League 1 Soccer Scores the Evening Charles Understood Natalie Would Never Be Attracted to Him

Auxerre–Marseille: 2-2

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Lens–Lille: 1-1

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Toulouse–Sochaux: 1-0

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Paris SG–Nantes: 1-1

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Grenoble–Le Mans: 3-3

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Saint-Étienne–Lyon: 0-0

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Monaco–Nice: 0-0

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Rennes–Bordeaux: 0-1

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Nancy–Caen: 1-1

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Lorient–Le Havre: 2-2

Thirty

After that dinner, their relationship was no longer the same. Charles kept his distance, and Natalie understood perfectly. Rare as their exchanges were, they became strictly professional. Dealing with their respective files didn’t cause much of a problem. Since her promotion, Natalie had been managing a team of six people.^d She’d changed her office, and that had been the best thing for her. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? Was changing décor enough to change your state of mind? Maybe she ought to think about moving? But she’d barely imagined the possibility before she understood that she wouldn’t feel up to it. Mourning possesses a double-edged power, an uncompromising power that propels everything as much toward the necessity for change as toward the morbid temptation to stay faithful to the past. So she assigned her professional life the task of looking to the future. Her new office, on the top floor of the building, seemed to touch the sky, and she congratulated herself for not being afraid of heights. Here was one kind of rejoicing that was simple to do.The months that followed were still marked by binge working. She’d even had two minds about studying Swedish in case she needed to take on new duties. You couldn’t say she was ambitious. She was just trying to use files as a palliative. Her friends and family were still worried, taking her habit of working too much as a sign of depression. That theory irritated her to the max. For her, things were simple: she just wanted to work a lot to keep from thinking, to live in a void. We struggle the best we can, and she would have liked those close to her to support her fight instead of holding forth with their murky theories. She was proud of what she’d managed to do. She went to the office even on weekends, brought work home with her, forgot about hours. Inevitably there’d be a moment when she’d collapse from exhaustion, but for the time being she was making progress thanks only to Swedish adrenaline.Her energy impressed everybody. Since she showed not the slightest flaw, her coworkers started to forget what she’d been through. François became a memory for the others, and perhaps this is what he could become for her as well. Her long hours made her constantly available, especially for the members of her team. Chloé, the last to arrive, was also the youngest. She in particular loved confiding in Natalie, specifically when it came to her problems with her boyfriend and her constant worrying: she was terribly jealous. She knew it was ridiculous, but she couldn’t control it and act more rationally. As a result, something unusual happened: Chloé’s stories, tinged as they were with immaturity, allowed Natalie to reconnect with a world she’d lost, that of her youth and the fears she’d had about not finding a man she’d enjoy being with. Something in Chloé’s words created the impression of a memory taking shape again. Thirty-one

Дата добавления: 2015-10-26