Beryl and Phyllis found a table and put down their trays. "I'm not saying I mind, but do you eat anything besides Mexican food?" Phyllis asked her friend as they sat down.

"This is Tex-Mex, dear, not Mexican."

Phyllis laughed. "Whatever you say."

"Now, what's this top secret subject we need to discuss?" Beryl demanded.

"Shh. It's not top secret, just not a conversation to be had at the office."

"Joseph's asked you out? I knew it!"

"No, that's not it."

Beryl sighed. "All right, I give up. Talk."

"Robert's been saying things lately about Elsie Hughes and Charles Carson."

"What kinds of things?"

"He says Charles hasn't been himself for weeks."

"Ha! You could say that."

"He wonders if it has anything to do with Elsie. It began right around the time Charles got back from vacation and she had just started."

Beryl sighed. "I can tell you what I know, but it isn't much." She paused. "Did Robert tell you to question me?"

"No, he knows better than that. But I'm the dean's assistant and that means I need to know everything. I won't tell Robert anything you don't want me to, but I will feel better if I know what's going on."

"All right, then. He's right that Charles isn't himself and that it has something to do with Elsie, but I don't know what's happened between them."

"What's Elsie like?" Phyllis wanted to know. "I don't really know her."

"She's nice, a really good person. We've gone out for drinks or coffee a few times. I haven't known her long, of course, but I know her well enough to know that she's the kind of person you want on your side when things get difficult."

"So she's probably not antagonizing Charles?"

"Well, I'm not quite sure about that. I do know that if she is, there's some reason for it. And there's another bit of the story that makes it all even more mysterious."

"Oh?" Phyllis was enjoying this. She wasn't a gossip herself - she had no trouble keeping confidential information and other people's secrets to herself - but she always wanted to know everything.

"They actually met before she started here."

Phyllis gasped. "So they have a history?"

"Not exactly. They met on the flight from Atlanta to Shackleton, when she was coming here for the interview, but they never made the connection that she was his new boss until they'd accidentally run into each other three times. He was on that long July vacation he takes every year, so she'd started working here, but they hadn't officially 'met' yet."

"And?"

"And she told me she liked him. She was glad to know they'd be working together, because she already knew they were going to be good friends."

"Really! And now they don't get along? That is mysterious."

"Mysterious and irritating," Beryl grumbled. "Their disagreements aren't loud and out in the open, but the tension is still there and I hate it. I haven't seen Charles so moody since he first started here, after some tart of an actress in New York broke his heart."

"Almost as bad as when you had to manage Catherine Bute?" Phyllis suggested.

"No, the Bute woman was still much worse. Elsie is perfectly pleasant and whatever may be going on between her and Charles, she never has an unkind word to say about him. She's nice to everyone else and great with the students. They seem to like her, even though I get the impression that she doesn't go easy on them."

"I don't know what to say about it all!"

"You don't have to say anything about it," Beryl remarked. "But you can't have any more gossip from me now. I have twenty minutes to finish this burrito and get back to my desk."

#####

Weeks later, the situation was no less mysterious. Things had settled down a bit, but Charles and Elsie were still at odds. Elsie got along well with everyone else and thrived in her new position. An offhand comment of Beryl's gave Elsie the hint that Robert Crawley had noticed that she wasn't getting along with Charles and she tried to tone down her irritation. As for Charles, his moody behavior at first did not target only Elsie. He also received an inadvertent hint from Beryl, in this case that he had become rude and irritable toward almost everyone. It was a relief to all when he corrected himself and went back to being the kind, though occasionally grumbly, man he usually was.

Charles wasn't proud of his behavior toward Elsie, but sometimes he felt like he couldn't help it - she just seemed to provoke him somehow. The truth was that she had wounded him with her remark about his trying to butter up his boss. Charles knew he was far from perfect, but he also knew he was a man of integrity and her accusation both surprised and hurt him. Right after it happened, he had thought she might have been joking, but she had never said so, nor had she apologized, though it was painfully obvious to both of them that she had offended him. He could only remember his own retaliation the next morning with embarrassment - Elsie had been completely right that he was behaving like a child. After that, however, things between them had settled into regular bickering and mild antagonism. Sometimes he wished they could go back to the way things were when they first met, but she clearly was not the person he had thought her to be. He could not imagine how he could have been so very wrong about her, but it wouldn't be the first time he had misjudged a person. At least this time he had learned the truth before it was too late.

#####

"I'll take the food and get us a seat if you get the drinks," Elsie suggested, taking Beryl's tray from her.

"Right!" Beryl took the drink cups and Elsie hurried off to acquire the only table left in the restaurant. Soon they were seated together with their food and drinks.

"How did you know to get me a Dr. Pepper?" Elsie asked.

"You're not that hard to predict. You usually go for the free water, but if you buy a fountain drink, it's either because you want some iced tea or because you really want that Dr. Pepper. Since I know you think the tea here is swill, it was an easy deduction.

"Well! That's put me in my place."

Beryl shrugged. "If you say so."

"How are things going in the office today? I'd rather be seeing a string of students with sob stories than spend the entire morning in meetings."

"But that's why they pay you the big bucks," Beryl smirked.

Elsie couldn't help laughing. "I suppose so. In any case, I'll be glad to be back in my office this afternoon."

"Charles will be glad of your support. He'll be swamped even with you back in the office."

"I don't know about that."

"I mean it. He needs you. You need him, too, come to that."

"Please, Beryl," Elsie protested. "I know I couldn't manage without him, but I feel fairly sure he would manage both well and happily without me."

Beryl sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. "Elsie, I've tried to understand and I've tried to be patient, but I really can't figure you out. When we met you told me you liked Charles and that you knew you'd be friends."

"Well, I was wrong."

"You'd never talk to anyone else the way you talk to Charles. Why him?"

"Charles and I just don't get along, that's all."

Beryl scoffed. "Of course you don't get along! You've never given him the first chance to be friendly! And don't think he's forgotten how you accused him of brown-nosing back in August."

"He told you that?"

"Yes, why? Was he exaggerating?"

"Not really. Though I never meant to hurt him."

"Well, I'm afraid you have."

"All right, maybe I shouldn't have said that." She paused and shook her head. "No, I definitely shouldn't have said that. But I really can't see what's so terrible about turning a man down for coffee. Is it such a great sin?"

"He was trying to be friendly and welcoming to a newcomer," Beryl argued. "Is that such a great sin?" Elsie was silent. "I really think things would be better for everyone if you try and put this nasty beginning behind you. Apologize and start again. If you don't want to be his friend, then don't. But you don't have to be his enemy."

A corner of Elsie's mouth turned up. "You're lucky I put up with your lectures, you know. It's only because you indulge my love of Tex-Mex."

"And I only put up with you because you know the difference between Tex-Mex and Mexican. But if you take some time to really think about it, you'll see that I'm right."

Elsie shrugged. "Maybe."

"Stubborn woman."

"Pot, meet kettle."

Beryl smiled. "All right, kettle, it's almost time to head back to the office."

To be continued…