Glass Ceilings (35 page)

And Kerry’s
misery hadn’t stopped
when she’d risen that morning
. On her way
to the dive shop
,
she
’d
caught sight of
Verity and Royce
having coffee and croissants together
in the
dining room, in the
dewy
pre
-dawn light
. When she’d paused
briefly
to watch
them
,
making sure to stay out of sight, she
had sensed
a new vibe
developing
between them.

Wh
at
happened
to bring that on?
They hardly spoke
during dinner, despite sitting
almost
opposite one ano
ther, but
t
heir late night tête-à-tête
seems to have
brou
ght them closer together
.

And pushed me further in
to
the cold
....

Kerry
drew
her lips
into a hard line
.
O
nly one
course of action
would make her feel better.

R
etribution.

She’d have to think of something....

The
dive shop
attendant, an
affable
young man
, was gathering regulators and tanks
,
and
loading them
, one-by-one,
into a
ute
for transfer to the boat
.
Kerry
gave an impatient grunt
and rolled her eyes.
It
seemed like an incredible amount of scuba equipment for
only five divers
.
She
really
wanted to get this
over and
done
with,
so she could go and lick her wounds in peace.

She marched over to him
.
‘Can I help?’

He turned from loading a tank and grinned at the good-looking young w
oman he’d noticed watching him
.
‘Hey, that’d be g
reat, thanks. Could you gra
b the regs from inside the shop?
’ A
t her bewildered look he explained, ‘
regulators—
the things that
feed
diver
s
air from the
ir
tank
s
.
’

Her eyes remained quizzical.

‘
Those
long hoses over there with
gauges on them, that look lik
e this,’
and he held one up to show her.
‘But
don’t grab the
one
that’s
on its own
at the end of the counter
, i
t’s in for re
pairs. G
ot a faulty gauge.’

Kerry’s eyes lit up,
and then narrowed
.
‘What’s wrong with it
?’

‘I take it you’re not a diver yourself?’ At the shake of her head, he explained, ‘The gauge measures the amount of air left in the tank
,
so the diver knows how much longer he can stay under water.
That one’
s faulty
’
cos
it
r
eads full
even when the tank’s
empty.
’ The attenda
nt glanced at his watch. ‘Oops, b
etter get movin’.
’ He nodded towards the shop.
‘
It’s just the
big
bunch of regs on the counter
that
need
s
to come.
’

He went
back to loading gear
, leaving
Kerry
gazing at him
with an unreadable expression
.
She felt in one of her pockets and pulled out a pad of sticky notes, and a pencil—she never went anywhere without them.
After a few
moments,
she
sauntered
over to the shop and went inside. She
wa
nder
ed
around
for a bit
, looking over all the gear and into the service area
, and emerged
a
fter a few minutes
, carrying a load of regulators.

‘Thanks. Just put ’em over there, will ya? I have to fit ’em to the tanks
so they’re ready for the guests
.
’ His mind was obviously
fixed
on the job.
‘
Skipper doesn’t like any delays
once they’re at the
dive
site
.
’

‘Hey
,
’ she said casually,
‘
I
ju
st realised I forgot to tell
you something
.’

The attendant stopped what he
was doing and looked
at her
with a quick frown
.

‘One of the divers—my boss actually—
i
s a woman, and she
likes using p
ink scuba gear
. Would you have a pink air tank, pi
nk goggles and flippers and
a pink
... um ...
jacket
thing
y
that
she could use
?’

The attendant swallowed his impatience and grinned
.
‘
Oh yeah, the lady diver. She c
alled yesterday ’
arvo to order her g
ear. But the boss didn’t mention
that she wanted
pink?
’

‘She doesn’
t like to make a fuss, but she
is
the boss.
...’

‘Sure, I see what you’re gettin’ at
.
There’s
lotsa
ladies
hiring gear from us
now, so we’ve got a coupl’a
pink
sets
. A
nd, luckily for your boss,
I think
one
’s
ready to go
. By the way,
’ he said good-naturedly,
‘
if you don’t want to be chipped about
your terminology, don’t call ’
em goggles, flippers or jackets. Their prope
r names are mask, fins and BCD—
buoyancy control device.’

