by Holly Martin
‘Yes, he came round.’
‘He came round,’ Eden whispered to someone else. ‘Hang on, I’m going to put you on speakerphone, Freya is here.’
The line suddenly went all echoey.
‘He came round?’ Freya asked. ‘Did anything happen?’
‘No. Well yes.’
Eden squealed and Bella laughed.
‘No, nothing like that. He bought me Alfie. He went to the dog home and bought him for me. He turned up with a load of food, toys and other things for him and told me Alfie was an introductory bonus.’
Freya and Eden were silent and for a moment Bella wondered if the line had gone dead.
‘He bought you a dog?’ Eden said, softly.
‘Yeah. I know. I told him all about Alfie when I thought he was Zach and he listened to me. I was so touched I nearly burst into tears.’
Bella heard Eden and Freya whispering and then Eden murmured, ‘This is the one.’
Bella laughed at Eden’s romantic rose-tinted view on life. ‘He is not the one. He lied to me and now he is my boss. He made it very clear nothing was going to happen between us and I think that’s for the best.’
‘Eden’s right. What you two have is something special. He could have just come round with a box of chocolates and a bunch of flowers, or even offered a cash incentive of say five hundred pounds as he knows you need the money, but instead of some worthless chocolate gesture or instead of offering you something you needed, he gave you something you wanted more than anything. He listened to you, really listened. I guarantee you the last two nights meant as much to him as they did to you.’
Bella knew Freya was right. Buying Alfie for her went above and beyond what he could have done to persuade her to take the job. It was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her. But that still didn’t mean that she was going to let herself fall for him as a result. The lie still hurt and maybe it would be best to focus on that to ensure nothing would happen between them. Alfie rolled over onto his back and let out a big snore and she smiled with love for him. Being angry at Isaac was going to be a lot harder than she thought.
Bella arrived at the Umbrella Foundation at half past eight the following morning, determined she would make a better impression on the management team than she had in the interview. She was under no illusions that she had got the job only because of Isaac Scott; the other two members of the panel had clearly decided she wasn’t suitable as soon as they laid eyes on her. Well, Eric had probably decided that she wasn’t suitable as soon as he’d seen her name and who she had worked for. She was going to prove them all wrong. She was going to be amazing at this job and a little power dressing didn’t hurt to make a good second impression. She had dressed smartly in a black trouser suit with a white shirt buttoned up to the neck. She doubted she would see much of Isaac Scott now that he had employed her but just in case she did, she didn’t want him to think she had dressed to encourage him. There was nothing sexy about this suit.
She checked in with the reception desk, happy to see at least one friendly face. Mary used to live in Ruby Cottage up on Blossom Grove before she’d moved down into the town the year before.
‘Hi Mary.’
‘Oh, Bella. I was so pleased to hear you got this job. I told my Jim that we were advertising for a fundraising manager and he said it was just the sort of thing you needed. And when the application forms came in, and I saw you’d applied, I made sure yours was on top of the pile. I’m not sure if that helped at all, but it couldn’t hurt, right? And now you’re here and by all accounts you’re going to turn this company around. I know Isaac Scott is very impressed with you. I’m so happy for you,’ Mary gabbled at a hundred miles an hour.
Bella smiled. ‘Thank you. At least you’re pleased to see me. I’m not sure how friendly the others will be once they know my history and I’m sure Eric will waste no time letting people know all about that.’
‘Oh most of the people on this island know the truth about that awful embezzlement scandal. They know you and know you would never have anything to do with such a thing. And those who think otherwise are really not worth your time of day.’
Bella nodded. That was true. ‘I’m not sure where I’m supposed to go, do you have any ideas?’
‘I’m not sure. You’ll be in the fundraising office I presume but I think you better check in with human resources first, they’ll probably have some forms you’ll need to fill in and someone will need to show you round and tell you what to do in the case of a fire. Go up to the second floor and have a word with Matilda, she’ll know where you’re supposed to be.’
Bella walked into the lift and pressed the button. As the doors were closing she heard a voice that made her heart leap.
‘Hold the lift.’
A hand appeared through the crack in the closing door and as the doors opened again, Isaac walked in wearing a t-shirt and shorts. He was sweaty and out of breath, clearly having been for a run. His blond curly hair was dampened with sweat too. His face broke into a huge grin when he saw her, but he quickly straightened his facial features into a much more serious expression as he tried to cling onto his professionalism.
‘Nice to see you’re more suitably attired today, Miss Roussel,’ Isaac said, pressing the button for the top floor.
‘Wish I could say the same about you. Is it dress-down day at work today?’ Bella said and had to suppress the smirk when she watched him chuckle softly to himself. ‘Do you not have to rush off back to your big swanky office in London?’ she went on. ‘Surely you have better things to do with your time than keep stalking me?’
‘I live here on Hope Island now. It is true that I will have to return to my big swanky office for several meetings from time to time, but I’m hopeful I can conduct more and more of my work from here.’
She stared at him. ‘You live here?’
He nodded. ‘Bought an old house on the far side of the island and spent the last few months doing it up.’
