9 My new role

When I arrived at the office on Monday morning, there was a message from Sir Charles on my phone.

“ I will not be in until lunchtime today. I assume that you are taking up my offer, I will agree with you later what it means in relation to terms of appointment etc. As you will be doing more financial reviews and attending meetings with me, you will need somebody to work with you, doing the more routine tasks. Unless you have any objections, Chloe who stood in for you Friday afternoon, appears very capable, sort out with her whether she wants to continue to work up there with you, at least until Margaret gets back.”

“ Chloe can you pop up here for a few minutes, clear it with your manager and tell her that Sir Charles’ PA needs to review some of the work you did on Friday.”

“ What did I do wrong Dani?” she blurted out with a worried look on her face when she came in.

“ Far from it, Sir Charles was quite pleased with what you did., just sit down and relax. The bottom line is that my role will be changing a bit, I will be getting more involved in the business affairs, and we need someone to help with the general secretarial duties for a few weeks. Are you up for it?”

“ You must be joking, you just try and stop me, thank you so much Dani.” she almost screamed as she gave me a big hug.

“ Go and get your personal stuff from downstairs and tidy up whatever it was you were working on. I will call your manager and tell her that Sir Charles wants you to work up here for a while and to get someone else to take over your duties.”

By the time Sir Charles arrived Chloe was settled in, dealing with printing the incoming emails and answering calls. I was called into his office and he ran through what he now expected of me and what my new employment terms would be. I was delighted as my salary was more than doubled and would be topped up with bonuses relating to any financial recommendations I made which made a decent profit. Whilst he would rely on the in-house analysts for any investments made by Cunninghams, I had much more of a free rein in relation to his personal investments and those for his other directorships.

At the end of the day, I couldn’t wait to get back to Carol’s to tell her all my good news.

“ You and Helen were right, this is an amazing opportunity for me, do you fancy going out to celebrate?”

“ I’m up for that, but I have some news for you too, my flatmate Gemma has met up with an old boyfriend on her travels and will be staying in Italy with him for some time and wants to give up the flat. I can’t afford it on my own, so I have three choices, give it up, find a new flatmate and you would have to leave, or you could move in with me and quit your own flat, are you interested?”

“ Of course I am, I can hardly go back to living in my flat looking as I do now, and we get on so well together, that sounds a great idea. That’s two reasons to celebrate, let's get on our glad rags and warpaint and go out on the town.”

As we both had work in the morning we did not celebrate too much, just a meal in a local bistro with a couple of glasses of wine, but it was a great experience for me. It now never really crossed my mind that I was now looking, behaving, and speaking as a woman, and I was just accepted as such by the waiters and barmen in the bistro.

“ Hello Ladies, my friend and I would like to know if you will join us for a drink.” said a tall and quite attractive young man in a soft highland twang. “Don’t worry, this is not a pick-up attempt, it’s just that we have come down here for job interviews and we are getting a bit bored talking to each other all night, it will be much pleasanter chatting to you two pretty lassies.”

Carol gave me a questioning look, obviously a bit interested ,which I returned with a quick nod ,after all she kept telling me that I now had to think as a girl and I was looking forward to seeing how I would get on in the company of men. Callum and Jamie were super company and the time passed quickly and it was soon time to leave.”

“ Well boys, we have enjoyed the evening with you, good luck with your interviews tomorrow.” I said as we made our goodbyes.”

“ No thank you girls, you have helped us relax, I am sure that will help us tomorrow. If we get the jobs we might see you around town.” Callum replied as he gave me a hug and a friendly peck on the cheek. I was not sure how to respond, after all despite everything outside, I was still a man in my head, but I just relaxed and hugged and kissed him back, before we made our way back to the flat.

“You made a good impression there, we were well in and they were a couple of nice fit lads. Another time, if Gemma had still been here instead of you, I think I might have made a date for another night out with Jamie.”

“ Carol, you are a really attractive young woman and obviously have your own feelings and needs, don’t let me hold you back next time, just go for it and let me worry about what I want to do. I have an early morning tomorrow, let’s get cleaned up and ready for bed.”

I had just arrived at work when Sir Charles came in and he gestured at me to follow him into his office.”

