The sun barely peaked over the horizon as I whispered farewell to the American girls and quietly packed up my things, throwing them into the caravan.
"All ready?" whispered Uncle Gary.
"Let's do this," I replied softly, but with all the determination I had.
And so, our adventure continued.
Three hours in, we stopped at the Nanutarra Roadhouse for a break. Fed, watered and dewatered, I exited the roadhouse and made my way to where I'd left the olds.
Uncle Gary, stationed in the shade, had a large map spread across the hood of the car, inspecting the routes. Aunty Lindy was peeking over his shoulder. Upon my approach, Uncle Gary erected himself and began his presentation.
"Okay, my lovely ladies, we have two choices," and with a grand gesture, swept his arm across one part of the map. "To our left, we have the coastal route, complete with stops in Karratha and also Dampier where, I believe, exists an information centre about the off-shore gas mining plants. Very exciting. Now, to our left we have the in-land route. A little hotter in temperature, perhaps, but this journey boasts the excitement of Tom Price, with surrounding mines and the Karijini national park. What be our general consensus then?"
I grinned at his manner.
"Lizzie, what is your preference?" sought Aunty Lindy.
Hands up, I surrendered. "Hey, I'm just the lowly tag-along here, you guys decide because I'm happy with both."
Content with that answer, Aunty Lindy then persuaded Uncle Gary to take the in-land route, citing her desire to see the Karijini national park and all its wonders.
"Then it's settled, Tom Price, here we come."
GDM.
My heart skipped a beat.
The three big, black letters of doom loomed closer.
"Oh, Gary, let's pull in here, maybe we can book a mine tour without going through a travel agent."
"Uh-…so-…di-"
Yeah, I had no words.
As we turned into the mostly empty car park, I gulped.
It's not like Will would be here. He's the CEO, and CEO's don't bother to go on site, right? Right?
I had no idea what CEOs did or did not do. I was screwed.
Sidling along a curb under the shade of a gum tree, I knew I had to take control of the situation. Be strong, make decisions, work the crowd.
But instead, I panicked.
"I'll go!" I blurted out suddenly, and two pairs of confused eyes stared back at me. "That is, I'll go and ask. The people. That work here. If we can book a tour… yeah."
Jumping out of the air-conditioned car before I heard the discussion about whose side their niece got her crazy from, like a punch in the gut I was immediately hit by the heat of the day.
March on, Lizzie.
Giving a quick wave to the olds to let them know I hadn't completely lost the plot, I headed towards the main entrance.
Main Entrance.
Main Entrance.
I definitely did not go in the main entrance.
Perhaps, I thought, I could just waste enough time outside and then go back to the car and lie.
Sneaking around the side of the building, and out of sight of the relatives, an uncomfortable surprise awaited me in the form of a smaller brick building set apart from the main one. A quick look to the parking space before it and my mouth went dry.
"Reserved for W. Darcy, CEO"
My blood rushed from my face. It seemed he did come here.
But the empty parking space before me indicated that he wasn't here now.
I hoped.
I had to know.
Pushing open the heavy door to the office, a breeze of cold air instantly cooled me.
"Yes, ma'am?" asked a young smartly-dressed man in his twenties, seated behind a solid oak desk; smile granted willingly.
"Uh…" I stumbled. Questions bombarded my thought process. Who was this guy? Why was he talking to me? What was he doing in the waiting room of Will's office?
And the biggest question of them all… where was Will?
It was then that it dawned on me that I hadn't really thought this part out.
"Are you here for the tour?" he asked gently and I noticed he was wearing a name badge. Spencer.
"Spencer..." I muttered to myself.
And then it clicked.
Spencer must be Will's secretary.
Of course, curse my gender stereotyping, after what had happened with Belinda, no wonder he wanted the person he worked closely with to be a male.
"Ummm, not really," I stuttered.
Okay Lizzie, this time, say something not completely moronic!
"How can I help you then?" he asked, still with his extremely pleasant and not-totally-frustrated-by-my-inept-vocabularily-ways countenance.
"I… I'm a friend of Will's…"
Well… for all intents and purposes of this conversation, I was going to be.
Stop judging me.
"… and I was just wondering if he was in today. I know he's normally away and stuff…"
Did I just say 'stuff'?
Lift your game Lizzie.
"… but I was in the area and hoped to catch up with him, you know… as old friends do."
Okay, mouth? Just stop talking already.
Spencer's expression went from polite regard to sincere regret.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! If you'd come a day later, you would have caught him, but unfortunately, he had a meeting in Melbourne this morning.".
I let out a deep breath, which Spencer took for disappointment. I didn't correct him.
I smiled. "That is a pity. Oh well, perhaps some other time…"
"Shall I let him know that you stopped by?"
"No!"
Wow, way to be subtle, Lizzie.
"That is to say, I mean, no, I just wanted it to be a surprise and I think he'll be more disappointed than anything if he knew he'd missed me and so, uh, yeah."
An understanding nod from Spencer.
Then a polite smile.
Then a curious look.
Oh right, I thought, I am hanging around awkwardly. Gotcha.
"Say," I began, about to pull open the heavy door before remembering my proper mission for coming here, "uh, my Aunty and Uncle are here and wanted to take a tour of the mine site… can we book through the main office or do we need to go through a tour agency or something?"
That accommodating smile was back.
"That's no problem, normally we let people do it through an agency, but since you're friends with Mr. Darcy, I'm sure we can pull a few strings for you."