So much for never seeing him again. Even if she could avoid him in the office she’d see him around the town.
The doors closed and she was suddenly hyper-aware of being alone with him, of his proximity, his divine smell which was tangy like citrus fruit, of how he filled the tiny space with his size and presence. The air crackled between them. He looked up at her, the heat in his eyes telling her he felt it too. She was immediately dragged back to that kiss, his mouth against hers, the taste of him, the feel of his strong body on top of her own. She just couldn’t believe none of that had been real.
He cleared his throat and when he spoke his voice was croaky. ‘How’s Alfie settling in?’
Bella forced herself to speak when her mind was a jumble of emotions. ‘Fine. He—’
The doors pinged open on the second floor. She looked out at the reception desk and back at Isaac. ‘Have a good day, Mr Scott.’
She walked out just in time to hear him say: ‘Oh I intend to.’
Before she could ask him what he meant, the lift doors closed. She let out a sigh of relief. Things were going to be difficult between them but if she only saw him once a day for a few moments in the lift then she was sure she would cope.
She walked over to the reception desk and recognised Matilda who used to be a few years below her at school. She knew her from around the island but not that well.
‘Hello, Bella, how can I help you?’ Matilda said, breezily.
‘Hi, I’m starting work today as fundraising events manager and I’m not sure where I’m meant to go or—’
‘Oh that’s right, Isaac has asked me to send you straight up to his office. He’s going to take care of your induction today and show you around.’
Bella’s heart dropped. ‘I’m sure Mr Scott is very busy, if you just show me my desk and introduce me to the fundraising team then I’m sure I’ll be able to pick up the job as I go along.’
Matilda’s smile fell from her face as she looked around for an answer to the problem, as if it might be lyi
ng on her desk along with all the heart-shaped Post-it notes.
‘I’m not really sure what to suggest. Isaac was quite adamant that he wanted to deal with your induction himself. There isn’t really anyone else who can do it. I could give Eric a call…’ she trailed off.
‘No, that’s OK,’ Bella sighed. Out of the two, Isaac was the lesser of two evils. ‘I’ll go and see Mr Scott.’
Matilda smiled again. ‘His office is on the top floor, I believe he is expecting you.’
Of course he was, though he had neglected to tell her that when they had been in the lift together. Bella marched back into the lift and jabbed the button for the top floor. What was he playing at? There were lots of people who could have shown her around, Isaac could have delegated the job to anyone. Why did it have to be him? They were supposed to be professional, but how could they maintain that when there was so much tension bubbling between them? Surely spending as much time as possible apart would be for the best. When the doors pinged open, she recognised Claudia, Isaac’s assistant, from the day before. She was sitting behind the desk and she smiled at Bella.
‘Go on in, he’s expecting you,’ Claudia said, waving her hands towards a closed door.
Bella marched in and closed the door behind her just as Isaac walked out of a small side room, presumably a bathroom, in nothing but a pair of black trousers. He had a white shirt in his hand and he stopped when he saw her.
God he looked divine. Bella blushed as she remembered how inappropriate it was for her to be thinking that about her new boss.
‘Gah!’ Bella turned away. ‘What is it with you and nudity? Are you not capable of keeping your clothes on for longer than a few minutes?’
‘I would have thought you would knock before coming into my office,’ Isaac said.
She turned back briefly to see that the white shirt was now on and he was slowly doing up the buttons, his eyes on her the whole time. It was hot as hell.
‘Claudia told me to go on in, that you were expecting me.’
‘I was. But I figured HR would have you filling in loads of forms first. I thought I had time to get changed before you came.’
‘Well they weren’t the instructions you left with Matilda. She told me I was to report to you straight away. Though quite why you need to be the one who goes through my induction and shows me around I don’t know. You could have asked anyone to do it.’
He sat down and gestured for her to do the same. ‘If you’re going to be working for me, it’s important we are on friendly terms.’
‘We’ve done friendly. In fact you kissing and touching me was definitely more than friendly.’
Isaac sighed. ‘I miss the girl that I chatted to over the weekend, when everything was so easy between us. What happened to her?’
‘She’s still here, behind the wall I’ve built to protect myself.’
His eyes softened. ‘I’m not going to hurt you, Bella.’
‘You already have.’
Remorse crossed his face and Bella felt guilty for making him feel that way. Especially after what he had done with Alfie.
‘Look, yesterday morning I hated you more than I’ve ever hated anyone. I was hurt, angry, humiliated and then, last night, you bringing Alfie to my house was the sweetest, kindest thing anyone has ever done for me. And that’s left me in a bit of a quandary. I can’t hate you any more, even though I’d like to. I’m not sure we can be friendly yet, but we can certainly put all that behind us and I can be professional and courteous.’
He nodded. ‘I’ll take that.’
As he stretched over to grab some paperwork off the edge of his desk, she noticed his shirt straining against his muscles. Either unintentionally or deliberately he had missed the top button of his shirt and she could see his smooth chest peeping out the top. She had a sudden overwhelming urge to stroke it.
Professional, she reminded herself, even if she did want to climb over the desk and lick his chest.
