7 Discovered

My second week as Sir charles' PA went just as well and I was becoming happy and relaxed in both my professional life at Cunninghams and living as a girl, but this was soon to be completely torn apart.

“ Danielle, please come through to my office now.” Sir Charles shouted for me when I arrived on Friday morning. It was the first time that he had got there before me, and he did not seem in a good mood.

“ I think that it about time that you were honest with me Danielle, or should that in fact be Daniel? What on earth is going on and what are you playing at?”

I was absolutely astounded, embarrassed, and speechless for what seemed like several minutes, but was more probably only a few seconds, while it all sunk in.

“ Come on girl, don’t keep me waiting, I asked you a question”

“ I am sorry Sir Charles, I think I had better leave now.” and I stood up to go.

“ Sit down now, I haven’t asked you to leave, I want you to tell me why you are dressed like that and why you have been deceiving me.” he barked.

“ It all started in the Canterbury office when you mistook me for a girl and had Helen Cassidy offer me the temporary job as your PA. I had originally applied for the vacancy as PA to George Griffiths, and Helen thought that I had a lot to offer in the role. I was hoping to work with a senior executive to give me an insight into the business world and gain some experience to help my future career. The offer of working with you was an amazing opportunity, if you are going to learn from someone, why not learn from the best, and when she told me I jumped at the chance.

I turned it down when I learned that you thought I was a girl and that that was the basis for the offer.However, Helen convinced me that it was too good an opportunity for me and that she thought that I could easily carry off the pretence of working as a female for a couple of weeks. Besides, she was worried that you would be embarrassed when you found out that you had mistaken me for a girl.

With a lot of help from her and from Carol, one of the girls in the Canterbury office, I was turned into Danielle, and I thought that I had done it successfully. I am sorry if I have annoyed or embarrassed you, no such thing was intended.”

“ You have put me in a very awkward situation Danielle, and that is what I will continue to call you for the moment. Whilst you have been working here you have met several of my business associates and I have passed on to them some of your reports. We have all been impressed at the efficient way you have performed in the short time you have been here. You have no doubt seen the TV show ‘The Apprentice’, and I was considering appointing you into that role. I may come across as as being a bit of an elderly cultural dinosaur, but I realise that we are in a changing world and it is no secret that I am looking for a young female protégé to develop into a high-flying senior role in due course, and I have suggested that you may be the one. You come across as an intelligent confident personable and presentable young woman, just the sort I was looking for. I needed to know a lot more about you before I said anything to you, and had someone research your background a bit more deeply, and unfortunately you are not all that you appear to be.”

“ Thank you for what you have just said, I appreciate it all. Unfortunately I cannot meet your requirements, which is a shame as I have enjoyed working with you and would have welcomed the opportunity to be mentored by you. If it will not embarrass you further I am happy to keep working here until Margaret gets back or until you can find a replacement for me.”

I left, walked straight through my office along to the ‘Ladies’ sat down in a cubicle to gather my thoughts, and unusually for me I had a good cry, I was really disappointed and upset at the way things had turned out and deeply embarrassed about having made a fool of myself. I dried my eyes and freshened up my makeup, I did not want to make matters worse by not presenting myself properly. The rest of the morning passed in a blur, Sir Charles did not call me in for anything and I felt he was deliberately ignoring me.

At lunchtime, I went for a walk around St Paul’s as I was expecting that it would be my last time in the City for a while and was determined to make the most of it.

Back at the office I was soon called in by Sir Charles, and was surprised to see Helen in there with him, and was even more shocked when she gave me a big smile.

“ I have talked through your situation with Ms Cassidy, and must say that I am disappointed that she went along with this harebrained scheme.”

“ Don’t blame her, it was done with the best of intentions, to help me and to save you any embarrassment. I thought that if I could keep it going for a couple of weeks that it would all then just fade away and that you would not be any the wiser.”

“ Just be quiet and listen for a minute, you might look like a woman, but you don’t have to jabber away like one, Ms. Cassidy is not in trouble, and neither are you. As I have said, I have been impressed with how you have carried out your duties, particularly the financial assessments and reports and would like to for you to continue in that role. However I can’t suddenly have you change from Danielle to Daniel, too many people have met you. If you want to continue here it would have to be as Danielle and it would be long-term, at least for the next two years. Arrange for a stand-in for the rest of the afternoon, go and talk it through with Ms. Cassidy and let me know later what you have decided.”

