Why was Hawk Danielson including them now? Did it have something to do with the recent robbery accusations he’d pitted against the entire custodial staff? Considering Stina’s warning to the custodial staff earlier, he’d made it clear they were on rocky ground.
She was sure he’d seen right through her on the elevator. She’d stuffed her employee badge into her purse as quickly as she could. But then he’d been cool and flirtatious, even in the midst of his bout of anxiety. He hadn’t seemed to notice her badge at all.
All his talk of thrusting herself on him—she hadn’t been sure how to reply. It wasn’t often that men flirted with her, let alone men who looked like him.
He hadn’t known who she was. How horrifying it would have been if he had, to be trapped in there with him and have him passing judgment for her custodial status, or worse, thinking her a pickpocket the entire time.
Both Brandy and Chloe gaped at her.
“A ball? You know you’re bringing me as your single guest, right?” Brandy said.
Ella lowered her phone. “You say that like I’m going.”
Chloe jutted her head forward. “Uh, why wouldn’t you?”
Even if she went, she wasn’t sure she’d bring Brandy along. While they’d been friends for a few years now, and Ella loved her company in smaller settings, Brandy was an extrovert who insisted Ella be one, too. It would be disarming enough at the ball around Hawk Danielson. She didn’t need Brandy there trying to drag her onto the dance floor.
“It seems a little condescending, don’t you think? They’ve never invited any of us before. Look at the date. The ball is in two days. It’s like they’ve only just now realized we’re a part of the corporation too. Sure, custodial isn’t the most glamorous thing to do, but it’s a job, and even Mr. Danielson said this morning how—”
Brandy cut her off. “Wait. You met him?” She and Chloe exchanged a look. “You failed to mention that.”
“Yeah, it was kind of embarrassing, actually,” Ella said. “After work, I met with Samantha, you know? When she gave me that fabric. Anyway, I ended up getting stuck in an elevator with him.”
Both machines stopped whirring. Chloe and Brandy stabbed their shocked gazes into her. “You got stuck in an elevator with him?” Chloe said. “Is it just me or does that sound completely romantic?”
“Please tell me you took the chance to swoon into his arms,” Brandy added.
The pit of her stomach coiled. Ella had fantasized about that very thing all through lunch and even now while watching the needle on her machine zigzag up and down. How easy it would have been to play the bumbling idiot. To tumble against him, take advantage of the secluded darkness and the moment’s spontaneity and kiss a complete stranger.
He’d said he wanted a distraction. She certainly could have distracted him with a few harmless kisses.
Truth be told, she hadn’t had to pull away from his embrace. He’d been so mesmerizing, and he hadn’t seemed to mind her proximity in the least.
What would have happened if she’d tried something like that?
It was useless to even imagine. She felt stupid even considering it. Things like that only happened in movies, not in real life. Not between all-out gazillionaires and lowly custodians.
“It was anything but romantic,” Ella said, deciding not to mention his phobia of tight spaces. She wouldn’t want her problems brandished all over the place. In fact, it made her respect him that much more for not being as perfect as he appeared in pictures.
“So tell us.” Brandy scooted away from her sewing machine and placed the half-sewn pillowcase on her lap. “What’s he like?”
Ella attempted to act indifferent. She turned her attention to the cluttered stacks of papers beside the TV, trying to ignore the irony. She cleaned by profession, and yet her house grew messier by the day. She hadn’t seen the surfaces of anything in here since she’d moved in. “Why do you care?”
“You can’t be this impartial,” Brandy said. “Especially not if you saw him. He’s scrumptious.”
Ella lifted her chin. “I hadn’t noticed.”
Chloe belted out a laugh. As Ella’s roommate, she knew her better than most people would. “That’s the biggest chunk of baloney I’ve ever heard. Seriously, what was he like?”
