by Holly Martin
‘No, she grabbed the bag they were trying to take from me and when they let it go she went flying. She was in hospital last night in St Mary’s and she didn’t have time to go home and change before the interview so I believe she ended up trying to get something smart from the charity shop near the harbour.’
‘Oh no, not that animal charity shop? There’s nothing in there from this century and probably not anything from the last century either. What on earth did she find that was suitable to wear in there?’ Madge said.
‘Well, I don’t think suitable is the word I’d use to describe what she is wearing but don’t judge her on it. Her face is a bit bruised and cut up too.’
‘Well, go and get her then,’ Madge said, looking through Bella’s application form. ‘Let’s see how much your golden girl shines.’
From that tone of voice, Isaac didn’t think she was going to be impressed by anyone today but he got up and went to the door.
Bella was sitting at one end of the waiting room and the other applicants were gathered at the other, as if they didn’t want to be associated with her and her hideous green dress. She didn’t seem that bothered though as she was curled up in an armchair, having kicked off her pink stilettos, reading a battered book that had obviously been abandoned in the room along with a few magazines.
‘Miss Roussel,’ he said and she looked up at him in confusion as he had clearly torn her from the world she had been immersed in. Her vivid clover green eyes blinked a few times before she remembered she was still mad at him and her face set into a furious scowl again. ‘We’re ready for you now.’
She stood up, grabbing a leaflet off the table to mark her place in the book, and then slipped her feet back into the stilettos and followed him into the office. He closed the door behind her. He saw Madge and Eric stare at her in shock as he introduced everyone.
He sat down and Bella sat in the chair opposite him but as she did so her dress slid down, exposing one of her breasts almost entirely. The dark areola around her left nipple was just poking out over the top of the dress. Thankfully the nipple was still hidden but it was only millimetres away from making an entrance too. As the puffy sleeves of the dress were fitted over the arms not the shoulders, he guessed she had been unable to wear a bra with it, although to be honest visible bra straps would have been the least offensive thing in this outfit. She crossed her legs and the dress slipped fractionally lower; clearly she had no idea.
He glanced over at Eric whose eyes were firmly on Bella’s assets, willing the dress to continue on its southbound journey, and Madge, who was sucking her lips together so tightly with disapproval that they’d practically vanished. Madge was firmly of the belief that women should not use their bodies to advance their careers and this accidental sexual provocation on Bella’s part was not going to go down well.
He tried to catch Bella’s eye to tell her but she was resolutely not looking at him. He cleared his throat but she didn’t even spare him a glance.
‘Miss Roussel,’ he said, hoping that at least would grab her attention, but she continued to focus on Madge and Eric. ‘Why did you apply for this job?’
She would look at him, she’d have to if she was going to answer the question properly. Interview rules 101, always make eye contact with the interviewer.
She forced herself to look at him for a second before she went back to addressing the rest of the panel with her answer. ‘I want to help people…’
He started making gestures with his hand, trying to attract her attention as subtly as he could, but she was still talking and what she was saying was the corporate line she had given him the other night about making a difference. Though he knew it was from the heart, he also knew that Eric and Madge would be less than impressed by it. He had to stop her but if he caught her attention for a few seconds should he tell her about her exposed breasts or try to get her to open up more with a personal answer? He knew he wouldn’t have time for both before she looked away again.
He coughed loudly and she looked at him and he made a snap decision. ‘From the heart,’ he mouthed, pointing to his heart.
She paused mid-sentence as if she understood perfectly what he was trying to tell her. But before he could warn her of her impending exposure she looked away again. She shifted in her chair, obviously feeling uncomfortable about what she was going to say, and as she did so her nipple peeked out over the top of the dress.
Crap.
‘I know what it’s like to need help,’ Bella said. ‘I had a difficult childhood and I was lucky that I had a very supportive family growing up. My aunt and uncle raised me and I always knew they were there for me and they still are. Things could have gone very differently for me had they not been there to look after me and I want to help other people in the way that they helped me. Events management—’
‘Miss Roussel,’ interrupted Madge. ‘In the spirit of helping people, let me give you a piece of advice. Put your breasts away. That is not acting in your favour at the moment.’
Bella looked down at herself and gasped with horror as she pulled her dress back up. Eric nearly groaned with disappointment and she flashed an accusatory glare at Isaac as if it was his fault.
‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise. This dress isn’t mine.’
‘We’re aware of the dress’s origins but you’re not the first person today that thought that flashing their breasts at Mr Scott would be a good idea.’
Isaac looked at Madge in confusion. Had there been someone else who had come in wearing revealing clothes? He hadn’t noticed and he knew that was because his mind had been on Bella all morning.
Bella blushed and sat up straighter. ‘I can assure you that Mr Scott is the last person I would want to expose myself to. He’s—’
‘You were talking about why events management in particular holds your interest,’ Isaac interrupted, not wanting to find out how she was going to finish her sentence about him.
