When we had recovered from the surprise of seeing Hugo walk in with Mum, we all sat down with a drink , Kelly and I wondering what this was all about.

Hugo was staring at me, obviously carefully considering what he was about to say.

“I can’t believe that you led us on and had us all fooled like that, particularly as you have never done anything like that before. Helen, Stephanie, and the rest of the staff, all just saw you and accepted you as Jayne, it will be awkward and embarrassing explaining your true situation to them. Having said that you do make a delightful, attractive, and pleasant young woman and it was easy for us to be taken in. I was half expecting when I came here tonight to see some trace of Jay still in you, but it is obvious that you are continuing as Jayne and, if I may say so, doing it extremely well.”

I was uncertain whether I had been complimented or reprimanded, but Hugo had a smile on his face and did not look annoyed at me.

“I came up here tonight to get together again with your Mum for a sociable friends night out, we got on so well when she visited you at Burg von Gebäck , but talk soon turned to what you are doing here, what you hope to do, and the problems you have with taking on the lease of another shop. I must admit Jayne I was shocked when Kathy told me why you couldn’t take on the lease yourself, and I see your problem.”

“Sorry about treating you all like that, it just sort of happened by accident and got out of control and seemed to be easier just to go with it. In my time at the Burg I fitted in so well with the other women that it was best to blend in with them all, and with Kelly’s help I felt comfortable as Jayne.”

“If you are going to stay as a girl, and I suggest that will not be a bad thing as you really look the part, you really need to get your legal situation sorted out, you can’t go signing leases and contracts using a false name, which is where I can help with your problem. If you are happy to do so, I will officially take the lease of the other shop, you can rent it from me, at commercial rates I must add, your mother can tell you what the going rates are, and you can set yourself up in business. I want you to understand that I am not doing this just to play the wealthy benefactor, I see a lot of talent in you and expect you to make a big success of your new business. With what you have learned from me and the legalities, business techniques, and financial background that you picked up at university you have all the correct grounding to make a success of this. I want you to prove to me that I have made the right decision.”

“We’ve already inspected the shop and are happy that it can give us everything we need, the only thing holding us back is how to arrange the lease, so that would be wonderful. I’ve already got a detailed business plan that I have been preparing for the bank to see if I can get a loan and it all looks promising Please go ahead and sort it all out, the sooner the better as far as we are concerned.”

“Ok, the other thing is that we are refurbishing the small kitchen at the Burg that we only use for functions, weddings, conferences and suchlike and a lot of the fixtures fittings and equipment are being thrown out. Come and have a look to see if anything is of use for you, you will be doing us a favour taking it off our hands. Now you two go off to your beds, your Mum and I have a lot to talk about before I head back down to Cheltenham.”

The next few weeks were hectic, mornings Kelly and I were up early, did all our baking for the day, and dropped everything off in the shop, before going next door for the afternoon and evening to clear the place of what we didn’t need to keep, and gave it a good clean and redecoration in preparation for the electricians, plumbers and shop fitters to come in to fix all the facilities we needed to get it up and running.

We hired a big van and went down to Cheltenham to see what equipment we could usefully use. I was a bit embarrassed with what I had done and hoped to avoid Helen, Steph, and as many of the staff as possible as I was certain that the truth about me would now be widely known . However I was warmly welcomed, especially by Helen, who greeted me with a big hug “No wonder you were a bit quiet when we were discussing our periods and sex life in the pub that time, you have a lot of catching up to do girl. It all makes no difference to me, you are welcome to come down here to stay anytime and we’ll all go out again.”

We picked out what we needed and it left only minor bits and pieces for us to buy, it saved us an awful lot of money in start-up costs. The kitchen and shop were soon fitted out with all the equipment from the Burg, and we were really proud of what we had done and were looking forward to starting up.

At Hugo’s suggestion rather than name the shop after us, we had named our shop ‘Konditerei’ which is what pastry shops are usually called in Germany and Austria, it was short and catchy and had a bit of an exotic ring to it, and soon everything was set up for us to open up for business.

We had a dummy run to ensure that everything was working and that we were familiar with where everything was. While we were doing that we were inspected by the local trading standards people to make sure that we were complying with all the hygiene and safety requirements, and we were ready to open for business.

