by Emma Lea
It was the longest five floors of her life and she practically held her breath the whole way. Tinny, piped Christmas music played in the otherwise silent elevator as it ascended. Zoë wasn’t the type of person to make idle small talk with a stranger in an elevator, but she had questions. Who wouldn’t? The guy was dressed as an elf. Admittedly, it was only a couple of weeks away from Christmas and every shopping centre from here to the back of Burke had a Santa in their crowded halls, but Austin Industries hardly seemed the type of place to employ an elf for their staff. And then there was the costume itself. It was December and hot. One of the hottest Decembers on record and he was covered in head to toe elf costume. Wasn’t he…hot? Obviously he was hot in the eye-candy way, but wouldn’t he overheat in all that…polyester? Zoë was hot and was cursing her choice of long pants and satin blouse. A cotton dress would have been more appropriate for the weather, if not quite appropriate for work wear.
The other thing that bothered her was that he looked so casual about it. Like, hey I’m just an elf chillin’ in an elevator, as if he did it every day. She needed to know the answers to her questions and just as she was about to give in to her curiosity and turn back to him, the elevator came to a stop and the doors whooshed open. She stepped through the opening and turned back to him. He lifted his eyes and met hers with a small smile.
“Merry Christmas,” she said, and then felt like a complete moron as she walked away. Did she hear a chuckle as the doors closed?
“Hi, can I help you?”
Zoë smiled at the woman behind the desk. “Yes. I have an appointment with Rebecca Fitzpatrick.”
“You’re Zoë Farraday?”
“That’s right.”
“Great. Take a seat and she’ll be right with you.”
Zoë had barely sat down when a woman stepped through a glass door to the side.
“Zoë?”
She stood and smiled. “Hi. I’m Zoë.”
“Great to finally meet you,” Rebecca said, tipping forward and extending her hand. Zoë shook it confidently.
“And you,” she replied.
“Come on through and we’ll get these employment contracts sorted.” Zoë followed her through the glass door and down a long hall. “I’m so glad we could get together before the company closes down for the Christmas break. It makes your induction week a whole lot easier when we have all the details squared away.”
“No problem,” Zoë said, taking the seat Rebecca directed her to in a small office. There were no hints of the Christmas season on this floor. The elf in the elevator was a definite anomaly.
Rebecca slid a file across the desk and talked her through the contract. It was all the usual stuff; superannuation, non-disclosure agreement, tax information, and her personal details. She signed her life away and the boulder that had been sitting on her chest since the day Tanner had stabbed her in the back finally lifted. This was good. FMR had been a great place to work, but when the executives had taken Tanner’s word over hers, she knew it was time to move on. Austin Industries had an impressive reputation and she was looking forward to getting stuck in.
“We’re all done,” Rebecca said with a smile. “This is your ID badge and your swipe card. I’ll be here to meet you on January seventh to show you around the offices and introduce you to everyone. There’ll be another person starting with you that day and you’ll be working together for a few weeks before we split you off into your own accounts. Sound good?”
Zoë’s smile turned brittle. “No problem,” she said and then swallowed, collecting her thoughts. “I was under the impression there was only one position,” she said casually.
Rebecca sighed. “There was but Mr. Austin’s brother is returning unexpectedly to the country, so they’re putting him to work.”
“O-kay,” Zoë said, slowly. “And what does that mean for me?”
Rebecca smiled brightly. “Nothing. Don’t worry, it will be fine. There’s enough work for both of you.”
Zoë nodded, but the weight that had so recently lifted, thumped back down heavily on her chest. The boss’s brother. Great. Just what she needed. Competition with the favourite.
2
The elf—AKA Blake Austin—stepped out of the elevator on the top floor. He felt his chest tighten as the familiar scent of money and compromised ideals surrounded him. How many times had he come here, excited to see his father only to be disappointed yet again when he left? He didn’t think today would be any different.
The jingle bells of his costume rang gaily as he walked down the hall from the elevator. He’d gotten a few weird stares from people, but not as many as he’d expected. He could tell that the woman in the elevator was just bursting with questions and he would have gladly answered them for her if only she’d turned around. He sighed. A missed opportunity, for sure, but he hadn’t come back to Melbourne just to fall into the same old patterns.
“Blake?”
He smiled at the shocked PA. “Hey Janey. Is my brother in?”
She nodded in jerky movements. Blake didn’t have to wear the costume here, but he couldn’t resist. His brother would hate it.
“You can go on through,” she said, finding her voice.
He grinned at her and handed her a red and white striped candy cane with a wink.
The big, oak door still intimidated him. He wasn’t twelve anymore and it wasn’t his father on the other side, but the memories of the past had a particularly nasty habit of popping out, unannounced and at the most unwelcome times. He swallowed and plastered a wide, carefree smile on his face as he opened the door and stepped into the spacious corner office.
Jack sat at a large, mahogany desk with the Melbourne skyline shimmering behind him through the glass of the floor to ceiling windows. Blake’s step hitched as an almost identical picture superimposed itself over reality. Jack looked so much like their father sitting there that it was almost as if he had stumbled through a wormhole into the past.
