Set in Stone

Chapter 35

Unusually, Roman had been able to find a parking space near to the end of the dock where Graceful Adventure resided. Grace took the new video camera that she had just purchased with her when she got out of the Ford GT. The camera would be stored below deck on the boat from now on, so that it was on hand whenever it was needed.

"What are the odds we find Tessa cleaning the boat again?" Roman said with a grin as they crossed the street to walk along the waterfront.

"Slim," Grace chuckled. "Even slimmer that we find Deonna helping her, but I guess you never know. I'll settle for them both being there as arranged."

The boat's owners were actually running nearly half an hour late, thanks in part to an overly-talkative sales assistant at the store where they had purchased the camera. He had insisted on telling them all about the features of several different models, despite being told that they were in a hurry. Still, Grace reasoned that it had at least led them to make a good purchase.

Graceful Adventure soon came into view. Tessa and Deonna were both there as arranged, Grace saw. Interestingly, they were sitting in the open area at the back of the boat, packing up two sets of scuba gear. "Have they been on a dive?" she asked Roman.

"Sure looks like it," he replied.

They walked around the dock and were at the top of the ramp before Tessa looked up and noticed them. Opposite her, Deonna had her back to the ramp, and therefore had to turn around when Tessa spoke. "Hi, guys! How are you?"

"We're good. How are you?" Grace asked, smiling as she walked down the ramp with Roman close behind. She offered her hand to Deonna, who stood up to greet her. "Deonna, we meet at last!"

"We do!" Deonna smiled, shaking hands. "I've never done a video interview for a job before, so it's odd to kind of go through this first meeting twice."

"I was thinking the same thing earlier," Grace said. "Meet Roman," she added as he reached the bottom of the ramp.

"Hello, Deonna. Nice to meet you," Roman said with a polite smile. Another handshake was exchanged.

"Nice to meet you, Roman. Thank you for hiring me to be your manager. I'm really looking forward to getting started."

"It won't be long now," Roman said. "We were just up at the shop, actually. We had a look around to see how the shop fitters are getting on."

"Is everything on track?" Deonna asked.

"They assured us it was," Roman replied. "The place is gutted at the moment. They have done some work on the electrics, and the sales counter and workshop were just taking shape."

"You'd be surprised how quickly things go from looking nowhere near finished to being finished," Tessa said, still sitting on the other side of the boat. "I remember when my parents had a lot of work done on our house when I was a kid. It went on for like a month, and with just a few days left it seemed like there was so much to do. They ended up finishing a day early."

"That's reassuring," Grace said with a relieved smile. She had already believed Roman's promise that everything was going to be okay, but the further reassurance was still welcome. "Have you guys been on a dive?" she asked, although the answer was obvious given the two set of scuba gear and two wetsuits that were on the deck.

"Yeah," Tessa said. "I hope you don't mind me taking the boat out? Deonna called me the other day, after you gave her my number, and we made our introductions. She wanted to try diving, so I took her for a shallow trial dive. Sami came with us. He was hanging around to meet you but he had to take off a few minutes ago as he had to be somewhere."