It is amazing how an unsolicited phone call can turn your day upside down. I’d been on the phone for almost half an hour with one of these before I ended the call feeling both mystified and frustrated. I sat at my desk for well over half an hour trying to make some sense of what had transpired on the call. Finally, I called out to Sue Fredericks, my No 2 and right-hand woman.
“Sue, what’s my diary like for the rest of the week?”
I’m sure that my request took her by surprise but as ever, she didn’t bat an eyelid.
“You have a meeting with the prospective PCB suppliers pencilled in for Thursday but so far, they have not confirmed it. Otherwise, there is nothing that can’t be put off. Why?”
I got up and went to face her.
“That call was both interesting and disturbing. I need to make some calls but it is highly likely that I’ll be heading down to London. There are a couple of people that I need to see sooner rather than later.”
“Something serious then?”
“That’s just it, I don’t know, I honestly don’t know. The call might have been a fishing expedition but there are a couple of old University mates that will have a better idea than me. Stuck here on the edge of the known world, we tend to let most of the world pass us by, don’t we?”
Sue laughed.
Grimsby is hardly on any main tourist route and because of the frankly abysmal UK road system, you have to make a decisive effort to get to our neck of the woods. The only tourists we get are those who are hopelessly lost on their way to somewhere far more important such as Devon.
“Being on the edge of the world is what helps make it nice and peaceful here,” she joked. Her husband was from across the Humber in Hull.
“Sleeping while standing up, more like and that’s why I setup shop here. But… Well, I won’t say anything more until I know more.”
Sue mimicked a zip closing her mouth.
I sighed. That woman was a wonder and about the only good thing to come out of my marriage to Jessica. Sue had been my former wife’s, Jessica’s BFF all through their university days. Jessica had managed almost two years in Grimsby before trading me in for a newer model from the far hipper and cooler City of Manchester.
“Thanks Sue. It may be nothing but it can’t hurt to check it out.”
That night, I made a few phone calls and set up a couple of meetings for late the next day and early the day after. That meant spending a night in London and paying London prices for everything, but I had to find out what the unexpected call had meant.
My appointment was for 14:00 and it was now close to 15:00. The ‘drone’ had not even told him that I was here and waiting until 14:30. My ‘Sue’ could teach her a thing or two about the proper way to manage a manager and to dress in a way that told everyone that she was a woman but strictly ‘hands off’. This secretary had gone out of her way to make herself look like a clone of a catwalk model from when they all had ultra-short hair. The absence of any makeup or perfume plus dressing like a man told me all I needed to know about her. I would never have dated her in a million years.
I got up and followed her into the inner sanctum.
“Tony! How great to see you again,” said Steve.
Steve Johns was in my eyes, a phoney, always had been and always will be but somehow, he’d wangled his way into this job, so if I had to suck up to him for an hour or so then so be it.
“Likewise, Steve.”
I looked around at the ‘drone’. She was still hovering as if she was waiting for a coded instruction from her master.
“Claire, this my old Uni drinking buddy, Ant Richardson. How long has it been Ant?”
“Too long Steve.”
“That will be all Claire. Please tell Mr Brooks that I’ll see him at 08:00 tomorrow.”
‘Claire’ looked a bit indignant that this interloper was affecting the smooth running of her domain, but she nodded her head and left us alone.
“Take a seat Ant, I was beginning to think that you weren’t coming.”
“I was here on time but ‘Claire’ took an instant dislike to me so waited for half an hour before realising that I was not going away to announce my presence.”
Steve smiled.
“Claire is there to repel boarders and by the cut of your suit, you clearly fall into the pirate gang.”
“Most weeks, I don’t wear this POS.”
“You always were a more hands on sort of guy. I see from you last filing with companies house that your business is doing well.”
“Don’t give me that crap Steve. You had forgotten all about a minnow like me until you read my email.”
Steve smiled.
“Yeah. You got me. But your email intrigued me so why are you really here?”
“Have you heard of a company called Nimonic Investments, and an individual called Toby Youngman?”
The smile that was on Steve’s face disappeared in a flash.
“Toby Youngman is a leech, a slimy poisonous blood sucking leech. How do you know him or even about him? That creature is the lowest of the low in M&A. He really is in the pirate class. Claire would eat him for lunch and spit out just his guts.”
“Thanks for that description, Steve. He called me out of the blue yesterday morning and tried to get me to sign up for his services.”
“I will say one thing for that slimeball, he is generally aware of a bid for a company long before the rest of us. We hate him with a vengeance as he tries to milk us for way too much in consultancy fees as well as some rather dubious share dealings if you get my meaning. But… somehow, he gets wind of a deal months and months before the rest of us. That is his only redeeming character.”
I had much the same view of him from the searching I’d done the previous evening.
“What did he say? Was it something like ‘I have heard a rumour that an unnamed company is going to prepare a bid for your company. I can’t say who it is but if you sign up with me, I’ll make sure that you get a good deal?”
“That’s pretty close. That’s why I thought of you. I’m far too small a fry for your company to be interested but…?”
“You want some independent advice on the cheap?”
I smiled.
“Something like that. I can see that he is well known to you so how about it?”
Steve leaned back in his very expensive swivel chair. After looking me over once more, he smiled and said,
“You would do well to stay the hell away from him and his ilk. I can put you onto a good advisor who won’t try to rip you off… Not if they want any business from us in the future if you know what I mean?”
“That would help. I have a meeting setup for tomorrow with Rona McDaid. Dave Porter, do you remember him? I spoke to him yesterday and he recommended Rona. I called her and within a few minutes, she told me that she would meet me tomorrow.”
Steve smiled.
“My… you have been busy. Rona is as good as anyone when it comes to business restructuring to stop a slimeball like Toby. If she has agreed to meet you so quickly then she might still be smarting after her last encounter with Toby. He tried to frame her for insider dealing only to find that it was one of the companies’ chief accountant that was doing it and paying him off with part of the profits. Even so, the FCA had a few words with her afterwards or so the rumour mill was saying that the time.”
I smiled.
“I remembered the lecture that Prof Acres gave us in our final year. She had some good ideas about managing a hostile takeover but that is a long time ago and things have moved on a lot since then.”
“Rona won’t come cheap, but she is about the best independent advisor there is. If I were you, I’d offer her a bit of the company so that when the bid comes, she has a vested interest to talk it up. That way, you could defer any payment to her for a while if you know what I mean.”
I’d read a lot of reports about Rona and how she worked. Steve was confirming that.
“I’ll think about it when the time comes.”
Steve looked at his watch.
“Want to have a good thrashing on the court? I have one booked in half an hour.”
We used to play squash against each other when we were at Uni. I used to beat him four times out of five.
“Sorry Steve, I’ll have to pass on that. I’ve not played in six or seven years. It would be a massacre judging buy the trophies in your cabinet.”
“Shame about that. I’d love to get the chance to even the score… just a little bit.”
Steve was a giant of a man compared to my relatively tiny physique. Yet I was always nimbler on my feet than him. That was then and it was clear that he was taking ‘working out’ to a whole new level. I did wonder if some steroids were helping him put on so much muscle.
“Another time maybe?”
“Yeah.”
That was it, my audience was over.
I stepped out of the building that contained his office feeling rather unclean. Luckily, my hotel was just a few stops away on the tube and a walk over the river to the south bank. I needed a stiff drink and a good shower.
I’d arranged to meet Rona McDaid at Speakers Corner. As it was the weekend, there were a lot of tourists taking selfies of themselves and a few soapbox speakers, but I recognised her from her press photos.
“Rona? I’m Tony Randall.”
She smiled and stuck out her hand.
“Pleased to meet you. Shall we walk and talk? Any excuse to get out from behind my desk for an hour besides, there is less chance of being overheard isn’t there?”
I knew that I was going to like Rona from that moment. She didn't beat about the bush.
We walked in the general direction of the Royal Albert Hall. I did most of the talking to start with. I could tell by the various facial expressions that some of what I was saying was good but mostly bad.
At the end of my explanation, she simply said,
“If I were to offer you say thirty million in cash for your company right now… would you accept it?”
I was taken a bit by surprise by the question.
“I’d have to think about it. There is more than money at stake here.”
She grinned back at me.
“That is the right answer. You are thinking beyond the money. That is good in my view. Well, it has to be or we would not be having this discussion. I don’t like timewasters. From what you have said, you care deeply about both the business and the people who work for you, but you are only too aware of the dangers that lie ahead for operations like you who need to expand to keep up with demand. You will need the financing but don’t want the problems that dealing with most financiers would involve especially those ratbags who call themselves Venture Capitalists…They are the only other option as the banks are only interested in 150% security which you don’t have. Your company is profitable but lacks the cash in the bank to make the investment that is needed to take it to the next level and you are reluctant to dilute your shareholding by more than a few percent…”
This woman had clearly done her research on me and my company.
“I think that we can do business. Why don’t we head back the way we came and we can draw up some terms of engagement for my help… If you still want it that is?”
“I think so, but what if there is no offer for my company?”
“You and I will have a relationship going forward because I’ll own a tiny bit of the company. Not enough to force a seat on the board, I don’t to this active investor thing, but if I own a stake in the business, then I am always ready to discuss the business with you. I have contacts that could provide the much-needed financing at a level of interest that would be far more acceptable than most other sources. Therefore, it is in both our interests for your company to succeed, isn’t it?”
“It is. Thanks… Yes, I think we can come to some agreement.”
[three hours later]
Those three hours went by in a flash. Rona took either a 1% or a 5% stake in my company depending on what happened in the next six months. She was right about a ‘small’ stake and was very acceptable to me. In return, I had a plan to structure the business so that if a takeover came and was too good to refuse, everyone in the business would get some of the proceeds. The sums she mentioned were to my eyes, silly money but she laid it out for me. She was able to take my business apart with just the financial statements and the press releases of my clients. She knew how big my order book was to within 10% and that was genuinely scary. If she could do that in less than 24 hours, then this mysterious company could do the same… If nothing happened then she’d own 1% as payment for her services in restructuring the company ownership. I liked her way of working. Involving her didn't cripple my cash flow.
Her final words were,
“Take the contract and run it past your legal people. If they ok it then sign it and send it back then we are in this together. I hate seeing small business get taken to the cleaners by the likes of Toby Youngman.”
I got on the train back to deepest, darkest Grimsby feeling a lot happier.
The deal with Rona was signed off less than a week later. I put in place a plan that would benefit my employees should a takeover happen within a year.
Business was booming thanks to the rapid expansion of wind power in the North Sea. I’d almost forgotten about Rona and our deal when she called me out of the blue late on Friday afternoon.
“Toby Slimeball Youngman is going to put in an offer on behalf of an unnamed company on Monday. Call me when he makes the offer. I should have more information to share by then.”
That was it, short and sweet… well depending on which side of the fence you were on. I did hear an announcer in the background. It sounded like she was in a Railway Station somewhere. However, what she said was right to the point. It was going to ruin my weekend for sure but that sort of thing happens if you are a business owner.
Toby Youngman called just before 15:00. I’d just opened the email that contained the details of the offer. I feigned ignorance of the email and just listened to him rant on about the opportunity of a lifetime that would set me up for life and other crap. I sort of tuned him out while I scanned the email.
The big problem was the sum that they were offering. Rona's off-the-cuff valuation was more than double their opening offer. That set alarm bells ringing but I held off telling him to take a hike into the path of an oncoming train. That would come later.
I listened to him and thanked him for the heads up on the offer and that it would receive my attention the next day. Before he called, I had been right in the middle of making sure that our latest VAT return was correct. That was more important in the short term than some out-of-the-blue takeover being fronted by a poisonous leech.
I spent the rest of the afternoon checking over the return before sending the details to our accountant. He'd check them as well and if they were ok, he'd make the filing before the end of Tuesday.
With the dreaded VAT out of the way, I looked that the offer document once again. It appeared to be written in half a dozen styles which made it likely that it was a cut/paste job from other bid documents. That struck me as pure laziness. I was very much in the ‘if a job is worth doing then it is worth doing well’ camp.
Once I had read it all and resisted sending back a simple ‘On Yer Bike’ message, I forwarded it to Rona and followed that up with a text.
A few minutes later, she responded with ‘Got it! I’ll call you later to discuss.’
That was all I could hope for so after printing out the whole offer document and the associated attachments I gathered my things and went home.
Rona called me just before 20:00 that evening.
Her opening remark was simple…
“Interesting but also an insult.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Their valuation is a load of bollocks to put it bluntly.”
She laughed.
“Exactly and this is why you should reject it out of hand, but not before Friday Afternoon.”
It took me a few seconds to twig what she was on about.
“You want them to work all weekend on a new bid?”
“I do and also give us time to plan our next move.”
“When we did the restructuring, you went into great detail how you came to your valuation. Things have moved on with the backlog. The new version of the product is selling well beyond our initial expectations. I’ve put the wheels in motion to hire another six people.”
I heard a chuckle down the phone.
“If that is true then this offer is even more of an insult. Hold on a moment.”
Rona left me hanging on the phone for almost a minute. When she returned, she said,
“Sorry about that. I think I can put a few things on hold for this week. How about I drop by after work tomorrow? I don’t want to come to the factory you never know who is watching the comings and goings.”
What she said made perfect sense but…
I looked around at my home. Since I'd been living on my own, I'd let things slip. For a moment I panicked. Then I relaxed. She'd have to take my home as she sees it. Deep down, I knew that it was a mess, but all I could do was a bit of tidying. A proper deep clean would take days, days that I just didn't have.
Rona must have detected my hesitation.
“Is there something wrong?”
“No… It will be fine. What time will you be here? I’ll need some time to whip up something to eat.”
“Don’t worry yourself on that. I’ll bring something with me. I’ll be there about six.”
She’d let me off that small hook.
“Ok, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I hung up feeling both relieved and anxious. Relieved that I would not have to cook something and anxious because I knew that no matter what I did to tidy the place, she’d see right through it.
Although my mind was on the bid, I spent the rest of the evening cleaning the kitchen and downstairs toilet. At least they’d be semi-decent for Rona.
I fully expected a phone call from Toby 'sleazebag' the next day, but none materialised which was a relief more than anything. I went home at a decent time hoping to be able to clean a bit more of the house before Rona arrived, but she was waiting for me.
“Sorry for being early, I got a bit carried away with the food and it will take a bit longer to prepare than I had hoped.”
“No problem,” I replied knowing deep down that it was a big problem.