Knowing that it would probably cause more ripples with the secretarial office, I called Chloe and asked her if she would cover for me for a few hours, just general secretarial duties, typing and answering the phone, and she jumped at the opportunity to finally get up to the eighth floor executive suites. While Helen cleared Chloe’s absence with her line manager, I quickly showed her where everything was, left her to it, and went out with Helen to a local wine bar where we could have a chat.

“ It had to happen sometime, I should have realised that he would get you checked out, i’m sorry it all got his far.”

“Don’t blame yourself Helen, I went along with it all, you didn’t force me. What am I supposed to do now? It was ok to go along with pretending to be a girl for a few days, but committing to two years is a different matter. I told you that I have never wanted to even dress up as a girl never mind live permanently as one, and I still feel like that. After two years, I am not sure if I will have changed forever, as you and Carol kept telling me it is all a matter of mindset and two years is a lot of readjustment to wipe out.”

“ What would your family and friends think about it all, if they found out, after all you cannot just disappear off the face of the earth?”

“ My Mum would would probably be ok with it, she is a typical child of the late 60s and 70s, a free spirit, ‘do whatever makes you happy’ type. She will be a lot surprised, but I think she will go along with whatever I want to do. My father died from a heart attack a few years ago, my older sister, Liz, lives in Italy, and we hardly ever see her now, so the family should be ok. I lost touch with all my friends from schooldays when I went to Uni in Canterbury, all my mates from there have gone off working all over the country and I am not likely to see any of them again, and starting a new job I have not really had time to get a new social circle yet. Carol, and of course you, are the closest friends I have at the moment and you two know all about me anyway.”

“ It’s obviously down to you and what you want to do with your life, but what harm would it do, a couple of years is not a long time, and you can decide where it goes from there.”

“ I know that this will sound weird and maybe even childish, but I would really like to get my Mum’s opinion on this before I make a commitment one way or the other, let’s have a break while I give her a call. it will be an awkward conversation, so don’t expect it to be quick.”

“What did she say to you then?” asked Helen when I returned.

“ After she got over the original shock, she was actually very supportive, she even suggested that it would do a lot of men a lot of good to spend some time living as a woman, She compared it to the old days of Conscription and National Service in the forces saying that two years in the army was character-building and didn’t turn men into killers in later life, so why should two years as a woman permanently change my life. She did insist though that she wanted to meet Danielle, and I need to go down to St Leonards this weekend for a visit, She lives on her own, but despite meeting people in her gift shop she does get a bit lonely. Let’s go back to Sir Charles and tell him that I agree to working with him as Danielle for the next two years, subject to anything Mum might say to encourage me to change my mind.”

The meeting with Sir Charles went well, he was actually quite pleased at my decision. “I look forward to having you work with me, although it will take a bit of getting used to for both of us. As much as I can I will treat you as if you are a natural woman and I would expect you to always behave as one. Leave early and get yourself down to see your Mother, your family life is important and I accept that you need to sort that out before any final decision, but in any circumstances I will expect you back here on Monday morning. I am leaving soon , so Chloe can look after things here for the rest of the day”

Back at Carol’s I packed a case for my weekend at Mum’s and decided that I would spend the entire visit as Danielle and so only packed a selection of my women’s clothes and all the other feminine essentials. I changed out of my business suit into a casual skirt and top and cleaned and renewed my makeup, and brushed out my hair into a high ponytail with the sides hanging loose behind my ears, the first time Mum would see me as Danielle I had to look as feminine and authentic as possible.

I waited until Carol came home before leaving, and filled her in on everything that had happened and how I felt about it all. She was very supportive and offered to do everything she could to help if I needed it. She wished me a happy weekend and gave me a long hug and farewell kiss. “ See you Sunday night Sis, take care and don’t worry, your Mum sounds great.” and not really registering what she had called me, I headed off for my next big challenge.

To be continued.