Maid for the Rock Star(35)

Audra tugged her arm free. "I can't. I...just can't. Please, can we talk about something else?"

Serge pointed at the jetty that extended past Villa Penguin. "Get on that jetty, woman, and we can start the interrogation."





FIFTY-SIX



"What do you think is the biggest disadvantage of working at an isolated location?" Serge demanded.

Audra took a long, slow pull from her beer and lay back on the jetty. Now that she was finishing up her second beer, the timbers didn't feel so hard. "It attracts those with a sense of adventure who will never be satisfied with a normal job. Having to rely on your own skills and experience, often without access or even open communication channels to your superior, and defend your decisions later. Working in places most people would kill to visit, let alone live in. Knowing that if you make a mistake, the risks are higher because it's harder for help to reach you, and hence weighing your decisions carefully. You know you're doing a job that someone has to, but you miss those you love back home. Email and phones and video calling can only go so far to alleviate how much you miss being able to touch them.

"Here at Romance Island Resort, I've seen all of that. I took the job because the location was somewhere I'd never been and the isolation allowed me to save money because there was nowhere for me to spend it, except on alcohol. It's hard to find the enthusiasm for more than one or two quiet drinks in the evening because you're still at work, being judged by your colleagues, and if you get drunk you could put everyone in danger. An ambulance took four hours to reach a car accident and take the injured driver to hospital. He could have died in that time and he was lucky to live. I found myself practicing first aid skills I only knew from theory and courses, then later having to assume a level of responsibility I hadn't expected.

"I have no partner and no children, but I still have family and my absence affects them, too, because where they might have relied on me in the past, now they have to rely on themselves and each other. But in my experience, meeting the challenges of working in an isolated location like a remote island resort makes you more resilient and better able to meet even greater challenges in the future. Even if you don't have a sense of adventure to start with, you soon develop one. It's hard not to. At the end of the work day, just standing out in the dark and looking up at the millions of stars in the sky...it's like no city job anywhere."

"Hmm." Serge frowned at the paper in his hand, holding his phone over it to illuminate the words. "What would you do if one of your colleagues took the last mango beer and refused to share it with you?"

Audra sat up. "I don't believe that's on the list."

"Answer the question!" Serge barked.

"If he was both a colleague and a friend who'd paid for the beers, and I'd already drunk half of them, I'd probably wish he'd share it with me. But I wouldn't say so because I've probably drunk more than I should have, anyway." Audra drained her beer. "Do I get the job?"

"I'd hire you, and I'd send you to one of those adventurous places before looking for a transfer for myself. You make working in the arse-end of nowhere sound exciting."

Audra laughed. "This isn't the backside of anything. This is paradise."

"That's the beer talking for sure. Cleaning toilets is paradise? Weren't you ready to kill some VIP the other day?" he teased.

"Cleaning toilets in paradise. There's a difference. You know I got the permanent position? Annette told me today. All I have to do is fill out the paperwork and I'll have a job until the graduate one starts next year."

Serge cracked open the beer and raised it. "Congratulations." He passed it to her and waited until she had her mouth full before he added, "Adam's had to let me go. The day of your job interview's my last day."

"Oh no!" Romance Island wouldn't be the same without Serge and his easy humour.

"It's only a week early. No big deal, really. The resort's pretty low on bookings next week, so that's it." He retrieved his beer and drank deeply.

"Will you have enough hours to get your certification?"

He shook his head. "My brother's got me a job at one of the wineries near home, so I'll work there through the summer and see if I can do those hours at one of the local gyms. I'll get there. We're all working toward our dreams, but you'll get there first. I know it. And now you have a camera, you can send me pictures of paradise, here or wherever you get sent, via email."

"I still have to do the interview. They might hate me," she admitted.

"Nah. Just repeat what you said to me, especially the bit about adventure. They'll give you anything you ask for after that."

"Even the last beer?"

Serge handed it over. "Even the last beer."





FIFTY-SEVEN



"...Like no city job anywhere," Audra finished, then swallowed nervously. "I wish I could show you what I mean, but it won't be dark here for hours yet."

On the laptop screen in front of her, Scott grinned. "I have a fair idea. One of my first postings was to the Cocos Keeling Islands. Talk about paradise. If you ever get the chance to work out there, take it and go."

Audra gave the manager of the graduate programme her best nervous smile. "If the Bureau gives me a job, I'll take whatever posting I'm offered."

He leaned forward. "Would you really?"

"Of course. The adventure bug bit me out here, I think, though I thought it was a midge at the time. At low tide in the mangroves, there are millions of them..."

"What about Antarctica?" Scott interrupted.

Audra paused to consider her answer. "I would say Antarctica is probably the most adventurous and isolated workplace I could think of," she ventured.

"Good. Antarctica's usually somewhere we don't send staff until they have a few years' experience at one of the remote stations, not to mention a year's training here in Melbourne, but you come highly recommended and one of your references, a Professor – "

"You've called Peter already? I thought you didn't contact references until after the interview." Audra's blood ran cold. Her research supervisor hadn't smiled once at her during her entire honours year, while constantly telling her that her work needed to be better. Never good enough...

"We've been trying to contact you all week, but your mobile phone goes straight through to your voicemail."

"I...I thought I mentioned that there was no mobile access up here."

"We didn't know that until we got your email three days ago."

"Ah." She realised she'd interrupted him. "Sorry, please continue."

Paper crackled and the edge of a white page appeared in Scott's hands. "It says your honours thesis was on analysis of storm intensity in relation to climate change. Did you do all the analysis yourself?"

Audra felt stung. "Of course."

"We're short a junior meteorologist for this summer's Antarctic field expedition to Dome Argus. We need a meteorologist who's better with numbers than most and your research supervisor said you were one of the most mathematically gifted students he'd ever taught. He was quite angry that you didn't continue to do your PhD. The staff member who was allocated to go didn't pass her medical. Would you consider yourself physically fit, Audra? Capable of meeting all the requirements?"

Now she smiled. "I've been working with the personal trainer in the gym here at the resort and that's when I'm not fighting linen trolleys twice my size and weight. I...probably, yes."

"You're our first preference for the spot, but the ship leaves Tasmania in eight weeks and you won't be able to go until you've done at least four weeks of training at the Australian Antarctic Division facility here in Australia. You can start the graduate training programme next year with your colleagues in March, when the Aurora Australis brings the summer staff home. How soon can you start?"

Not work here for the wet season? Trade tropical seas for the icy Southern Ocean? "The dry season ends at the end of this week. I could start next week, but I don't have the right winter clothes or anything."

Scott waved her concerns away. "The AAD provide all your gear, and your space allocation for personal belongings will be pretty limited, or so I've heard. I've never been to the Antarctic stations." He nodded, as if a decision had been reached. "I'll send through the paperwork. It should be in your inbox...now. We only need you to sign the contract. Once we get that, I'll get my PA to book your flights. I'm looking forward to meeting you."

The call terminated before Audra could protest or say goodbye.

What had just happened? She'd expected to feel relieved after the interview, not more stressed than ever. How could she go to Antarctica? Or tell Annette that, after working her arse off to get the permanent position, she no longer wanted it because she was taking a job at the South Pole? Not to mention her family. If they couldn't contact her, who would sort out their problems for them?

There was still the problem of Jay, too. She'd searched every inch of her room twice and still not found the money. More and more, she'd started thinking that she'd need to take the cash out of her savings and give it to him. If she took this crazy, cold job, she'd earn it back soon enough. In the first month, maybe. Cold comfort, but she didn't deserve any better.