As a marketing exercise, I had asked Hugo , as a personality chef who occasionally appeared on TV cookery programmes, to come and officially cut the ribbon at the opening, and had invited the local press and TV station with a promise of a short interview with him.

We had done a lot of food preparation the day before, but still needed to get in early to make sure that we were well stocked up and that the shop was organised and ready for the doors to open. We had taken on two counter assistants. Alison and Sarah, and continuing the Austrian/German theme we all changed into traditional dress, the Wachauer Tracht, a version of the usual Dirndl. a very feminine outfit of cotton blouse , matching patterned tight-fitting bodice, full skirt, and apron. It was not practical for Kelly and I to regularly work in the kitchen wearing the outfit, but Alison and Sarah loved the idea of wearing it every day. The other girls plaited their hair in traditional styles but mine was not really long enough, which was disappointing as I didn’t quite blend in with the others.

It was amazing how many people had turned up, partly because of the appearance of Hugo, but also because in the short time we had been selling the pastries and cakes in Mum’s shop, our reputation had spread.

Hugo in his opening speech.did us proud. “Many of you will know me, or my reputation as a master-chef specialising in continental pastries, but I am sure that in a few years time that Jayne and Kelly will be ranked alongside me. You are lucky to have these young girls opening this shop in your city, they are among the best students I have ever had on my courses, and that includes many experienced professional chefs. Please give them the support that their talent deserves.”

The sample trays we had left for the crowd were soon gone, the shop counters were quickly empty not long after, and it was a bit of a comedown when the last customers finally left. Not only did we completely sell out, but so did Mum’s shop when people spilled over into it.

After a ‘meet and greet’ and autograph signing session, Hugo bid everyone goodbye and went off with Mum for dinner at his hotel, leaving Kelly and I to calm down from the adrenaline rush we had been on all day, and to tidy everything up ready for a start in the morning to a normal working day.

We had expected that there would be a calm after the storm, but that didn’t happen. Lichfield is a tourist town and has a reputation as a stop on the food trail in the Midlands due to the frequent food-themed festivals it holds. We became another draw bringing people into the city following the feature on the regional TV news show, and we struggled to keep up with demand.

“I’ve been thinking.” Kelly said as we were sat watching TV one night, “You are living full time as a girl now, you really should think about getting more realistic breasts. Obviously I enjoy my times in bed with you as Jay, so I don’t think you should do anything too drastic, hormones or implants, but a decent set of breast forms would really make a difference.”

“I suppose that you have already looked into this and have decided what I am going to do.”

“I have, it’s surprising what you can find with Google, but I haven’t ordered anything yet, I wanted to talk to you first.What do you think?”

“Why not, it’s not permanent and it will help me look more natural, let’s give it a try.”

A few days later, the breast forms arrived and Kelly fixed them to my chest with the special adhesive. It was a totally different feel to the enhancers I had been using, the weight and the movement affected my balance for a while, and I was glad of the support that my now necessary bras gave me.

Although not as large and varied as the established ‘German’ markets held in the big cities, like Birmingham York, and Manchester, on the weeks before Christmas, the traditional market in Lichfield was expanded and made a bit more festive by having a German theme. Although we normally did not take part in markets, we decided to take a large stall to display and sell our produce, mainly finger-food that people could eat on-the-go. To add a bit of colour to the event. Kelly, I, Alison, Sarah and some of their friends acting as extra counter assistants, all dressed in colourful dirndls. I was glad that I was now using the breast forms, the blouse and bodice were low cut showing a little bit of cleavage that I now had.

It all worked out well , everything sold out, and there were lots of promises to visit our shop to stock up for Christmas and New Year parties, things were really taking off for us.

Despite having left home and living in London and Southampton, Chloe and Sarah always tried to make it home for Christmas, and I was extremely nervous about them seeing me as Jayne for the first time, even though Mum had told them all about me. In fact their curiosity about me was the main reason why they had both cancelled other plans to come back. I made a special effort and had visited a beauty parlour for the first time, for a full makeover, hair restyled, full body wax, nails and makeup , and was dressed in my scarlet sleeveless cocktail dress, on tenterhooks waiting for them to arrive.

Chloe was the first to reach us, and when I opened the door to her, her jaw dropped and her eyes nearly popped out. She stood in silence for what seemed like an eternity, before throwing her arms around me and almost squeezing the breath from me.