Oh, great.
Spencer looked to his computer screen and moved the mouse around, the clicks making their way to my ears every so often.
"Okay, there's a tour starting in twenty minutes, will that work? I'll see if I can get you guys in on that."
He began to punch a few numbers on his phone when I whispered that there only needed to be two spots free. There was not even the smallest intention in me to spend my afternoon walking around a mine site – been there, done that, the horrid year six school camp to Kalgoorlie – that was five days of my life that I was never going to get back.
Minutes passes and after the securing of two extra places, Spencer courteously offered that I wait out the tour with him, in the comfort of the air conditioned office, as opposed to the world's hottest car in existence.
Okay, so it was an awkward situation, but I looked at the facts. No Will. Stupidly hot outdoors. I may be socially awkward at times, but I'm no idiot. I accepted.
With a quick trip to the car to inform the relatives of what their plans now were, I returned to Will Darcy's air conditioned office to pass the next hour and a half with Spencer.
Or Spence, as I now called him.
It was clear that nothing could go wrong.
Spending an hour in the waiting room of a man's office can tell you a lot about the man. But also, subtly interrogating his secretary seems to work just as well.
"Have you worked for Will long?" I asked, seated on a dark blue couch across from another equally dark blue couch, a Jarrah coffee table elegantly placed in between.
"Just over a year," replied Spencer as he continued with his filing. "I transferred from our head office in Melbourne."
"Was that a difficult change? Moving from a big city to a … remote town?"
Spencer smiled wryly. "It was, but it's a good step for my career. And I usually travel with Mr. Darcy when he's in Melbourne for longer than a few days, so I end up going home fairly often … often enough to keep my family happy, at least."
"And what's it like? To work for him, I mean? I only know him outside of work so…"
"…so you've only seen him in one setting, I understand." Spencer chuckled. "Well, even if he were a horrible boss, I wouldn't talk badly about him to his friend, but actually, he's one of the best bosses I've worked for."
I desperately wanted to ask him, 'What, he doesn't stare at you and make you feel like you're a freak?'
Maybe he only does that to the girls he likes, Lizzie.
Shut up, brain.
"Really?"
"Yeah, really," replied Spencer earnestly. As if anything but earnestness could come from Spencer's mouth. "He's very polite and at first I thought him shy, well, you would have probably experienced that-"
Yeah, that's seeming to be the common experience.
"-but after a few months working together, he seemed to relax and trust me, so I can honestly say that he's fair and kind-hearted, through and through."
Hmmm. Interesting.
"How did you meet Will, Lizzie?"
Uh-oh.
Don't incriminate yourself, Lizzie.
"Uh, when he was in Perth. We have a mutual friend… Harry Bandly?"
"Oh, yes, Harry, I know him. So, just that one month, then?" asked Spencer hesitantly and, I was sure, now reassessing how much trust he should have put in me.
I panicked.
"Oh, and then not long after, we met again in Adelaide…"
He was still not convinced, so I did the only thing I could think of.
I channelled Chrissy.
"And now we're very close friends…" and I purred it out and flicked my hand and fluttered my eyelashes and hoped to heck that Spencer got my meaning.
Praise the heavens, he did.
A smile graced his lips. "Ah, I see, that's good to hear, Mr. Darcy can use some good people in his life."
I frowned a little. "Why do you say that?"
"Well, you know him, he's shy and he lives a reasonably solitary life… I mean, he has his sister, and Harry, but he doesn't always get to see them. I think he gets lonely sometimes."
Oh.
"Oh, Lizzie, please don't tell him I said that, I only meant it to say that it will be a very happy occasion when he finally does marry, he'll have someone to share his life with."
"Yeah," I muttered.
"He's very choosey about girls from what I've seen, so it's great to hear that you've wiggled your way into his heart."
"Yeah."
Lost in thought for a moment, I looked up to see Spencer peering at me, quizzically.
"Oh! I mean, yeah! Go Team Will! Let's get that man married already!"
Spencer laughed before turning back to his filing.
Meanwhile I reddened, wondering how on earth I had gotten myself into this situation.
"Would you like me to pick up some lunch for you?" asked Spencer, heading out the door. I looked at my watch – twenty minutes of the tour left.
"Nah, you're going into Tom Price, yeah?"
"Ah, no. Paraburdoo."
"Oh well, I don't think you'll be back before the tour finishes, and maybe my aunty and uncle will want to keep travelling after that so…"
"Oh, no problem. Hey, if you leave before I get back, just pull the door shut – it's self-locking so no one will come in while I'm gone either. It was great to meet you, Lizzie, I hope to see more of you someday…"
Yeah, you probably won't.
"Yeah, same here Spence. Enjoy lunch!"
"Will do. Bye."
"Bye."
And just like that, I had been left alone in William Darcy's office waiting room.
I counted tiles, I inspected fibres. There wasn't a lot to do, but thank heavens it was still cool inside from the air conditioning.
Finally, lounging on the couch, I picked up one of the magazines on the coffee table.
Australian Mining
Why not? Just a bit of light reading…
I began to peruse the articles on the new air filter being released and a controversial mine shaft near a school, when suddenly I heard a key jiggle in the lock and the doorknob turn.
"Whatdya forget, Spence?" I asked, not looking up.
"… Elizabeth?"
Stomach suddenly clenched, I spun my head to see if the voice matched the face.
Yep.
"Will!"
If there was a time to swear, it was now.
A/N - *rolls around on the floor laughing*
