Set in Stone

Chapter 33

"How is your business going?" was a question Grace was used to getting from a colleague on a daily basis, or at least a close variant of it. Even so, hearing it from Lucy Thorne was something of a novelty. They had happened to find themselves standing together getting coffee in the catering area. Lucy getting her own coffee was something of a surprise to Grace, but she certainly wasn't going to comment on it.

"Last I heard you were waiting for the purchase to go through on your dive shop," Lucy said as a follow up to her question.

"Oh, it's gone through now," Grace was delighted to report as she fixed her drink. "We have a shop fitting company working on it as we speak. It's a complete renovation, so they've told us it will take three weeks. As of today, they're a week into it. When it's done, we have to stock it, of course, before we can open."

"Exciting times," Lucy smiled. "Did you get the website and everything taken care of?"

"Yes. The guy you put me in contact with did an amazing job, so thanks again. It was such a help, and getting it done free of charge was fantastic. The site is up already, with a big 'opening soon' banner across it. It looks amazing."

"I'm glad. Don't forget Bobby and I want those diving lessons."

"I haven't forgotten," Grace assured her. "I actually passed my instructor course a couple of days ago, so I'm all set to teach you both once we're up and running. Free of charge obviously, as we agreed."

"Once you're open for business, we'll get together and work out a date when Bobby and I are free to come down."

"We'll want to allow three days if you want to do a course and gain certification," Grace said.

"Three days in Miami," Lucy said thoughtfully. "It has been a while since I had a holiday. I guess that would be nice."

"Sounds like a plan," Grace said brightly, thinking that it was hard to image Lucy on a vacation. She came across as the kind of person whose entire life revolved around work. Some people were just like that.

"Have you got all of your staff lined up and ready to go?" Lucy asked. Now with her drink fixed, she stood there sipping it while they talked.

Grace took her coffee and moved out of the way in case someone else came to get one. "Yeah. We've had our diving instructor and her assistant signed up for a while. Then we hired a manager, who's going to run the business in Roman and I's absence, and will work in the dive shop. I have a friend who is potentially making a move down to Miami to take a sales assistant job with me. I'm expecting an answer on that any day now. And this past week we recruited two more people. Deonna, my manager, and Trevor, my friend, both have retail experience, but no diving experience."

"Not ideal for a dive shop," Lucy commented.

Grace nodded. "Right, exactly. So we wanted to hire at least one person with experience of diving and of maintaining and repairing scuba gear. The shop will have a workshop for that side of things, so I obviously needed someone to be able to work in it. It turned out we had two well-qualified people apply, so we've taken them both. There's a guy called Darren Young who has recently moved to Miami with his husband, and there's a women called Chelsea Green who is coming to work for us from another dive shop in the area."

"Seems like you're all set," Lucy said with another smile. "I have to get back to work, but I'm very happy for you."

"Thank you," Grace said, returning the smile in kind. In the spur of the moment, she decided to take the plunge by putting an idea out there that had been on her mind for some time. "There is one more thing, if I may," she said quickly before Lucy had a chance to walk away.