“ OMG Jay, just look at you, you look gorgeous, when Mum told me that you are now living as a girl I was sceptical as to how you would look, but I needn’t have worried. You have to tell me all about what has been happening.”

‘Let’s get your stuff, get you settled in and hopefully by then Sarah will have arrived and I will only have to go through this once. Are you comfortable seeing me like this, I don’t want to embarrass you?”

“You’re joking, there is nothing there to remind me of Jay, I suppose that I had better get used to calling you Jayne now.”

When Sarah arrived, she was a little bit cooler towards me at first but, after a couple of glasses of wine while I told them about why and how I had changed, she soon loosened up and started to treat me as just her baby sister. Over the next few days everything calmed down and by the time they left to return home, they had both just accepted me as Jayne and talked to me as another girl.

Christmas morning we always exchanged small gifts, nothing too fancy and expensive, but enough to show our love for each other, and I was amazed at what they had bought for me, obviously having been primed by Mum.

“ You have always been difficult to buy for as Jay, but now you can share in the perfume and jewellery gifts that we all buy for each other, one of the perks of you now living as a girl.” Chloë grinned as she watched me unwrap her gift. Sarah went one better presenting me with a silk nightie and negligée set.

In the New Year, although still very much biologically male, I soon changed my name legally to Jayne and transferred all my bank accounts and such like. This allowed me to build up a credit rating of my own, so that by the time we needed to take the next step, I was able to deal with all the contracts and leases myself and did not have to rely on Hugo’s generosity.

We took on three pastry chefs and assistants for them, one to run Konditerei, one to run our new shop, Konditerei ll, in Kelly’s home town of Stafford, and one to work with Kelly and me operating a commercial kitchen and company headquarters in an out-of-town industrial unit which allowed us to drastically increase our production. This worked out so well and within a year, as well as our own shops we started to sell through franchises in local shopping villages and farm shops, which were just retail outlets, to keep uptake quality level of our produce all the baking was carried out by us and our staff.

“What do you think Kelly, you get out into the shops more often than I do, are our chefs coping?”

“ In general, yes, they are competent and are turning out decent stuff, but there is not the flair or passion that you and I started out with.”

“ I’ll have a word with Hugo, as he and Mum are now regularly seeing each other, to see if he can do an intensive course for our chefs to bring them up to standard, we are selling premium products at premium prices and need to keep up the quality levels. I’m thinking of opening more shops, I’ve done a lot of sales and income projections and think that it we go one step at a time, this can really grow for us.”

“ Let’s not blow this up too quickly Jayne, we don’t want the bubble to burst.”

“Mum has kept in touch with Pat and Rosie and has had a couple of trips away with them, I was thinking that we could open up in their home city of Chester, maybe not just a shop, but a tea room and cafeteria too. Chester in a tourist destination and there are lots of restaurants and cafeterias, but nothing in our specialist market as far as I am aware. the surrounding areas in Cheshire are home to many exclusive residential areas, like The Wirral, Alderney Edge and Wilmslow, very much ‘footballers’ wives’ country, people who are not afraid to splash out on superior products and go in to Chester for the more exclusive shops. I doubt that Pat and Rosie would want to work full-time in the shop, but we could use them to help run it for us, keep an eye on the staff and the quality of the product, however much they want to get involved. What do you think?”

“That sounds good to me, let’s go up and see if they are interested.”

We went to Chester to meet up with them and after a few pleasantries and a catch-up on what we had been doing recently, we started to explain our proposal.

“The shops we have are all local and to be honest we think that the area is now adequately covered, but we see opportunities to grow in other parts of the country, Chester is not that far away from us and we think it would be a good place to start. If we set it all up would you be interested in keeping an eye on everything for us?”

“We’re always up for a challenge and something new, we are really keen to be involved, not just to keep an eye on things for you, but to help set it up, and do the baking ourselves for a while until the new staff are fully trained up and working to your standards.” Rosie spoke for them both with Pat nodding her agreement.

“ Of course, if you are going to put in so much effort, we have to treat you fairly. Kelly and I will obviously be funding all this and taking the risk, but we are offering each of you 15% stakes in the Chester shop and any profits it makes, does that sound fair?”

