Chapter 3

During the walk to Collen's work Alison at first was completely unsure what to make of him. He probably looked like a complete mad man walking down the sidewalk speaking really loud and waving my hands around in grand gestures like a fool. In his defense though, at first Alison was probably more then fifteen feet behind him, but the more he continued to talk about completely random things she began walking closer and closer. Collen was quite certain over time he began to see some light begin to shine in her eyes again, but afraid if he turned to take a good look it would end up scaring her off he just continued to lead the way to his work place.

'I was hoping my efforts would bear more fruit in cheering her up, but still better then her running off afraid and permanently scarred.' As it stood Collen had fought the urge to kill the miserable prick who had done this to Alison, but if he found out this day mentally broke her, he promised himself he would track him down and end him.

It wasn't too long of a wait for the pair to arrive at their destination, but before they did, he couldn't say for sure but Collen wanted to believe he saw a meek smile appear on Alison's face if only for a brief moment before it disappeared again.

"Well here we are." Alison was staring at the building behind Collen, then back to Collen, then the building again. It would seem she is clearly suffering some degree of doubt.

"Modest company?" She mumbled. "This is probably the most spoken name in the agency business right now."

"Aaah I heard something around those lines before." Collen said chuckling and rubbing the back of his head.

The building was one of the largest in the areas a giant golden sign that Displayed The Garden in large golden letters with what looked to be a flower beginning to sprout underneath rumor had it the sign was solid gold but no one truly knew.  

"Well allow me to be the first to say it. Welcome to The Garden." Collen bowed at a forty five degree angle and swept his hand over his heart while opening the door with his free hand.

Alison gave him a weak smile. "You make it sound like I already have a job here."

"Let's just say I have faith in you." Collen couldn't help but let a smile show. "Soon enough even you will be forced to acknowledge your own worth."

"Well then I'm going to hold you to it." She mumbled Passing through the door being held open she was completely unable to keep her emotions hidden, as she took her first step onto the marble floor. Hundreds of hanging lights that did a visible wave playing on the senses, the receptionist desk lit up displaying some of the models working for the agency the walls were lined with the countless magazine covers, images from fashion shows and other works of The Garden

"Hello miss, may I help y- Oh my did something happen? Are you alright!?" The woman ran over to Alison after briefly examining her for a moment she almost dragged her to the desk the receptionist had her own miniature refrigerator under it.  She reached in grabbing out an ice pack and holding it to Alison's face.

"Oh hey there Sierra, Mind letting Ev know I have someone here for her."

"Oh Collen! Is this cutie here with you? What happened to her?"

"Some piece of trash claiming to be an agent."

"One of those types?" Sierra did not even try hiding her displeasure. There were far to many people who were willing to take advantage of young women who didn't know any better. They would arrive in town, not  have much information. no connections, or friends. Then one of these vultures would sweep in give them a smile and a business card, either try to get them to sign a contract without a lawyer present, or worse they would not even be an agent of any kind and would try to take advantage of the poor souls.  To many women had been hurt and scarred by such monsters.

"Aye. You ever hear the name Bumbers.. no Bammers, no don't think that's it either ... Burgers?"

Slowly listening to Collen a smile began spreading over Alison's face as she watched the bumbling Irish man mess up the names repeatedly. 'I'm not sure if he's doing it on purpose or not but I appreciate it either way.' Alison thought to herself. Despite everything she had been through she couldn't help but to appreciate the effort's Collen was going to for her a person he had just met for the first time today.

"It was Burgundy. Daniel Burgundy of the Burgundy Brothers." Alison corrected.

"Ah that would be it! The Burger Brothers!" Both of the girls could only smile lightly. After Collen Gave Sierra a run down of what happened she called Evelyn Constantine who was the CEO of The Garden. 

"Hey Collen She said she will be down shortly, she's almost done with an important phone call."

"Alright I appreciate it love, I'm going to run and do a little work so I don't get in to much trouble."

With that Collen quickly ran into the building. 'Ah hell I'm probably not going to finish vetting the candidates before Evelyn comes down and she's going to be pissed!'

"So his name is Collen? We never did introduce ourselves." Collen had kept his promise of bringing her there with zero expectations, he never asked for anything either, not even her name. 'Now I feel guilty for how I was treating him.'

"Yup that's him, a hard worker and an amazing man. He seems to have a heart of gold. I've seen him take a lot of crap over the years and all the while he has never lost to his anger except one time, and that was only when someone harmed an employee here."  Sierra smiled warmly thinking of him. Whether he knew it or not, it seemed Sierra had feelings for Collen.

"So is he a talent scout or ?"

"Nope he's not. Although personally I think he should be. There has been multiple occasions he walked someone in off the streets and they became models. Do you know who Tatianna Devine is?"

"Are you kidding me!? Of course I do, she is probably the most requested fashion model right now!"

"Not the most, but she's getting up there." Sierra puffed up her chest with pride as if this was one of her own accomplishments. After a moment she noticed what she was doing and turned red from embarrassment. "Sorry it may sound dumb but a lot of us here are as close as family, we kind of take pride in each other's accomplishments. So what I meant to say is Collen had actually found her on the streets one day. She had been crying in some park. Working at a McDonalds, he brought her in and convinced Evelyn to give her a chance."

Alison smiled. 'Could this finally be the chance I have been fighting for all this time?'

"Alison is that you?" A familiar voice echoed through the lobby. Dread instantly washed over Alison.