Bella looked at him and then back towards Eric and Madge. ‘Events management is what I’ve always done. It was a huge part of my degree and I’ve had years of experience at it. I’m very good at it too, but it’s also something I love. The organisational side of events, pulling everything together to make something flawless, but more importantly it’s about creating something that is fun that appeals to a wide range of people.’
‘Isabella – may I call you that?’ Eric said, patronisingly.
‘No. That’s not my name. If you want to call me Bella instead of Miss Roussel then that’s fine but I wouldn’t call you Ernie as that isn’t your name either.’
Isaac nearly snorted.
‘Bella then,’ Eric said with some annoyance at being corrected. Clearly now the breasts were hidden away he was back to not approving of her again. ‘We know that you worked for Magic Wishes, a charity well known for its embezzlement. We understand that Isaac believes you had nothing to do with it. That you didn’t know what was going on. If that is the case—’
‘It is,’ Bella said, defiantly.
‘If that is the case, why should we employ someone who is so spectacularly unobservant?’
Christ. He had no right to talk to her like that.
‘Eric, that’s not—’ Isaac started but Bella just talked right over the top of him.
‘Because you are not employing me for my observational skills, Eric. Nowhere in the job description does it mention that I would need to be observant, or that I would be required to spy on the accounts of your company to make sure the same thing didn’t happen again – as that is what I would have had to have done at Magic Wishes to know that my boss was embezzling money. I did not see the money or how it was spent, that was not part of my job. As fundraising events manager, it was my job, as it will be here, to co-ordinate and organise fundraising events. If you are actually employing me to spy on the staff then you’ve got the wrong person.’
There was silence in the room then and Isaac had to suppress the big grin that threatened to emerge on his face. She really wasn’t g
oing to take any crap.
Bella turned to Madge. ‘I’m honest and hardworking and I know you have no reason to believe me considering my past but if you give me a chance, then I’m not going to let you down.’
Madge looked down at her notes, clearly unmoved by Bella’s plea. ‘Do you have any experience leading a team of people?’
‘No, Magic Wishes was quite a small charity and I was the only person working in fundraising events management. But events management involves co-ordinating with large amounts of different teams and people. To organise a concert for example, I had to liaise with the council to gain permission to hold the event in the park, staging companies to arrange for stages, lights and electrics, different agents and artists to secure the talent, catering companies and food trucks to provide refreshments, ice cream vans and local pubs to put on drinks tents, car park attendants, ticketing companies, even companies that would provide Portaloos. The events I’ve arranged have been big and small but all require liaising and co-ordinating with other people so I have experience of that. Being in charge of a team of people isn’t that different.’
‘I beg to differ,’ Madge said. ‘Working with people outside of your organisation and actually having employees under you who you have to organise and be in charge of are two very different things. We already have a great team in charge of fundraising. Why should we put you in charge of them when you have no management experience?’
‘Well, I’m afraid I don’t agree that you have a great team in charge of fundraising. I’m sure they work really hard and are passionate about helping the homeless but the advert for this job said you needed someone with enthusiasm who could inject imagination and creativity into the fundraising team. I know I can be that person. This is something I’m passionate about. I looked at your last five fundraising events. Two sponsored walks, a sponsored run, a cake sale and a car boot sale. These are hardly events that are going to stay in people’s minds as a great day out. These kind of events are not going to put the Umbrella Foundation on the map when it comes to charities. I know the charity has only been running for a few years and I know that a lot of the funding for the brilliant initiatives to help the homeless has actually come from Mr Scott’s other companies, which is fantastic, but we can do a lot better than that. We can raise our own money and not be reliant on funding and handouts from Mr Scott. The kind of events I’m used to organising have thousands of participants, and have raised huge sums for the charity—’
‘Which was then embezzled,’ Eric muttered.
‘I can arrange the same kind of events for you here,’ Bella said, completely ignoring Eric’s barbed comment. ‘Events that will have people talking about them and wanting to take part. You want people to go to social media with how much fun they had at an Umbrella event. You want people queueing up to take part, to be shouting about it to all their friends. I can do that. And I can inspire the people in your fundraising team to aim bigger and better too.’
‘Give us an idea of what kind of events you would organise in order to raise money for our charity,’ Isaac said.
‘Well, we want something fun, something that people will want to join in with and not just to raise money for the charity but because it’s something different, a fun day out. Zombie runs are very popular in America and are becoming increasingly popular over here too. We create a relatively easy obstacle course – there are many providers that offer these things to companies for corporate team building – and then we charge people to become zombies for the day. Most people will make or buy their own costumes but we can add another charge if they want us to provide them with costumes and make-up. Then other people will pay to enter the obstacle course and be chased by zombies. It’s good fun. We then sell refreshments and we could even charge a small fee for spectators to come and watch. Something like fifty pence or a pound so they aren’t put off paying for it but lots of small spectator fees would soon add up. We’d have to hold it somewhere central and easy to get to, maybe London or Bristol or some of the other bigger cities. That’s important too. You don’t want to put people off with the expense of travelling somewhere really far, so we can offer a zombie event in London for example, and then if it proves popular we distribute the same event in cities across the whole of the UK.’
