At last ‘A life’
By Julie D Cole
Chapter 48 Time to take action.

It was Kate returning as promised and as she approached dad turned around to see who it was and then stood up to introduce himself.
‘
I sat still and as I looked at Kate she smiled at me. She was such a confident woman and she was as tall as dad in her heels. She shook his hand firmly that obviously surprised dad a bit. He told her that she looked like her father and that he was pleased to hear that Kate and I were both working together since he’d known her father when they were much younger and they’d spent a lot of time together.

It seemed strange to me since they had different backgrounds. I supposed the link was through Aunt Judith.

Dad complemented Kate on her success and said he knew that her father was really proud of her and that he was too.

Then he turned to me and said, ‘Chris I’m also very proud of you especially since you graduated from university and this was the first such achievement in the family.’ He said he’d obtained some photographs from the graduation that Julie gave him and he kept them on display in his office.

I wondered what his colleagues might think if ever I turned up to see him now as Chrissy. How would he be able to explain the change?

After some small talk together dad excused himself and said that he was happy that Darren had been able to set up the meeting and that he was sorry for surprising me.

I smiled and said that it was a relief and that I wouldn’t have accepted a dire
ct invitation but now I’d realized it was a stupid mistake to cut off communications. I also felt that there was no way I could have met him dressed as Chrissy so it was a double bonus.

As dad left he said he was surprised how nice I looked and whilst he didn’t know if he could ever come to terms with the change he felt he had to give me his full support since he’d missed so much of my life. As he left he just said that he’d gained a daughter today and realized how much he’d loved us all and how he wished he could turn back the clock..

Then he said that I was still Chris to him and that he was not going to overstay his welcome and hoped I could forgive him. I just said that without his love and kindness I don’t know what would have happened.

He gave me his address and his mobile number and asked if I would call him and try to set up a meeting with mum where we could have a day together. He said that he hoped we would involve Julie as well and that maybe we could even make it a regular event if things worked out..

I just said I’d do my very best to coax mum to meet him and I’d call him as soon as I could.

I looked at him as he walked away and I waited until he’s completely disappeared before I turned around to Kate. She just put her arm around me and said ‘Well done.’

I suppose I didn’t say much all the way back to the office and I must have been staring into space a lot. I was trying to work out the relationship between Darren and Aunt Judith and also where dad had fitted into all of this. Then I wondered who my real father was and why dad had adopted me.

I felt that I had to talk to mum when I got home and I knew I’d get chance since we were seeing Gran. I needed to talk to Julie and also to Sally. My head was spinning.

Kate was driving quite fast and weaving in and out of the traffic. She was clearly used to driving at high speed. I really did admire her and it felt nice to be in her care.
She turned to me and said ’ How do you feel?’

‘I can’t explain it Kate. I am so grateful to you. I just feel like I’m living a dream.’
‘Thanks Kate, I really don’t know what more to say.’

‘I don’t need any thanks I was just as pleased as you today. It gave me chance to see my dad too and he had some things to say to me.’

I guess that we both needed to understand more about a few things that happened early in our lives and our fathers did seem to have been friends and had retained the friendship. I felt sad for Kate since her father was clearly having an affair with Aunt Judith and had almost left her mum until something happened and then she became pregnant with me.

As I was gazing out of the window at the barren Pennine Hills Kate said ‘ Did you see the way my dad looked at you today?’’

‘No not really, what do you mean?’

‘Well he was obviously quite taken with you and I suppose it brought back a lot of memories and some guilty feelings. He was looking at you with some sadness in his eyes and at one stage I saw a tear that he quickly wiped away.’

‘I did think that he was a little choked and I felt that he examined me closely and I was hoping that I didn’t look too strange.’

‘No I think he was thinking of you as Judiths daughter more than her son because when I drove him to the railway station he said that it was just as if Judith had come back and that you looked just like her. He said he almost called you Judith and that you had very feminine features and the same smile.’

‘I never had any idea of what Aunt Judith looked like and it’s all been strange to me. I don’t even have any photos to copy her appearance. I don’t know why all this has happened. It all started out as an innocent weekend and I’d dressed like this to be part of the office group that was more of a joke on me by the girls rather than me intending to cross dress.’

‘Well Chrissy it’s obvious that there is a likeness and it’s clear now that Judith was your mum and that my dad may have been your real father but he told me today that he definitely wasn’t. So I guess we are not related and neither are you related to Jessica.’
I said that I didn’t feel that Darren was my father but I had no evidence of my real father so I was keen to talk to mum and Gran.

