Falling For My Playboy Boss
Chapter 77

Cora's POV

Thomas got us to Lauder Financial at 1215, and we all three sat in the SUV, as we all saw Collins Mercedes still sitting in the parking garage. We all thought that it would be a good idea to wait until he left to prevent any problems. At 1227, we see Collin and Maddie come out of the elevator and get in the car and leave. I had already texted Jerry and Alderidge that we were here at 1215, and they probably encouraged Collin to take lunch. I was willing to bet Collin seeing his mom eyeballing Maddie, with a death glare, was probably what let them leave a little early.

We all headed up on the elevator and went straight to the conference room as I knew that everyone was already present and probably ready to go. I was wearing the navy knee-length dress for the meeting, and I loved this dress from the show. It was dressy, but it fitted in perfectly for the office. I saw Jerry notice us getting off the elevator and then I watched his expression as he noticed that I was pregnant. I looked over and saw Gabriel looking at Jerry and then in the direction of Jerry's gaze and then he noticed my baby bump as well. Ava and Thomas stopped outside the conference room and took available seats, and both got their phones out while I entered the conference room.

"I am sorry I am late. Please excuse me", I said as I entered the room. Gabriel immediately got up from his seat and pulled mine out for me, and slid it back up to the table after I sat down.

"It is OK, Cora. I gave Gabriel the quick version and knew that you were not going to head up until Collin and Maddie had left. I had told him that you were here at 1215, so he already knew that you were here. It is not a problem", Jerry told me, and then smiled gently

at me.

"Thank you, Jerry, I appreciate you letting Gabriel know that I was here on time," I told him.

"We are all here now, Gabriel. What brings you to New York?" Alderidge asked Gabriel.

"I wanted to see if I could get Cora to come to Paris for a week or two to get my people trained better to be able to try to do what she does for you. I would, of course, pay her for her time. She doesn't need to reveal any workplace information about her client's cases or any of your client's cases. I would give her an NDA on our end, and we would show her some of our difficult cases and help my people get to the correct answer for the clients, not just her give them the answer. I want them to use their own critical thinking by themselves, to try to deliver the same excellent service that Cora provides. I would pay her a $50,000 bonus for her to come to train 5 of my people for 2 weeks, to be able to better serve our clients. If you two were OK with her coming to do that?" Gabriel told Alderidge, who looked at Jerry.

"Please excuse us for a little while, we are going to go speak about this and then ask the legal team for their take and be back in 10 to 20 minutes with the answer for you". Jerry said and Alderidge nodded, and they stepped out to go talk and make the calls. "How have you been doing, Cora? Are you feeling OK? I want to wish you congratulations on your pregnancy. I did not know that you were pregnant. Would you still be able to come to Paris to help train? If you want to do that for me, that is. It is OK if you don't feel comfortable doing it and being away from the father of your child. I just felt like you would be the very best person to be able to train my people on how you go about doing your job so well. You have a gift for this type of work, and I want my team to make some improvements on their part. You don't have to give away all your secrets, but if you could help to train them up and direct them, that would be great, and quite appreciated as well", Gabriel said to me.

"I would love to come and train your team, Gabriel. It is an honor to be asked, especially by such a great company. We can wait to see if the legal team is OK with it, as well as Jerry and Alderidge. They have gone over and above for me, and I owe them a lot and I wouldn't do something that they don't approve of. So, I will go ahead and call my doctor to see if I can fly safely with the twins first of all. That is what is most important to me", I told Gabriel, and then exited the room to make the call to my doctor. The doctor told me that if I needed to fly, I needed to do it now, as I didn't need to fly after 32 weeks, but that my doctor preferred me not to fly after 30 weeks. I am 26 weeks now, so if I am going to fly, I would prefer to leave tomorrow, or this afternoon, to go ahead and get it done. I can work on Saturday if Gabriel needs the whole 10 days, for the two weeks. But I have a wedding to attend and participate in a little under a month from now and Mateo just got my measurements for that yesterday. He was going to do a final on me the week before the wedding and that would coincide with me coming back then. That is if Jerry, Alderidge, and the legal team approve this training for me.

"I can fly, but we are coming to the deadline soon, so if you are OK with it, and it gets approved, I would like to fly out tonight and start the training tomorrow. I can work this Saturday, so you would still get the full 10 days that you wanted me for if your team is OK with that?" I told Gabriel.

"I want to come with you, Cora, I will stay at the apartment, and Thomas can come with you to work, but I want to come with you. Ava will have to work. She has two important meetings that she has to attend coming up in the two weeks that you will be gone. I would feel better if I could be with you on this trip, otherwise, I would be worried the whole time. If you are OK with me coming with you?". Marlowe asked me.