Kerry re
sisted the urge to spit
‘Yeah, whatever
’
,
instead replying sweetly, ‘Right, thanks.
’
She had other things on her mind.
She opened her eyes wide and said coyly,
‘I feel
bad for the last minute notic
e ... maybe I could make the changes?
’

H
er spirits lift
ed
when he replied, ‘Yeah, thanks.
Could you swap this yellow tank for one of the pink ones in the back room?
Make sure you take it
from the
bunch
o
n the right
, they’re filled
’
n ready to go
.
The others are empties.
’

Kerry struggled to lift the heavy yellow tank. Catching sight of her, the attendant quickly offered, ‘On second thoughts, full tanks are heavy. Maybe you should leave that to me.’

‘I can manage,
’
she
snapped
, determinedly hoisting
the tank
and disappearing
into the shop.
She emerged a short time
later carrying its pink counterpart, complete with
a
connected
regulator.
‘I’ll put this straight on the ute, shall I?’
she
asked, with a winning smile. A
t the young man’s
preoccupied
nod
she added
, ‘And
can I hitch a ride to the jetty
with you? I
’d like to
watch the boat head out.’

‘Great
,’ remarked the attendant, ‘we’ll make a diver out of you yet!’

Chapter Fifteen

The ‘Indian Princess’ sat serenely on the
calm waters of the
island’s
harbour. Aboard, all hands were busily preparing for the morning’s di
ve. Verity watched from the
pier and
wondered what the
Indian Ocean held
in store for them
.
She glanced out to sea
, thinking how fortunate they
were to have such a clear, c
alm morning for their
inner reef
excursion
.

The location of their dive,
Ploughman’s R
eef
,
was reputed to have the
area’s best swim-throughs and caves, and its schools of colourful fish were the subject of many a
n enthusiastic
post
-dive
post
-
mortem
.
At the thought of
venturing
into unknown waters, Verity felt the usual
stirring of excitement, l
ight
ly seasoned with
trepidation
.

‘Looking forward to the
splash?’ Royce appeared beside her, and his deep voice made her start.

‘I ... yes ...
I am, very much.’
Recovering
her co
mposure, she added
, ‘We’ve been blessed with a perfect morning for it.’

‘Yes,
your preparations have been
particularly thorough.
’
H
e
smiled
down
at her.

She felt the pull again.
It had been the same earlier, when he’d suggested they share a table at
the brief pre-dive
breakfast
.

Steady girl,
she told herself,
you’re his boss remember,
not some impressionable office junior
.

But
who’s to say that’s not how he regards you
, even now
?

She gave herself a mental kick.
‘Actually, it’s Kerry you should be
congratulating. S
he made all the arrangements for this trip.
’

They both looked over to where Kerry was standing near the dive shop’s utility.

Verity
said
thoughtfully, ‘
I can understand why clerical
workers feel so undervalued. We’re often guilty of taking
their efforts for granted.
’

Royce looked at her
a little quizzically. ‘Yes,
we should give credit where it’
s due.’

Verity couldn’t be sure he wasn’t
teasing, so she
narrowed her eyes at him
,
just as
the
other divers joined them and t
he group
began making
their way onto the boat.

Standing on the deck and looking over the gear
, Royce
sai
d, ‘Yes, I should’
ve recognised Kerry’s
super-efficient h
and
in this
. The
gear
’s
all grouped, colour-coordinated
,
and
in some cases,
even
name-tagged.’

Verity
scanned
the pile of scuba equipment now
securely stowed
aboard
the Indian Princess, and
gave a slightly embarrassed grin
. ‘It is a bit
presumptuous
of Kerry to assume I’
d
prefer the pink gear, simply b
e
cause I’m the only female diver
today
.
In fact, I’m going to make a point of
ignoring my name tag
,
and grab
another colour. It’s all the same
anyway
, and
it’ll be an interesting social experiment to see which man
take
s
the pink set.’