“ Dani, that report you compiled last week on ‘Future Entertainment PLC’ looks extremely interesting but is not really the market that Cunninghams normally get involved with and I want to present it to a few of my associates from my other companies. The basic facts are all in the report which I will distribute to them, however I want to back it up with a bit more of a glitzy presentation. Can you knock it up into Powerpoint or whatever the latest presentation format is, I think this is a great opportunity and I really want to sell it to them. Is a couple of days enough time to get it together?”

“I should get it done by tomorrow, but I would need to run it through with you, so see if your people are available Friday or Monday, if that is ok for you.”

The next two days were very intense, as well as changing the presentation format the figures needed a bit of an update to reflect changes in the market prospects, but Thursday lunchtime I was all set up to present it to Sir Charles.

“ Right Dani, introduce it and go through the presentation as if I was the team I am involved with. Don’t just do the basic facts and figures, but emphasise how good an opportunity this is and enthuse about it, sell it to me.”

After the presentation was over, he asked me questions that he would expect his team to come up with and I coped with them quite easily, even when he cast doubts on some of the things I had said.

“ You did that really well Dani, you have done a good job. I would like you to come with me to the meeting, to set it all up, and to fill in some of the details if I get asked some awkward questions. If you don’t mind me saying so, you look like a very efficient formal PA/secretary in your business suit, but that is not how I would like you to be seen on Friday, you are now a bright hope for the future working with me and I would like you to appear a bit more of an individual go-getter. Have a word with Helen Cassidy and see if she and your flatmate can come up with something more appropriate. Run through the presentation with me a couple more times, I want to get myself familiar with it, you know how it is, you do all the work but I get the credit when it all goes well.”

“ Hi Helen, it’s Dani, are you free tonight, I need your help?” I quickly explained what Sir Charles had said and that I needed to get a new outfit for tomorrow.

“ No problem, I have nothing planned. If you prefer I can come up to London and we can do some shopping there, but there are plenty of decent places in Canterbury and that will be easier for Carol.”

Later we all met up in Canterbury and Helen took us to a few of the upmarket specialist shops where she expected to get something suitable.

“My god, Helen,” gasped Carol,” I normally can’t afford to even look in the windows of those shops, never mind go in and buy something.”

“ Look.Dani has to present the right image, a chain shop dress, even the more expensive ones will not be appropriate. Most of the men she is presenting to, and they will all be men, will be wearing hand-cut tailored Saville Row suits and she has to look equally sophisticated. Don’t worry about the cost, it is all going on my company credit card.”

After a couple of hours, and trying on more dresses than I care to remember. I ended up with two
gorgeous dresses, an azure brushed silk, half-sleeve, knee-length, fitted designer label, and one in natural ivory silk sleeveless calf-length, with subtle embossing which caught the light to take away the initial plainness and simplicity. Helen insisted that I had to get matching clutch bags and shoes. To make up for all the help she had given me, Carol was allowed to pick her own favourite for herself. a floating floral summer cocktail dress which absolutely made her night. I just hoped that the investment returns would justify what Carol and I considered to be an excessive cost for it all.

We said thank you and goodnight to Helen and went home to get me ready for tomorrow. Helen had suggested that I needed to be less formal, so rather that wear my hair in its normal bun Carol applied setting lotion and put it up in large rollers which she said would give it soft sexy waves when brushed out in the morning. I can’t say that it was the most comfortable nights sleep, the rollers dug into my head no matter which way I turned.

In the morning, i left in the rollers, did my makeup and had breakfast. Carol got up later and came to help me brush out and style my hair.

“ I had a sleepless night, how you all can sleep in rollers I do not know.”

“ A girl has to suffer for her beauty, not many of us are natural beauties, we need all the help we can get and just have to get used to it. Anyway, that is why styling wands and brushes are so popular now, when you get the hang of them you can get the same effects without any of the discomfort. Instead of wearing your good dress on the train where it can get creased and dirty, leave it in the hanging bag, wear one of your normal outfits for travelling, put your shoes, bag, some spare tights, and your make-up bag in a trolley suitcase and get changed at work. Put on one of your sexier underwear sets, it will help give you a lot more confidence in your femininity”

All prepared, dressed and packed I set out to the office to face the day’s new challenges.

To be continued