Ella’s body temperature ticked up a few notches at the memory of being held by him, either from embarrassment or at how considerate and then outright flirty he’d been. That whole hindsight being 20-20 wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t she have foreseen the effect he’d have over her at the time? Would she have done anything differently?
“He’s nice. He told me a little of his Christmas traditions and kept his cool under duress. He even—”
“What?”
Whoops. Too much.
“Nothing,” Ella said. “He held the door as I left, that’s all.”
But that wasn’t all. She couldn’t stop thinking about how he’d continued asking about her even once the elevator started moving again. As though he’d been genuinely interested in her. She’d wanted to stay too, to keep talking to him and answer his questions. But she couldn’t let him know who she really was.
It shouldn’t matter, but even without the thievery accusations, admitting she was nothing more than a custodian who scrubbed toilets, cleaned floors, and picked gum off the underside of desks to someone as influential as Hawk Danielson seemed like the definition of undignified.
“Is Mr. Danielson going to be attending his honorary ball?” Chloe asked.
Ella’s face heated all over again. “I don’t know.”
“Would you stop acting completely uninterested in this guy? The pink in your cheeks is totally giving you away.”
Ella flattened her hands over her face. “Will you guys give me a break about it?”
Brandy and Chloe exchanged grins. “Someone’s touchy. I thought you said nothing happened with him.”
“Nothing did.”
“Yet,” Brandy added with an eyebrow quirk.
“And nothing will.”
“You’ll never know,” Chloe teased, reaching over and tapping a finger against Ella’s phone, “unless you go to his fancy ball.”
Ella lowered the piles of paper she was sifting through and glared at her friends. “You guys are crazy. Christmas Eve is in two days. You know how many pillowcases we have to finish before then.”
“Why would pillowcases hold you back?” Brandy leaned against the table, resting her cheek on her fist.
“Because,” Chloe said, folding her arms. “Knowing our girl Ella, if she goes to a ball, she’s going to insist on making her own dress. And she doesn’t have the time if she’s got to sew pillowcases.”
She’d hit the spot. It was just Ella’s way; she liked the experimentation, the design of things. Outdated as it was, Project Runway was one of her favorite shows. She would even attempt to do some of their challenges, giving herself the same parameters and timeframe. It was one reason she was what her friends called “fabric poor.”
“You’re making this into a bigger deal than it actually is.” Ella folded the pillowcase she’d just finished and moseyed over to add it to the stack. There were fifty-seven children in that hospital ward. Fifty-seven kids who had to spend Christmas in the hospital, and she wasn’t about to let a single one of them down just so she could make an exquisite gown that might not even be anywhere near suitable for the caliber of this ball.
No, she didn’t need to go. It was one more thing to add to her to-do list. The thought of him unhinged her enough as it was. She didn’t need the complete derailing seeing him again would bring, let alone dancing with him.
She’d just have to push aside all thoughts of Hawk Danielson—and his indigo eyes, amazing hair, and stimulating consideration of her—aside.
CHAPTER FIVE
Hawk stared at the list. HR finally emailed him the lineup of employees in each of Ever After Sweet Shoppe’s departments, including each person’s mugshot. He didn’t care if Cynthia
down in Staffing thought it was an odd request—the only way he could connect a face to a name was with a picture. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about that woman since their chance encounter in the elevator. And he hoped a single headshot would be enough to jog his memory.
She’d been so calm, so kind and patient as she tried to distract him and keep him from hyperventilating. He scrolled through screen after screen. Marketing, Accounting, Sales, Human Resources, Production; he browsed through each quickly, eagerly, anxious for the woman he’d met to jump out at him.
Several times a brunette woman with brown eyes caught his attention, but something held him back every time. One was too old. One had a mole near her upper lip. One woman had audacious bangs and a prominent nose. None of them completely fit the image from the woman he’d spent a handful of minutes in an elevator with. None of them matched the face he continued seeing even in his eyelids.