‘Chrissy I think that you have been very lucky to have been adopted by your mum and dad and I hope that they’ll be friends again. Your dad is nice.’

‘Yes but I need to know who is my birth father and why dad signed himself as my father on my birth certificate. Aunt Judith must have been having an affair.’

Kate accelerated her car past two slow cars hogging the middle lane and said it always gave her pleasure to leave male drivers eating her dust. I smiled because it seemed I was a girl in her eyes even though she knew my real situation.

Just then her car phone rang and Jessica came on the line. The call was open so that I could hear Jessica and Kate took the precaution of telling her I was in the car and could hear. She seemed to go quiet and her tone became a little more terse.

‘Kate I was wondering if we could talk later since I have a few issues in the office and I’m not getting full support.’

Jessica seemed ready to continue but Kate cut her short and said she’d meet her when she arrived back at the office. Jessica never acknowledged that I was in the car and just said bye and that she’d wait for a call.

We soon arrived back at the office and I was glad because I wanted to call Sally and Julie to let them know about meeting Darren Harper and dad. I hoped that Kate would get distracted so I had time to chat to them both and I got my wish since Kate disappeared to a meeting before she had chance to sit down.

I had to ring Julie first and she was just so pleased that I’d finally met dad. She said that he had begged her to persuade me to meet with him but she’d felt that I wouldn’t change my mind and was too obstinate.

But she had realized that my attitude had changed a lot since I’d calmed down and switched my lifestyle. I had to admit that I was taking a different view about many things and that I felt much more mature as Chrissy. It was like I’d never grown up properly as Chris and I couldn’t ever talk easily to people.

I said that I was going to talk to mum and Gran later since I needed to understand about my parentage and I wanted to persuade mum to meet dad with me as he’d requested. I’m not sure if Julie was happy or not since I’m sure she felt excluded. But she said she’d come and pick us up anyway so that she could find out what happened.

When I called Sally to update her she said that she was so happy for me. She was a bit concerned that I might find some bad news and believed that it was best not to dig too deep but I just said ‘say it easy’ but I need to know. Still she did then say she’d be there for me whatever happened and only had to call her whenever I needed someone to talk to.

I told her I’d be with mum and Gran and hoped she’d be home when I arrived so we could have a longer chat and she said she’d look in her diary and cancel all her evening engagements to wait for me.

I said thanks ‘so you mean you are watching Eastenders on TV. She said ‘Oh what a good idea I might just do that.’

Kate had a meeting with Jessica and when she came back she told me that Jessica wasn’t happy with Ann and two of the other girls who were not respecting her enough and supporting her. She’d then told Kate that she wanted to demote Anne and asked if Kate had found a new PA and when I was available to go back to work for her since she felt she needed more staff to support her until she found a better deputy.

Kate asked my opinion if I’d talked to Anne at all about her relationship with Jessica..
It was my chance but I hesitated since I wasn’t sure if she was testing me or not so I took my time in answering. Then I decided it was time to say what I felt even if Kate didn’t like to hear the truth.

‘Kate to be honest I’ve got annoyed with Jessica recently. Trouble seems to follow her and she is not capable of managing good people with experience. I know I agreed to help you because she is related to you but she is very immature and lacks fundamental management skills.’

Then I said that I wouldn’t go back since I enjoyed the job I was doing and the added responsibility and I respected Kate and felt that I was already proving myself and was benefiting from the challenges. I said that Jessica needed some personal skills training and had a bad attitude at work and socially outside work.

Then I said that she needed mentoring and that if Anne was demoted the departments performance would suffer. Then I said she should give Anne more responsibility and let her report to one of the other Managers.

‘But what about Jessica?’

‘To be honest she should go back to one of the stores where her skills are better utilized and maybe she could be given some special assignments by head office so that she didn’t lose face.’

Then I said that whilst I’d had problems with Jessica I could see that she had ambition and was just a fish out of water.

Then I said that if Kate didn’t want me to continue as her PA I would leave and try something completely different. I told her that I needed some Chrissy time anyway so I could leave whenever she found a replacement.

‘Chris you know the situation with Jessica and yet you’ve still given your opinions. I think you should come into my office. You’d better call HR department and get Dave Roberts up here as soon as possible with your file..

To be continued …….