Konditerei lll was soon in business. Pat and Rosie, enjoyed working in the kitchen for a while, but once everything was running smoothly they took a back seat and let the shop manager and pâtissière run things day-to-day while they got back to enjoying their hobbies again.

Things settled into a routine and within another year we had shops or franchises in 15 towns and cities across the country, including Lincoln and Oxford with our friends from the course. Laura and Sue were happy to get the benefit of our reputation, marketing and business experience to assist their catering skills and got the same deal that we had offered Pat and Rosie.

Whilst things were definitely progressing on the business front, personal matters were not so good. Although we were both happy as business partners, I was becoming much more feminine and womanly, and had even started taking hormones to help me develop in a more feminine manner, and Kelly started to look for a bit of male company. Eventually she settled down and moved in with Richard, a wonderful lad actually, extremely handsome with an amazing job as CEO and chief developer with a games software company. I was glad for her as I realised the direction my path was leading and knew that in the long term I would not be able to fulfil her needs. This meant that I threw myself into developing the business more and more and I became much more active in trade associations and business groups in the city.

Despite the amount of time I was devoting to these networking groups I was still surprised to receive a letter requesting my attendance at the annual awards ceremony at the local Chamber of Commerce, as I was up for consideration for an award. We booked a table for Kelly, Richard, Mum, Hugo, myself, Roger our Company Secretary, Jenny from Mum’s shop who was now working for Konditerei as Quality Control manager ,and Steve, our Chief Pâtissier and product developer, as I thought that they had all played their part in the success of the company.

“Right Mum, I know that you do not often get the chance to really go to town on yourself, so I have booked you, Kelly, Jenny, and myself in for a full makeover at the beauty parlour, hair, waxing, nails, makeup, and before that we are all going shopping to get decent formal dresses and accessories. We are making a lot of money now and need to have the image to go with it.”

“For years I have toiled away in the deli, making enough to keep us going and to raise you and your sisters but you have really made a success of this, I am so proud of you. My only disappointment is that your personal life has not been as happy. You seemed to be getting on so well with Kelly, and even though you are now to all intents and purposes a woman, I was hoping that she was going to be your lifetime partner.”

“Me too Mum, but I am not going to deny her a normal happy family life, she deserves it.”

The evening of the awards ceremony , all glammed up, we, and our escorts, Hugo, Richard, Roger and Steve, all extremely smart in their tuxedos and with bow ties and cummerbunds colour matched to our dresses, arrived and settled down at our table for our meal.

There were various awards presented, for charitable works, benefits to the community, technical innovation and such like with only one award left to be announced.

“Ladies and gentlemen, our final category is for ‘Local Entrepreneur of the Year’. As you are all aware, our city is now the headquarters of a growing national chain of specialist food shops, and there was no choice for the judging panel other than to select the founders and owners of Konditerei Patisserie, Jayne Newman and Kelly Masters, as joint recipients of this award.”

Whilst we had been advised that we were being considered for an award we had no idea that we had been selected as winners, and were in a bit of a daze as we made our way past the other tables to the dais for the presentation, with congratulations from the other guests ringing in our ears and camera flashes dazzling our eyes.

The rest of the evening was a big celebration for us all and as we left for home everyone paired off into couples, Mum and Hugo, Kelly and Richard, Jenny and Steve who seemed to be enjoying each others company, and Roger and I. Partly due to the euphoria of our success but mainly due to the effects of the celebration champagne, as we said our goodbyes he pulled me towards him, hugged me tight and kissed me on the lips. We were soon in a quite passionate clinch, not a friendly peck on the cheek, but a full-blooded sexually-loaded kiss. I quickly came to my senses, remembered who I was and pulled away.

“Thank you so much for that Roger, but both of us know that it was the drink talking. We are business colleagues, not romantic partners, and have to work together. Let’s see how we feel in the morning when our heads have cleared.”

I lay in bed that night tossing and turning, thinking about what we had done and whether it was a big mistake before falling into a fitful sleep. I may have been living as a woman for almost two years but I still held on to my sexuality and considered that a relationship with a woman was still what I was looking for. In the morning at work we both apologised, decided to let it all be forgotten and went back to our purely professional relationship. I really liked Roger as a friend and colleague but no more than that. I really needed to sort out what I wanted to do with my life.

To be continued.