Jack looked up, his eyes going wide momentarily before narrowing and his mouth twisting in a sneer. “Really, Blake?”
“Where’s your Christmas spirit big brother?” Blake asked, sauntering into the room and flopping into one of the chairs that were artfully arranged around a coffee table to show off the view and make the guest aware of just how powerful Austin Industries was.
Jack rolled his eyes and pushed up from his desk, taking a moment to buzz Janey and ask for refreshments, before crossing the office and settling into the throne—ah, wingback chair—opposite Blake.
“You thought this was appropriate attire to meet your boss in?” Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.
“What happened to you?” Blake said, squinting his eyes at his brother. “You used to have a sense of humour—oops, wait. No. That’s right. You never had a sense of humour. I’m pretty sure mum told me you were born wearing a three-piece suit with stick up your arse.”
Jack made a point of sighing dramatically while rolling his eyes. The office door opened and Janey walked in with a tray of coffees, two bottles of water and a plate of Tim Tams.
“You remembered!” Blake said, with a grin for Janey.
“I figured you’d been out of the country and hadn’t had a fix in a while,” she said with a small smile. She looked at Jack, took in his furrowed brow and her smile dropped. “I’ll hold your calls—”
“Don’t bother,” Jack said. “This won’t take long.”
Blake leaned forward and snagged two of the chocolate biscuits, waiting for Janey to leave the room before he spoke. “I don’t remember you being such a bastard,” he said mildly before biting into a biscuit.
“You may have forgotten that this is a place of business,” Jack said. “We don’t all have the luxury of galivanting around the world and living off the profits that other people work hard for.”
“Galivanting around the world? Is that what you think I’ve been doing for the last twelve months? Didn’t you read my travel blog, big brother?”
“I
have better things to do than read The Adventures of a Poor little Rich Boy.”
“That’s a cool name. I should have called my blog that.” Blake tossed the rest of his uneaten Tim Tam on his plate and brushed his hands off. “Why did you ask me to come in?” he asked, his voice serious. “It obviously wasn’t to discuss my gap year.”
“Gap year?” Jack snorted. “You’re not a uni student taking a year off before buckling down to study, Blake. You’re a grown-arse man and it’s about time you remembered it.”
“It was a gap year,” Blake said. “For me. I needed a break from being an ‘Austin.’ I needed to find out who I was and how I fit into the world.”
“You can’t run away from being an Austin,” Jack said. “It’s in your blood. And as for who you are and where you fit? You’re the second son of Stephen Austin, grandson to Jack Austin Senior, and part of this company and this family.”
Blake snorted. “Aren’t the company and the family the same thing?”
“It’s about time you realised that.” Jack took a breath. “You need to sign some paperwork,” he said. “The office closes at the end of the week and I’d like to get all the loose ends tied up before the Christmas break.”
“Fine,” Blake said. “Where do I sign?”
Blake hadn’t come here to fight with his brother, but it was far too easy to slip back into the roles they’d played for so many years. His time away from the family had given him a new perspective on what life was really all about. He’d come back with a changed attitude and a determination to build bridges and maybe find a way to rebuild the family that had fractured from neglect.
Jack got up and stalked to his desk, grabbing a file and returning. He handed it to Blake with a pen. Blake flipped the file open and let his eyes skim the document. With each line of the contract, the band around his chest tightened.
“Are you sure you want this?” he asked Jack.
“It’s time you started working in the company instead of living off your trust fund.”
Blake exhaled slowly, tamping his temper. He leaned forward, laying the contract on the coffee table and signing his name; sealing his fate. He handed it back to Jack, who gave it a cursory glance before turning and going back to his desk, effectively dismissing Blake.
Blake shook his head slowly as he got to his feet. It looked like the meeting was over. So much for reconnecting with his brother.
“So about Christmas?” Blake asked.
“What about it?” Jack replied, not looking up from the work in front of him.
“I thought we could do a big thing at the house. You know, dinner and a tree. You and the kids could stay over and we could all do Christmas morning together.”
Jack lifted his head and looked at Blake strangely. He opened his mouth to answer, but the intercom on his desk buzzed.
“Yes, Janey?”
“Call for you on line one. Ashby Chocolates.”
“Put it through.” Jack looked up at Blake. “We’ll talk more about it at dinner tonight,” he said. He looked back down at his desk and smiled. “Jonathon, hi. I’m glad we could finally connect.”
Blake turned from the man he’d idolised as a kid and walked out of the office. He smiled to Janey as he passed her desk and pushed the button for the elevator. Well. That could have gone better.
Did he really think the meeting with his brother would be any different? They had been cast in their respective roles from a young age and it seemed Jack was bound and determined to stick to the script. He was the eldest, the one destined to take over the family business. The golden child who’d been the recipient of all their father’s attention. Not love, never love. Love was for the weak, according to his old man. And Jack had conformed to the mould, becoming a perfect cookie cut-out of their father. He was even going prematurely grey, just like dear old dad did.