‘What was that?’ Isaac said, frowning with confusion as he turned back to face her.
Bella flushed. Surely she hadn’t said that thought out loud?
‘What was what?’
‘You made a noise. It sounded like a whimper.’
Good lord. Had she really whimpered at the thought of licking him? That was almost as bad as saying it out loud.
‘Just clearing my throat.’
Isaac nodded, though he didn’t look convinced. ‘Why don’t you wheel your chair round here and I’ll show you a few things.’
‘I can see perfectly well from over here,’ Bella said, not wanting to make the situation even worse.
He looked at her with exasperation and Bella wheeled her chair round so she was at the very edge of his desk. For the first time she noticed the incredible view behind his desk of the cliffs and the sea. How had she not noticed that when she came in? She flushed when she remembered she’d been rather taken with a completely different view. She glanced back at Isaac and he was pointedly looking at how far she was away from him. Suppressing a smirk, he reached out to grab the arm of her chair and slid her closer so she could see his computer screen.
‘So when you turn on your computer every morning you’ll see this login screen. You type in your username, which is just your name and then your password. I’ve taken the liberty of giving you one for now. The love of your life.’
Bella looked at him sharply and saw the smile playing on his lips. He gestured for her to enter her password. If he had put his own name as her password she was going to kill him. Obtrusively, she entered the word Alfie, pressed enter, and to her surprise the screen came to life.
He smiled. ‘I’m hurt that you didn’t try my name first.’
‘You’re a long way away from being the love of my life, Mr Scott.’
He laughed.
‘You can change your password in here if you want to,’ he said, hovering the cursor over a cog button. ‘This is the internal messaging service. You can also message people who work in the London, Birmingham and Manchester offices too. The main thing you will need to access is the diary.’
He pressed a book icon and a calendar filled the screen that was almost entirely empty.
‘This is the events diary. When you add an event you need to put what it is, time, location, any other details, and then you can tag in certain people or departments at the top if they need to attend.’ He clicked on a menu button, selected his own name and a different layer appeared over the top of the calendar, this one filled with dates and meetings. Some were colour coded green, some were coded red. There was a whole band of red the following week and as she looked closer she could see all those meetings were in London. ‘If you tag me using this button here, then it goes into my calendar as well and I’ll get an email to tell me that my calendar has been updated with an event.’
‘Anyone can tag you in an event? No wonder your diary is so full.’
‘No, the only people who have access to my calendar are me, Claudia and now you.’
She frowned. ‘Why me?’
He looked at her. ‘Because I will need to attend every event that you create.’
‘Why, to check I’m doing a good enough job?’
He looked at her in surprise. ‘No, because this is my company, I need to be present at all events,’ he said, simply.
‘Oh.’
‘My diary is colour coded. If something is in red there’s no way I can move it, so you’ll have to be careful not to arrange anything for those days. If it’s green then there’s some flexibility.’
‘Most of the events I hold will be at weekends or evenings,’ Bella said.
‘That’s fine. I’m free most weekends, so that shouldn’t be a problem. This is your diary.’ He clicked a button. ‘There will be some events that you will need to attend with me.’
‘With you? Like a date?’ Her voice was suddenly high and tense.
‘Definitely not like a date, Miss Roussel. I’m trying to gain sponsorship for our charity f
rom some big companies and as fundraising manager you can talk to them about how their logo or name will appear at our events and how you can bring awareness to their companies through our events.’
‘Oh, I see.’ Bella flushed again.
‘What I would like you to work on is creating a list of outside contacts that we can tap into for every event, if we need to: caterers, staging, crew, fireworks, things like that,’ Isaac went on, smoothly ignoring her mistake. ‘This will be a list that you will build every time you have an event and a list that hopefully you can make a start on today with your experience and people that you’ve used before. The hope is we will eventually have access to their diaries in the same way that you have access to mine so we can see if they are free without having to go through ringing them all individually. Eventually they will all appear on this system and you can tag them in an event so they are automatically informed about it and booked simultaneously.’
‘That’s impressive.’
‘It’s quite easy really, it’s the same thing that couples or families have on their phones to sync their diaries. Once you’ve added them to the list I will contact them and ask them if they want to be a regular supplier with us and discuss with them about syncing their diaries. I can set all that up. But that’s why it’s important that the people you put on the list are not just people who can provide that particular service but people that are reliable and do a great job.’
‘OK.’ Bella watched him as he clicked through a few screens on the computer. This was a man who knew exactly what he wanted and she found herself quietly impressed with his skill and knowledge.
‘Easter is coming up and although it’s last-minute I would like some events scheduled for the bank holiday weekend and maybe for the school holidays which start at the end of next week. It doesn’t have to be anything big. You can save the zombie run for later on in the year,’ he grinned. ‘Just please, promise me, no cake sales.’
Bella laughed.
Isaac stood up, towering over her. ‘Come on, I’ll show you around.’
He moved to the door, holding it open for her before he followed her out, placing his hand on her back for a second before he snatched it away. ‘Sorry,’ he murmured.