Silence fell over the room again. Never in his wildest dreams had he ever expected her to come out with something like that.
‘Zombie runs?’ Madge finally said.
‘Yes,’ Bella said, confidently. ‘People would love it.’
Silence again.
Eric cleared his throat. ‘Well, if you have nothing else to suggest—’
‘Oh believe me, I have a hundred more ideas where that came from,’ Bella said, excitedly. ‘Firstly…’
Isaac smiled as Bella rattled off her ideas, barely drawing breath as she explained how each event would raise money and how they would work and why people would want to take part. She asked to use his iPad at one stage and she then proceeded to show some examples of the things she was talking about on YouTube. She was so passionate, so inspired, and he was going to stop at nothing to get her to work for his company. If he had to pull rank as CEO to get her in, then he’d do it. Eric and Madge could shake their heads with disapproval as much as they wanted. Bella was going to work for their company whether they liked it or not.
Chapter Nine
‘Well thank you, Miss Roussel,’ Madge said, an hour later. ‘Maybe you can apologise to the remaining candidates on your way out for keeping them waiting. That interview was a lot longer than we anticipated.’
Isaac rolled his eyes. Madge really was a tough nut to crack. Bella had absolutely shone in the interview and Madge’s expression of disapproval hadn’t changed at all.
He stood up. ‘I’ll walk you out.’
Bella didn’t say anything but he could see that she was less than happy with that.
He escorted her out of the building and as soon as they were outside she turned on him.
‘You didn’t think to tell me that my breasts were hanging out?’
‘Believe me I tried, but you wouldn’t even look at me. Besides, do you not think it might have been better to actually wear a bra with that dress?’ he hissed back.
‘I didn’t put one on last night, there wasn’t time when I came rushing out to save your ass.’
‘My ass did not need saving,’ Isaac said and then, knowing that she had every right to be angry with him, he decided to stop snapping back at her. ‘I do appreciate what you did though. I’m sorry that you got hurt, that’s the last thing I would want.’
She was clearly thrown by this as she had nothing to say in return.
‘I am sorry,’ he said, seizing the advantage. ‘When I said to you last night that I was on the streets myself when I was a teenager, that wasn’t a lie. It was only for a few weeks but the people I met who also lived on the streets were remarkable people and so many of them were willing to help me when they had nothing themselves. This charity is very important to me. Lots of people try to get into working for this charity in order to get into my other companies or to get to me and so I try to make sure that the people we have working here genuinely do care about the homeless. Asking them if they care for the homeless in the interview isn’t good enough as most people will just trot out anything in an interview to make themselves sound good or to get the job. A lot of the stuff that comes out of a candidate’s mouth in an interview is either completely exaggerated at best or completely made up. They tell you what you want to hear. I want to get an idea of the kind of people applying for the job before the interview and this method has worked very well for me in the past. I should have told you the truth, I know that. But I kept thinking that this was the perfect way to see the real Bella, chat to you over dinner, see how you tick. Before I knew it, several hours had passed and I was enjoying myself more than I have for a very long time. I didn’t want to ruin that.’
‘But you came back last night,’ Bella said. ‘Was all th
at part of the test too?’
‘No, I wanted to see you again. That was the only reason I came back. I wanted to tell you the truth but… There didn’t seem to be a right time.’
‘You’re a coward.’
‘I was scared of losing what we had, yes. I’ve never felt that kind of connection with someone before. You felt it too. I know that.’
Bella stared at him.
‘I felt a connection with a man called Zach who doesn’t even exist. I have no idea what was real and what was a lie. Maybe you were just telling me what I wanted to hear,’ she said, using his words against him.
‘What we had was real, you know that. That kiss was real.’
Just then Claudia, his PA, popped her head out of the door. ‘Mr Scott, Madge says she’s waiting for you.’
Isaac nodded and he turned back to Bella.
‘I think you did very well in the interview.’
‘You’re the only one,’ Bella said. ‘I’d like to say it was nice meeting you, but that would be a lie. Goodbye Isaac.’
She walked off and didn’t look back.
He stared after her for a moment before he went back into the interview room where to his surprise Madge was sweeping all the application forms into the bin.
‘What are you doing? We still have three more candidates to interview,’ Isaac said.
‘Well that would be completely redundant as we have quite clearly found the perfect person for the role.’
Isaac smiled. ‘You liked Bella?’
‘Isaac, she is marvellous. After talking to her for the last hour, I’d quite like to rename the charity the Bella Roussel Foundation instead.’ Madge pulled her jacket back on and did up the buttons. She picked up her notepad and made for the door.
‘Where are you going?’
‘I’m going for lunch. If you want to waste your time interviewing the three other candidates, be my guest. I wasn’t even supposed to be part of the panel today, but I can’t say I trusted either of you to make the right decision on who to employ. But now we’ve found her, I’ve got a job to be getting on with.’