Falling For My Playboy Boss
Chapter 27

Cora's

POV

I came back to my desk and saw an extremely attractive woman standing there. She is about 30 years old and was dressed very nicely. I approached my desk and said, "Hello, I am Cora, how may I help you?" "Hello Cora, I am Eden Wallace, and Collin told me that he had some free time today at 4 so I was going to come to visit him", Eden tells me.

"If I may, that is a beautiful name, but I am sure you hear that all the time," I told her as I turned to walk to Collins's door.

"No, I don't hear it very often, but you know how people are around here, always in a hurry and not always the friendliest, but thank you so much for the compliment, I had nothing to do with it, but I think it is a pretty name too," Eden tells me and grins at me. I went to Collin's door and knocked on it and waited for the "Come in".

I step into the office and tell him that Eden Wallace is here to visit, and he grins and gets up, and hurries to the door to greet her. He gives her a hug and ushers her into his office, shutting the door behind him, with me standing there.

I go sit at my desk and wonder why I am feeling so jealous of Eden. She is much nicer than Maddie. Is it because she is a suitable woman for Collin, extremely attractive and put together, and seems like she is his equivalent in female form? She was nice to me. Why am I suddenly so upset with her? Then I remember the smile and him hurrying over to hug her. I push it down and continue getting everything ready to be shut down for the weekend. I didn't have a chance with Collin anyway, he does occasionally look at me, but it could be due to him not fully trusting me yet. I just need to let it go and keep moving forwards. With the two checks I have already deposited, I have us caught up in the household bills and doing good at paying my student loans at triple the amount requested and I aim to be debt-free in three years, including my dad's medical bills. He is doing much better these days and he and mom will be at the show next weekend. I already have seats for them and Catherine. I will be asking Dalton if he and Nicolas want to come and if Emily has reserved any seats for them.

Like clockwork, at 440 Nicolas and Dalton get off the elevator and come to my desk, and I can't stop the smile that comes to my lips.

"Hey guys, how was your week," I asked them.

"Great, long, glad it is over with," Dalton tells me.

"I had a good week, but I am glad it is over as well," Nicolas tells me.

"Dalton, did Emily get your tickets to the fashion show for next Saturday for the pre-fall show?" I asked him.

"No, she got two reserved for mom and dad, but she didn't want to push it with it being her first show," Dalton tells me.

"Do you both want to come? I can put you down as my guests", I asked them.

"That would be great. I would love to see you rule the catwalk again, Cora", Nicolas tells me.

"Yes, please if it isn't too much trouble for you," Dalton tells me.

"It is no trouble at all for you two. I enjoy spending time with you both, and I consider you to be my friends, so it is absolutely no problem at all", I told them both. Collin's door comes open and he asks them, "Guess who came to visit us?"

Nicolas and Dalton look at Collin and then at each other before seeing her walk up to the door and they both start smiling and go over to greet her with hugs. "Eden, how are you?" Dalton says to her.

"Eden, I haven't seen you in years, how have you been?" Nicolas said to her.

They all walk back into Collin's office and my area is now completely silent. I am sad, I feel like I totally got left behind in that shuffle, and it didn't feel good. I am now even more jealous, and I make a mental note to ask Ava who Eden is, the next time I see her. I hate that this is bugging me, but I feel like I won't be able to calm down until I get a backstory, or maybe with this woman the backstory won't make me feel good at all, as I feel like she and Collin may have a romantic history together. I see what time it is and go to clock out at 5, shut my computer down and grab my purse and leave. The guys already have someone to talk to, so they don't need me.

I go to bed early and sleep in till 9 am. I guess I needed sleep. I feel rather good after being in bed for twelve hours. I get the shopping list from mom and tell her that I am going to be going to the bank to make a deposit while I am doing my errands. Since it is Saturday, the lobby is closed. I am third in line in the second row of cars at the bank and I grab a deposit slip from the console of the car and go to open the checks that Jerry gave me. I see the amount on the first check is $3,000 and I am blown away. Victoria was really kind to give me this much. I was just helping her as a favor, not for her to pay me some of her bonus. I wish I had opened it yesterday; that was too much. I went to open the other envelope and it was for $7,500 with "bonus for new business" noted on the memo line. My hands start shaking as this is unexpected. I deposited the $3,000 into my savings account. I put $7,300 in my checking account. I kept $200 cash as I was going to be getting myself some skincare and makeup like Eric told me I needed to. I will ask him to write out a little list for me, so I know what I need to get. I have no idea, but I do know that I need some mascara, and maybe lipstick too. If there is more, then I can put it on my debit card, but I feel like a little bit of lipstick and mascara can help a girl out of any difficult day. I get my errands done and help mom with the cleaning around the house. I was done by 3 and decided to give Catherine a call and see if she felt like going and getting something to eat today, or if not, we could go after the show for dinner next week. Catherine answered the phone quickly and said that she had plans today, but we could definitely go out after the show next Saturday and that if I was OK with it, we could add Ava and Marlowe, and Emily and Abigail, to our dinner party as well. I knew my dad would not be up to it as just going to the show would probably make him tired, but they saw my pictures after the last show and they wanted to come and support me. They were actually immensely proud of me and told me I looked like a total professional the first time I went out, as I found I had several pictures of me from the show on the fashion page the next day. I have to admit that I did look beautiful in the photos, and you can't tell it was me and that was the best part.

I have to say that I was happy about the calls that Mateo got from other designers, wanting him to tell them who I was after the show and the pictures in the paper. He also told them I had an exclusive contract with him because I told him to tell them that I only wanted to work for him. It never started for me to actually become a model. This was to help a friend who helped me out when I needed it. He warned me that now that I was doing the next few shows that the reporters would be all over me to try to get my name and that, per my request, the name Shae would be given out to all of the reporters who asked about me. I was looking forward to next weekend. I was more excited than nervous this time and I was wondering what I would be wearing. Iris had told me that I again had five outfits to wear in the fashion show and that the last 2 of them were going to be gorgeous on me, and that, of course, I was again going to be the showstopper. I was actually kind of glad that Ella wanted me to be the main model for Mateo, as since they were dating now, I figured that he would let her do it. She loves his designs, and he is making three "special outfits" for her that they collaborated on. I know he will make them perfect for her. I think it is also because she knows that we are just friends and that if I hadn't reached out to Victoria and asked Mateo to get the seats saved for them, they may not have even met or be dating right now. I think that they both kind of realize that I kind of got them together, and I hope they have a long and happy life together. I have watched them when I have met the group to grab something to eat and they are so perfect for each other. She fully supports his dreams, and it looks like he will be able to do his shows and have a warehouse to make the pre-ordered clothing. The customers will pay for what they want and then the clothes will be made. I suggested putting the fashion show on his website, and then the clients can decide which of the outfits they want. Mateo is putting some thought into it, and decided that we can't do the full line, but wanted to take pictures of the most popular pieces and make them available for purchase. It makes him have a lot more control over his designs and I really think that he can go global very soon. I am excited for him because there is really nothing better than having your dreams come true.