Page 8 of Seashells at The Summer Hotel Lovely Bay
‘Yep, me too. What did you do before?’ Jeffrey asked.
Nina smiled. She felt as if the job she had done in the office, not far from her flat, was a whole other world away. With the glorious benefit of hindsight, she now realised that she’d beenin a dead-end job where she’d been stupendously bored and regimentally stuck in her ways. Now she was so far from bored, it wasn’t even funny. She loved having her own business and decluttering other people's junk was her jam. ‘I worked in the most boring office in England. It couldn’t have been more mind-numbing.’
‘Too funny.’
‘I know. I can’t believe I stuck it out for so long.’
‘Funny how you can get caught up in only doing things one way.’
‘Tell me about it. I am so pleased that I’m out of that environment.’
‘Small business and working for yourself keeps you on your toes though, right?’
‘For sure.’ Nina agreed with a nod.
‘So, what will the Singapore and Bangkok work involve if Robby gets it?’
Nina shook her head. ‘We don’t really know yet. The tender was massive, but it’s worth a lot of money, but a lot of stress too. It is what it is. It’s been such a lot of work.’
‘How come he got that?’
Nina's eyes went wide. ‘Well, as you said, that world is a very small one. They all know each other more or less. Long story short, somebody that Robby knew from university, who was in the uni climbing club, now lives in Singapore and has contacts over that side of the world. It all started from there.’
‘Right, makes sense.’
‘Then, you know, what with video meetings and technology nowadays, he had the prelim meetings virtually and then from there got asked to tender for the contract.’
‘Wow, the world has become so much smaller, hasn’t it?’
‘It certainly has, for sure,’ Nina replied.
‘So, it’s going to mean a lot of travelling for him, then?’
‘Well, I presume so, especially initially, to get the team set up. From then on, it will probably just be a case of putting someone in place to manage it, like he does with his other teams up and down the country.’
‘Yes, I see.’
‘It's just a bit further away, but not really much different in terms of the work at all. A skyscraper is a skyscraper from what I’ve gathered. Not that I know the ins and outs of it.’
‘Sounds like it’s going really well.’
Nina raised her eyebrows. ‘We’ll see. I might be trekking off to exotic climes with him at some point. Quite exciting, really.’
‘Sounds good to me.’
Nina squinted out the window as the rain began to pour. ‘I really think I’d better get going. I have a couple more of these to deliver, and then I’m going to go home and sit tight.’
Jeffrey looked over towards the harbour. ‘Yup, ride out this storm. It’s going to be a bad one, by the looks of it. I hope no one gets any damage.’
Nina shook her head. ‘I’ve never really experienced this before. It’s looking wild out there already.’
Jeffrey smiled and took a cheesecake out of the fridge. ‘Your first bad Lovely storm, is it?’
‘It is, indeed. I’ve heard all sorts about these storms now.’
‘Yeah, they can be bad…’ He passed the cheesecake over. ‘There you go. Nice exchange.’
‘Ooh, thanks. Perfect. On that note, I’ll be going. I’ll see you later. See you on the other side when all this is over.’
