by Holly Martin
Bella didn’t say anything as embarrassingly enough she had quite liked him touching her like that, it was sweet and protective.
They walked into the lift and the doors closed behind them.
‘I’m going to introduce you to your team, Elsie and Roger…’ He hesitated before he spoke and Bella knew he was trying to find the right words. ‘I can’t fault their enthusiasm but… You were right when you said our fundraising team could do better. They lack any kind of the imagination and creativity that we need. If I get one more suggestion of a cake sale I might actually scream. You really are going to be a breath of fresh air to our fundraising team. I’m not sure how susceptible they will be to change and being told what to do but I’m relying on your kindness and endearing charm to get them on your side. Elsie actually applied for your job and she wasn’t at all happy about not even getting shortlisted for an interview.’
‘My endearing charm?’
He grinned. ‘You have that in abundance. Just be your natural, wonderful self and she’ll be putty in your hand.’
She smiled at the compliment.
‘You charmed Madge too. She never likes anyone we interview. After your interview, she actually walked out and said there was no point in interviewing anyone else.’
‘Really?’
Isaac nodded.
‘I thought she hated me.’
‘She wears that disapproving look like a uniform.’
‘And Eric, did he like me too?’
‘Oh no, Eric thinks you’re going to come in here and rob us all.’
Her heart sank. ‘Seriously?’
‘Yes,’ Isaac shrugged.
‘Don’t sugar-coat it, will you?’
‘Hey, I don’t want to massage your ego too much. You impressed Madge, no one impresses her.’
The doors pinged open and Isaac waited for her to walk out. He led her down a corridor into a large office where two people were sitting at their desks. She knew Roger; he’d often gone fishing with her uncle Finn. The lady was presumably Elsie. She’d seen her around the island but didn’t really know her to talk to. Roger stood up as they walked in and Bella couldn’t help smile at his manners. Roger had a thick mane of silvery hair and she knew he was in his late sixties. Elsie was around the same age, with matching silvery hair styled in a tight perm. But whereas Roger was smiling at her, Elsie had the same disapproving look that Madge had worn during her interview.
‘Elsie, Roger, I’d like for you to meet Bella, our new fundraising manager.’
‘Hi, lovely to meet you,’ Bella said, more for Elsie’s benefit than Roger’s. She smiled, hoping that would put them at ease.
‘Hello, Bella.’ Roger shook her hand warmly, despite having known her for several years. ‘It’s lovely to see you again. We’ve heard such good things about your experience. We’re both looking forward to working with you.’
Bella glanced over at Elsie, who didn’t seem to share his enthusiasm.
‘Nice to meet you,’ Elsie sniffed.
Bella looked at Isaac who was suppressing a smile. He obviously had expected this. ‘Let me show you your office.’
Isaac directed her to a door in the corner of the room and when she opened it she saw only the incredible view of the rugged coastline, the sweeping cliffs and the emerald meadows set against the sparkling blue of the sea.
‘Oh, it’s beautiful.’
‘Yes, well, it seemed fitting.’
She turned back to face him, wondering what he meant, noticing at the same time that there was of course a desk, computer, two chairs and a sofa in the room which she had missed before.
‘Let me show you around the rest of the building.’
He took her round, showing her where the staff lounge and the canteen was and introducing her to several people. By her reckoning there were about fifty people that worked in the office, though Isaac explained that some of them worked part-time or from home a few days a week as most didn’t live on the island. Bella easily recognised the ones that did live on the island. Although she didn’t know them all to talk to, on an island as small as Hope Island she couldn’t help but identify the locals. Isaac knew everyone by name, which put her to shame, but growing up with most of the kids bullying her because her parents had dumped her, she’d tended to keep to herself a bit more than was probably necessary. Isaac was charming and friendly to everyone; she enjoyed watching him as he interacted with different people. It was no wonder she had fallen under his spell over the weekend, he was just so damned likeable.