"Of course, you are more than welcome to come with me. I would appreciate the company and I don't want Thomas to have to stay on top of me the whole time. When I am at the apartment, he can go out and see Paris, and we can hang out together. Since this is a longer trip, we can cook at the apartment, and visit. And hopefully, go shopping on the weekends", I told her, and she picked up her phone to book Thomas a room at a local hotel and let the driver know that we were coming back and that we would need the service for 2 weeks.

We talk and visit until Jerry and Alderidge come back into the room.

"We got with legal. That was the holdup for us, as this has never happened in the 48 years of our company, so they had to check on all the legalities for us. We will have an NDA on our end as well, and both Jerry and I know that Cora will still handle her work for us on the trip as well, because she is very client-oriented. She will be able to still do her job for us during this timeframe and we see no reason not to allow Cora to go and do this training for you. I hope it will continue the goodwill between our two companies that we were able to help you out with this. Cora is indeed one of our best employees and we are thankful to have her working for us here. When were you thinking about doing this?" Alderidge asked Gabriel.

"Well, it appears that since Cora needs to not fly after 30 weeks and has a tight timeline, both she and your wife, who advised me that she was coming with her, will be flying out on my plane back this afternoon," Gabriel told Alderidge.

"Well, you have been busy too while we were gone. I can understand why she would want to go, and I know that they will be taking Thomas as well. I guess we can pass on lunch today so everyone can get packed, and I will be coming too, as I can't be missing Marlowe for two weeks. I will be doing my work with my laptop too. I guess we can go ahead and leave now, as it is 115. I will try to grab something to eat before we meet on the plane at 3 pm. Is 3 a good time for you to head back, Gabriel?" Alderidge said to Gabriel. "That will work for me. I have one or two more things I need to do before I leave. I will text you the hanger information within the hour. Thank you both so much for allowing Cora to come and do this. I know that it won't be the same as actually having Cora work for me, but it would be the next best thing", Gabriel said as we all walked to the elevator to leave. I stopped by Catherine's desk, gave her a hug, and told her that when I got back from Paris, I would love to take her to breakfast and catch up with her. She nodded and said that she was looking forward to it.

We were all standing there at the elevator when the door pinged to sound its arrival. I saw Collin go to step forward and then stop to stare at me.

"Why did you stop Collin? What is going on?" I heard Maddie's annoying voice come from behind him and I took a large step back. Thomas stepped in front of me and before Alderidge could move, Gabriel stepped in front of me on the other side as a united front. Collin glanced at Gabriel and narrowed his eyes at him and then said, "What are you doing here, Gabriel?".

"I am poaching one of your employees to come to Paris and train some of my people" Gabriel responded back in a light tone.

"I didn't approve of any such thing, so I am afraid the answer is no. I am sorry. Cora will not be going to Paris with you to train", Collin told Gabriel as Maddie came around him to look at the group.

"Why are you here, Cora?" Maddie said in an angry voice.

"I work here Maddie. What are you doing here?" I asked her back.

"Well, you won't be working here for long if I have anything to say about it," Maddie said to me and started smirking at me.

"I would hire her on the spot if you did fire her," Gabriel said and smiled down at me.

"No one is firing Cora. She is our best Accounts Manager that we have, and if you did, I guess I could go ahead and retire from here. Your business would really suffer from losing Cora and me both. It would fail rather quickly after that. Thank God you are NOT in charge, Maddie", Jerry said as he looked at Collin. The message was clear that if Cora got fired, he was as good as gone himself.

"Collin, I told you, she has clearly slept with Jerry too. That is probably how she got her job with him so fast. I told you she couldn't be trusted. You need to let go of whatever feelings that you seem to have for her" Maddie said to me.

"Maddie, you need to mind your own business and stay out of this. This is my company, not yours", Collin told Maddie.

Maddie tilted her head at me, took a step to the side, and then yelled at me, "Oh my God. You are pregnant. Who is the father? Do you even know who the father is, Cora? What did I tell you, Collin? I told you that she was a slut, and you refused to listen to me. Well, here is your proof. You believe me now?".

"I do know who the father is, Maddie. I have only ever slept with one man in my life. You need to remember I am not you, so you can stop assuming that I sleep around, because no matter how you wish for it, it just simply isn't true. No matter how many nasty lies you come up with in that pea brain of yours", I told her.

"You b***h!" Maddie said and came towards me with her hand raised to slap me.