6 months after the RFDS fundraising ball. Leonie stuck her head out of her office door.
"Pete, there's a video call for you. In here."
Pete's confusion was evident. "For me? In your office?"
"Yes. Sit down."
Pete walked around behind Leonie's desk and was startled to see Eliza's face on the computer screen. He sat down warily as Leonie shut the door behind her.
"Eliza. What's going on?"
"That's what I was wondering."
Pete tensed. "What?"
"I've been trying to call you for two weeks."
"Ah, yeah, I noticed. Why?"
Eliza was stunned into silence. Something along the lines of 'Because you're my boyfriend' or 'Because I love you' might have been suitable. But even in six months of regular calls and messages they hadn't used either of those terms and given Pete's demeanour this didn't seem like the time to start.
Before she was ready to answer, Pete spoke again. "I thought you'd already made things pretty clear."
"Sorry, what are you talking about?"
"I think I can tell when someone's trying to give me the shove. Fair enough, your decision. I'll bow out gracefully and leave you to it."
Suddenly Eliza realised what he was talking about. She put her head in her hands and took a deep breath, determined not to be combative. "That's not what I was trying to do."
Pete raised his eyebrows. "We talked for months about me coming over there, then as soon as I had a solid opportunity, you backpedalled. What was I supposed to think?"
Eliza raised her hands, trying to stop the flow of words and sort out her thoughts. After a long moment, she spoke. "My mother-in-law was in palliative care. She died on Monday."
Pete immediately softened. "Oh, Eliza, I'm sorry. Are you ok?"
She shrugged but her tone was slightly pointed. "It's been a long few weeks."
Pete rubbed his hand across his temple, realising how completely he'd misinterpreted the situation. "But why didn't you just tell me?"
"I don't know. It was very sudden, and very odd. When I spoke to you, I'd only just heard, and she wanted me to see her even though I'm not really part of the family anymore, but I was for nearly twenty years and…" Eliza realised she was babbling and trailed off, willing Pete to understand.
"Of course. You needed to do that." He sighed. "It would have been a terrible time for me to visit."
Eliza was a little surprised to see him so calm about it. "Yes, it would have been. I'm sorry."
"It's ok. So am I."
They just sat for a moment, processing the hurt and worry from the last few weeks. Eventually, Eliza spoke. "Did you cancel your leave?"
"No, I took it. Went to the beach. Tried to get over you." He smirked. "It didn't really work."
"Oh, really?" Some of Eliza's sparkle returned at his words.
"Yeah, you seem to have gotten under my skin. In a non-parasitic sort of way, of course."
"Oh, very romantic. So, we're stuck with phone calls again, eh?"
"Seems like it."
There was a soft knock on the door and Leonie opened it just enough to slide through. "I'm sorry. I really need the Section briefing report." She picked it up and headed back towards the door, but Pete stopped her. Now that he and Eliza were back on the same page, he was acutely aware of the strangeness of having this conversation on his boss' computer in the middle of a work day.
"Nah, you're right. I should be getting back to work anyway." He glanced down at the computer's clock, doing the time zone calculation that he'd become so accustomed to. It was time she went to bed. "Call me tomorrow?"
Eliza gave him a sweet smile. "Yeah, I'll talk to you then."
Author's note: I can't quite believe that Eliza would settle for being ghosted by Pete, especially given her ongoing friendship with Leonie. So this is my attempt to fix it. What do you think?