He escorted her back to the entrance to the main fundraising office, handing her the forms she needed to fill in.
‘If you have any ideas you want to talk through or any questions you want to ask, just give me a call. You’ll find my extension on a list in your office. Or you can use the internal messaging system.’
She nodded.
He hesitated a moment. ‘And if it isn’t too unprofessional, would it be OK to treat you to lunch in the staff canteen – nothing fancy, just a sandwich or a baked potato? I feel like I owe you a meal after I ate the last of your porridge.’
She paused but found it impossible to say no. As much as she was still angry over what he had done, she enjoyed spending time with him.
‘Is it a date?’
That wonderful smile lit his face. ‘Definitely not a date, Miss Roussel.’
‘In that case I accept.’
She walked into the office and somehow knew from the goosebumps down her neck that he was watching her go.
Isaac walked back into his office with a huge smile on his face. There was something about Bella that just made him feel so happy. And although he knew they couldn’t take it anywhere he was just enjoying being with her.
He logged back into his computer and immediately received notification that Bella had updated his diary with an event. That was fast work even by her standards.
He opened his diary and saw he had been added to a cake sale. He burst out laughing. As he wondered how to reply, another notification popped up. Lunch in the staff canteen at one o’clock with Bella. He clicked on the details and laughed.
Definitely not a date.
He carried on laughing when he realised that, like the cake sale, lunch was colour coded red so he couldn’t change the booking.
Oh god they were flirting and he was loving every single second.
Chapter Eleven
Bella spent a while creating a list of reputable people that she had used on events before, adding their contact details and comments about the different services they offered. She finished the list and emailed it over to Isaac so he could make contact on behalf of the company. As she closed down the email program, she looked up at Roger and Elsie in the main office.
What was she supposed to do with them? Did they have jobs to do or was it her job to delegate to them? Madge was right, being in charge of a team of people was very different to working on her own or working with outside companies. When events were underway, there would be lots for them to do to help with the organisation and admin, but what were they doing now?
She noticed Elsie was searching for handbags on some website and when she glanced over at Roger she realised he was completing a crossword.
She stood up. It was time for her first team meeting. She picked up a pen and notepad and walked out into their office.
She grabbed a chair and wheeled it between their two desks.
‘OK, Isaac would like us to come up with an event for Easter weekend, and I know that’s only two and a half weeks away which doesn’t leave us a lot of time but do we have any ideas?’
Elsie and Roger looked up from their very busy workloads and stared at her blankly as if they weren’t used to being asked their opinion.
‘No cake sales,’ Bella said, hoping she wouldn’t offend them if they were responsible for the cake sales in the past. ‘Isaac is looking for something different.’
Roger wheeled himself closer to join the meeting, though it was qu
ite clear he didn’t have any inspiration.
‘I thought you were the fundraising events manager, isn’t it your job to come up with ideas for events? We’re just the admin staff here to assist you,’ Elsie said, making her disapproval very clear.
‘We’re the fundraising team, we’re supposed to work together, bounce ideas off each other. You’re both integral parts of the company; it’d be great to use your experience,’ Bella said, smoothly. In truth, she had a ton of ideas but she couldn’t just sit in her office and handle it all herself. Well she could, but they were her team now and she knew she’d need them.
Elsie hesitated for a few more moments before grabbing her notebook and pen and wheeling herself over to join the impromptu meeting.
‘Isaac wants something for Easter weekend?’ Elsie shrugged. ‘What about an Easter egg hunt?’
Bella thought about this. It would attract a few hundred people maybe, if the weather was nice. It would raise a bit of money but it was hardly unique or different.
‘That’s a good idea, but it’d be good if we could offer something that could be done on a bigger scale, something that would attract more people, maybe around the UK.’
‘We could co-ordinate with our different offices and arrange an Easter egg hunt in Manchester, Birmingham and London too.’