I let her into the house while I put her car into my garage. If someone was watching then they’d see my car outside or that was what I hoped.
I went into the kitchen to face the music. Rona was busy with the food preparation so I played my part and opened the bottle of wine that she’d brought. Then I did panic. If we drank the whole thing then she’d not be able to drive.
I poured us both a small glass for which I got a ‘thanks’. Then I disappeared and headed upstairs to make up a bed in the guest room. At least that room had not been turned into a junk room like the other two bedrooms. I did my best at tidying everything before the smells of dinner began wafting up from the kitchen.
I went back to the kitchen. Rona was frying off some onions. Without even blinking she remarked,
“You need a housekeeper.”
She’d got me there. I knew that I did. She wasn’t the first person to mention it, but something always got in the way of me sorting one out. I’m sure that my expression changed as she looked at me and smiled.
“I know just the person for the job.”
I was coming to appreciate that Rona was a woman who said very little but when she did, you listened.
[to be continued]
This story was inspired by the artwork shown below. It was on the wall of an hotel in Trondheim, Norway in July 2022. I will be back in Trondheim on my way to Nordkapp next Thursday night but at a different hotel. I wonder what inspiration I will get this year?
Rona’s comment about me needing a housekeeper was like a punch in the gut. She hadn't passed even the slightest derogatory comment on the frankly tatty state of my home, but instead, she had suggested a solution. That’s what she was all about… Solutions to problems and sometimes the people on the receiving end didn’t know that they had a problem.
“I don’t know.”
She smiled back at me while expertly caramelising the onions.
“Lucia is a wonderful person if a little eccentric at times. There is not a bad bone in her body which had led for some men to try to take advantage of her in the past. You are not like that.”
Her closing words were again right on point. I would not like to get on the wrong side of Rona.
“Be a dear and lay the table. This will be ready in five minutes.”
My guest was ordering me about in my home. To be honest, I didn’t care. Rona was the first woman to have crossed the threshold since my then wife Janice had walked out on me and into the bed of a real sleazebag named Jeremy Thornton. He was a 'cash flasher' who never bought a round.
It took Janice exactly seventeen days to see him for what he was and wanted to come back, but for once, I stood up to her and told her to her face 'to sling her hook'. My reasoning was that if she could leave me for such a turd then how long before she found someone not so much of a shithead? I was not going to get fooled again.
We were divorced not long after that, and since then, I've not really looked at another woman in that way. Rona was someone that I treated as an equal. Well, she was a good deal older than me and not my type… whatever that was.
I laid the table and poured her another glass of wine. She would not be driving home or wherever tonight.
Rona, served up an excellent Onion Soup with all the trimmings. That was followed by a stuffed Mackerel and an Italian Salad. That lady can sure cook. It made my ‘fling it all in a pot’ cooking methods seem so amateurish by comparison.
“That was an excellent meal, Rona. Thank you for that. I didn’t deserve such a treat.”
“It was my pleasure. I don’t often get the chance to cook for someone, so thank you for letting me do that.”
I raised a glass. Together, we toasted the end of a good meal.
Once I'd cleared away and put at least some of the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, I sat down. It was time for work.
She looked at her watch and sighed.
“I think that you are right. Thanks. I’ll be away first thing in the morning. Please give some thought to at least interviewing Lucia. If you two don’t click then there is nothing lost is there?”
“I suppose so.”
“One thing. She has a dog. Some sort of terrier mongrel. Scamp is her name. She dotes on her. If you aren’t happy with that then the deal is off.”
I had never had a dog either as a child or as an adult.
“Or if Scamp hates me?”
Rona laughed.
“Indeed.”
She looked me right in the eye.
“Let’s see how this takeover pans out before doing anything with regard to Lucia. She’s in Italy at the moment and as far as I know, won’t be back until late October. However, I think the two of you would get on very well.”
“Thank you Rona, for giving me an out until more pressing things have resolved themselves.”
“I want both of us to come out of this smelling of roses. With what we did with regard to your company structure will make you, and all those who depend upon you happy should the right offer drop in our laps. The emphasis is naturally on it being the ‘right offer’. Anything less than that and we walk away.”
I smiled. Rona's version of 'benevolent capitalism' was very much the same as mine. That was why we'd clicked so well. Those changes allowed me, and to some extent Rona herself to examine all aspects of the current and future bid with a clear conscience, when it came to my employees. Almost all the employees who had been with the company for more than a year took advantage of the share ownership scheme that we’d devised.
“As I said, I’ll be out of here first thing. I have a meeting in Nottingham for eleven but after that, I’m free for the rest of the day. I’ll draft the email that you should send, provided you agree with the wording late on Friday afternoon.”
“Yeah, and if Toby sleazebag calls, I will tell him that the offer is being examined by my legal representatives. That is true as I sent them a copy before I left the office today.”
She smiled.
“You are learning Anthony. We could make a proper egomaniacal capitalist out of you yet!”
I smiled back at her.
“No chance.”
I had to admit no myself that I had not even looked into one before because I didn’t want some stranger poking their fingers into my whole home life. If Lucia came with Rona’s recommendation, then that might be different. If it meant that I had to make a short trip to Italy to interview her, then so be it. At least that was one thing that I could make some progress on while the lawyers and accountants spent lots of money telling me that in its current state, the bid was an insult and one that would not be taken seriously unless it was totally revised.
I had toast, tea and coffee ready to go when Rona appeared.
“You didn’t need to have done any of this,” she remarked.
“You are a guest in my house besides, I’ll have to move my car to let you leave. I didn’t think about that last night.”
She smiled.
“Tea and some toast would be fine if that is local Honey I see on the table?”
“It is. The apiarist lives just a few miles down the road. This is one was made with mostly rapeseed pollen,” I said as I switched the kettle on and put a slice of bread into the toaster.
“Sounds good.”
I had already learned that Rona was not into small talk and general chatter.
While the tea brewed, I took my chance.
“I have been thinking and you are right, I do need a housekeeper. Naturally, I would like to meet Lucia first. It we don’t get on then it would be better to find out sooner rather than later.”
“Good for you. I’ll speak to her and we can set something up.”
“I don’t do video interviews. I find them so impersonal and you can’t get a feel for the person if you know what I mean?”
“Just like me then. I like to see the whole person, not a talking head. That’s why I wanted to meet you before we got anything going.”
“I know and I appreciate that.”
Then I added,
“You mentioned that Lucia is in Italy at the present time. If I have to go there on a day trip then I’ll do it. It is not as if I am heavily involved in the deal at the moment. The Lawyers and Accountants… bless their cotton socks are doing their thing despite it being a crap offer.”
Rona smiled.
“I knew that we could work together before we first met and nothing that has transpired since has caused me to change that. I’ll see how she is fixed.”
I smiled at Rona.
“Besides, if the opposition are keeping tabs on me, then a day trip to say Rome will no doubt cause some confusion.”
Rona drank some of her tea and nodded her head.
“You are learning fast. It is too bad that you won’t be in a position to have another company like you have now for several years. What you learn this time may well go to waste.”
I was beginning to understand how Rona operated. This whole thing was a game of chess with feints and sacrifices along the way with the aim of coming out on top at the end of the day.
“I understand that you are selling the company! I want my share!”
My team looked a bit puzzled. She noticed this.
“And the bastard has not told you yet. Typical…”
“Hello my former wife. As for your share, I seem to remember a credit card bill for almost four grand that you didn’t put on your financial statement in the divorce. That is illegal. Any judge would see that as a way of disqualifying you from any proceeds of a sale should one take place. At the moment there is nothing worth talking about on the table so it is pure speculation to even talk about a sale. I am working on next year’s financial plan right now. If I had wanted to sell, would I be doing that? The answer is a big fat no.”
Two of my team knew that was the truth. We’d been working on expanding the production for the next year for the past three weeks. I’d even been to see the bank and they were generally supportive.
“David, can you escort my former wife off the premises. Once that is done, can you come back here. I want everyone to know what has transpired to date at the same time.”
David Merchant was my production manager. He guessed that I wanted to brief my team before I addressed the workforce. The appearance of my former wife had made that briefing something that could not wait.
He disappeared with him holding my dear ex-wife by the arm and returned a few minutes later.
“She’s gone but is not very happy at being rebuffed like that,” said David.
I nodded back at him.
“Someone somewhere and probably in London, has been talking so I will give it to you guys straight. I’ll tell everyone after lunch, so if you can all hold fire about saying anything until then I would appreciate it?”
There were no dissenters.
“It is true that I have received an unsolicited bid for the company. I want to stress the word ‘unsolicited’. I have not put the company up for sale, nor have I put out any feelers regarding a sale or even undertaking in any re-financing. The bid that I have received is frankly derisory, and I have told them so and in polite words, that they should sling their hook. This business is not for sale.”
“That said, I think that it in the best interests of everyone and that means all of you to prepare a defence. What I have done is engage the services of a consultant to advise me on the bid, and how to fight it. The expenses for that are coming out of my pocket. Therefore, it will never appear on the balance sheet or in the books, so don’t go looking for it. My immediate problem is that I do not know who is behind this bid. The people behind it are using the services of a slimeball consultant of their own. Since the initial contact, I have discovered that this person is regarded with contempt in the city of London.”
“To re-iterate, and as I stand here today, I have no intention of selling the company. In other news, I have decided to employ a housekeeper and I should be interviewing one or two in the next few weeks.”
It took a few seconds for my last words to sink in. My team went off to lunch happy.
I was far from happy. I needed to speak to Rona ASAP.
“That’s what I was thinking,” I said agreeing with her.
“The financial settlement my wife and I agreed to and signed specifically excludes any and all future growth in the company. That is the one thing about the whole thing that earned my divorce lawyer his fees. I think that a letter from our company lawyers to her reminding her of this would be in order?”
“Good for you. So many people like you forget the bit about future growth.”
“I only did it at the insistence of my divorce lawyer, but I am so glad to have done it. If she wants to go against it then she will have to fund the whole thing. There is no way that I’m going to pay her again. The last time, it was only thanks to a new order at work that I was able to borrow the money to pay her in time. I had to put up my home as collateral for that loan. I am not going to do that again.”
Rona changed the subject.
“Now that they are at least a bit out in the open, we can ask for a full disclosure as to who it behind the bid. I’ll redraft the rejection letter and send it to you for approval by the end of the day. We need to put the ball back in their court ASAP.”
“I agree. I wonder how long it will be before I have to explain how a sale would affect the staff?”
“That is one thing that you are not going to do before the deal is done and dusted and money has changed hands. That is between us and your staff and must stay in the dark until then.”
I remembered Rona lecturing me on that very thing when we set up the restructuring.
“Sorry, but I do need them to keep the business running while I can deal with the bid.”
“Wrong. That’s what I’m here for isn’t it? That’s how I earn my money in the event of a sale. No sale, no fat fee but haven’t I always been perfectly clear that the final say is down to you and you alone. I’m here to take the strain off you while you keep the company solvent.”
“You are and sorry for doubting you.”
“Don’t think anything of it. It is my job to be right there for you on this.”
Rona sent me an email just before midnight as she promised. This one was very direct and to the point. The prospective bidders were instructed to value the company correctly. She emphasised this by repeating herself that the people behind the deal need to come forward and make themselves known. Her final words got it right.”
“Henceforth, we will entertain no communication with Toby Youngman.”
I forwarded it to my company lawyers and went to bed.
I don’t know when Rona actually slept, but there was another email waiting for me when I got up the next morning.
“Anthony, I have spoken with Lucia and she’d be happy to meet you on Saturday in Cannes at 14:00. She will be waiting in the foyer at the Hotel Majestic under the name, ‘Lucia Lambretti’. She is copied in on this email. From here on, just talk to her directly. Good luck. Rona.”
She had included all of Lucia’s contact details including her Facebook page.
Normally, I’m not one for Social-Media but I felt that it would not harm things to look at her personal bio.
To say that it was a surprise would be a huge underestimate. I was so engrossed in her very chequered history that I missed a call from work wondering where I was for my 09:00 meeting.
I finally surfaced just before 10:00. Feeling very guilty, I called Sue at the office and said that I’d been up very late the previous night which was perfectly true, and that I’d be in before 11:00.
“I have sent our response to the legal people. The advisor that I engaged and I were working on that until well after midnight. Once they have vetted it, it will be sent to the company fronting the bid. As far as I’m concerned, the company is not for sale. End of story,” I told Sue hoping to sound duly serious.
Once I’d dealt with company matters, I looked into how I’d get to Cannes on Saturday without letting anyone else know where I was going especially my assistant, Sue. It was not going to be easy. No matter how I rolled the dice. Living in the middle of nowhere as I did, meant that travel anywhere was more often than not, a real PITA. Eventually, I decided on a Friday afternoon train to Manchester Airport and an evening flight to Frankfurt. After a few hours in an hotel at the airport would see me getting a flight to Nice. The return flight would be later that afternoon would be direct to London, then four different trains would see me home late that evening.
Normally, I’d get my assistant to book everything, but on this occasion, I wanted to keep things quiet. I used my personal credit card and by four, I had the almost all the trip booked. Then I went into the outer office.
“I’m going over to Manchester on Friday afternoon. I need to talk to the consultant that I engaged about the bid and they can only make it early in the evening after they get back from Germany. Can you book me a return train ticket from Cleethorpes to Manchester Piccadilly for say three on Friday?”
Sue is a kind soul but the look on her face told me that she didn’t believe a word of it.
“Don’t worry Sue, I’m not going to sell the company out from under us. Their opening bid is frankly derisory. Here, take a look for yourself.”
I waited while she looked at the first page of the bid.
“Ok, that I do believe, but there is something that you are not telling me.”
She had me there.
“There is and if it all goes well, then I’ll have something to say on Monday but it won’t be for general consumption.”
Sue looked at me over the top of her glasses. I got the message loud and clear… You had better do that or else!
At 15:39 on Friday, I caught the train that would take me to Manchester Airport. I carried just my briefcase. A clean pair of socks and undies were in the briefcase along with my toothbrush, deodorant and razor. I’d booked a ticket for the extension to the Airport online. If anyone was following me, then I hoped that they’d think that I was going to see our company accountants who were located near Piccadilly Station. I hoped that my subterfuge would work.
Seeing her sitting there waiting for me with Scamp at her feet made me fall madly in love with her. I had to bite my lip, my cheek and tongue all at once to quell the reaction. She was effing beautiful, and was busy repelling some obvious gigolos’ as I watched and waited. Scamp would growl at the men and they’d take the hint and back off.