Who was she? She’d implied several times she worked in his building. The nametag she’d stuffed into her bag implied that she did, anyway. Her talk about working Christmas Day still threw him. None of his departments would be open. Which one did she work in?
He had had a complete breakdown right along with the elevator. Maybe she’d mentioned the department during his minor panic attack, and he’d missed it. Who could she be?
He sent a text to Deanna.
Did the emails get sent out?
They did, sir. Your entire staff has been invited.
The entire staff; that was a relief. Hawk supposed he could skim over the line of recipients, but that was a little too obsessive for his liking. Besides, what good would it do if he didn’t know her name?
The invitations had been extended. Hopefully, the mysterious woman would be attending the ball. It would be completely normal for him to seek her out then, to ask for a dance, wouldn’t it?
***
Ella dragged her feet. Three-thirty a.m. came too soon on a summer day, but add snow, below-zero temperatures, and wind chill? With her apartment’s radiator on the fritz in the early morning hours, she was just plain cold.
She blew warm air onto her hands, keeping as quiet as she could to avoid waking Chloe. The two had shared an apartment since starting Stitches for Sierra. Chloe was such a heavy sleeper, she usually didn’t notice the floor creaks or the accidental cupboard door slams as Ella attempted to retrieve her usual Clif bar and banana breakfast.
Solitude in these early morning hours was a catalyst for deep thinking and personal reflection. Maybe it was the darkness. Maybe it was the stillness of being alone; maybe it was the lonely ache in her heart, but for whatever reason Ella thought about Hawk Danielson.
A man like that would probably never think twice about a woman like her. What did she care? Still, it made her feel the slightest bit of shame for her chosen employment.
A custodial company was the perfect job for someone like Stina Malus. Stina liked to be the boss, to make others clean up messes, to give orders, have someone else do the work and then reap the benefits herself. Knowing Stina’s stuffy, controlling personality—and seeing the way she kept her own house so completely pristine where not even dust dared to descend—a custodial company seemed below her as well. Stina always wore it like some kind of brand, however, like something that was owed to her.
Then again, that was how Stina treated everyone and everything. Why should her company be any different? It brought in the bacon, and that was all Stina cared about.
As for Ella, Stina had offered her a position after she’d graduated high school—and after she’d basically booted Ella out of the house. It’d been an incentive, to soothe the impact of being uninvited from her home. With the prospect of paying rent, Ella had been forced to find a job and decided to save herself the hassle of interviewing somewhere else.
Ella had intended on going to college at the time, and custodial had been the best job she could find that would help her be able to juggle both school and work, seeing as how her custodial hours started so much earlier than her classes would have. But reality had hit with the force of a sledgehammer. Working such early, long hours left her too exhausted for classes. Survival mode kicked in, and she’d had to drop out.
Like always, Ella had done her best to find the positive in the situation. Postponing school was for the best, she told herself. She needed time to build her portfolio before applying for the fashion design program at Garson’s School of Fashion Design in New York. Sure, custodial meant having zero social life because of how prematurely she had to go to bed, but it left her afternoons open for Stitches for Sierra. Work was bad enough—she much preferred getting it over first thing in the morning. Even if it did mean cleaning toilets.
For the first time in a long time, the concept of something more absorbed her. Something different. Something where she could see daylight hours. Where her evenings would be open for a dinner date or otherwise date with a good-looking, one-of-a-kind guy like Hawk Danielson.
Ella stuffed her feet into her boots with more force than was necessary. What was her problem? It wasn’t like he’d even asked her out or anything.
She paused with the zipper halfway up her calf and couldn’t help wondering—what if he had asked her out? What would she have said? Sorry. I have to go to bed by eight?
It was the main reason she didn’t bother trying to date anyone. Well, that, and the disastrous end to her very brief relationship with Derek Cummins, her stepsister’s ex-boyfriend. Dating was of no use. Ella didn’t want a relationship. She didn’t want Stina interfering the way she did last time.
