11 Moving on

Having checked my bank account first thing and found that Sir Charles had already transferred the money to me, I found an excellent on-line share-dealing service and registered with them. I couldn’t buy any shares until the exchanges opened on Monday anyway, and by then the money transfer to them would have been cleared. I did have a good look around the website anyway, so that I would know what I was doing when it all went live, and checked that there had been no last-minute significant changes in the share price of FE, so none of his associates had jumped the gun and gone ahead on their own yet. There was nothing else I could do so I got myself ready to go back to clear out my old flat.

Even though I had only been in my flat for a few months and did not really know any of the neighbours particularly well, other than nodding a ‘hello’ when passing them on the stairs and lobby, I was determined not to take any risk of being recognised as Danny. Even though it would have been more appropriate to go there in working clothes of t-shirt and jeans, I made the effort to fully make up, style my hair, and put on my denim skirt and a scoop-neck top to ensure that there was no chance of being taken as anything other than a girl, and took the working clothes with me to change into.

It was just as well, as we were opening the door to the flat, Gary who lived next door was just leaving his place.

“ Excuse me, I’ve not seen you here before, do you mind telling me who you are, no offence but you cannot be too careful nowadays.”

“ That’s fine, it’s best to check.” I replied, smiling sweetly at him. “I’m Liz, my brother Danny is leaving here next week and I have come to clear his stuff out and tidy up. If you are around later this afternoon maybe you would like to give us a hand to carry any of the heavy stuff down to the car, if you don’t mind, I will be ever so grateful.”

“Sure, no problem, see you later, just knock on the door when you need me.”

“ That’s what I was saying last night about using your feminine charms, the sweet smile, the sultry voice, the light touch on his elbow, he was ready to do anything for you, you are learning fast girl.” Carol joked with me.

Sorting out Danny’s stuff was not too much bother, it was mainly clothes. Decent clothes that I wanted to keep were put into a suitcase, the rest, which I no longer needed, went into bags to go either in the rubbish skip or to be taken to a charity shop.

I hadn’t really got much furniture, as the kitchen cupboards, equipment, and the bedroom wardrobes were all fitted. The only heavy stuff take was the TV equipment, a small table and a couple of flat-pack chairs which were easily dismantled. There were not a lot of personal items to go with me, I didn’t really believe in clutter or personalisation of the flat. With Carol’s help it all went a lot quicker than I had expected causing me to think that I didn’t really have much to show for my old life. The bags of clothes were all taken down to the car, the TV and bits and pieces of furniture were left by the door and we started on cleaning the place, so there would be no need to come back again. We got the place looking a lot cleaner and better than it had looked when I moved in.

When I called on Gary to deal with the heavy stuff, he was more than pleased to help. I felt a bit guilty, he seemed a decent lad and it was a shame that we had not been better neighbours to each other.

“ It’s a shame that you didn’t visit when Danny was here and that he won’t be back Liz, it would have been nice to have a cute attractive girl around the place.”

Dressed in the jeans and t-shirt and with my hair a bit disheveled from working, I felt anything but attractive, but was glad of the compliment. I thanked him for all his help, gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, took a final look at my flat and Carol and I left for my new home.

Carol was very chatty on the drive back, particularly about how I had said goodbye to Gary, but I was a lot quieter and deep in thought. The last of my life as Danny was over, his clothes were all packed up, his old home was now gone, for the next two years I had to be 100% Dani, even my mother now saw me as a girl.

”Dani, you are turning into a right flirt, first it was ’the cute guy’ on the train, then the goodnight hug for Callum in the pub. calling your boss ‘rather sweet’, fluttering your eyelashes at Gary and giving him a kiss. Are you sure that you have not lived as a girl before?

“ Don’t be daft, one one hand you tell me that I have to change my mindset to think like a girl, on the other hand you make sarcastic remarks when I do, make your mind up.” I snapped back.

“ Even when you lose your temper and control you still sound like a girl, you are definitely becoming Danielle.”

Back in the flat everything calmed down and after I packed all the stuff I had brought from my old flat we decided to go out for a meal.

We had our showers to get rid of the dirt and sweat from all the cleaning and as I was about to start with my makeup I noticed little bit of beard hair coming through and took my razor to the bathroom to clear it off which did not go unnoticed by Carol.

“ Do you think that your face hair will ever be enough to grow a beard when you go back to being a lad?”

“ Not much chance of that! Even if it was, I am not that keen on beards and moustaches anyway, I can’t see myself ever being anything other than clean-shaven. That’s a strange question to ask.”

“ I was just thinking that it might be easier and a lot more realistic for the next couple of years if you had at least your face hair removed. It used to be a lot of bother with electrolysis, but modern laser treatment is very effective and quick and not too expensive, it might be worth considering. You can get your arms and legs done too, but you should be ok with just the occasional waxing for those. I can tell you that it not particularly pleasant but the results are well worth it.”