In a few seconds, I’d find out if I had the ‘Scamp seal of approval’.
“Lucia, I gather that you were expecting me?”
She smiled back at me. More lip biting eschewed.
“Anthony… You are right on time. I like that in a man.”
She stood up and kissed me Italian Style on both cheeks. I felt myself going red in the face.
“Come, I have reserved us a place in a divine restaurant that is just around the corner.”
She was clearly in charge as she took my arm in hers to tell the rivals that she was with her man at least for the time being. Scamp hadn’t growled at me… yet.
We left the richness of the hotel and headed three streets away from the beach to a small restaurant where Lucia was welcomed as if she was one of the family. All sorts of questions were whizzing around in my mind but uppermost, was ‘Why me?’
I felt at a loss as Lucia ordered in what I took to be perfect French. I was pretty dumb when it came to any language other than English.
As we waited for our food, I asked,
“How do you know Rona?”
Lucia smiled.
“She helped me unwind my late husbands’ affairs after his sudden death. He died while racing a vintage Porsche at Le Mans. It had a tyre burst on the Mulsane Straight. From the reports, it was quick which is a blessing. I loved him dearly, but he loved racing old cars more than me. I knew that before we were married, but I hoped that in time he’d change. He didn’t…”
That simple answer told me a lot about her… only more questions but she carried on.
“I met him when my little Fiat 500 had broken down in Tuscany. Along the road comes this pure white Gull-wing Mercedes and out he stepped in his pristine white overalls. My knight in white armour had arrived. He fixed the car by the side of the road in next to no time. Then he invited me to dinner in at his place in San Gimignano. He proposed to me the next morning as we walked through Sienna. I said yes at first, just to get out of the area, but I soon fell in love with him. We were married in Oxford seven weeks to the day later. Then he goes and dies on me but the years we were together were fantastic.”
She looked sad, but forced herself to go on.
“His affairs were all over the place. We’d been married for five years, and while I knew that he was wealthy I had no idea about where the money came from and to be honest, I did not care. Some of it was old family money, but most was down to some very shrewd investments in old cars and planes. I was introduced to Rona by a mutual friend. She knew of my husband by reputation and agreed to help me out. She took his businesses apart, and with a new accountant found some big tax liabilities as well as investments that had very few records associated with them. He left me pretty well off so I guess that one of the questions you have is why would I want to come and work for you? You aren’t rich and famous nor do you have a lot of money yet.”
She smiled at me. My heart stopped for a second.
“The answer is that I’m done with the rich and famous. I was not born into money, and those that were see me as a meal ticket to increasing their own wealth thanks to my late husband. I can be your housekeeper and remain out of the spotlight. Rona told me that your business is in Grimsby. I had to look at a map to find it. Rona also said that you were a special sort of person. That is good enough a recommendation for me to want to meet you so here we are.”
Her answers had temporarily left me speechless.
“Lucia, I would love to have you come and work for me, but there is so much that I wanted to ask but now that I am sitting here on the other side of the table from you I can’t think of any of them.”
She laughed. Her light olive skin and perfect white teeth once again made my heart stop for a moment.
“Why don’t we give it a try? Why not pay me twelve thousand a year for a three months trial. After that time, we can review our relationship. As I said, I’m not doing this for the money but more as a favour to Rona. I owe her big time and… well this will go some way towards settling that debt. Do we have a deal?”
There was nothing more to say but,
“Yes. When can you start?”
“Next Saturday. Rona has already given me your address. I can be there about lunchtime. I have a few loose ends to tie up over the border in Italy. Then Scamp and I will travel to England. She is all vaccinated so she won’t have to go into quarantine.”
I admired her positivity. It was almost as if she had decided to come to work for me before I even travelled to France. I guessed that I had Rona to thank for that.
I paid the bill and as we left the restaurant, I said,
“Let me walk you back to your hotel?”
She laughed.
“I only chose that monstrosity as a place that was easy for you to find. I came into Cannes by train. I’m staying with a friend just along the coast from Portofino in Italy.”
I hoped that I didn’t show just how relieved I was.
“Then let me walk you to the station. I can get a taxi to the airport from there.”
She smiled and took my arm in hers. There was no doubt that Lucia was in charge and I didn’t mind a bit.
When we arrived at the station, we saw that a train to the Italian border at Ventimiglia would be arriving in three minutes.
Lucia said,
“Why don’t I leave you with something to remember me by for one week?”
Without waiting for an answer, she wrapped her arms around me and we kissed.
We kissed until the station announcer said that the train was pulling into the platform.
A slightly breathless Lucia said,
“See you next Saturday.”
Then she was gone. I found myself standing in the middle of the booking hall grinning like a Cheshire cat.
[to be continued]
[Authors Note]
I'm posting this early as I need to make an early start tomorrow. I'm back in Trondheim but at a different hotel from last year where I got the inspiration for this story. Tomorrow, I'm riding up to Moi-I-Rana which is just south of the Arctic Circle. 290 odd miles on the E6 highway.
I made it home that night more by luck than judgement. Lucia’s parting gift to me was still there front and centre in my mind after the flight to London. My temporary delirium almost caused me to miss getting off on the Underground at Kings Cross.
I had to run for the train to Doncaster after buying a ticket which seemed to take forever. It was my own fault for not buying it online but my mind was on other things. I knew that there was another one in half an hour but that would make me miss the connection for Grimsby so run or miss the connection. I ran and just made it as the whistle was going. I hadn’t even found a seat before we glided into Gasworks Tunnel.
Lucia was the first woman I’d kissed since my divorce. I had tried dating a few times while we were separated but they went nowhere. That kiss would stay with me for a long time.
The sky darkened as my train headed north, and I began to wonder if that kiss would ruin things between us. I hoped not. I liked her as a person and Scamp had not taken a dislike to me, which was a win in my books but… getting involved with her could make me mess up the decisions that were needed in the event of an improved offer for the company.
“So, you made it back from wherever it was that you went on Friday?” said my assistant Sue as I walked into the office.
It was not even 08:00 and most days, she would not be in until after 09:00 because of taking her two children to school.
“You are in early? Was that just to give me the 3rd Degree?”
She smiled.
“Well, where did you go?”
“Cannes. I went to Cannes. Just for a few hours and then I came back.”
“Who is she and what has she done with the Ant that I know and love?”
“Eh?”
“For starters, you were smiling when you came into the office. That is unheard of for you at this time on a Monday. I watched you come across the car park. There was a spring in your step that I’ve not seen before. Will that do for seconds?”
She had me right by the short and curlies.
“I went to interview a prospective housekeeper.”
Sue laughed.
“No one goes to Cannes for that.”
I had to show her so I pulled up Lucia’s profile on Facebook. She’d corrected it a bit as she had said that she would on Saturday.
“This is her. Lucia Lambretti, or that’s her married name. Her maiden name was Lucia Moretti.”
Sue flicked through the pages and shook her head.
Then she hit some keys on her computer. After about ten seconds she shook her head even harder.
“This Lucia is way out of your league. Do you have any idea how much she is worth?”
“Some but we never discussed figures. Money really didn’t come up. She is coming to work for me for a three-month trial.”
“She is worth-over fifty million thanks to her late husband. Why?”
“I didn’t know the exact amount. That has been right up there on my mind ever since I said goodbye to her at Cannes Station. Thanks for saving me the trouble.”
Sue looked me right in the eye.
“She didn’t, did she?”
“Didn’t do what?”
With a shake of her head, Sue said,
“Kissed you silly?”
My inability to answer told her everything. Sue got up from her desk and left the office humming the funeral march. The smile on her face told me that she was pleased for me.
“They are in this for the long term. They’ll hope to wear you down by making this drag on for months. Uncertainty is the killer in the financial markets and even though your company is not listed, the same applies here,” said Rona.
“Business as usual then?”
“Exactly,” she replied.
“If you have any plans for expansion or the receipt of a big new order then a word to the local newspaper would not go amiss, if you get my meaning.”
I knew exactly what she meant. The sort of fight fire with fire game.
“I don’t have anything in the pipeline. As you know, we took on another unit only last year and have not moved all our legacy work into it yet.”
“Get it done. Show your employees that you are here for the long term. I would not put it past Mr Youngman to have a mole in your workforce. Wafting a wad of Fifty-pound notes around can often work wonders. All it needs is just one person in their pay and they will know everything that you are doing. In this case, you would just be following existing plans. Business as usual is a powerful message.”
“I’ll tell the team at the planning meeting tomorrow.”
Then she changed the subject.
“Lucia told me what happened on Saturday. You clearly made an impression on her just like I expected you to do...”
“Sorry Rona, if I did then it was more by luck than judgement or any planning or wishful thinking on my part. It just happened.”
Rona laughed.
“That’s exactly what Lucia said to me on Sunday.”
I didn’t know what to say for several seconds.
“I’d better get the place sorted before she arrives. There is nowhere for Scamp to sleep.”
“Scamp sleeps on her bed with her. Leave the place as it is. Lucia loves a challenge but you had better do something about the pitiful state of your larder and fridge. Lucia loves cooking and not just using pasta, tomato and garlic.”
I audibly groaned. Rona heard that.
“I’ll send you a sample shopping list. Many men can cook, but often lack the creativity that is needed to please a woman of the world like Lucia.”
The more I found out about her, the more I was worried that I’d be her next victim. Memories of the ‘Black Dahlia’ or some film like that came flooding back into my mind.
“Hang fire. Don’t respond to Toby or anyone else. It is their move,” said Rona bringing the conversation back full circle.
“We have made it clear that we will not deal with any bids or anything else coming through him.”
“That does not seem to have filtered through yet?”
“It will. These things take time. In the meantime, just run your company as if nothing has happened.”
“Easier said than done but I’ll try. Speak later.”
I hung up feeling as if I was trying to stay afloat in thick quicksand.
I hit the supermarket after work that evening and managed to get most of what was on the list. Black truffle oil was new to me and no one at my local superstore had heard of it. There was nothing for it, I’d have to ask Sue the next day.
Thanks to the internet, some black truffle oil was ordered and received from a specialist in London. Even so, I was full of nerves as I waited for Lucia to arrive that Saturday morning.
For hours, I had wondered how she’d get from the airport or wherever it was that she’d entered the country. I need not have worried as just before 10:00, an old BMW 5 Series Touring glided to a halt in my driveway, and a smiling Lucia emerged. Scamp followed her out of the car and immediately christened the brick pillar of the front gate with a nice spray of urine.
People talk about chalk and cheese. This version of Lucia was much dowdier than the version from Cannes. That made me very relieved. Lucia was a very beautiful woman who dressed very well and would make even my best suit look dowdy.
I emerged from the house to greet her smiling.
“Lucia… Welcome. I’m so glad that you were able to find me.”
“Rona gave me some tips. I stayed with her last night.”
Then Lucia greeted me with a peck on both cheeks. I felt myself go very red in the face.
“Let me help you unload your car.”
“The rest of my things are in storage down in London. These will have to do for now.”
The car was packed to the roof with cases, boxes and bags. I wondered where it would all fit. It looked like the garage would be used as a dumping ground for at least the short term.
It was almost lunchtime by the time before the car was empty and at least some of her clothes were hanging in the small wardrobe that was in her bedroom.
“We’ll have to get at least one more wardrobe for all your clothes,” I remarked.
“Nothing special. I passed an Ikea on my way here.”
Lucia was starting to amaze me. She had none of the airs and graces that most rich people had when in the company of mere mortals such as myself. Her down to earth attitude was very different to that of my former wife where only the most expensive things would do even when we were struggling financially.
“Then we should go after we have something to eat?”
“Nothing special. Rona told me that she’d sent you a shopping list. I will cook tonight which will be the start of my duties. Ok?”
“That will be fine but I have not made anything special for lunch…”
She laughed. God… she was so beautiful when she laughed.
“I think our phrase will be ‘nothing special’…”
“Well, a ham and chutney sandwich, is certainly nothing special even if the chutney comes from the local farmers market.”
Lucia smiled at me.
“I’m sure that it will be good. Rona told me about your local honey. I can’t wait to try it out.”
“You two are close, aren’t you?”
“We are but not close in a romantic sense but we clicked as people when we first met. I had to trust her to sort of my husbands’ finances. She did exactly that and didn’t rip me off. There are far too many people in this world who want to rip people like me off at every opportunity. She repelled boarders like any good pirate. I owe her lots… lots that money could not buy.”
Her voice was accent-free. When we were in Cannes, she spoke with a definite French accent. She seemed to be able to mimic others at will. The one good point about having that skill was that she would not stand out in our neck of the world.
I served up the sandwich. Lucia turned her nose up at the bread. To me, it was just bread from the supermarket but she very much had other ideas.
I knew that the chutney had scored a hit when she spread some more on the ham. To tell the truth, it was probably the tastiest part of the meal.
Lucia insisted on doing the washing up. I helped by putting things away. I’d sort of stopped using most of the cupboards and had everything I needed in one that was right where I stood when I prepared food for cooking. I sensed Lucia doing a lot of silent ‘tut-tutting’ as she explored the kitchen.
“I know that this is not to your normal size of kitchen but it all I have.”
“And once I get finished with it, it will be far more functional.”
“Lucia, please do whatever changes you want to but please do it slowly. I’ll need time to adjust, ok?”
Her smile made me weak at the knees. For the life of me, I could not understand why she was here. It certainly wasn’t for the money that I was paying her. At that moment, I didn’t care. She was in my house and willing to cook and clean for me.
We went to 'the Swedish shop' that afternoon. Boy, was it busy with families who failed miserably to keep their brood from getting in everyone's way? Thankfully, a few shortcuts took us to the bedroom furniture department.
Lucia seemed to go mad with the list of items.
“I have some nice clothes that need hanging up. Your third bedroom would be perfect for that once it has been cleaned out”.
She was right. It had become something of a junk room since my divorce. I was never very good at throwing things away.
The back of her BMW was full of flatpacks. All that remained to do was to put it all together.
“Tomorrow,” she said when I began to open the first of the cardboard packages.
“First, I want to see the garden and everything.”
I took her on a tour of my garden. Like the inside of the house, it needed a lot of TLC.
“It is not much but… after my divorce and what with running the company I never seemed to have time to do anything other than cutting the grass in the summer.”
“There is plenty of time to plan how to bring this back to life. Winter is approaching.”
She wasn’t wrong there.
“Come on, you can help me prepare dinner,” said Lucia as she took my hand.
As she led me into the house, once again, what had I done to deserve having this woman in my life at least temporarily?
“That was delicious,” I said as I helped her clear things away.
“But Lucia, that was far too rich for every day.”
She smiled at me.
“I know. You are a simple man. I have learned that much already. I’m going to try a few things out over the next few weeks. Please be honest with me. If you don’t like it then tell me and I will take note. Don’t be afraid of telling me that you don’t like it. I promise not to get offended.”
“I’ll try but it will be hard if tonight was anything to go by.”
“I am sure to make mistakes. Everyone does in life, don’t they?”
Then she said,
“Tomorrow, you can show me the local food shops.”
“Speaking of which, you will need some money for food and other things.”
“I’ll give you a receipt and you can give me the money back.”
I shook my head.
“No. What is to stop you not presenting me with receipts? I’d prefer to set a weekly budget if you don’t mind? Anything outside food and cleaning, we can decide together and I’ll pay for them. After all, if you want to treat yourself to a little something or have lunch while you are out then as long as it is in the budget then go right ahead.”
Lucia grinned.
“Rona said that you were different and I’m beginning to understand why. Most men want to micromanage people who work for them but it is clear that you don’t do that.”
“True, I prefer to trust them. If they fail but are honest and tell me about it, that’s ok but if they try to hide things, then that’s when I get angry.”
“That is good to know.”
During the next week, we heard nothing about the proposed bid for my company. Rona agreed with me that this was the calm before the storm.
“If those guys are serious then they’ll be back with all guns blazing in the hope of putting us on the defensive. There is little we can do but wait.”
She kept up her mantra of ‘get on with running the company and make it appear as business as usual. It was hard but her words kept me on the straight and narrow.
“That’s hard for someone like me who has never been through this sort of thing before.”
“True that’s why I’m here for you.”
“Thanks Rona.”
“How’s Lucia settling in?” she asked changing the subject.
“So far, so good. She’s found the local charity shops and recycling centre.”
Rona laughed.
“So, she’s making a difference already?”
“If you call having my sock drawer totally reorganised then yes.”
Rona laughed again.
“I take it that you have not objected to her doing that?”
“I haven’t. So far, she’s done things that I had expected her to do.”
“No hidden secrets for her to find then?”
It was my turn to laugh.
“All safely disposed of before she started,” I said jokingly.
“Ohhhh… please tell me more.”
“No chance.”
After we'd ended the call, I felt a lot better. Now all I had to deal with was my No 2, Sue. I'd told her that I would not discuss how my housekeeper was doing until the Friday of the first week. After some dirty looks, Sue accepted my wishes.
“Well… the first week has been interesting. It is early days but so far, the results are promising.”
“Only promising?”
“Yes, promising and there is nothing going on between us. Got it?”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes, I’m sure, and that my dear Sue, is my final answer.”
[to be continued]
When I first met Lucia, she had been wearing some pretty expensive clothes or at least the labels told me that they were way, way out of even my former spendthrift wife’s price range.
Now that she was working as my housekeeper, I began to understand that no matter what she wore, she had a knack of making whatever she wore look like it was worth a million pounds. Some women had that but most didn’t. My ex-wife was one of those who didn’t. She had to work hard but even on her best day, she never came even remotely close to Lucia’s natural beauty. That and her grace made it hard for me to resist her allure.
Lucia’s desirability made it hard for me to look at her but after the application of some willpower and I was able to push those thoughts to one side. I just had to think of those behind the bid on my company and things got a lot better.
If Lucia came to Grimsby to hide then she was going about it in a strange way. When we were out shopping together for things for the house, it was clear that a lot of men were lusting after her even though she was dressing down. There was something about her aura that attracted men to her like flies are attracted to dead meat. Irresistible. That was the only word to describe her.
When I returned home from work, she was always immaculately dressed and made-up. To say that she took pride in her appearance would be the understatement of the century. I soon began to look forward to going home in the evening despite my reservations about my desire to be more than an employer to her. That willingness was something that I’d not felt since I discovered that my former wife was having an affair less than a year after we were married.
With movement on the takeover front being quiet, I was able to concentrate on work. That calmed me down and for a few days, I nearly forgot all about it. I had other issues to deal with including my expanding waistline. Lucia’s food was so ‘moreish’ that I’d put on a bit of weight where it was not wanted. My change in diet was noticed by Sue who just smiled back at me.
The chance to mention it to her came sooner than I’d envisaged when I discovered that a folder of plans that I needed to talk over with my team that afternoon had been left on my desk at home.
“I need the plans for the Franklin project. I left them at home,” I said to Sue.
“And you are going home for lunch and to collect the plans?”
“Plans yes, lunch no,” I replied patting my stomach.
She grinned back at me. I shook my head and headed out of the office.
I had to do a doubletake. Lucia was dressed as a maid or pretty close to the maids that used to appear in the Benny Hill shows. A very short black dress that showed plenty of cleavage, frilly underwear, black fishnet stockings with the tops clearly visible and black high heels.
Lucia smiled at my drowning fish impression.
“I take it that you like my work clothes?”
“I do but…?”
“A little over the top?”
“Yes.”
“But do you like it?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll keep wearing it. I like to look pretty when I work.”
Just then Scamp came padding down the stairs. Today, she was wearing a pink bow in her hair. The pink matched the pink of the frilly apron that Lucia was wearing over her dress as well as her knickers.
Then it clicked. The same pink was used on the hoover that she’d brought with her in the back of the BMW. I had to admire Lucia.
“You look pretty even when you come out of the shower,” I said and immediately regretted it.
We’d had an ‘encounter’ the previous morning when we bumped into each other with her wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her body.
“You say the most delightful things.”
She gave me a peck on the cheek and whispered ‘thank you’.
“Well, did you?” asked Sue.
“Did I what?”
“Talk to your housekeeper about your diet?”
“No, I didn’t,” I snapped back.
“Ohhhhh. I like it when you are angry!”
“Sorry Sue. I didn’t mean to snap at you.”
“Was she naked? I’ve read about housekeepers who do their work in the buff so to speak.”
“No, she wasn’t and that’s all I am saying on the subject.”
I headed into my office and tried to get on with some work. I failed. Lucia was getting to me.
“I’m sorry for earlier,” she said as they sat down to dinner.
Scamp was chewing loudly on a bone under the table.
Those sounds took the edge off the moment.
“You don’t have to apologise for how you look. This is your home as much as it is mine. At least you weren’t stark naked.”
“True. I…”
“Lucia, if dressing like that makes you happy while you work then that is fine by me. I just wish I’d known about it beforehand so that it wasn’t so much of a shock. That’s all.”
She grinned back at me.
“Consider me slapped on the wrist.”
Then she looked sad for a moment.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, it is just that I used to say that when I was with…”
“Your late husband?”
She nodded her head.
“Then continue to say it. That way, you won’t forget him. Without him, you would not be here today.”
Lucia came and gave me a big hug. When we broke apart, I noticed a tear running down her cheek.
It was my turn to hold her. This time, when we broke apart, she mouthed the words,
“Thank you.”
Rona had texted me to say that she’d be calling at 5pm or thereabouts because she was travelling. A second text that she’d sent an hour later simply said ‘see page 6, section 3’.
I read the section and began to fume. If I accepted the offer as it stood then I’d be under a restriction whereby I could not start another business in any form of engineering for five years. That made me fume even though I had not really thought about what I would be doing post sale.
That was weighing heavily on me when Rona called. She was a few minutes early.
“Yes, I read it. That won’t fly at all,” I said fairly indignantly.
“No, I have not considered what to do afterwards. I am starting to think about it now thanks to that proposed clause.”
I listened to Rona. From the background noise, I could tell that she was once again at a railway station somewhere. I thought I heard the names, Perth and Stirling in one announcement.
What she was saying made a lot of sense.
“I get you. If we agree to that clause then they have to pay for it.”
I listened to Rona's explanation with a good deal of incredulity.
“That much? That’s… nearly twenty percent of the amount that they are offering?”
“Ok, I bow to your greater experience in these matters. It would show us just how serious they are in their desire to buy the company.”
“No, the legal people have not commented yet. From past experience it will take them at least a day to go through it all then another day to twiddle their thumbs in contemplation before giving us their opinion.”
“Thanks Rona. I’ll look out for your draft email in the morning.”
“Yes, Lucia is doing fine although and the house is yielding to her will and cleaning mop.”
“I will. Speak soon, bye.”
I went home feeling a lot better with the world.
That gave her time to finish clearing out the garage.
As I’d told Sue, the house was gradually yielding its secrets to Lucia’s non-stop attacks. The removal of the dust, grime and countless cobwebs exposed a house in sore need of redecoration.
“But Darling… there are painters and decorators for that sort of thing,” Lucia had said in a faux voice.
The problem was that she was right.
“I know but Lucia, it can wait until the issue of the sale of the company is decided one way or the other.”
“Si padrona”
My understanding of foreign languages was pretty poor. I’d always been more interested in Science and Engineering that learning things like French or German at school but I recognised a female word.
“What’s that with the ‘padrona’ thing? Shouldn’t that be ‘maestro’?”
Lucia giggled.
“Sometimes Anthony, you act and move like a woman. That’s what I love about you.”
“Love?”
“A term of endearment?”
I recognised a question in her last statement but her other words bothered me.
“What’s all this about acting like a woman?”
“It is true. You do. Look at you now. Look how you have folded your legs. Only women do that. Men sit with their legs apart most of the time.”
I looked at my legs. I’d never thought about it before but she was right. I uncrossed them right away.
Lucia reached over and took my hand.
“You don’t have to prove anything to me. I knew that I would love working for you by the time we had walked out of that hotel in Cannes. Scamp approved as well. She loves it here. She’s never adapted to a new home so quickly.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“If you want me, then I am yours,” she said quietly.
Those words made it even harder.
“I am yours?”
That was about all I could manage to say.
“What do you think it means?”
“I don’t know?”
“Yes, you do but you are too afraid to talk about it. You English are so uptight about all this L’amour…”
Lucia was right about that. I’d never really opened up to anyone even my former wife about my desires.
She didn’t wait for me to digest those words. Instead, she led me upstairs and into the third bedroom. Since it had been cleared out and the new wardrobes installed, I’d not been in there.
“What are you doing?”
“Letting you free from your inhibitions. Getting rid of that stiff upper lip.”
She opened one wardrobe and pulled out an outfit. She held it up against my chest.
“That will fit perfectly.”
“You… you want me to wear that?”
Lucia grinned.
“I do. I have all the accessories here for you.”
“I’ll… I’ll look like a total dork, a man in drag.”
“That’s it darling, you won’t. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that you move like a woman before?”
The horrors of my childhood came flooding back. I’d been called all sorts of names by the ‘it-crowd’ at school. I’d been pummelled into the ground more than once for standing up to them. The word ‘Sissy’ had been used quite a bit. I never understood why that was. I wasn‘t gay and I was attracted to women. My broken nose was just one of the injuries I’d received at their hands. That was then. This is now and I started to understand what Lucia was talking about.
I nodded my head.
“This bent nose was my reward for being myself. The goon squad didn’t like people who were different. I got off lightly because we moved home and away from one lot of bullies. It was like that all through my time at school. I escaped what I called the gulag when I went to university. Then it was all about passing my exams.”
“Then you are a long way along the road towards being the person you were put on this earth to be.”
“What about you?”
“Me? Scamp and I are going nowhere.”
After a brief pause, she added,
“We are going nowhere unless you are with us.”
“Why? You have lots of money and could be living the high life somewhere yet you are her in the back of beyond?”
She grinned.
“When Rona suggested to me that I would like being your housekeeper I laughed back at her. Before I met my late husband, I was just that, a housekeeper. I came to this country to study but I couldn’t be bothered to study for my A-levels. I spent a couple of years working as a sort of housekeeper in the French Alps during the ski season. They called us ‘chalet maids’. Back then, I hid away and saved all my money. In the summer, I did some housesitting while the owners were on Holiday. Many of those clients were the same people who came to the chalets in winter. I dressed down. I mean really down. Then one summer, I was working at a house not far from Silverstone when there was a knock at the door. Standing there in need of some help was the man I was to marry although he didn’t know it at the time. I knew then that our paths would cross in the future and sure enough, it did when I was visiting my country of birth.”
“But you are here? Why? I mean it. Why did you come and don’t say that it was all down to Rona.”
“It was in part. You know that she helped me out of a big hole when my husband died. At first, it was to pay her back but almost right away, I found that I loved being in this mostly cold and damp part of the country. Here, I can be me and not have to fight off the sort of men that you saw in Cannes. Then I grew to know you and then to fall in love with you.”
She had me there. Not even my ex-wife had come out and said those words to me.
“You have more than enough money to have just about anyone in the world but… but you say that you love me?”
Lucia smiled. That particular smile would normally have me being like putty in her hands but this time, I was determined to resist her charms.
“Don’t smile at me like that. I know your smiles.”
“Ok. At first, I accepted this job to hide from a nasty man who was trying to get me into bed. It worked. I found out that he has a new love of his life. She’s from Brazil and very young and very beautiful. He announced his engagement three days after I came here. I fully intended to honour my agreement with you but… then I got to know who you really are and that’s when I decided to go nowhere unless it is with you.”
“With me in a dress looking like a fool?”
“No. You have it all wrong. My home city of Rome was not built in a day the same would go for you.”
“But only if I sell the company?”
“That is up to you but it would give you a break from your work. Then you’d have the time and money to truly see if you can make it as a woman and my wife.”
Those last words took me by surprise.
“Are you saying that you want to marry me?”
“I am. Is that so strange?”
“What if I don’t sell the company? What then?”
“We get married and I become your wife but in private we can be ourselves.”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know what to say?”
“Don’t say anything. Don’t say anything until you are sure about the sale.”
As if to seal the deal, Lucia kissed me.
For a moment, I was back at the railway station in Cannes only the tizzy that my mind was in was a thousand times worse that before.
[to be continued]
I spent an uncomfortable night after Lucia’s revelations. The visions of me looking like one of the girls from the Benny Hill show running around a house using a pink hoover while Scamp looked on looking bored would not go away. It both attracted me and appalled me at the same time.
It was well after midnight when I finally admitted to myself that I had very much lusted after Lucia when I came home and discovered her cleaning outfit. Once I'd done that, I did manage to get some sleep once the feelings of guilt had subsided.
Over breakfast the following morning, Lucia tried to apologise for her behaviour the previous evening.
“Think nothing of it, Lucia. It was all rather new to me.”
She took my hand.
“Take your time and do the right thing with your company. Then we can talk about us again.”
This time, she followed me to the front door and made a point of kissing me as I left for work. That told me that she was ready to go public with whatever it was that we had going on between us. While it was pleasurable, it was also very unnerving.
After being the good woman that she was and wiping it off with a tissue she said,
“Is there something I should know?”
“There is and there isn’t. The first is that we have had another bid for the company and the second is that nothing has been decided.”
“Ok boss, you can pull the other one this time but that lippy on the cheek does not appear out of thin air now does it?”
“It does not but I’m not saying anything at the moment.”
As soon as I said it, I knew that it would not work.
Her look told me that I was right on the nail.
I knew of at least one company that bought our product and had used their components in the past. I could not understand why they'd been so secretive about it in the first place. That was a question for another time. The fact that was a German company also explained why the bid was not for a round number of pounds.
Rona had clearly been working overtime and had ascertained that their chairman was willing to meet me face-to-face to discuss the bid.
Her last email contained three separate letters. They were all slightly different in content. The last one suggested a premium if I was to agree to the no-compete clause. I had to do a double-take when I saw the number. It made me smile when I remembered how much capital I had when I started the company. That three grand had multiplied many, many times.
I was under no illusion that the figure mentioned as a premium was an opening gambit. Even half of that would be good.
As soon as I thought that I mentally gave my back a thrashing when I realised what I’d done. With everything going on in my private life, was I softening towards selling my baby? I honestly didn’t know one way or the other.
My deliberations were interrupted by Joe Edwards, who ran the Production Department. He had an issue with the newly installed flow solder machine that needed my attention.
I welcomed the diversion that this would give my mind for an hour or so at least.
I had to think carefully about what I did next and for. that I didn't need any distractions. Lucia played her part by not dressing provocatively although I knew that deep down, she loved doing it, and by god, she had the figure and looks for it.
To sell or not to sell. that was the question I had to answer. Now that I knew who was behind the offer, I was more hopeful about the long-term viability of the company. We had a very good product line, that was not only up-to-date but profitable. The order pipeline was good and the products we have in development were cutting-edge in our industry. I had worked hard to get us into that position and… I was loathe to give it all up. It was that very hard work that had made us a target for a takeover. There was a word for that but I could not recall it and it bothered me for a while.
Two days of prevarication and being an obnoxious prick to everyone around me, especially Lucia and Scamp, was what it took me to make a decision. I didn't broadcast it right away but slept on it. In the morning, things were just the same so I fired off an email to Rona that explained my decision.
With that off my back, I went into work in a much better mood after a grovelling apology to Lucia for my behaviour.
She smiled back at me before saying,
“You had your own gremlins to defeat. You came out on top and for that we can all be very thankful.”
“Don’t you want to know what I have decided?”
“You will tell me in your own time. I have come to know about a distinct pecking order of importance since I came here. Your employees are more important to you than I am when it comes to this particular topic.”
I went to speak, but she glared at me so I shut up.
“That is understandable. They depend on you for a living. I don’t. That’s why I hope that you do sell because I want to be with you… for a long time but that is just me being selfish. Do the right thing for your people. Scamp and I can wait.”
Her words took me by surprise. No woman had ever said anything remotely like that before.
“I don’t get it?”
Lucia grinned and took my hand in hers.
“Anthony, I’ve grown to love being with you.”
She paused for a second before saying,
“Damm it Ant, I’m in love with you. I know that I’ve said it before but every day here makes it harder to not say anything even though I appreciate your mind is on your company.”
Then some tears welled up in her eyes.
“Get off to your other baby and tell them what you are going to do. I’ll be here for you when you return. Then you can tell me all about it.”
Before I could argue, she gave me a brief kiss and sent me on my way. Scamp gave me a little yelp as I left my home.
My assistant Sue was waiting for me when I arrived at work.
“A woman was on the phone just now. She told me to look after you.”
I was momentarily stunned.
“She didn’t leave her name but I’m guessing that it was your housekeeper?”
I shook my head.
“Probably.”
“So? What have you decided?”
“It is complicated but in general, yes, I have agreed to sell provided some conditions are met. I’ll tell everyone at three this afternoon.”
“Conditions?”
“I have to open my books to the bidder to do their due diligence. In order to test the seriousness of the bidder, I’m going to ask them to put down a non-refundable deposit as a goodwill gesture. That deposit will be distributed to everyone regardless of what happens with the bid. That will be a nice Christmas bonus.”
Sue smiled at me.
“You are much too soft to be a hard-nosed businessman.”
I grinned.
“I’m starting to learn that very thing.”
Rona had replied to my earlier email. She agreed with my plan to get them to show some sort of commitment towards the company. We have nothing to hide other than our R&D team. I would make it clear that the R&D team were off-limits to the people involved with the due diligence work. The last thing we could afford would be for our product secrets to get out before a financial deal had been agreed upon.
Rona had attached a draft letter of response that outlined the limits of the due diligence. I read it and replied to her with a couple of suggested changes. Then I forwarded the letter and suggested changes to the lawyers.
The biggest change that I wanted was to have a meeting with the boss of the German company before any deal was struck. I wanted to know what his plans were for the company.
Rona replied just after lunch agreeing to the changes. The legal people added a couple of wording changes and just before the time I was due to address the workforce, the email was sent.
“Thanks for waiting for me. The last time I addressed you all, I said that I would update you on developments with the proposed bid for the company.”
I looked at the sea of faces. I never really wanted this level of responsibility when I started the company.
“I’ll not beat about the bush with this. We have received a substantial bid for the company from a German Engineering Company. I have not said yes but have agreed to open the books and the company to a process called ‘due diligence’. Representatives from their company will inspect the books and how we operate. That could lead to another formal bid or it may not. I have made it clear that the one area that is off limits to all inspection, is Geoff’s R&D department. When I have reached agreement over the dates, I will let you all know so that we can make sure that what we have in development is kept away from prying eyes.”
I swallowed hard.
“I have also laid down a condition whereby a sizeable deposit is paid to us in return for opening our books. Call it goodwill or something like that. That sum of money is non-refundable. In the event of a bid not materialising after the due diligence, I will divide up that money and distribute it to each and everyone of you on an equal share basis. I will not be taking any of the money should it come to that.”
That caused a good deal of murmuring amongst my employees.
“Naturally, I expect all courtesy and assistance that our visitors might want. We are all adults here so no little tricks eh? And please, I don't want to find a few Enderby's Smokies strategically placed on the radiators in the conference room! [1]”
That received a good laugh.
“Lastly… Please do not think that I’m going to sell out and leave you all high and dry. I can’t say any more at the moment but it is a promise I will keep.”
“Right, I’ll do my best to answer your questions but please bear in mind, there is a lot that I simply can’t divulge at the moment. Most of that is because I don’t know myself.”
[fifty minutes later]
“If there are no more questions then please go home and tell your families about what I’ve told you today. Remember that we are a profitable company and if I am not happy about their future plans for the company, I will not sell.”
Sue followed me and sat across my desk from me.
“That was some performance,” she said.
“Performance? Do you think that I am lying? Or that I will be pulling a fast one?”
Sue shook her head.
“Sorry. That was a bad choice of words. You handled that very well. Is that better?”
I smiled.
“Lots… And thanks. It was hard. So many people depend on me for a living.”
“Has the success of what we do here got to you?”
“It has a bit. I never thought that it would turn out like this when I started out on my own.”
“And you are not the hard-nosed businessman that people think you are?”
I smiled.
“I’m not that sort of person. This whole bid thing has put in all into perspective.”
She took a deep breath before saying,
“You have decided to sell, haven’t you?”
“Eh?”
“Who knows you better than anyone else around here? Me that’s who. Your whole attitude has changed this past week. It is either the bid, your housekeeper or both.”
Not for the first time, her observational powers astounded me.
“Ok. Guilty as charged. I am having a bit of a rethink about my life which if I am right, you have been suggesting since my divorce became final?”
“I have that, but I never thought that you’d actually do it.”
“I haven’t done it… I’m doing it.”
“Ok but don’t give up.”
“I don’t intend to.”
When I arrived home that evening, Lucia had decided that the solution to what was ailing me was a culinary feast. The smell that reached me as I opened the front door was alluring.
“Welcome home darling,” she said as she greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and a glass of wine.
“What did I do to deserve this?”
She grinned
“Sue phoned me and told me what you were doing and that you needed cheering up.”
I shook my head as I saw what was waiting for me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing… that is the problem, nothing is wrong. I just don’t deserve this.”
Before she could answer, Scamp came padding along the corridor from the kitchen with a bone in her mouth. She dropped the bone at my feet and sat down and looked at me with dopey eyes. She let out a tiny whimper. Lucia laughed.
“Scamp is happy to see you.”
“I can see that,” I said as I knelt down and tickled Scamp under her chin. She loved that.
I put down my briefcase and picked up the bone.
“Thank you, Scamp.”
Scamp went padding back into the kitchen and laid down in her basket.
“Here, give me that,” said Lucia pointing at the bone.
“Take the wine and go upstairs. Have a shower and I’ve put something out on your bed to wear.”
For a moment, I was thankful then I understood what she was talking about. I climbed the stairs with a sense of my impending doom.
At least I wasn't going to be humiliated with a totally inappropriate outfit, but I was certain that it was only a matter of time. My ex didn't leave behind a host of sexually explicit novels for me not to read a few of them before I took them to the recycling centre. Humiliation, was a central tenet of many stories where the one who strayed was publicly shamed into submission or worse. If she, my ex had wanted to do that with me I didn't know as I was so busy building my business that I never thought about looking at another woman. Lucia, was the first woman I'd been even been friendly with outside of a work environment since I started dating my ex-wife an aeon ago.
I spent a lot of time, how much I didn't know, looking that the clothes lying on my bed. They were not going anywhere, so I ended up delaying my decision by taking a shower.
To my eternal relief, my clothes were where I’d left them before the shower. I blamed those books for even thinking those thoughts.
“Sod it,” I said to myself.
Then I put on the outfit that Lucia had laid out for me. I looked awful, but it had to be done.
I went downstairs and found Lucia looking anxious at several steaming pots. I guessed that we were having pasta but with what I could not decide.
I went over and tried to peek into one of the pots.
“Shoo!” said Lucia.
“If you want to make yourself useful then you can open that bottle of Classico that is on the table.”
“Ok,” I replied feeling slightly hurt that she had not commented on how awful I looked.
“Here we go, Pasta a la Lucia,” she said as she brought two plates into the dining room.
“It smells delicious.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about Enderby’s? It fell to Sue to tip me off about their fish.”
I looked at the steaming plate. I could see Haddock, Prawns and… Salmon.
“Prawns and Salmon as well?”
“Not Salmon but Sea Trout. Lots more flavour, and homemade pasta.”
“Lucia, you are a marvel.”
She picked up the class of Chianti and we chinked them.
"You look good for a first attempt. The scarf needs work but Roma was not built in a day. Plus we need to find a proper wig for you. Once you have found a style, we can get you three or four to wear on rotation."
"Lucia, come on admit it, I look terrible."
“Really? Think about how you were sitting all through dinner especially, your legs.”
Lucia was right as always. I'd wrapped my legs around each other just like a woman. It was so easy because of the skirt.
“That is just one thing? Above the waist? I look terrible.”
She smiled.
“As I said, a work in progress.”
She reached over and took my hands in hers.
“I’m with you all the way and that is because I want to be here… with you.”
“And if I don’t go through with it?”
“I will still be here. Scamp likes you and that is more than enough to want to make me stay. Besides, you are a good person and believe me, they are in short supply. Once you get beyond the gigolos and grifters and those who just want a bit on the side, there are not many of you left.”
“That’s nice to know.”
“I’m being serious. You saw those men at the hotel in Cannes. If I go into any decent hotel in Rome, Florence or even Venice on my own, they appear out of the ether like flies are attracted to dead meat. They only have one thing on their minds… Make that two and one of them is robbing me blind when they find out my name.”
She was right.
“And to appear with another woman on your arm would keep them at bay?”
She giggled.
“It would be different and honestly, I don’t know. At least here, I don’t get ogled in the street when I go shopping.”
Then she kissed me.
“If the sale goes through what then? What are you going to do then?” asked Lucia over breakfast the following day.
“I don’t know and I’m not going to give it any thought until the deal is done and dusted.”
She smiled back at me.
“Did I succeed last night?”
“Eh? Succeed in what?”
“In making you forget about the bid and the company for a few hours at least?”
I held up my hand while I munched on a piece of toast. When I’d finished, I smiled.
“Ok, Lucia, you did succeed. I was more concerned about not looking like a complete idiot to worry about the bid or work.”
“Good. At least I know that I’m on the right track.”
I headed off to work wondering where that track would lead and hoping that it didn’t involve my humiliation along the way.
[to be continued]
[1] Enderby's of Grimsby, smoke haddock . https://alfredenderby.co.uk/
Several times that day, I found my thoughts returning to the previous night. Sue remarked about my preoccupation at least twice before the mid-morning tea break.
As I ate my lunch which had been beautifully prepared by Lucia, I resolved to put the previous evening on the back burner, and to hope that it never happened again.
I was wrong, so wrong.
"Boss," said Sue just before 3 pm
“Something has really gotten to you since you left here last night and this morning. Your mind is just like it was when ‘she’ walked out on you. What gives?”
“Sorry Sue. Yes, something did happen and no I’m not going to talk about it as it is just too embarrassing.”
Her grin told me that she would not let this rest.
“If you are such good friends with my housekeeper, why don’t you ask her?”
“Ouch!” exclaimed Sue.
“Not ‘ouch’ but ask her.”
I immediately regretted that conversation with Sue. She’d been my rock ever since I hired her as my fifth employee. While she had been besties with my former wife, when the latter had left me, Sue told my ex to her face, that she was making a huge mistake by dumping me. Since then, Sue had become my friend and not one of my former spouse. She had been something of a rock to me in those days. If she had not been happily married, and I not such a coward, I might have made a move in her direction. I didn’t and for that, I was thankful. I resolved to make amends as soon as practical.
“I did and she clammed up the moment I mentioned it.”
“There you have it. Whatever it was is not for public consumption so please… Sue, please let it go. Besides, whatever it was will not happen again. I will say this, it did not involve a sexual encounter.”
Her look told me that she didn’t believe me.
I was starting to appreciate how many contacts Rona had when she phoned me to say that our counteroffer had not been dismissed out of hand. She also stated that my wish to meet, the management of the German company was acceptable but that a formal response to our proposal would be made in a few days.
We returned by plane to the East Midlands airport, with a lot of thinking to do. When I dropped Rona off at a hotel near Newark she asked,
“To sell or not to sell?”
“I think that you know the answer. Do you think that we can get all the loose ends tied up by the 15th of next month?”
She smiled.
“So that you can give everyone a very nice Christmas present?”
“Something like that…”
“Then yes, I am going to sell.”
“What then? Are you going to start all over again?”
I sighed.
“Not right away. I want to take some time to recharge and think about the future. The company has been everything to me for so long that it… it will be like giving my daughter away to be married.”
She chuckled.
“Once this is all over, don’t you and Lucia become strangers ok?”
“If you are ever at home that is…”
She laughed.
“Touche. Like you, I’m going to have a rethink about my life. Being always on the go is getting becoming a bit of a chore.”
“I know that you have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies, but won’t it take a long time to extricate yourself from all of them?”
“Only about a year but if I do it gradually then I can adjust besides, about fifteen months ago, I met someone who made me rethink my life.”
I looked at her with a blank expression on my face.
“Are you talking about me?”
“I am. Your dedication to your company and your employees was… is so different to many of the other ones I deal with. Most of them have bought into the ‘get some Venture Capital investments, get listed on AIM and cash out’ plan. Then rinse and repeat until they have enough to retire. When we first met in London, I knew right away that you were different. The reports that I had on you hinted that you were different, but within a few minutes, I knew that you were not like them. That’s why I struck the deal I did with you. My normal fee is closer to 10%. I have more than enough to retire from this game and do something different. As Fagin sang in ‘Oliver’, ‘I’m reviewing the situation’ just like you.”
I leaned over and hugged her.
As she got out of the car, she said,
“Don’t forget to invite me to the wedding.”
“Wedding?”
She grinned.
“To Lucia of course.”
I’d spent the morning at our lawyers where both parties to the sale finalised the contract. Once everyone had signed on the dotted line, I made a hasty exit. I felt that I had just signed over my baby and taken my forty pieces of silver.
During the drive back to Grimsby, I went over in my mind what I was going to say to my employees many of whom were also friends. The bulging shopping bag on the back seat of my car should make the bitter pill of the sale a lot sweeter.
I had just stopped at a supermarket near Lincoln for a comfort break and to buy myself a sandwich for lunch when my phone bleeped. It was the message that I’d been waiting for. Now I could tell everyone with a straight face that Christmas was going to come early for them.
“Thanks Sue. Can you take this bag with you. There is an envelope in there for everyone. They are marked with their names so I’m relying on you to not mess giving them out.”
She looked at me puzzled.
“Don’t worry, they aren’t redundancy notices.”
“I hope not. They would be just the Christmas present that they didn’t want.”
I smiled back.
“You are keeping things very close to your chest, aren’t you?”
“I am. I want everyone to know at the same time and that includes you. You will understand why in just a few minutes.”
I handed her the shopping bag and put on my suit jacket. It looked even shabbier than it had when I'd worn it when I'd first met Rona in London. ‘One day’… I said to myself, I’ll get myself a new suit. Then I thought about Lucia and chuckled to myself. I was certain that she would have something to say about that.
“When do we get laid off?” quipped John Morgan. He’d been a steelworker at Scunthorpe before being made redundant some four years earlier.
“John, thank you for a very pertinent question. No one is being made redundant.”
There was a little chatter amongst my employees. I let it peter out before continuing.
“At ten this morning, I signed a deal to sell the company to a German Engineering business. There will be an eight-week handover starting after the holidays. A manager from Germany will be arriving in the first week of the new year. He is the son of the CEO of that company. Gerd will be taking over my role. He speaks perfect English and is an engineering graduate from the University of Newcastle.”
I paused to let that sink in.
“A little over a year ago, I was tipped off about a possible bid for the company. An old friend of mine who works in the city, was recommended that to engage the services of a consultant to advise me on the bid. As part of that deal, I restructured the ownership of the company.”
“How does that affect us?” shouted Debbie Thomas from the back of the room.
“I’m coming to that Debbie.”
I swallowed hard.
“Together with the company legal advisors, we created a new class of shareholder. These were non-voting shares and the ownership of them was put in trust for you all. Everyone, of you will benefit financially from the sale.”
“How much? A tenner each?” asked, Harry Thomas, Debbie’s husband and our Trade Union Shop Steward.
“Harry, why don’t you look for yourself?”
I turned to Sue.
“Sue, can you find Harry’s envelope for me please?”
She dug into the bag and found the one with his name on it.
“Harry? Why not come forward and read your letter?”
A slightly red-faced Harry came forward. Sue handed him his letter. He hesitated.
“Open it then,” said a few people close to him.
He opened it and his eyebrows went up when he saw the number.
“So, it’s twenty quid then?” asked another wag.
“Harry, you don’t have to say the exact number if you don’t want to,” I remarked.
He looked relieved.
“Thanks boss,” he said quietly as the headed for the back of the room where his wife was standing. His body language told me that he was pleasantly surprised by what the letter had said.
“Everyone will have a different sum based upon their current salary and the time you have been with the company. Some of you have only been with us for a few months. You have not been forgotten. I won’t mention any specific figures and remember these payments are not related to redundancy but the minimum sum is just under one thousand pounds. Sue has an envelope for everyone. Please collect yours on your way out and I wish everyone and their families a happy Christmas.”
Sue took her cue and stepped forward.
I stepped back and let her deal with everyone until the only envelope remaining was hers.
Many people had read their letters and were on the phone with their families. All of them had a smile on their faces. I took that as a sign that I’d done well.
I made it back to the office and breathed a sigh of relief. Sue joined me a couple of minutes later.
“You are a dark horse, aren’t you? You never let that plan of yours slip out, did you?”
“That was my aim. Will your amount pay off your mortgage?”
“It will and we won’t be the only ones to do that. Then if we do get laid off in the new year, it won’t be so hard.”
“You sound so fatalistic? Part of the sale agreement was that there would be no redundancies until next September at the earliest. If there is then everyone of you will get an extra five figure bonus, but that isn’t for general circulation.”
“You really do care about us don’t you?”
I smiled.
“I have always cared about the people who work for me. I put my trust in everyone and they have responded by trusting me, but that’s all over. Doing that has made this company the success it has become but we got to the point where we needed a lot of investment in order to grow to the next level. I was not going to sell out to some faceless vulture capitalists nor, was I going to pay a different bunch of cutthroats a load of money for a stock market listing.”
I decided to change the subject.
“As I said to everyone, the son of the owner of the business in Germany will be taking over as MD in January and as I said, I’m here for handover until the end of February. I got on well with Gerd. He is an engineer like myself. I think that you will get on well with him.”
Sue looked at me. That look said, ‘oh yeah…?’.
“Have a great Christmas Sue,” I said as I grabbed my things and headed for the exit.
Several of my now former staff were talking amongst themselves in the car park. One came over to me holding his letter.
“Is this for real?”
“Stan, it is for real. The money should be in your bank tonight.”
“Thanks boss. You don’t know how much this means to me… and… Well, the whole family.”
“Don’t thank me, thank the consultant who persuaded me that this was a good idea. I didn’t need much persuasion by the way.”
I sighed. The day had been long and tiring.
“Which part?”
“All of it. Why not start at the beginning?”
I sat down in the kitchen, Lucia put a large glass of red wine down in front of me. Then she sat down and waited. Scamp padded into the kitchen and rubbed her head on my legs. As I failed to scratch her under her chin, she went to her food bowl. It was empty. Scamp gave a little whimper and sat down in her basket.
“The morning went as expected. I signed over ownership of the company to the new owners. After that, I took Rona to her hotel in Newark where I left her.”
It was Lucia’s turn to sigh. I’d learned that she rarely showed that form of emotion and when she did, she was getting impatient.
“What about your last curtain call in front your staff?”
“Oh that!”
“Yes that…?”
“It went well. I think most of them were surprised by what was in their letters and as a result, they will enjoy the holidays.”
“Is that all?”
“What more do you want? I’m just glad that it is all over at last.”
Lucia came around behind me and began to massage my shoulders.
“I can tell. It is over and now it is time to relax.”
I looked at the clock on the kitchen wall.
“Don’t we have to hit the road?”
“We do but you are in no fit state to fight the holiday traffic. You are on an adrenaline high from your performance in front of your staff. The last thing we need is for you to crash and burn on the M62.”
“Ok, ok.”
Lucia knew just how to make me relax. Her gentle massaging was working wonders on my neck.
“That’s it. Relax. We have 10 days to work out what we want to do in the future.”
A kiss on the back of my neck helped a lot.
[to be continued]
Lucia had made plans for us to go away for the Christmas/New Year break. I’d been so engrossed with running the business and the impending takeover that I'd just grunted when she asked me what I wanted to do for the holidays.
In normal times, I would have made all the arrangements myself, This time, I was more than content to let her take control of this due to the sometimes problematic issue of selling my company or as Lucia correctly called it, my ‘baby’. It was that in more ways than one. That phrase had come up more than once during my divorce. I got the blame for not producing an heir and, as far as I knew ‘she’ had not had a child since our parting of the ways.
Lucia had been massaging my shoulders and neck for about ten minutes when I asked,
“I saw the Beemer all packed up. Isn’t it time for you to let me know where we are going?”
She stopped working on my neck and came around to face me.
“At last… He returns to the real world!”
Lucia was right. I’d been living and breathing the business and the takeover for weeks.
“Sorry Lucia. I didn’t mean to be a total jerk.”
“You have had a very good reason to be a jerk so I forgive you.”
She smiled back at me,
“Just this once…”
I wondered if anything ever really got to this woman?
“I have rented us a cottage in the country about ten miles from Barnard Castle. It is ours until the 2nd.”
“I wondered what all the food was for.”
She grinned.
“You know me… I cook on impulse so we are prepared for everything or almost everything.”
“Judging by the lack of space for Scamp in the car, I can see that.”
I’d seen Scamp’s travel cage sitting by the front door when I arrived home.
Then I added,
“I need to go and take a shower and change out of this suit. Then we can get going.”
“Don’t take too long. I told the agent that we’d pick up the keys by 7:30.”
I did a few mental sums.
“The shower can wait until later. I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
Lucia smiled and picked up Scamp’s lead. She immediately got up from her basket and sat by my side. Her tail was drumming on the wooden floor.
“Not me Scamp but mummy.”
Lucia was clipping the lead to Scamp’s collar as I went upstairs. It was a well-used ploy to get her into the cage. There were times when Scamp refused to go in the cage even when tempted by her favourite ‘doggy treat’. I hoped that this holiday, Scamp would just be nice to us.
We’d just made it to the Estate Agents before they closed for the holidays. The centre of Barnard Castle was busy with late night shoppers and people already celebrating Christmas. Bright lights and sounds of happy people were very alluring.
I dragged attention away from the scene.
“Great. Where to now?”
“I’ll feed the address into the SatNav. It should take us around twenty minutes.”
“Great. I’m starving. The supermarket sandwich that I had for lunch was a long time ago.”
Lucia put her hand on mine as it sat on the gear lever.
“Don’t worry, I have something that only takes fifteen minutes to heat up in the oven.”
“Good. I was going to suggest getting a Chinese to take with us but if you have something then I’m good.”
“This isn’t really a cottage, is it?”
“We’ll be fine… I promise.”
I wasn’t sure but my stomach was making loud noises so I went along with Lucia.
“Grab that red cooler. That’s our supper. Can you put foil dish on the top of everything into the oven? 200C.”
“I can do that.”
“Good, I’ll unload the car while you lay the table and everything…”
“This is very good,” I said as we ate our meal.
“But… not very Italian, is it?”
“Not all Italian cuisine is based around Pasta you know?”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Well, you do now.”
That was me put in my place perfectly.
I cleared away and did the washing up while Lucia busied herself with something. I began to get a feeling that she was up to something. I had no real idea what it was but at that moment, I didn’t really care. I was away for the holidays with a truly remarkable woman and that was something to cherish.
“Time to get up sleepy,” said Lucia as she gently shook me awake.
I opened one eye and saw that it was after 10:00. I made a move then relaxed.
“I’m on holiday. Can’t I have one day off?”
“That’s why I let you sleep in this long. We have a busy day ahead of us.”
“Us?” I mumbled.
I slowly sat up and wiped the sleep out of my eyes. When they’d cleared, I saw what Lucia was wearing.
She saw the look on my face and smiled.
She was wearing that very seductive outfit that she’d worn the day that I’d come home unexpectedly.
“You… you look wonderful.”
She grinned.
“I was hoping that you would say that. I’ve got one just like it for you.”
It took me a few seconds to grasp what she’d said.
“You can’t be serious!”
“Oh… my darling, I am perfectly serious. Isn’t this the perfect time to have some fun.”
The grin on her face told me that she wasn’t joking.
“Besides, I got you your very own cleaner.”
In a bit of a panic, I looked around and saw two identical pink hoovers propped up against the wall. No wonder she had insisted on unloading the car the previous evening.
I collapsed back onto the bed. Lucia followed me and laid at my side. Her lips found mine. She tasted so nice that it was impossible to resist.
Part of me wanted to run a mile in 60 seconds but most of me wanted to be right here with Lucia. Having a good old snog was just nice. It had been so long since… Well, far too long.
“Are you ready to live a little dangerously?” asked Lucia a considerable time later.
“Only if I have some tea first!”
Her reaction was immediate. She punched me in the bicep.
“You and your tea… Why can’t you have coffee in the morning like civilised people?”
“Me? uncivilised? I know how my body reacts to that extra strong Espresso that you love and it isn’t nice.”
“Ok, I’d better go and put the kettle on then.”
“Why don’t you take that shower that you didn’t have time for yesterday, while I prepare us some ‘tea’ and toast?”
I smiled back at Lucia. Then I closed my eyes. I wanted to remember this moment for a long time. Lucia looked and smelt so… so fantastic.
Lucia had laid out an outfit that was almost the same as hers. There was no doubt about her intent and the image of her lying beside me just a half an hour before was right there in my mind and wasn’t going away.
The prospect of that and better made me put on the outfit. I knew that I looked like a total dork or plonker or something worse but being close to Lucia was all that I could think about at that moment.
Lucia had called out ‘Tea is ready’ at least twice before I was ready for my great entrance. Ok, great was a total exaggeration. Anything less than Lucia not falling about laughing would be a success.
“Ok, get the laughing over with now,” I said from the door to the kitchen.
Lucia smiled and came over to me and took my hands in hers.
“Shall we say that there is room for improvement?”
“Improvement? I look like a plonker pure and simple.”
“Then we shall have to work on it won’t we? But… first, tea and toast, is the order of the day.”
For someone who didn’t usually drink tea, Lucia certainly knew how to make an almost perfect cup of my favourite Green Tea. Green, in the morning and until lunchtime, then, Darjeeling after that. As for the toast, for too long, I used ordinary supermarket bread. While it was pretty tasteless, it generally lasted between my irregular trips to the shops. Since Lucia had been around, apart from some homemade ciabatta, Lucia had been buying sourdough loaves.
That morning, we dined on a sourdough boule with lashings of butter. Lucia certainly knew how to find a way to my heart even if it would eventually have a bad effect on my waistline. By the way she licked her lips after eating a slice, she liked it as well.
After we’d cleared away, I asked,
“Ok maestro, what is next on your list of humiliation tasks?”
“Today, we look at your hair.”
I smiled,
“Or rather my lack of it. In case you hadn’t noticed, I like it short.”
“That is the old you. What about the new you?”
“The new me? That’s the first I’ve heard about it.”
“The new you, is you without the worry of your business. Isn’t that a good start?”
“Ok but… but, I can’t help but think that there is a lot more in your plan for me… Am I right?”
Lucia grinned.
“You are right.”
“So? What are they?”
Lucia came around to my side of the table and sat on my lap or rather she straddled me. Just the thought made me get all excited.
“It appears that you like this. I shall have to remember that.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be sorry. What just happened, was a natural reaction to someone dangling the prospect of sex right in front of you. That is not wrong.”
Then she kissed me. It shut me up but only made the bulge in my dress even worse.
“So, what is your grand plan for me? Isn’t it about time that you shared it with me?”
Lucia chuckled.
“What’s so funny?”
“This is not how I envisaged telling you but it will do. I guess that I have your undivided attention for now at least…”
I sighed as Lucia made herself comfortable on my lap.
“While you were busy making sure that you got a great deal for your company and employees, I would take you know who for a walk down the coast at Mablethorpe. There are miles of sandy beaches and she could enjoy herself. It also allowed me to think about what happens after you completed the sale.”
“And if I didn’t sell?”
She shook her head.
“I didn’t want to think about that.”
“And? What did you decide as my fate?”
“I had this crazy idea of us becoming housekeepers and working for rich people.”
“But? Aren’t we rich?”
“Yes. That’s why it would be so much fun. We’d get all those juicy secrets of the rich.”
“Why do I get the idea that you want us to appear as a lesbian couple?”
“Something like that.”
“Something like what?”
“Why don’t you let things flow until the new year. Loosen up and have a bit of fun? How about it, Sophia?”
“Sophia?”
“Yes. That’s the name I have given you. Sophia Bertolini.”
I thought for a moment.
“Not bad, not bad at all but I don’t speak any Italian.”
“That’s where we have to dream up a suitable backstory for you?”
“What about our lack of references.”
“Can’t you write one for me?”
“Ok, that’s you sorted but I don’t have any work history.”
“A minor detail that will resolve itself in time. But that is the least of our problems.”
“I know. I look horrible.”
“That why we start with your hair.”
It was clear that Lucia was not going to give up at least before the new year.
I leaned over and kissed her.
“Ok, I’ll play ball until the new year. It will be something very different.”
“Only very different?”
“Strange as well.”
Then I looked her right in the eye,
“You are taking me on a walk, not just on the wild side, but headlong into an Alligator ridden swamp. Please let me make my own mistakes in my own time… Then on the first, we can look back at this week and laugh.”
Lucia smiled and then sighed.
“Yes master!”
It was my turn to laugh.
“Master? Looking like this?”
I kissed her and we were good.
“Ready for a trip into town? We need to get a few items of food,” said Lucia as I cleared away after breakfast.
“You mean my first venture into the real world as Sophia?”
“I do. Isn’t it about time?”
“Ok,” I said without a good deal of enthusiasm.
“It will be fine. You look pretty good and probably better than a lot of others we’ll meet today.”
“I hope so.”
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” said Lucia as we returned to the BMW laden with shopping. A few items turned into a full-scale food shop.
“It was fine. More by luck than judgement.”
Lucia smiled back at me.
“Whatever happened to the optimist I once knew?”
“The optimist is on vacation as you well know!”
Lucia laughed. She was right. It hadn’t been so bad after all.
Lucia had made a lovely meal to end the year. I’d opened a bottle of bubbly to see the old year out and the new one in.
We had just settled down to watch an old movie when my phone rang.
“It is Sue. She’s probably calling to wish us a happy new year,” I said after picking up the phone.
I answered it.
“Hello Sue. I’m here with Lucia.”
I listened to what she had to say. The smile that was on my face disappeared almost instantly.
“Let me put you on speaker as it affects Lucia as well.”
I enabled the speaker.
“Ok, Sue. Say that again.”
“Hi Lucia.”
“Hello Sue. What’s wrong?”
“Are you two somewhere near Barnard Castle?”
“Yeah. We went shopping there this morning.”
“Well,” said Sue,
“Your trip is all over Facebook and Instagram. Someone has been watching you. They also recorded you going up to Hadrians Wall with the dog.”
“Why?” was all that I could manage to say.
“Sue?” asked Lucia.
“Can you send me a link to the posts. Do you know who is responsible?”
“It is your ex. They sent out a message to everyone and let rip. What she is saying is pretty libellous if you ask me.”
“Anything else?”
“She started spewing off about all the money you walked away with that is rightfully hers. Somehow, she found out how much you sold the company for down to the last penny and she wants half of it, or that is what she is saying on social media.”
“Does she know about the money I gave all the employees?”
“I don’t think so but when she finds out, she’ll be wanting all of it for herself,” said Sue.
“But I don’t think that she cares. She thinks that she is owed by you and she wants blood.”
My phone pinged. Sue had sent the link.
“Thanks for the link, Sue. We’ll take a look,” said Lucia.
“Have a great New Year you two. Don’t forget to invite me to the wedding!”
I looked at Lucia who smiled and squeezed my hand.
“I’ll see you in a few days,” I said.
“Thanks for the tipoff and a happy new year to you and your family.”
“Thanks Boss and stick it to your ex. You deserve to be happy and … I think that you are with Lucia.”
“Thanks for the kind words, Sue,” said Lucia.
“Hang in there, both of you,” said Sue before hanging up.
We watched the two postings on Facebook and one on Instagram.
Neither of us said anything for several minutes once we’d seen the videos. Eventually, I broke the silence.
“Look Lucia, if this thing with me goes viral then I won’t hold you if you want to bail out.”
“I’m going nowhere unless you are with me.”
“Even????”
“Even if your ex takes you to court and by some magic, gets half of the money from the sale, I have more than enough for us to live on.”
“But… half of the money from the sale is most of what I have left. She’s not going to give up even if the court tells her to get lost.”
“Then we fight fire with fire.”
“What do you mean?”
“Won’t she will be expecting you to deny whatever is it that she has posted?”
“Probably. Why?”
“Then admit it and be Sophia to the world. That will take away some of the sting in her tail.”
“Are you sure that I could pull this off?”
“You managed very well when we went shopping.”
It felt like the walls were closing in on me and there was no door or window to kick open and escape.
Lucia came even closer to me and kissed my neck. That was guaranteed to make me go wobbly at the knees. She knew how to wrap me around her little finger and with unlike my former wife, I didn’t mind one little bit.
[to be continued]
“Well? Are you willing to really be the person you want to be and the one I have seen for real these last few days?” asked Lucia.
“How do you know that? I feel like I’ve been winging it all the time.”
“Life is all about winging it. Things come up that you have never encountered before and you wing it… True? Didn’t you ‘wing it’ when you started your company? After all, you had never done that before. So?”
“Ok, I’ll give you that one.”
“What about it, Sophia?”
“Stop… please stop. I need to think about this.”
“Ok, let me try another thing. Do you know how to contact your ex?”
I shook my head.
“No. It was all done through her solicitors. Once we’d signed the final papers and the court granted the divorce, she legged it and left her bill unpaid. They tried to come after me for the outstanding money but my legal people soon put a stop to that. They took me to court, but the judge tore them off a strip for coming after me when it was their client that defaulted on their bill. Their only interest was in getting paid for their services. As far as I know, that bill remains unpaid to this day.”
“So, you don’t know where she is then?”
“I don’t and I don’t care.”
Suddenly, it clicked.
“Hey? Are you suggesting that she is in this area?”
Lucia nodded her head.
“How else could she have taken those photos of me?”
“Then there is a case for her stalking you. We need to investigate that but that is not the main thrust of what you and I should be doing in the next few days.”
“Ok, maestro… what is that?”
“Make Anthony a thing of the past. Become Sophia for real.”
“You mean to change my name?”
“Yes, and then go into work as Sophia.”
“And have everyone laugh at me?”
“They won’t laugh and besides it is only for a few weeks. Plus, you have a lot of street cred with them because of their Christmas presents.”
I tried to imagine the scene but could only visualise a total disaster.
“If you are Sophia for real then her campaign will fail, won’t it?”
“I hope so,” I replied without conviction.
Scamp who had already been walked twice that day came into the room holding her lead. I looked at Lucia more in hope than anything.
Lucia leaned over and gave me a delicate kiss.
“I’ll walk her. Why don’t you get ready for bed?”
“But… it is New Year’s Eve?”
“And your ex has spoilt our enjoyment of it.”
Lucia was not wrong. She was fast becoming the rock that I’d missed for so many years.
“What time is the agent coming tomorrow?” I asked Lucia as we ate breakfast.
“When I collected the key, he said that he’d be here just before lunch. Why?”
“Then we have time to go out today. We can get up early tomorrow and make sure everything is clean.”
“Where did you have in mind?”
“Alston. It is a fine day and there are plenty of paths to follow for a walk including part of the Pennine Way.”
“I’d better make some sandwiches then?” said Lucia.
“Just a couple. I’m sure that we can find a pub to get something to eat on our way home.”
Lucia looked at me and smiled.
“I take it that Sophia is here to stay then?”
“Yeah. I thought about it for much of the night, and you were right.”
“Right about what?”
“Taking the fight to her. Becoming Sophia for good would take the wind out of her sails. All of her posts mentioned me play-acting…”
“Good.”
“Don’t turn around, but I think that we are being followed,” said Lucia after we’d been driving for twenty minutes.
“There is a grey Volvo that has been on our tail since we left Barnard Castle.”
I looked in the side mirror. Several hundred yards behind us, there was a grey car.
“We are on the road to Alston. I think that we should turn left in Alston and take the Penrith road. If the car follows us then we can just go back to the cottage.”
“And if they don’t”
“The Lake District awaits M’Lady.”
Lucia laughed.
Scamp was sleeping on the rear seat growled.
“Scamp approves. There must be more rabbits there.”
“Rabbit pie for tea?” said Lucia as she turned onto the A666 and Penrith.
I didn’t say anything as I watched the Volvo follow us.
“Where too after Penrith?” asked Lucia.
“There will be more traffic in Keswick.”
“If it is her then why don’t we lead her on a ‘Grand Tour’?”
I glanced over at the fuel gauge.
“We’ll need to stop for fuel very soon,” I remarked.
“There should be several places in Penrith. We can fill up there and head down the Motorway.”
“Motorway?”
“There was a sign back there saying that the ‘M6’ was this way.”
“I didn’t see it…?”
“I know. You were far too interested in the car that is behind us. It is still there by the way.”
Then I had an idea as we passed a ‘P’ sign indicating that there was a place to park half a mile along the road.
“Pull into the next layby. We can watch the Volvo from there.”
Lucia nodded and began to slow down as the parking place came into view.
As we came to a halt, I said as I got out of the car.
“I’ll let Scamp stretch her legs.”
At the mention of her name Scamp, came alive. That dog was always able to surprise me. I clipped her lead in place just as the Volvo went past us.
There was a young woman at the wheel with an older man in the passenger seat. The 'L' plates were very visible on the dashboard and stuck to the rear tailgate.
“I feel a bit silly,” I admitted to Lucia as she joined me carrying a bag for Scamp’s poo.
“Same here.”
“Let’s head for Keswick and find a place for lunch?”
“That’s a good idea.”
After the distraction of possibly being tailed, the rest of the day turned out to be enjoyable. We found a dog-friendly pub and ate an early lunch. Then we headed south to Rydal Water where we gave Scamp a good walk around the lake. After a cup of tea in Ambleside and with the light fading fast, we returned to the cottage.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” asked Lucia as we finally reached the A66 that would take us back to Barnard Castle.
“It wasn’t. At least no one screamed at me for being a man in drag.”
“You are way beyond that my darling,” replied Lucia. Then she asked,
“Do you think that our trip today be on Facebook?”
“I don’t care,” I said trying to sound convincing.
“What do you mean… don’t care?”
“That’s just it, I don’t care what she says or does. She… as in my former wife, my adulterous scumbag ex-wife. You were right as usual. It is time for me to break away from my past. Selling the company is the ideal time to start a new life.”
Lucia didn’t reply right away. Instead, she found a place to stop the car. Then she looked at me.
“That sounds awfully fatalistic?”
I shook my head.
“Not fatalistic my darling Lucia. You have done a great job on me and I’m ready to start living life again. If you will have me then I’d like whatever that is to be with you and Scamp.”
Scamp let out a little ‘woof’ at the mention of her name.
“What about those social media posts?”
“Fuck them. My dear ex-wife is just bitter that I made the company a success without needing her. She bailed out nine months before we got our big break. That’s life. Some you win, some you lose.”
I took her hand in mine.
“I know that you loved your husband, but I hope that there is space for me in your life from now on.”
“Oh darling, there is space… plenty of space… in both our hearts for you.”
“Lucia Lambretti, will you be my wife?”
She grinned back at me.
“If you will be mine?”
“I will… with all my heart.”
We were up well before a watery sun rose to the east and after a quick breakfast, we began to clean the house. Were all packed and ready to go a good hour before the agent arrived to inspect the house. While he was expected, I didn’t expect to see my former wife Jessica get out of his car.
Her first words were right to the point.
“Well, if it isn’t the loser who needs to dress in women’s clothes to get his kicks!”
