouldn't create any discomfort to you. Well, thank you so much for your offer but I can't accept, it would be abuse of me", Nate replied.
"Are you sure ?", she asked.
"Yes, absolutely", he said.
"If you ever change your mind, call me and anyway you already have my card", she said.
"Sorry, Mrs Jefferson but she is a little busy right now and...", Larry said loudly while entering my office followed by my mother.
"Larry, stop it ! I can see my daughter whenever I want and actually she is not fine and...", Catherine Jefferson, Ellie mother said.
"Mom ?! What are you doing here ?", Ellie said shocked.
"I'm here to see you honey and... Oh ! You have a guest. Sorry I didn't want to disturb you. I just think you didn't want to talk to any of us since yesterday's news", Catherine said.
"Uh... That's fine mad'm. I was about to leave anyway. Thank you so much for your time Ms Jefferson" Nate replied then stood up from his chair and left Ellie's office.
"Larry, leave us. I need to talk to my mother alone", Ellie said while looking her mother in the eyes.
"Honey, how are you feeling today ?", Catherine asked.
"Fine. Now leave my office", Ellie said, turning her back to her mother.
"You are angry at me ? But what have I done ?", Catherine replied, surprised by her daughter's behavior.
"What have you done ? I'm going to tell you what you did. You just stood there doing nothing while the man you once married is about to marry another woman. You already knew about it, didn't you?", Ellie said angrily while turning to face her mother.
"I assure you that I didn't know about their marriage, sweetheart. What did you want me to do, hein? Adam and I haven't been married for about ten years now, he can do absolutely anything he want", Catherine replied.
"So, it doesn't affect you at all to see him as happy with another woman as with you, does it?", Ellie asked with a tear falling from her eye.
"Yes, I mean, no. ", Catherine replied with a deep breath and a sad tone.
"Well, it makes me sick to see him as happy with another woman as with you, I can't accept that. What does she have that you don't have, hein? You didn't make enough effort to make it work between you that's the only reason it happened", Ellie said with an angry voice and tears falling from her eyes.
"Sweetheart, you weren't aware of it yet, but from the start after we had Helene, our couple was already struggling. We no longer saw each other because of our work and in addition your father's office had still experienced some difficulties at that time. We tried everything sweetie : couples therapy, taking family vacations. Having a second child was the only solution, we had not yet tested.
And then we had you and it worked for a few years but then our old problems came back, and that's when we decided that maybe it would be better for each of us to live separately. So we got divorced and since then we've gotten along much better than when we were married or even closer. Honey, between your father and me it's not the same as him with Lucia, you know that very well. The two of us were in an arranged marriage, it's true that I've loved your father and he's loved me too but it's impossible for us to be together again. You need to understand that. Him and Lucia are something else, they are in love with each other", Catherine replied.
"Don't say nonsense ! It's bullsh*t, I'll never let him be with another woman than you, not while my name is Ellie Jefferson. Never ! You hear me, never",'Ellie said while torrents of tears were falling down her eyes.
"Honey, please, be reasonable for one second", Catherine said while trying to hug her daughter but she then walked out of her office. The employees were all shocked to see what state their boss was in :
"You all go back to work. There is nothing to see. The one who looks at me one more time is fired. Say that to your friends", Ellie said while screaming.
She then took the elevator to go to the parking lot to take her car, Larry followed her.
"Ellie, you can't drive in this state", Larry said worriedly.
But she didn't listen to him, she took her car and left the parking lot. But on leaving she almost collided with Nate who was still waiting for the taxi in front of the building.
"Hey ! Look where you are going you dumb...", but Nate stopped speaking when he saw that it as Ellie in the car. He can see perfectly that tears are still falling from his red eyes.
He walked over to her car door and knocked on the car window : "is everything alright Ms. Jefferson ?", he asked.
Ellie said nothing, she just turned him still in tears. She opened the other car door and said " get in the car".
"Excuse-me ?!", Nate said, surprised by what she just said.
"GET IN THE DAMN CAR NOW !!!", Ellie said loudly and angrily.
Nathaniel rushed into the car to avoid further pissing her off. Ellie started the car and they drove away, no one said anything during the ride. Nate wondered all the time in his head what could have happened to Ellie in such a short time because when he had left her, she was still perfectly normal. And there he remembered that she had changed a little when her mother entered her office, she seemed tense. Without doing it on purpose, Nate said out loud "where can we go like this?" when he thought it was just in his head. Ellie replied "you'll see and don't ask any more questions."