Cleo Burbank

Cleo Burbank, a character in the Hot Couture book, is Your Character's co-worker and potential ally or rival in Hazel Boutique. She is first seen in Chapter 2.

Appearance
Cleo has green eyes, chin-length wavy brown hair, and dark skin.

Personality
Cleo is sweet, but naive. She has a hard time standing up to others, rather a follower than a leader.

Background
Cleo has been in the "industry" for a long time, getting her start in toddler pageants at the age of three and having an agent since she was five. Her mother was a famous ballerina -one of the first black prima ballerinas in the Golden State Ballet Company- before she retired to concentrate on Cleo's career, effectively becoming Cleo's aggressive 'momager'. Her father is one of Beverly Hills' top plastic surgeons, and is more hands-off on Cleo's career. With Bridgette and her mother, she effectively had two managers.

She plans to follow Hazel's path in the industry, being a supermodel then becoming a fashion designer.

Hot Couture

 * Chapter 2: Life of the Party
 * Chapter 3: Making a Splash
 * Chapter 4: In Hot Water
 * Chapter 5: Flashing Lights
 * Chapter 6: It Girl
 * Chapter 7: Ramping Up
 * Chapter 8: Benvenuto a Milano
 * Chapter 9: Sabotage
 * Chapter 10: The Devil Wears HB
 * Chapter 12: All Sewn Up
 * Chapter 13: Bring Down the House
 * Chapter 15: City of Lights
 * Chapter 16: A Star Is Born

Your Character
You first meet Cleo in Chapter 2, where Luz introduces you two at the Tatin party. When Bridgette interrupts and belittles you, Cleo takes her cue and apologizes to Bridgette for associating with you. She sneers at you when they stalk off together. Depending on your choices, you can have a friendly or rivalry relationship with her.

In Chapter 12, you can recruit her to model for your Open House. If you don't, she will still help you by recruiting her model friends to aid you. In Chapter 15, she volunteers to model for you even if you didn't recruit her earlier, and helps train Travis's firefighter friends learn how to perfect their runway walks.

Bridgette Gardner
Cleo is shown to be friends with Bridgette, although Bridgette is always using her and putting her down. Cleo explains that because she was the face of Hazel Boutique, Bridgette had introduced her to a lot of people and showed her how things work in the fashion industry.

When Cleo speaks her mind against Bridgette's attack on you (and if you were nice to her, Cleo doesn't want to hurt you), Bridgette fires her and their relationship is terminated. If asked, Cleo confides that the reason she always put up with Bridgette was because of the crush she had on her. Cleo was drawn to Bridgette's assertiveness, strength, competency, and ambition. On occasion Bridgette would be nice to Cleo, but in hindsight, Cleo isn't sure if was all a game to the older woman. In the end, Cleo found standing up to Bridgette to be cathartic for her.

Hazel Nguyen
Cleo believes she has a lot in common with Hazel Nguyen. They both grew up bi-coastal, living in both New York and Los Angeles for their modeling careers.

Trivia

 * She is the face of Hazel Boutique until Chapter 12.
 * She is listed in the LGBT category because of her past crush on Bridgette and her interest in another female model in Chapter 16. If you ask her about recruiting male models she says she has no patience for men implying no interest in them whatsoever.