HIS STRIPPER, HIS WIFE novel Chapter 66

Chapter 66

Chapter 66

Bianca

10 voucher

I was at my desk that afternoon, sorting through a stack of files that felt like it multiplied every time I looked away, when my phone buzzed once against the wood. I almost ignored it. Emails came in all day, most of them boring, some of them urgent only in the mind of whoever sent them because today everything is going my way but something made me glance down

anyway.

The subject line caught me first. “Portfolio Review Request, Fashion Crew Introduction.”

I frowned at my screen, my fingers hovering over the mouse without clicking. I wasn’t expecting anything like that. I hadn’t submitted anything anywhere in weeks, and even then it had been small things, nothing that would warrant an email like this.

I clicked it open slowly, half expecting to see some badly formatted scam, but the email loaded clean and simple, no/strange fonts, no flashing banners, nothing that screamed fake.

It was from a woman named Claire Rick. Senior Designer at Lens and Vale.

I sat back in my chair, my mouth slightly open as I read the name twice, just to be sure I wasn’t imagining it, Lens and Vale. wasn’t just any fashion house. It was one of the biggest in the country, the kind of place interns fought tooth and nail just to get an unpaid position at.

I kept reading, my eyes moving faster now, my heart beating faster, I could fill it on my chest. The email said they had received my portfolio about a month ago, that Claire herself had gone through it personally, and that she was impressed enough to want to meet with me directly to discuss potential opportunities.

A month ago? I sat there trying to remember what I had even submitted a month ago, my mind scrambling backward through weeks that had blurred together with work and Emma’s hospital stay and everything else that had been eating up my time. I didn’t submit anything but those designs were mine.

I read the email again, and then a third time, my thumb scrolling up and down over the same paragraph like the words might change if I looked hard enough. Somewhere around the fourth read, my doubt crept back in.

“This has to be spam,” I thought. Nobody really reaches out like this out of nowhere. Nobody really notices you when you’re not even looking for them to.

I sat there for almost ten minutes, my cursor blinking uselessly over the reply box, my mind going back and forth between hope and suspicion. I thought about all the stories I had heard, people getting scammed by fake modeling agencies, and fake

talent scouts.

C

But something about the email felt different. It wasn’t asking for money. It wasn’t asking for personal details beyond what was already in my portfolio. It simply had a name, a title, a company, and a phone number sitting neatly at the bottom, an invitation to call if I had any questions or wanted to confirm the request.

My thumb hovered over my phone for a long moment before I finally gave in and dialed the number myself, my leg bouncing under the desk, my heart thudding louder with every ring.

“Lens and Vale, front desk, how can I help you,” a voice answered professionally, and I nearly dropped my phone right there on my desk.

“Hi, um,” I started, my voice coming out shakier than I wanted it to, “I received an email from a Claire Rick, and I just wanted to confirm if it was real, sorry, I know that probably sounds strange.”

There was a small pause on the other end, followed by the soft click of typing. “Let me check that for you. Can I get your name please?”

23

O

O

Thu, Jul 28

Chapter 66

1 gave it to her, my fingers gripping the edge of my desk like it was the only thing keeping me upright.

10 voucher

“Yes, I see it here,” she said after a moment. Claire has been trying to reach a few candidates this week. Would you like me to transfer you to her office directly?”

My breath caught somewhere in my throat. “Yes, please.”

The line clicked, some soft hold music playing for a few seconds that felt like several lifetimes, and then a new voice came through, warm and confident.

“This is Claire.”

“Hi, hi.” I said, stumbling slightly over my own words, “my name is Bianca, I got an email from you about my portfolio.

“Ah, Bianca,” she said, and I could actually hear the smile in her voice, “yes, I’ve been hoping you would call. I looked through your work last month and I have to say, there’s something really striking about them. I would love to sit down with you, discuss a few things, maybe talk about where you see yourself going.”

I pressed my hand against my mouth, my eyes suddenly stinging in a way that caught me completely off guard. This was real. This was actually, genuinely real.

We spoke for a few more minutes, Claire outlining a possible date for us to meet, mentioning a few names of people she wanted me to eventually be introduced to if things moved forward the way she hoped, her voice steady and sure in a way that made everything feel solid.

When the call ended, I sat there for a long moment just staring at my phone, my chest rising and falling faster than it should have been for someone who had just been sitting at a desk doing nothing more strenuous than talking.

Then it hit me properly, and before I could stop myself, I was laughing, a short disbelieving sound that came out of nowhere. I tried to comfort myself but it was almost not working.

7

I didn’t care, for the first time in what felt like forever, something good, something entirely mine, was actually happening. Not something tangled up in Adrian’s world, not something borrowed or complicated or messy.

I grabbed my bag almost without thinking, my mind already racing ahead to what I needed to do, portfolio pieces I needed to update, designs I needed to figure out, a hundred small details suddenly demanding my attention all at once. I stood up so fast my chair rolled back and hit the drawer behind me with a loud clatter, but I barely registered the sound.

I rushed toward the small supply room down the hall, needing a printer, needing paper, needing anything that would help me get my thoughts in order before the excitement in my chest exploded into something unmanageable.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify