Fa La La

By Michelle Cornish

'Tis the season to be jolly . . . even to your enemy!

Robin and her band of merry women started stealing from The Nottingham hotel last holiday season when her niece's medical bills became too much to bear. As this year's holiday season approaches, Robin hopes to erase those bills for good, but there's just one problem. Her scrooge of a boss is on to her little scheme, and he's hired accounting firm Sterling Marian, LLP to find out what's going on.

 

Uncovering the reason for The Nottingham's recent financial woes will get Jake Marian's boss of a mother off his back and secure his place as a partner of Sterling Marian, LLP. But when Jake is forced to share an office with the hotel's events and excursions coordinator Robin, his task becomes more than he bargained for.

 

Unexpected sparks fly, and Robin and Jake learn there's more to each other than meets the eye in this gender-swapped Robin Hood retelling with a modern-day, romcom twist, that's sure to have you saying, "Fa La La" to love!

• Language: English
• Publisher: SolVin Creative
• Release date: Nov 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990221248

Book preview

MichelleCornish_FaLaLa_FrontCoverSmall.jpgFa La La by Michelle Cornish published by Solvin Creative

Copyright © 2022 by Michelle Cornish

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Fa La La is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or people (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-990221-23-1

E-Book ISBN: 978-1-990221-24-8

Cover and interior design by Alt 19 Creative.

Editing and beta reading services provided by

The Author Buddy and Christley Creatives.

Published by SolVin Creative

Solvin Creative

Discover other titles

by Michelle Cornish at

www.michellecornishauthor.com

I wasn’t planning to write a Christmas book this year, but when I saw this crazy cute cover, I had to have it, and I had to write the story NOW! Thank you to everyone who has helped bring this book to life, specifically:

Kay and Roxanne: Thank you for volunteering your time to read Fa La La and provide your thoughtful feedback.

The Alt 19 Creative team: In addition to your formatting and marketing graphics expertise, thank you for creating this wonderful cover and inspiring me to write this story.

The team at The Author Buddy: Thank you for your thoughtful editorial and beta feedback. Thanks to you, the final version is much more whole than the draft you read.

Last but not least, thank you to my family who put up with my ridiculous initial story ideas, as I bounced them around, and my lack of cleaning the house for three weeks straight while I finished writing this book. You’re the best!

Contents

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Preview of Warming My Winter Heart

About the Author

More from Michelle

One

Robin

I step out of the elevator and nearly knock over the poor soul waiting for their turn, the box of Halloween decorations in my hand obscuring my view. Shoot. In my haste to leave for the day, I didn’t bother trying to peer around the box to see if anyone was standing there.

Sorry, I say, catching my balance so I don’t drop the box.

Did you need a hand, Miss Kingsley? I recognize the voice as Eldon the night desk manager. I told him three years ago when I first started at The Nottingham to call me Robin. He thinks he’s funny, continuing to call me by my last name after all this time. I roll my eyes, not sure if his offer to help is genuine or he just saw an opportunity to push my buttons. Not that my buttons are easily pushed, but Eldon can’t help himself. Every week, since the day I started, he moves something of mine to see if I notice. He should know by now, I always notice. But sometimes I pretend not to, just to mess with him.

I chuckle. I got it, Eldon, but thank you. The box isn’t heavy, just awkward. A ding sounds as the elevator doors close behind me and Eldon disappears.

I continue down the dark hallway, proud of how far I’ve come during my time at The Nottingham. When I first started, I hated coming to the basement, but now I realize it’s actually kind of peaceful. The only time people come down here is to access the many storage rooms or to gain entry to the underground, staff-only parking lot.

I deposit the last box of Halloween decorations on top of the other three boxes I brought down here earlier. As the events and excursions coordinator, it’s part of my job to keep the hotel looking festive, regardless of the season.

The dolly I searched everywhere for earlier sits in the corner of the room. Interesting. I see Eldon at the elevator, and now the dolly is here. Go figure. It would be just like him to hide something so helpful when I needed it, but he’s only just starting his shift. Maybe he’s plotting with the day manager now, so he can mess with me at all hours of the day. Or maybe the dolly was here all along.

I load a few of the boxes marked Christmas Decorations onto the dolly, ready to bring upstairs with me when I arrive tomorrow morning. Now that the Halloween decorations have been put away, Charles will be on my case if the Christmas decorations aren’t up as soon as possible. I’d planned to start putting them up today, but finding spots for a few last minute Christmas parties had thrown a wrench in my plans. Charles is all for gaining new business from the community, but not at the expense of pissing off our existing patrons.

I exit the elevator and make my way to my small office just behind the reservation desk. Eldon smirks as I pass by, and I’m pretty sure he was responsible for the dolly’s temporary disappearance, even if he was just starting his shift. I shake my pointer finger at him, and he pretends he has no idea what I’m referring to, giving me a shoulder shrug and a what?

When I reach my office, I close and lock the door before striding across the room to my desk. I take the wad of cash from my top drawer and put it in my wallet. The few excursions that were paid for with cash for the day are supposed to be rung up at the front desk. A pang of guilt overtakes me, and I withdraw enough money from my wallet to account for two walking tours of the city but leave the rest of the money in my wallet. A reasonable number to expect on a snowy day. Most of our guests charge excursions to their rooms anyway.

At the front desk, I give Eldon the details of what the money is for. He types something on his keyboard then puts the money in the lockbox they keep behind the front desk.

Good night, I say, waving over my shoulder and heading to the restaurant and lounge where my friend Jen is finishing her shift too. As I enter the bar, she flips a bottle with the flick of her wrist, catches it, then places it on the shelf behind her.

Show off. I can’t resist teasing her even though she’s the best bartender The Nottingham has, and I know those bottle tosses are second nature to her.

Hey, Jen says, tucking her long blonde hair behind her ear and stepping out from behind the bar as I continue walking toward her. Ready? She asks, shrugging on a black peacoat and throwing her purse over her shoulder.

Even though I nod, she knows our foursome isn’t complete without Freya and Scarlet. We’ll pick them up next.

I spin on my heel and Jen follows me out of the bar and across the hall to Scarlet’s domain where guests’ laundry is dropped off and picked up. She also runs errands for guests, such as drycleaning and picking up any necessities they forgot to bring with them.

She waves when she sees us coming, stuffing something into her pocket. I make a note to ask her about it later. If it’s what I think it was, she needs to be more careful. Shoving cash into her pocket like that in the open is a great way to get us all caught.

Hey, Red, Jen says, stepping up to the counter, tapping her hands on it like she doesn’t know what to do with them without a bottle to toss around.

I give Jen a sharp elbow.

What the—

I narrow my eyes at her, and she realizes her faux pas. Sorry, Scar. After being called Red all day by customers, and what Scarlet refers to as dirty old men, she’d rather we didn’t call her by that nickname.

I’ll let it slide. It’s not like you waggled your eyebrows at me when you did it. She huffed out a breath, shaking her head.

Rough day? I ask.

She shrugs. I’m just glad it’s over. She steps out from behind the counter and turns off the light, closing the door as we leave.

Like we have so many times before, the three of us march side-by-side down the hall to the nail salon to get Freya, our heels sounding out a cacophony of clicks and clacks and our arms swinging with purpose. I sure wouldn’t want to run into the three of us in a back alley.

We all stop dead when we get to the salon. Freya still has a client, and from the looks of the client’s nails, she’s only just started the manicure.

Excuse me a moment, ma’am, she says to the client when she sees us in the doorway. I’ll have to meet you at Jen’s later. She whispers, widening her eyes like she’s trying to shoo us away.

Do you want us to wait? asks Jen.

How will you get there? asks Scarlet, before Freya has had a chance to answer Jen’s question.

Doyle? I ask, remembering the guy in accounting I’d seen her having lunch with on more than one occasion.

She nods, turning to head back to her client. That’s our cue. The rest of us make a quick exit, letting her get back to work.

When the elevator dings, I get out first, leading Jen and Scarlet to the underground parking.

As usual, we’re all as silent as theater goers, just as the show starts, until I’m out of the underground parking lot and merging onto the highway headed east to Sherwood, the tiny town where we all live.

Jen and Scarlet start talking at the same time, and all I hear is a garbled mess of numbers and cheers. Whoa. One at a time. I keep my eyes focused on the road while Jen pipes up again.

I’m impressed by how much cash we’ve collected over the last few days. Last year, Halloween was the big payoff to set the rest of our little operation in motion. The whole thing started innocently enough, but when we realized what we’d stumbled on to, we just couldn’t stop.

It was damn near a two-hundred-dollar day for me.

Christ, Jen. Be careful. My eyes grow big, but they don’t veer from the road. It’s snowing and I haven’t changed my car tires. I haven’t mentioned that to Jen and Scarlet. I don’t want them fearing for their lives, just yet. Besides, it’s just a light dusting. Nothing I can’t handle. And yet I can’t help but think about how Brad’s going to kill me when he finds out. My brother’s a mechanic and I still can’t get organized enough to get my snow tires on before the first snowfall. I’ll blame it on Sherwood and the surrounding area. The weather’s so unpredictable. I scoff. That’s a ridiculous excuse, even for me.

Well, excuse me, Miss Robin. How much do you bring in today?

Shit. Jen must have thought I was scoffing at her. Sorry. It’s just that we can’t get cocky.

Don’t worry. I still rang in plenty of cash sales. It was just weirdly busy today, says Jen.

Maybe everyone’s excited for the first snowfall, Scarlet adds.

You need to be careful too, Scar. I saw you pocket that cash at the end of your shift. If I saw it that means—

Yeah, yeah, she cuts me off. That means anybody else could have seen me too.

Although I’m still focused on the road, I sense that Scarlet rolls her eyes at me.

It’s not my first rodeo. I was careful. You guys were the only people I’d seen in the whole last hour of my shift.

I’m not sure if I believe her. The Nottingham has all kinds of hallways and twists and turns where anyone could be lurking around the corner, but I let it go for now.

I didn’t do quite as well as Jen. Most of my customers charged to their rooms today. I did get a number of tips I’m willing to donate to our cause though, says Scarlet.

No, absolutely not. We agreed on no tips when we started this thing last year, I say.

I don’t see what difference it makes if I want to donate my tips or not. Isn’t that my business?

She has a point, Jen adds.

She sure does, but I hate that this plan is cutting into my friends’ take-home pay. I’m sure Scarlet’s not the only one handing over her tip money on days when The Nottingham patrons aren’t so loose with their cash.

Thanks to my slow driving, on account of still having the summer tires on the Kia, we arrive at Jen’s twenty minutes later than usual.

Come on, says Jen, before I even put the car in park. I have a new holiday cocktail I want to try out on you.

We all pile out of the car. You’ll have to make mine a virgin, I say. I’m only staying until I know Freya is safe and sound.

I’m pretty sure she’s safe with Doyle, Scarlet adds.

What I really want to know is how Freya’s day went. Since we hatched our little plan about this time last year, I’ve come to look forward to our daily totals and strategy sessions. Brad wouldn’t tell me the exact amount he owes, but I figure he needs around another thirty-thousand dollars. If we all average one-hundred dollars a day, we’ll almost be there by the end of the year. And maybe Brad will finally be able to