Bella sighed inwardly. Maybe Isaac was right, maybe they just needed something small and she shouldn't aim so big straight away. Easter was coming up in just over two weeks and anything big would never be organised in time. Even though she really wanted her first event to be an impressive one, an Easter egg hunt would be really easy to pull off too. She knew from past experience that little local events were as important as the bigger ones.
‘Any other ideas?’ Bella said. ‘What would make you come along, what would capture your interest?’
‘Geocaching,’ Roger said excitedly, his eyes lighting up.
‘What’s that?’ Elsie said.
‘It’s like a treasure hunt type thing,’ Bella explained. ‘People leave a little box in a hidden location with some kind of treasure in it and upload the co-ordinates and description of where to find it on a geocache website so other people can go looking for it. It’s very popular in America, but it’s becoming more popular over here.’
‘With real treasure?’ Elsie asked.
Roger shook his head. ‘Normally people leave toys for kids, or perhaps some jewellery they might have made, like a bracelet, or football cards, old coins, poker chips… some people leave vouchers or coupons. Some people take it very seriously and have their own coins made, you know those squashed coins with some kind of stamp on them, but that stamp will be individual to the person. Then when other people find the cache they will trade something of equal value for whatever they find in the box. It’s great fun, but generally the treasure isn’t really anything of worth, people just enjoy finding them. Maybe we could do some kind of Easter egg geocache.’
Bella smiled. ‘I really like the idea of that, but if we leave real chocolate eggs then they could get ruined in the weather and, once someone finds the cache and takes it, that would ruin it for any future children that find it.’
‘Could we leave some kind of egg tokens that the kids could swap for real chocolate eggs once they find them?’ Roger suggested.
Bella thought about this for a moment. People would love it – a whole new meaning to the world of Easter egg hunts. But it would require people all over the UK to commit to placing a cache with egg tokens that were somehow coded so they could be swapped for prizes. They could end up with lots of people volunteering in one area and nothing in several other areas. But this was definitely something she could work on.
‘How about some kind of Easter egg decorating competition?’ Elsie blurted out, keen not to be outdone.
‘Maybe,’ Bella said, not wanting to offend her by telling her it had been done a thousand times before. It was not hard to see who was responsible for all the cake sales. ‘Maybe we could do it on a bigger scale.’
‘Bigger eggs?’ Elsie asked in confusion. ‘Well, ostrich eggs are quite big but I’m not sure—’
‘Bigger eggs! That’s a great idea,’ Bella said and saw the first smile from Elsie. ‘We could get some large plastic moulded eggs for people to decorate. We could even do it on a bigger scale, get companies to join in and decorate their own eggs and place them in locations around the country,’ she said, writing the ideas down on her notepad. ‘Like the Cows on Parade in Chicago. But that would take a bit of organising so maybe we can put something like that in place for next year. But we could certainly do some kind of competition with large painted eggs. OK, let me think about this.’
‘How about some kind of Easter or chocolate-themed ball?’ Roger suggested, clearly getting into the swing of things. ‘Everyone loves getting into their posh frocks and having a bit of a dance. We could have chocolate fountains or Easter egg table decorations.’
Bella nodded.
‘Or some kind of funfair or theme park for the children,’ Elsie said. ‘They have that Winter Wonderland in London at Christmas, we could do our own Easter Wonderland. Have fairground rides, games, all with some kind of Easter or chocolatey kind of theme. We used to have a spring funfair here every year; we could do something like that again.’
‘I love that idea too,’ Bella said, genuinely, and Elsie’s smile grew. ‘I remember the funfair when I was a child. It would be good to bring it back to the island again.’
They talked through a few more ideas and how they could make them work before Bella went back into her office.
A fair and a ball would be fairly easy to organise, she’d done quite a few of those in the past and they were always good money makers. But there was something about the geocaching and the Easter egg hunt that spoke to her – but how to make it work?
