One Nation senator Rodney Culleton spent Wednesday morning avoiding his leader, Pauline Hanson, at a series of parliamentary functions after she demanded that he come to her office on Tuesday night.
The game of cat and mouse broke out after Hanson summoned Culleton to her office to discuss a Queensland police investigation into an allegedly threatening letter he had sent to a magistrate.
But Culleton didn't turn up...and amid reports of relations breaking down between the two One Nation senators, Hanson took the extraordinary step of appealing to Culleton via the ABC's Lateline program on Tuesday night.
"Rod, excuse me, I'm party leader," she said in a video statement.
"I expect you to come to my office, and it's about being a team player, and that's all I expect."
Speaking to ABC News Radio early on Wednesday, Culleton said he had too much work do, and couldn't leave his office and visit Hanson's – which, not withstanding this reporter's short legs, is 73 steps away.
He cited the stress of preparing for his High Court hearing, held Monday this week, as a reason for being so busy.
He then said it was likely "the boys" – meaning fellow One Nation senators Malcolm Roberts and Brian Burston – would swing round to his office for a chat later that morning before they all headed off to see Hanson.
Rod Culleton is trying to have breakfast but his adviser knocked coffee cups which crashed to the floor...
But instead, Culleton headed to the White Ribbon Day event.
An attempt to get some breakfast resulted in disaster – at least visually – when his chief of staff, Margaret Menzel, knocked over some precariously placed coffee cups, causing a chain reaction on to the floor.
Asked if he had visited Hanson yet, Culleton told BuzzFeed News, "Can't I have my breakfast?" before overfilling a coffee cup until it spilled over the brim.
Then, Culleton popped up for a third time before it had even hit 9am – this time, on ABC Radio National. He still hadn't spoken to Hanson.
"I have to eat," he told Fran Kelly. "We have a very busy schedule here... We are flat out doing our jobs."
Culleton also dodged questions on whether it was true he hadn't spoken to Hanson in two weeks. Asked if he accepted that Hanson is the party leader, Culleton offered a less-than-resounding endorsement: "I have to. There's no one else."
A few hours later, Culleton resurfaced at a parliamentary smorgasbord: the annual National Party Christmas seafood lunch, combined with a sausage sizzle for cancer research over on the other side of the courtyard.
He still hadn't spoken to Hanson.
Rod Culleton's at charity BBQ at Parliament. Says meeting with Pauline Hanson didn't happen, he'll ring her "after… https://t.co/qQrAOwyA0V
He told reporters that he would give Hanson a call after eating a sausage, and suggested he'd rather duke it out with her over a bottle of red wine.
At approximately 1.40pm, BuzzFeed News checked in to see if Culleton had finished eating his sausage sanga...and he had!
Margaret Menzel confirmed that Culleton had indeed phoned Hanson to set up a meeting.
Asked "How did the call go?" Menzel said, "The senator is out of the office at the moment... He's very busy."
Come Senate Question Time, a lonely Brian Burston was One Nation's sole representative until he was joined by Malcolm Roberts. Where were Hanson and Culleton?
Well, they were finally having that long-awaited chat.
Culleton told Fairfax Media the pair had met for about an hour during Question Time and were now "moving on".