Arabella quickly filled in the boxes on the application and added her signature at the bottom. “Most recently, I was an administrative assistant at a plastics manufacturer before I moved to Rambling Rose.” It was true, but Arabella had always considered the title a glorified one considering the scope of her clerical duties. She slid the application back across to Sybil. “I’ve also worked back office at a dental practice, had the ubiquitous phone bank job when I was still in school. Retail work—um, a department store as well as a small independent book—” She broke off when Sybil waved her hand again.
“When can you start?”
“Immediately.”
Sybil made a note on the application and slid it into one of her desk drawers. She rose and rounded her desk. “The trainee program was designed with Rambling Rose locals in mind but we’ll start you there for now. Come with me and we’ll get you set up with a name badge and such. I’ll get a copy of your ID while we’re at it. And then I’ll give you the tour.”
Getting a job couldn’t possibly be this easy. Feeling bemused, Arabella followed the older woman out of her small office. “What about the background check?”
Sybil cast her a sideways look. “You’re going to pass it, aren’t you?”
“Well, yes.” Unless occasionally skipping to the last page of a book counted, there was nothing remotely scandalous in Arabella’s background. Still, it hardly seemed prudent to just trust a person’s word on that score, even if one’s surname was Fortune.
“Then there’s no reason why you can’t start tomorrow—provisionally, of course.”
They stopped in the security office and Sybil made introductions, then went off to get her copies of Arabella’s proof of ID, while she had her photograph taken and a name badge made up right there on the spot.
“The badge is an access key. Encoded with your security rights. So don’t lose it and don’t let anyone else use it,” she was instructed when she received the badge.
Then Sybil returned, and feeling like she was pretending to be something she wasn’t, Arabella fastened the badge on her blouse and hurriedly caught up with Sybil’s ground-eating stride as she started off on the tour.
She introduced Arabella to every department head and supervisor until Arabella’s head felt like it was spinning. The only person they didn’t see was Brady, and that was undoubtedly because Sybil knew he was Arabella’s brother.
The dizzying tour ended once more in Sybil’s third-floor office. She poured herself a cup of coffee from a communal pot and sat on the edge of her desk again. “Any questions?”
Tons. Arabella smiled with more confidence than she felt. “Only two. What time do I start tomorrow and who should I be reporting to when I get here?”
Sybil looked pleased. “Eight sharp and check in at the front desk. I’ll leave further instructions for you there.”
“Thank you.” Arabella shook the woman’s hand. “I appreciate the opportunity.”
“Hope you’ll still feel that way after tomorrow,” Sybil said humorously. She moved around her desk to sit once more and taking her cue, Arabella departed.
Arabella didn’t need to use her new badge to call the service elevator because an older woman with bright blond hair in a big bun on her head was already entering.
She held the door and smiled as Arabella joined her. “New here?”
Arabella nodded, fingering the sparkling new badge. “As of an hour ago, actually.”
“Well, congratulations!” The woman punched the button for the second floor and after a questioning look at Arabella, hit the first floor button, too. “I’m Mariana. I help run Roja here.”
“Mariana! You run the flea market, too, don’t you?” Arabella pumped the woman’s hand with genuine pleasure when the other woman nodded. “That’s where Jay’s grandmother sells her jams.”
Mariana looked delighted. “You know Jay Cross? I remember when he was just a skinny little rug rat. He’s sure grown into a handsome man.”
Arabella flushed. “We’ve met,” she allowed. “Brady talks a lot about you. He says the boys love going out there because of all the food trucks. Yours is the original one, right?”
Mariana laughed even more merrily as she nodded. “Food trucks have come a long way these days from our humble roach-coach beginnings.” She touched the badge on her own buxom breast. “Some might say the same thing about me.” The elevator lurched slightly and the door opened. “Come by Roja soon and tell me how you’re settling in.” She left the elevator, stepping around the tall ladder just outside of the car. “Hey there, Jet-pack,” she said on her way. “Were your ears burning?”
When Jay maneuvered the ladder into the elevator, she wanted to disappear through the padded walls. She’d known the chances of running into him around the hotel were good. But she hadn’t really thought it would happen like this.
He looked equally surprised to see her. “Bella. You’re—”
“On staff here.” She flicked her name badge and tried not to get drawn in by his emerald eyes as the elevator doors closed yet again.
“I see that.” He shifted the ladder until it was leaning against the padded wall. “What department?”
She shrugged. “No idea. I’m starting off in the trainee program tomorrow.”
“Same as me, then.” He smiled. “Be prepared to try your hand at everything from cleaning toilets to delivering room service.”
“And hefting ladders, evidently.”
“I was helping maintenance with the elevators.” He hooked his arm over one of the rungs and his fingers hung loosely on her side of the ladder. If she moved even half a foot, they’d brush against her.
She pressed her back harder against the padding as if to warn herself not to move toward those callused fingertips. “You’ve been here for how long now? Six months?”
“Little past that.”
“Is it common to stay in the trainee program that long?”
“Is that your way of suggesting I’m doomed to be a perpetual trainee?” His teeth flashed.