Ella didn’t want to lay blame at Stina’s door for that, but what else was she supposed to believe? Stina had known Ella was out of town. She’d invited Derek over anyway. It had been no secret how jealous Pris had been of Ella’s relationship with him.
At least Ella lived in her own place. She just wished she had the courage to tell Stina no in the employment arena, too. But Stina was her only connection to her father these days, and Ella got the feeling he wouldn’t be too pleased if she quit, either.
Slipping into her coat, beanie, and gloves, Ella stepped outside and locked her apartment door behind her.
She thought about Stina all the way through town, driving slowly and carefully as snowplows were still pushing clear the fresh snow which had fallen the night before. Within minutes, she pulled into Ever After Corporate’s monstrous facility. Smoke rose from the dual pipes, and shadows pooled over the back entrance. Ella parked and exited her car, pausing in the morning’s stillness.
Westville was beautiful, she’d give the town that much. The slow-rising fog, the white hush in the air, the smell of crisp, stark cold. She took a moment to breathe it in and bask in the icicles tipping every tree and the edges of Ever After’s rooftop.
“This is what people who are sleeping right now miss,” she said to the quiet air. This was absolutely stunning, her own personal snow globe. What a wonder, to be the first to leave a footprint, to have a conversation with the stars and snowflakes as they drifted lazily down.
Ella’s coworker, Janice, strolled through the snow from her car a few feet over, meeting Ella at the door.
“Morning,” Ella told her.
She could barely hear Janice’s muffled response through the scarf covering her face. Clearly, she wasn’t as mesmerized by the morning’s weather as Ella was.
Together, they entered the back of the building, kicked the snow from their boots, and found Stina waiting at the desk in the breakroom with her arms folded in distaste. Pris and Charlotte chatted in their corner, and a few of the others sat on the bench, retying their shoes after donning their jumpsuits.
“What did we do now?” Ella whispered to Janice as she turned the key to enter her locker and removed her freshly wadded jumpsuit. Whoops. She really should have folded it nicely.
Other members of the crew seemed to harbor the same unease. The room was as solemn as a tomb.
“Who knows?” Janice said, zipping her jumpsuit ov
er her clothes. “She‘s always got something to grill us about.”
Ella stiffened. Had something else gone missing?
The tense mood continued while the rest of the sleepy crew trickled in. Emmett, with his short-cropped curls, saluted Ella and Janice with two fingers at his temple.
Stina sat at her almighty chair, arms folded, mouth pinched, until Ella and the crew stood in their gray jumpsuits, ready for keys and the day’s assignments. Ella suddenly felt as though she were in the army rather than on a janitorial staff.
Officer Stina gave a noisy sniff. Her chair creaked, and she rose and stood before them like for all the world she was a drill sergeant.
“Mr. Danielson is getting suspicious,” Stina began. “How many of you received an email with an invitation to the ball yesterday?”
Ella traded a confused glance with Janice. She received a snooty glare from Pris and a surprised squint from Charlotte. One by one, each member of the crew raised his or her hands. Was there something wrong with having been invited?
“So did I,” Stina said. “To have him extend this invitation so soon after accusing one of us of theft?”
“Innocent until proven guilty?” Charlotte suggested.
Her mother ignored her. “That means he’s noticing us. That means we’re either doing something very right, or very wrong. Let’s make sure it’s the former, people. Make sure you’re double and triple-checking your work. Every garbage can, every hallway, every stair. Make sure your work is impeccable, and if you know anything about the missing office supplies, be sure to report it immediately.”
Ella’s stomach twisted. “You still don’t know who’s been taking things?”
“Isn’t it always the guilty one who speaks up first?” Pris sneered at Ella across the room.
“I didn’t do it.” Ella offered her hands in unnecessary surrender. “I’m just surprised they haven’t found out who it was.”
Ella And The Billionaire's Ball (Once Upon A Billionaire Book 2) Page 4
