Work Text:
“I need your help?”
Phillip Crane glances up from behind a server tower to acknowledge voice at the door to his server room. Today is not going smoothly. Phillip almost knocks his head on the empty rack above him in his haste to straighten up at the sight of Eloise Bridgerton. She is part of Bridgerton Group’s legal counsel and when she’s not busy poring over contracts and legal notices she is spending time together with Penelope a few floors below him. But today she has graced the seventeenth floor with her presence.
“Eloise. Hi.” He pats himself in the back at another terrible attempt to have a normal interaction with her. Phillip can’t help but get tongue-tied around Eloise. She is so witty and fast paced where he is serious and clumsy. He genuinely enjoys these little visits of hers since they tend to break up the monotony of his day.
“Hi. My laptop died; I think. Gregory tried to help but he said this was above his paygrade.”
“Isn’t he here on a volunteer basis?” Phillip asks as he takes Eloise’s laptop and motions for her to follow him to his workstation at the back of the room. He smiles when he notices that she stuck a blue sticky note with a sad face scribbled in black ink to the top of it. The sticky notes started with actual requests scribbled on them, and somewhere down the line Phillip can’t remember who, they slowly morphed into silly doodles. He’s kept all of his in his work journal.
“So, you see the irony in it too?”
Anyone outside of Bridgerton Group would argue that the company ran on nepotism. And while Phillip could agree that nepotism was involved to a certain degree, the Bridgerton’s that are here on a permanent basis are more than qualified in their positions. From what Penelope told him, Eloise was set on not joining her older brothers at BG until Anthony agreed to invest more time and resources into their non-profit projects. Eloise is loud about the things that matter to her, the things other people are quick to look over. She is willing to walk into ignored communities, listen to the issues, and work tirelessly to find a solution. He admires the hell out of her.
“Did you enjoy your time away visiting your family? The photos you sent looked beautiful by the way. I showed them to Pen, and she agreed with me. I hope that was okay.”
Phillip feels his breath quicken at that. He was a little tipsy when he sent those thanks to George and Marina’s efforts to get him to loosen up. Phillip eventually opened up about the beautiful lawyer to whom he had taken a liking. His confidence was soaring when he stumbled into his brother’s gardens and snapped several photos of the various things that grew there. Apple blossom, because I prefer you. He should not have had that last drink. Sage, I’m never not thinking of you. George and Marina were truly the best at getting him to open up. White gardenia because you are lovely. He had no one to blame but himself for the last one. Red roses because I love you. Christ! He should resign immediately. Then, he’ll swear off drinking, or at least drinking around his brother.
“Oh, um, thanks. I did enjoy the mini holiday. The twins are getting bigger every time I visit and it’s always nice to get away from the hustle of the city.”
There. No mention of the flowers, and therefore no secondary line of questioning.
“I think I’d go mad with all that silence.” Eloise jokes. “Any luck reviving that old thing?”
In truth, he had her laptop diagnoses and remedy the minute she walked away on her last visit. Phillip has been begging her to upgrade her old laptop since he met her last year. Phillip told her that her it would keep burning through replacement batteries and Eloise told him that she would continue to visit him her laptop could go on no further.
“Another replacement battery, and another satisfied customer.” Phillip says as he hands Eloise her laptop back. “Please consider an upgrade soon. Heard from my parts guy that they’re phasing out these replacement batteries. Not good for the environment.”
“If this one kicks it before the end of the month, then I’ll let you pick my replacement laptop. Deal?” She’s being cute with him and sticks her hand out for him to shake.
“Then I will be seeing you soon. For your collection.” Phillip releases her hand and gives her a green sticky note with a poppy drawn in red ink.
“No roses?” Eloise gives him a bashful smile.
Phillip is left dumbstruck by her question, but Eloise is gone before he can think of a way to respond.
Phillip is reading through his unread emails at the end of the day, most of them requests to reset passwords when he notices an email from Penelope. But this is from her personal account to his own personal one.
From: [email protected]
Subject: :)
The rose was a little too on the nose.
P.S. Gardenias.
-Pen
Gardenias. For good luck.