“ I never thought of that, but then I have never had to before, I’ll have a think about it, but for tonight I will just have a quick go with the razor.”

Sunday was just a relaxing day, we just went for a walk around the city. Since coming to Canterbury I had never really had the time, nor the inclination for that matter, to visit the Cathedral and other tourist targets. However my day out with Mum at Bateman’s had struck a chord with me and I decided that I needed to get out and appreciate the finer things in life a bit more. There was so much to look at that it was impossible to fit everything in, so we made do with the majestic medieval Cathedral with the obligatory visit to the shrine of St Thomas à Becket who had been murdered there as part of a royal power struggle in1170, the cathedral precinct and grounds, and a visit to ‘The Beaney’ a historic multi-cultural Arts Centre, museum and Library. We finished the day with a visit to a fabulous tea shop in the historic city centre which served an amazing cream tea of cakes and sandwiches with a glass of champagne. Although the city gets crowded with tourists, it was a different sort of hustle and bustle to the journey to the office in London and the pressures of work, and we really enjoyed our day out. We decided that there was still a lot more for us to discover in the city.

Later at what was now my home, we settled down and chatted over a glass of wine while watching a film until it was time for bed.

“ I’ve been thinking about what you said about laser treatment on my face, it makes a lot of sense. I know that my face hair is not particularly a problem at the moment, but it could turn into one, do you know anywhere local that can do it.”

“ Gemma and I have had a couple of girly days out in a local spa, just relaxing therapy, skin treatments and stuff like that, but I know they do it. Why don’t you see if you can get us booked in for next weekend. If you think you can survive the pain, why not book a waxing session and some skin treatments for us both as well. Although they will probably have to know your situation, I am sure that it will not be the first time that they have treated a transgender person, your money is as good as anyone-else’s.”

“ I keep telling you that I am not transgender, this is only for a couple of years to help my career, then it will be back to being Daniel again.”

“Whatever you say Dani, whatever you say. !

“ Have you set up your share account yet Dani?” Sir Charles asked when I arrived at the office the next morning.

“ It’s all set up but the money transfers won’t be cleared to allow me to start trading until later today or even tomorrow.”

“ That fits together well, Most of the people you gave your presentation to are in for the deal. There are few legal and financial hoops to go through, but we should be ready to trigger things on Thursday, so the sooner you can get yourself active the better.”

“ Thank you again Sir Charles, it was good of you to give me the chance, I know it is not going to make me a fortune, but to an ex-student with a big loan debt even a few thousand is a windfall.”

“ Down to business, there are a couple of companies that I want you to investigate, a similar job to what you did for FE. They could give you a chance to increase your few thousand profit, let me have the reports by the end of the week please. By the way, it looks like Margaret will be off for a few more weeks, so you are still to be working as my PA as well as your analysis role. It also means that we will need Chloe here for longer as well and should keep her on when Margaret returns. If it is ok with you and her, sort it all out with the HR people to have her transferred up here and agree a salary increase for her, use your discretion.”

“ Chloe have you enjoyed your time working here for the last few days?”

“ Oh yes, I’ve loved it, it is a shame that I will have to go back to the general admin office, I’ve really enjoyed working with you and Sir Charles. he is not nearly as frightening as everyone thinks. I enjoy working with the girls in the office, but the job is not really using what I learned at University, it would be nice to do something a bit more challenging.”

“ You are far over-qualified to be working in the general office, I know that it is not what you want to do, or should be doing long-term, but girls can always fall back on secretarial jobs until something more appropriate turns up. How about if you didn’t have to go back downstairs, would you like a transfer up here? Of course it will mean that we have to do something about increasing your salary as you will now be one of the executive secretaries.” She didn’t say anything at first, but just ran over and gave me a big hug and had tears in her eyes.

“ Ok Chloe, that is enough, that is not very professional, sit yourself down and collect yourself while I have a chat with HR and your former office manager to sort things out.”

Late afternoon, I checked that my trading account had been cleared and put in an order for the shares in FE. It was just before closing time for the Stock Exchange, and, as is common, the share price had a bit of a dip as the ‘day traders’ cleared their books and took what profit they had made. Hopefully when the exchanges opened again in the morning they would pick up from that dip and I would already be into a small profit.

After work Chloe and I went for a quick drink drink in The City Arms to celebrate her new appointment and the significant salary increase she had been given.

“ Thank you so much Dani, I am sure that the decisions were as much yours as Sir Charles’.”

“ That’s ok, you deserved it, and us girls have to stick together don’t we, it is still a man’s world out there and we have to help each other.” After I said it I realised that I had include myself in ’us girls’ without even thinking about it. I was getting much deeper into considering myself as a girl.”

To be continued.