He was yet to see Rory, their younger sister, but he imagined she hadn’t broken her mould either. The baby and a girl, little had been expected of her except to smile prettily and marry well. She revelled in it, not that Blake could blame her. She was daddy’s little girl and had the old man twisted around her little finger. Rory always got away with everything. She just had to batt her eyelashes or work up a few strategic tears and Stephen Austin would crumble like a house of cards. They were lucky Rory was such a sweetheart or they could’ve ended up with a real monster.
That left Blake. Middle child. The spare to Jack’s heir. He’d always felt like he didn’t quite measure up to his older brother. In the eyes of their father he was never quite smart enough or accomplished enough or ambitious enough. So why try? Blake had busted his gut as a kid just for the chance that his father might validate him in some small way. But when someone gets kicked in the teeth enough times, they stop caring, so Blake stopped trying. And then he discovered girls and cars and just how useful a trust fund could be.
Which all led to Sasha and the moment of brilliant clarity. He was lucky he’d found out about her before it was too late. He’d fancied himself in love, she’d been more interested in adding his last name to hers and what that would do for her bank account and her social standing.
But that was all in the past and Blake had come back to Melbourne to reconnect with his family and somehow try and bring them together. They were family, after all. Bound together by blood. Didn’t that guarantee that they could have some sort of relationship?
He snorted to himself as he stepped onto the elevator. He wasn’t as naïve as all that, but it was a nice thought. What better time than Christmas to try and mend those connections that had suffered from neglect and carelessness? Christmas was all about family and forgiveness and unconditional love, right?
The tinny Christmas music serenaded him with songs of snow and roasting chestnuts while the city outside baked under the hot summer sun. He’d spent his last Christmas backpacking in Iceland—a far cry from the summer heat of Australia. Christmas was different in the northern hemisphere, but it didn’t make a good old Aussie Christmas any less special. There may not be snow and ice skating and Frosty the Snowman, but there was seafood and pavlova and ice cold beer to wash it all down. Not to mention backyard cricket and mangoes and…Blake sighed. Who was he kidding? A good old Aussie Christmas was just as foreign to him as a traditional English Christmas was. His family was hardly the backyard cricket type.
The elevator slowed and the doors whooshed open. The woman from before stepped through the doors and stopped when she saw him, a slow smile spreading across her face. He smiled in return. She was cute in her business suit and her dark hair cascading over her shoulders in soft waves. Not that he was interested. The last thing he wanted was to get involved with anyone who was in the least way tied to Austin Industries. He didn’t want to get involved with anyone, not yet, anyway. Not until he found his feet and settled into some sort of normalcy. Coming home was about reconnecting with family with an eye to starting his own. Sasha had burned him, but his time away had shown him not all relationships had to be that way and not all families had to be as cold as his was. If he was honest with himself, that’s what he really craved. Family. Connection. He wouldn’t get that by being involved with someone from the company; someone who knew exactly who he was and what his last name meant.
“Are you just riding the elevator today?” the woman asked as she punched the button for the lobby.
“Something like that,” he replied looking down at his phone and grimacing. You’d think with all this technology they’d have found a way to make cell phones work in elevators.
“Problem?” she asked as the elevator resumed its descent.
He lifted his eyes to hers, struck with the sparkle he saw in them. He held up his phone. “No cell service,” he replied.
“Waiting on an important call from Santa?”
“Gotta update the Naughty or Nice list,” he replied, flashing her a smile.
3
“Maybe I should send him an email,” Zoë said, drawing her brows together in a w
orried frown. “Dear Santa, I can explain…”
He laughed and the sound of it made all her girly bits shiver and clench. Whoa. He had a nice laugh. He had a nice face too. A cute smile with a dimple in his left cheek and blue eyes. If anyone could rock an elf outfit, it was him.
He fell silent and dropped his eyes back down to his phone. With a sigh, Zoë turned around and watched the floor numbers as the lift travelled down. She needed to finish her Christmas shopping and find an outfit for Christmas day and there was the town Christmas party. She definitely needed a new party dress for that. Her savings were dwindling quickly but with the new job she could afford to splurge a little bit. It was Christmas after all.
The lights flickered and the elevator shuddered before coming to a stop. The music that had been playing a jaunty rendition of Jingle Bell Rock cut off leaving them in silence and then the lights went out, leaving them in darkness apart from the dim orange glow of the security light.
“What the fuck?” she breathed, looking around.
“It looks like we’re stuck,” Captain Obvious said from the corner.
“Ya think?”
Zoë started pressing buttons on the control panel.
“You might not want to do that—”
She turned to glare at him. “At least I’m doing something,” she said.
Was it getting hot in there? How could they get any air into the small metal box that trapped them? They were going to suffocate, die from carbon monoxide poisoning or asphyxiation or whatever the hell you die from when you ran out of air. Zoë tugged at the top button of her silk blouse desperate to get free from the restriction around her throat.
“Hey, hey,” the elf said. “It’s okay. I’m sure they’ll free us soon.”
