You see, when I first moved to the country, I couldn't find appropriate rental accommodation, so I was forced to stay at a motel for 3 weeks until I found a permanent place to live. During my first week at the country, my parents visited me to help me find a place to live. They lived with me in my motel room for the duration of their visit.
Whilst they were staying with me, they scouted the town for rental accommodation during the day, and then they would pick me up after work when I finished. However, the day that I met Libby, my parents were running late to pick me up from work, so I walked to the motel and sat outside to wait for them (my parents had the key to the room). Fortunately for me, the 3-floor motel sported a pub on its ground floor, which was Libby's favourite place to hang out every Friday afternoon.
Libby walked up to the front of the motel and asked me if I wanted to join her for a drink. I must admit, I'd met so many people during my first week that I couldn't even remember who she was. If not for the uniform that she wore, I wouldn't even have known that she worked at the same place that I worked! Shyness overcame me and I declined her polite offer, and she walked inside the motel in to the pub to buy herself a drink whilst I stayed outside. My parents arrived almost 30 minutes later.
After that, I often looked out for Libby at work. I was so grateful that someone had attempted to become my friend in such a foreign place.
Libby soon became my "lunch buddy", and we would spend our lunch hour gossiping or bitching about stupid clients.
Libby was employed as the firm's estates clerk - she wasn't a solicitor because she didn't have a law degree, but she had the same responsibilities and client duties as would any other solicitor. She had been working in the estates area for several years, so she was a guru when it came to writing special clauses in Wills and Powers of Attorneys.
Everyone in the firm absolutely adored Libby because she was so good-natured and sociable, and all the partners spoke highly of her abilities to understand, cope and sufficiently meet the responsibilities of a solicitor despite having no legal qualifications at all.
During lunch one day, I told Libby of my plans to move back to the city. She was very supportive and offered many helpful suggestions. A few weeks later, Libby mentioned that she had been thinking about moving to the city too. She said that she had been wanting to move for a long time, but something always came up, preventing her from executing her plans. She never talked about it after that, so I was quite surprised when she handed in her resignation in early March this year.
On the day that she resigned, she ran into my office at around 9.00am and declared - "I have goss for you, Tia. I've quit my job."
I don't think my brain immediately registered what she said, so my expression must've been blank for a few minutes. Then my jaw dropped, I leapt out of my chair and wailed for what seemed like the longest 60 seconds of my life.
"What?! You're leaving?! Why? When? WHAT?! You're LEAVING?"
I was absolutely shocked.
I'd always thought that I'd be the first to resign out of the two of us.
Libby's face was streaked with tears, and her face was red. She sniffled a few times, and we both collected ourselves.
"I'm moving to the coast, about 2 hours away from the city. I think it's time for me to start a new life."
It took all my willpower not to cry on the spot. My lunch buddy was leaving!
Once the office staff found out about Libby's resignation, everyone started moping around. Even the partners looked a little down.
Libby took it hard. After all, she'd worked at the firm for a long time.
The partners helped her find a new job at the coast. Libby was hired almost instantly upon the combined recommendation of all the partners.
Her last day at work was on Friday, April 13. I don't think she got any work done that day, and neither did I.
The office staff asked me to select Libby's present on behalf of the firm, so I bought her some funky silver jewellery that I knew she'd like. I was also asked to give a speech in front of the whole staff about how much we were all going to miss her. Again, the exercise almost drained my willpower not to cry.
After all the speeches were done, and Libby was presented with the staff present, Libby went back to her office for the last time. I walked up behind her while she was dabbing at her eyes with a tissue.
"Hey. I made this for you" I said with a shakey voice, and handed her a scrapbook full of our photos. Pictures of our escapades during work socials and every other outing that we embarked upon. I'd spent 8 hours the night before, scrapbooking all the photos so that it looked funky on each page. I also wrote her a "farewell" poem and I wrote it out on the front page of the book.
"Oh my gosh, Tia. You didn't have to.." and her voice trailed off as we both started crying.
We both knew that things were never going to be the same.
Goodbye, lunch buddy.