Isaac’s diary was still up on her screen after she had added him to the cake sale and lunch. He had a few meetings coming up for his technology-based companies, BlazeStar and SparkStar. She knew from her research that Isaac’s companies made apps and other computer programs to help companies run their businesses more smoothly. She remembered what he’d said when she thought he was Zach: that he’d always wanted to go into computer gaming, designing and building his own games but that had somehow passed him by. Maybe he could create some kind of Easter egg hunt computer game.
Suddenly an idea came to her. She wrote down some notes and spent a few minutes researching on the internet. She smiled. Isaac would really like this. Bella picked up the phone to call him but then she changed her mind. He might be busy. She opened up the internal messaging system and sent him a message instead. That way, he could get back to her once he was free.
I have an idea I’d like to talk to you about, do you have a minute?
She pressed send and saw the icon next to the message change to show he had read it. She stared at the screen, willing him to answer or to pick up the phone and call her but after a few minutes it was quite clear he wasn’t going to reply.
She checked her emails and saw he hadn’t replied to her about the list she’d sent over earlier either. Nor had he made any comment about the cake sale or the lunch date she had put into his diary.
Maybe he really did want to keep things professional between them and he didn’t appreciate her banter or her bothering him every few minutes with her silly ideas.
She opened up the internet and started researching large Easter decorations that she could use if they were to hold a fair or ball.
A knock on the door distracted her from the screen and she looked up to see Isaac standing in the doorway. She couldn’t help the grin from spreading on her face when she saw him.
‘You have an idea you wanted to discuss, Miss Roussel?’
‘I didn’t expect you to come running down here to talk to me, a phone call or a reply to my message would have sufficed.’
‘I don’t do things by half. Besides, we have our lunch meeting shortly and as it was in red o
n my diary I certainly didn’t want to be late for it.’
Bella let out a little giggle.
He moved into the office. God he was so big. Her office was quite roomy but now he was in there, it felt very small. ‘I also got a notification about a cake sale. I must say, I expected something more from you.’
She shrugged. ‘Well I like to give you something unexpected. You weren’t expecting a cake sale so I think I achieved that.’
‘I guess you did. So this cake sale—’
‘You can’t get out of it, it’s in red.’
‘It’s at your house.’
‘Yes.’
‘And I’m the only one invited.’ The humour had gone from his eyes and in its place was something else she couldn’t put her finger on. ‘It’s not exactly professional.’
She swallowed. That undeniable chemistry was back in the room again, sparking in the air between them.
‘You’re not the only one invited, Alfie will be there too. I’m sure he’ll love cake.’
‘Well as long as we have a chaperone; wouldn’t want you throwing yourself at me again.’
He sat down and that spark of humour was back in his eye but, despite the fact that he was only teasing her, she couldn’t stop her cheeks from flaming red.
‘I didn’t throw myself at you…’ she trailed off, knowing she couldn’t really call it anything else. ‘Besides, you didn’t exactly seem unwilling.’
He stared at her for a moment. ‘I regret that more than anything.’
His words were like a slap round the face. He regretted the kiss. Had she completely misread the signs from him? She thought he had been flirting with her since she had started work that morning. Did he genuinely have no interest in her at all? But if he didn’t then the whole weekend really had been a lie.
Well if he wanted professionalism, she would give it to him. She straightened in her chair.
‘I discussed some ideas with my team; Elsie suggested an Easter egg hunt and Roger talked about incorporating that into a geocaching hunt. So I’ve had an idea that combines both ideas. I thought about creating an app similar to Pokémon Go. It’ll be a location-based game where children and adults can use the GPS in their phones to locate virtual Easter eggs in real-world locations across the UK. We can even use augmented reality so that the eggs appear on the screen using the phone’s camera as if they are really in front of the person using the app. It’ll be free to play but there’ll be in-app purchases to help find the eggs more easily or maybe different tools to smash the eggs once they’ve found them or something like that. And that’s where we will make our money. The eggs they manage to collect will equal points and once they reach a certain point total they can swap those points for real chocolate eggs in the real world.’
