Gracious

18

Grace smoothed out her pants suit as she stepped out of the black SUV, in black Chanel shades. The smell of her J'Adore parfum pouring off of her into the air, she smiled at how confident she felt by her appearance. Her four bodyguards filed around her as they moved in sync into the restaurant. Her stomach tickled with nerves as she looked at the busy street. Luckily for her, the restrictions caused this place to shut down but now they are able to make food to be delivered. She still paid the owner to rent it out for the day so the rest of the cooks could leave except for the head chef.

"Ms. Smith," The owner of the restaurant greeted her with a bow. "Your guest is waiting upstairs for you,"

"Thank you, Mr. Lee," She responded in mandarin and bowed back to him. She's grateful that he agreed to her request of essentially closing his business for the remainder of the day. To Mr. Lee, however, it's the least he could do for her since she invested into his business two years ago and it quickly became a 5 star restaurant.

Grace nodded at the man then gave a look to two of her guards. They headed upstairs to scope out the floor to make sure it is safe for her, before heading back down and giving her a silent okay.

She followed Mr. Lee upstairs to reveal the VIP floor. The design of the room made her smile as she took in the traditional Chinese decor mixed with modern art to create a luxury feel to the place. Mr. Lee stopped at a table that had a woman's back seated to them.

"Here we are," He smiled at her and bowed then quickly left them alone. The woman stood up to face Grace, and when she did Grace's face contorted in confusion as she stared at the familiar face.

"Ms. Smith?" The woman questioned. Grace's mind raced to figure out where she's seen this woman before.

"Ms. Reed," Grace extended her hand to the woman who shook it firmly. "I feel like I've seen you somewhere,"

They both sat down at the table, staring at each other. The woman's long wavy hair, light skin and big brown eyes gave a familiar comfort to Grace's mind, but she still couldn't figure it out. They began discussing Ms. Reed's business plan; how the business is currently going vs. how she estimates it to be with Grace's support. They were so caught up in their meeting that they barely touched the food that was set in front of them an hour ago. Grace requested another round of food as they didn't have time to eat the current dish while it was hot.

"So what made you want to create products?" Grace asked while sipping on water.

"Well, a lot of products aren't catered to black and brown skin, and the ones that do, eventually sell their company and change their ingredients causing us to start all over again with our skincare journey. A few years ago, I had a very bad breakout and nothing I used worked. My family is Jamaican, well German Jamaican, and my grandmother told me what natural products and herbs to use to help clear up the acne. Within a week I started seeing progress. I soon started making batches for coworkers and stuff and they began selling fast," the beautiful woman explained as they waited to be served.

"That's a beautiful story. No wonder I stuck to your products! They use ingredients I grew up using on myself, but I grew too busy to make them for myself. When I found your page online and saw the ingredients, I had to try for myself. I'm from Jamaica," Grace proudly announced which made Ms. Reed gasp.

"It was meant to be," Ms. Reed teased with a giggle. "I was born there but left when I was about 10. I lived in Connecticut first, but me and my father had a falling out when I turned 18 so I ran away to New York City,"

"I'm sorry to hear that. Hopefully you guys can mend your relationship," Grace smiled tightly. "I don't know my father, so I can't offer any advice and I have a mother who wasn't always the best, especially being a single mother of three,"