Great writing!  I've been there and I would have told him off the same way. 

 I think everyone else will cover Gabriel's high-handed, entitled, elitist, kinda racist, jackassery (he's a bit like the guy in Visceral...maybe that is a personal preference, so what would there be for me to critique?) and I'll focus on Adele. You didn't really let us get to know her. Max thinks the world of her, Gabriel's come to really like her. Great. But all we know if her is 18 months ago she was pudgy and dumpy, now she's thin(er?) and well dressed. Oh, and she comes from a humble/ poor background. I got why she disliked him but why does anyone like her ( besides the fact that she is hot now)?

I like your writing style and this has the bones of a great story but 9 chapters in I would have liked to feel more than indifference (Adele) and annoyance/ distaste (Gabriel).

Man, I LOVE this story!!! I just read it ALL, so here goes.....

Adele needs to stay frosty. Why she's allowing Gabriel any of these personal liberties is beyond me. Why? Because she's had the advanatge of seeing Gabriel for who he truly is. He was in an atmosphere to be comfortable enough to say exactly what he truly thought and felt.

This man marginalized Adele in the most fundamental way. As Adele said, it was apersonal attack. This fool basically said she was no more than an Affirmative Action charity case and she can be dismissed from anything that may be going that's meaningful and real happening at that company for her. Just sit her in a corner and give her bullsh*t clients that no one cares about to keep her busy like a little dog with a bone. Without ever having spoken to her or working with her. Purely based on appearance. Didn't know a damn thing about what he was talking about. And in a room of prospective employers who followed his disgusting lead. Then had the nerve to laugh about it!

Now, that she's glammed it up a bit, she's suddenly worth a look? Adele had to fight through the precedent he set forth just to get where she is now. Granted, he must have found like-minded people for that to happen to begin with, but still. That's the infuriating part. Nothing but Adele's appearenace has changed. He never gave her the chance. She's professional, efficient, capable and a team player. And that's what she had to offer all along.

So all this trying to get personal is just bullsh*t to me. I'd have to tell him to refrain from all the touching. He'd have to keep his greasy paws off. Like that whole wedding bit. Why didn't she set his mother and all those people straight? No need to keep asking him why he didn't do it. I would have been standing there mad as hell with him thinking how cute it all is having her there under false pretenses. Like he's dating her and introducing her to his parents and she's the last to know. That wasn't a damn date! She's not his girlfriend. She's not even his friend. Why would she want to be friends with someone who has such a low opinion of her?

Now, back in the car, this joker wants to know if he's offended her? He doesn't remember what he said about her at that meeting? Really? Because what he said was pretty decisive and foul.

So no accountability for what he said, and more importantly, the impact of it all. He tells her they fit? And how is that? He's gotten nothing but professionalism at work and indifference personally. Which is all he deserves, by the way. He's gone from zero to sixty in a month? And to use reverse psychology and basically say, well it must be true otherwise you wouldn't have made any changes at all, would you? His comments went so much further than that. 

Admittedly, I am giving Adele a bit of the side eye. What has he showed her to make her believe anything he has to say enough to be straddling him in a car? I mean, fresh off of an ambush at the office or some creepy relationship manufacturing on his part?

Side note: why is Max taking up for Gabriel? He heard what Adele heard.

Love! Love! Love it!!

Good stuff!! 

Love it!!

This was great!!

It was too short, but I loved every moment of it. Wish there would be more, but thank you for what did write. 

I love this. Love where it is going. Long may you continue, pls don't stop it half way. It needs to be completed.

Hmm interesting ... I like it

Dang! So good. I have to admit, I want her with Max. I don't like Gabriel. I wish she had explained the repercussions his words had caused.

This is an amazing story!! Wow, just wow. You put so much into these characters in such a short story that I'm blown away. Youre a brillant writer, thank you for sharing your work.

Love it! Go Adele!

She was only acceptable to Gabriel through conforming to "whiteness". I accept people who accept me in truth. My feeling is that's lacking for Adele with Gabriel.

Adele should keep the granite wall up against this privileged douche. I hate him! I love Adele as she works hard to get where she is. But Gabriel just assumes she should be his friend and hang around his family. Can't you at least make him more empathetic? I hope it happens at some point

What did you expect Gabe?  She already didn't like or trust you.