Business was like that. You did a favor, sometimes you got a favor. Sometimes you didn't, but she'd learned that despite what Dar often said and did, you really could get more with honey than vinegar. "Okay, I'm off to go call Roberto. See you later, Jack." She waved at the contractor as they returned to the main deck.
"Oh, Ms. Stuart."
Kerry stopped and turned as she saw the chief purser headed her way. In contrast to the hostility the day before, the woman now seemed anxious to be polite to her. Hmm. Kerry waited for her to catch up and wondered if her fencing with the staff captain had gotten around. "Hi."
"Hi." The woman smiled at her. "Listen. I just wanted to apologize about yesterday. I know you're just here to get a job done, and I was totally out of line going off like that."
Uh huh. "No problem." Kerry replied. "I really do understand how strange it must be for you to have us come in here and just start doing things. We really don't know much about how you run everything." She shifted her body language taking a more casual stance. "And now that I've been around the ship, I can see how tight everything is."
The woman relaxed and her smile widened. "Wow, I'm glad you understand. I hear you found another spot for your stuff. Is it going to be okay?" She edged around a little. "Listen, we've got some coffee over in the mess, can I get you a cup?"
Well, when it came to gift horses, the heads were definitely better than the tails. "Sure." Kerry agreed, allowing herself to be lead on by her new friend. "Maybe you can fill me in on how things work here, you know? So we can all get along better."
"Ah. Glad to." Drucilla seemed far more confident. "You just stick with me."
Uh huh. Kerry produced a grin. Let's see where this goes, because sometimes you just never know.
Chapter Four
THE CONDO WAS very quiet as Dar slipped inside, too quiet, until Chino came sliding out of the bedroom barking a greeting at her. "Hey girl." She set her briefcase down and knelt to greet the dog and ended up sitting on the floor with Chino climbing all over her. "Hey, hey, hey."
"Growf."
"Hang on." Dar managed to get to her feet and headed for the back door followed by an ecstatically prancing Labrador. Chino stopped halfway, though, and looked back over her shoulder as though missing something.
"Yeah, I know. It's just me." Dar told her, opening the back door to the small garden. "Kerry's not here." She watched the dog trot outside whisking through the evening sun still splashing through the trees. Kerry was at the ship working on her project.
Dar had almost gone there too, but she stopped herself with a stern reminder that she'd turned the damned thing over to Kerry and she needed to butt out already. So instead, she'd just gone home.
And here she was. Dar leaned against the door jam and surveyed the quiet kitchen. Usually she and Kerry came home together, but occasionally Kerry left before she did, and whenever she did, Dar always came home to something nice like dinner, or a waiting hot tub or...
But she had no idea when Kerry was coming home. A note sent earlier had gone unanswered, and so now Dar was at a bit of a loss. She removed her PDA and scribbled a second note, sending it on its way before she turned and headed off toward the bedroom.
Inside, she paused a moment tugging her shirt from her waistband and unbuttoning it before sitting down briefly to remove her boots. She removed the shirt and then her jeans folding them both neatly and putting them on the dresser.
Chino bounded back in and came over to her, wiggling happily against her knees. Dar played with her for a few minutes, and then she got up and retrieved a pair of shorts and a t-shirt slipping into them before she went back out into the living room.
She could watch television. Dar studied the blank screen, and then moved past it. She could go for a swim, or a walk with Chino, or go to the gym.
Or sit in the hot tub.
She went to the kitchen and closed the back door. She could do some work or play with her models. With a sigh, Dar went to the refrigerator and got some milk, leaning against the counter to sip it as she considered all of her various options.
None of them really appealed to her, so she went into the living room and sat down at the dining room table sorting through the basket of mail placed there by the island staff.
No bills, because they handled all theirs electronically. A few bits of junk mail, mostly related to software upgrades or offers of new computer hardware. Dar tossed all these to one side and pulled over a diving magazine that spurred a bit more interest.
She checked her PDA after a few minutes, finding it still silent, and then gave up on the mail. "Hell with it." Dar tossed the magazine and got up. "Okay, Chino, wanna come to the gym with me? You can help me lift weights, okay?"
"Gruff."
"Okay." Dar put on her sneakers, then headed for the back door pausing only to scribble a note on the small white board just to one side of the refrigerator. She'd spend an hour or so at the gym, then see if Kerry was home and stop at the club for dinner on her way back.
Satisfied with her plan, Dar headed off down the path to the gym with Chino trotting along after her. With the sun having set, the heat was dissipating and the breeze off the ocean was almost comfortable. She watched as Chino retrieved a tennis ball from somewhere and raced back to her with it. "Gimme that."
She threw the slimy ball across the beach and kept walking as Chino chased it down. Several tosses later, they were at the entrance to the gym, and Dar cheerfully ignored the glares from two other residents as she held the door open for Chino to trot past.
They'd had a problem with that since they'd started bringing the Labrador to the gym. At first, Dar had been delivered with six or seven letters of objection from the condo association over her practice, and she'd even been served with an official summons from the Island's legal office.
Unfortunately for all of them, she had Aunt May's original copy of the bylaws, and nowhere in any of them did it say you could not bring dogs into the gym. It hadn't made her popular with a few people, but Chino was well behaved, and she'd won over most of the residents after a while. "C'mon, Chi."
Unlike Dar herself, apparently. She gave the other two residents a charming smile, and went inside the inner door that lead to the dressing rooms. Inside, she went to her assigned locker and opened it, removing a towel and a pair of weighted gloves that she slipped over her hands and fastened.
They weren't that heavy, only two pounds each, but she found they gave just that little extra bit of punch to her workouts and she'd noticed a bit more definition appearing in the muscles of her upper arms from using them.
Or, well, she hadn't exactly noticed that. Dar went over to the weight bench and settled herself on it. Kerry had noticed, and commented on it in the shower the other day. Then, she'd just laughed, but now she had to sit here and acknowledge just how much she liked having Kerry notice things like that.
Total ego. Dar did a quick couple of sets with a relatively light barbell just to warm up. Total ego, and on the fringes a haunting insecurity she tried very hard to pretend didn't exist. She liked Kerry paying attention to her, and probably that was why she felt so out of sorts having two messages ignored so far today.
Stupid, really. Dar got up and moved to a leg press station sliding a pin into place and waiting for her body to settle into position before she started the exercise. Chino stood up and licked her arm, sliding up and down as she tried to keep her balance. "Chi, down." Dar muffled a chuckle. "Lie down."