Lucia heard her words and it was only Scamp who stopped her from giving Jessica a right seeing to. Instead, she grabbed the arm of the agent and took him into the house.
“Not nice to see you, Jessica. I saw those posts on Facebook that you did about me.”
“It seems to have worked? Where is all that feminine shit that you were wearing then? I hope is in the rubbish. You will never make a woman in a million years.”
“That’s where you are wrong. I’ll be changing my name when my lawyers office opens tomorrow. From now on it will be Elizabeth Sophia.”
“And her? What about her then? She’s after your money, isn’t she?”
“That’s where you are wrong, so very wrong. She has money of her own and it will not come between us. She is very different from you. We are getting married in a few months.”
“What? I’ll soon put a stop to that.”
“You? How will you do that? Our divorce was finalised by the court several years ago.”
“I’ll do something. I have a lot of followers these days. I’m an ‘influencer’ and I have well over a million followers.”
“So? A million losers following an even bigger one? Yeah, that’s about right…. A loser. I’m just mad at myself for not seeing that you were a loser before we were married.”
Jessica came at me with fists flying. She’d done that before… before she left me. I let her fists pummel my back until Lucia came out of the house and force her off me.
“I’ll get you for that. You assaulted me.”
“Look at the house. What do you see?” said Lucia.
“Why should I?”
“Because your agent friend recorded your assault on your former husband who as far as I could see never lifted a finger against you.”
Jessica started to say something but stopped herself. I took the opportunity to make just a few of the points that I had dreamed about since I saw those posts on Facebook.
“Good. Now sling your hook before I deliver a hook of my own to your jaw. If I were you, I’d take down those posts about Lucia and I, today and we never want to see you again. If we do then I’ll make sure that the video of you assaulting me is delivered to the Police and our lawyers. Oh, and yours still want paying for the work that they did for you on our divorce. I’m sure that a little tip-off as to your whereabouts would be a very nice new year present.”
I let that sink in for a couple of seconds.
“Do I make myself clear?”
Jessica nodded.
“Say it!”
“Yes, you are clear.”
“Good. Now get the hell out of our lives for good.”
My back hurt and my face would probably be bruised but otherwise, I was ok.
The agent appeared from the house and gave Lucia her phone.
“Did you get it all?”
“I did.”
Then he added,
“She will not be doing any business with my company from now on and she can walk back to town. That was uncalled for. She told me that you owed her a load of money and that you were going to repay her today,” explained the agent.
“No thank you for letting us know that she wanted to come here with you. She was always a very persuasive liar. More fool me for getting sucked into those lies,” I said.
I turned to Lucia.
“Is everything ok with the house?”
She grinned.
“Perfect. The deposit is already back my account.”
“Then we should hit the road before those black clouds drop on us?” I replied pointing to the west.
We didn’t see my former spouse on our way to the A66. The rain came as we’d feared. I hoped that she got well and truly soaked. It was a small payback for what she’d done to me.
After some reflection, I decided to see out my time at the company as Ant. Naturally, I told Sue about Sophia and our encounter with my ex-wife in person at New Year. Sue laughed and showed me her latest Facebook post. She was still ranting about how her ex-husband had ripped her off to the tune of several millions of pounds.
“See the number of followers.”
I looked and as we watched, the number was decreasing by the hundreds.
“So much for her being an influencer,” remarked Sue.
“I don’t know what I ever saw in her…”
“Don’t say that, Sue. I could have never built this company without you at my side.”
She blushed and then gave me a peck on the cheek.
“I’ll miss you when you are gone.”
[End of February]
“That’s me done then Sue. I hope that everything goes ok with you and everyone.”
I hated making speeches so I’d been around the factory on my last day. I’d taken the time to have a few words with everyone. I knew them all by name and I felt that they appreciated my effort. My last duty was to say goodbye to Sue.
“I’m sure that we’ll be fine,” said Sue.
“What about you? … You and Lucia?”
“We are getting married in a months-time at the registry office in Lincoln.”
“Who is getting married?”
I grinned.
“Lucia is marrying Elizabeth Sophia. We have rented a house in Lincoln now that my place has been sold. I’ll send you an invite. I’ll be using the name Sophia by the way, Lucia christened me that and I added the Elizabeth part.”
“We’ll be there.”
We said our final goodbyes and I headed out of Grimsby after buying some smoked haddock for our evening meal.
I arrived at our temporary home in Louth, to find Lucia giving Scamp a blow dry using her pink hoover. Lucia was a sight for sore eyes. It didn’t matter that she had rollers in her hair, she looked fantastic. She always did.
I considered myself so lucky to have met her and Scamp. My life would never be the same again and for that I would always be in debt to Rona.
My immediate reaction was to start looking through the contract. It told me that while the owners could throw us out, they’d have to compensate us financially for terminating our six-month lease early because we had not breached the terms of the lease. If anything, the place was cleaner than it had ever been. The letting agents went away to work out a deal with the owners.
When they’d gone, I sat down feeling a bit dejected. Just when things were starting to look up, something else came to stop us. Lucia wrapped an arm around my shoulder. That was her all over. The smell of her perfume was often more than enough to bring me out of my fug but this time it failed.
“We need a plan ‘B’ and today,” said Lucia.
Talk about the obvious…
“Any ideas?” I said more out of hope than anything.
She returned a smile. I knew that smile of old. It told me that she had an idea.
“How about we become live-in housekeepers for a while. Yes, it is just what you suggested at Christmas and I sort of poo-pooed it but now, it makes good sense. That way putting a roof over our heads would not be a problem. While we are gainfully employed, we can continue looking for a permanent place to live.”
For the life of me, I could not fault her argument other than the prospect of my past coming to light during the interview process.
Lucia was waiting for me to respond.
“What about my background?”
She smiled.
“From your reaction, you must have an idea of somewhere to go and that our prospective employers won’t bother about my history?”
“I don’t, but if we go about this the right way then it won’t matter.”
“What do you suggest?”
“You have already changed your name… that is the first step. Next, we form a company with us as the two directors and only employees. Then we can offer our services through the company. My late husband used to do that all the time for some of his more-risky ventures. It limited his financial exposure should it go bust… Sorry darling, I forgot that I was talking to a former businessman.”
I gave her a little peck on the cheek.
“That’s ok. It is easy for you to forget that especially given how I’m dressed at the moment.”
Lucia giggled.
“You look gorgeous my darling.”
I was wearing a frilly, lacy dress that exposed a lot of leg and cleavage. My stocking-clad legs and a pair of silly-height sandals completed my look for the day. Lucia loved choosing my outfit even if my feet paid for it at the end of the day.
Setting up a company took a matter of hours. That could not be said for finding a position. After some initial leads, things dried up.
“That’s another day gone with no progress,” I said as we prepared for bed.
We had just one more week left before we had to move. The house was littered with cardboard and plastic boxes ready for the move. Just a few months ago, I had hoped that we would not have to move again for a while but that hope had gone up in smoke.
“I know and I’m not happy about it. It all seemed so easy at first.”
I gave her a kiss.
“I’m sure that something will turn up in a few days.”
I looked at Lucia for one of her 'tells' but her facial expression was as blank as I'd ever seen it.
A few days of getting no leads about a job turned into almost a week, when we had a surprise visit from Rona.
[to be continued]
"Rona? What on earth are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be sunning yourself in Cancun or Acapulco?" I said when I answered the door.
"I was actually sunning myself in Thailand, but the opportunity to do some good business was enough to get me on a plane home."
“Please… please come in.”
I let her pass me. She headed straight for the kitchen.
"Sorry about the mess. We are having to move out in ten days. The owner wants it back before the end of our lease."
She chuckled.
“I hope you got compensation for the early termination?”
“We did, but a month in a cheapish chain motel is a poor substitute when compared to this place.”
She smiled and nodded her head.
“Lucia is out walking Scamp at the moment. She should be back soon. In the meantime, tea?”
Rona smiled.
“Perfect.”
As I filled the kettle I said,
“I can tell by the tone of your voice, that this is not a social call?”
“Business. You know how it is… One thing leads to another and another door opens when you least expect it.”
“How does all this door opening apply to Lucia and me?”
“A little bird told me that you were looking at a housekeeping job?”
“We are… I won’t ask about who the little bird is but it is true. When we got notice to quit here, we had this grand idea about going to work as live in housekeepers while we carry on looking for the perfect place to live. Then it went downhill from there on.”
Rona smiled.
“That’s what I thought. I’ve just said no to doing business with a family run engineering company in Gloucestershire. I turned it down because of the family itself. I did leave the MD with a few pointers about what they should do to expand their business in a sustainable way.”
“Is that a first for you? Saying no I mean?”
Rona shook her head.
“I’ve become even more selective about the people I do business with. As I told you before, I don’t need the money. These days, I have to like the people I work with, like you for instance.”
I smiled.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. How does this company a hundred or so miles away affect Lucia and me?”
“The MD, Jeremy Thorne lives in a lovely house made of that beautiful Cotswold Stone with his lover, Bret Matthews, who is also the company accountant. They could do with a couple of housekeepers to whip their house into shape so to speak.”
“but…?”
The kettle started to boil which stopped me from arguing with Rona for a minute of two.
While I was distracted making the tea, Rona continued.
“I estimate that there is a good six months work there and there are some really lovely properties in that part of the world and your darling former wife lives a long way from there.”
The mention of ‘her’ got my attention. Going somewhere a long way from her would be a big plus. After the events over Christmas Lucia and I were never sure if she would pop up and have another go at ruining our lives.
“That sounds good on principle…” I said as I poured the tea.
“You don’t seem convinced?”
“I would need to discuss this with Lucia first.”
Rona smiled as I handed her a cup of tea.
“I would not expect anything less. You two have been a team from the first day that she came into your life.”
“I wouldn’t put it that way.”
“I would. Your whole attitude changed after you went to meet her in France.”
“Really?”
Rona smiled.
“Something about your voice changed after that meeting, like you changed after meeting me for the first time. Those changes were not dramatic but someone like myself notices things like that. After our meeting in London, your tone towards me changed. The same happened with you and Lucia.”
I cupped my tea in my hands. Once again Rona had me dead to rights.
“Ok, I’ll have a discussion with Lucia about the possibility of talking to… to Mr Thorne about a job.”
“That’s all I ask,” replied Rona as she delved into her shoulder bag.
She pulled out a small sheet of paper.
“Here are the details of the company and the main players.”
“Thanks.”
I looked at my watch and frowned.
“I don’t know where Lucia is. She should have been back by now.”
Rona grinned.
“I’d expect Scamp has gone off chasing a rabbit or two.”
“That means a doggy bath later. That dog hates getting wet.”
Rona laughed as she stood up.
“I’ll leave you to prepare for that. Let me know what you decide to do about the company.”
“We will. Thanks for the tip.”
Lucia and a very muddy Scamp turned up over an hour later. Scamp headed for her water bowl and proceeded to spread the whole contents over the floor. I refilled it and let her start to drink before letting it go.
“One day, that dog will get herself stuck down a hole and I may decide not pull her out. I Three times today she went and tried to get down a hole and failed,” said Lucia as she sank down onto a chair.
I shook my head with a smile on my face.
“I’ll get the you know what ready.”
“Is that some tea I see in the pot?”
“It was. We had a brief visit from Rona. She left over an hour ago. It will be cold now but I can put the kettle on again if you want one before you bath you know who?”
“I’m sorry to have missed her. Why didn’t you give me a call?” replied Lucia.
She ignored my suggestion about bathing Scamp. That was not unusual. If that dog saw water while she was out for a walk, you would have a hard time keeping her out of it but… back home and it was time for a bath? Forget it.
“Er???? You left your phone on the worktop in the utility room.”
Lucia suddenly looked very guilty.
“Sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. We all do it from time to time.
“What did Rona want or was it just a social call?”
“A bit of both. She gave us a heads up on a possible job down in Gloucestershire.”
“Killing two birds with one stone then?”
“She turned down doing any business with them because their business is family owned. The last thing she wanted to do was be in the middle of a family war. Her sort of reorganisation might not go down well with parts of the family.”
“Ok, I get you.”
Scamp finished spraying water all over the floor and turned her attention to her food bowl. It was empty and would not be filled until later. She sat on the floor and looked at us hopefully with her head cocked to one side.
We didn’t move so Scamp let out a little whimper. Her whining wasn’t going to work… Not until she’d had a bath.
I looked at Lucia and moved my eyes towards the door that led to the hall and upstairs where the bathroom was located.
She nodded her head.
I moved behind Scamp and before she could react, I clipped her lead to her collar.
She whimpered. She’d guessed what was coming.
“There is no use resisting Scamp. You are dirty and only clean dogs get fed,” I said,
I led a reluctant Scamp upstairs while Lucia made herself some tea and prepared our evening meal. It would be nice to have a downstairs shower where both dirty animals and humans could get clean.
After an hour, I admitted,
“I have never really visited this part of the country.”
“I went with my late husband to Stow on the Wold and Burton on the Water on some classic car runs. Those places are just tourist traps and often full of oldies on coach trips.”
I gave an involuntary shudder. I had met many coach parties like that over the years often, at Motorway Service Stations where the toilets would get jammed up for what seemed hours when I had been wanting a quick pee, grab a coffee and be on the road again. I didn’t like the sound of that part of the Cotswolds so I tried a little deflection.
“The area that Rona suggested is closer to Gloucester and Cirencester. The family factory is even farther west, close to the M5, but the MD lives just outside Winchcombe.”
‘Just outside’ was closer to four miles SE of Winchcombe and according to ‘streetmap.co.uk, it was high up on the Cotswold escarpment.
We looked at the sites of some estate agents that served the area. I knew that the ‘Cotswolds’ were popular but the prices were to my eyes far too high. Lucia noticed this.
“Keeping control of your purse strings then?”
I sighed.
“Compared to what we sold my old home for, these are in a different league.”
“But we can afford it can’t we?”
“That’s not the point.”
“But darling, it is the point. We can buy somewhere for us and for the rest of our lives. Besides, didn’t we use the topic of housekeepers just as a talking point? At the moment, we don’t have much of a clue what we are going to do next… Am I right?”
Her words hit home hard. I had not considered that point of view.
I exited stage left and began to prepare the apples for our desert. Lucia had a ‘black book’ of recipes that was full of tasty dishes.
It took me a few days to come round to her point of view and we booked a hotel for three nights close to Cheltenham Racecourse. It would be our base while we started house hunting. Neither of us mentioned ‘housekeeping’ again… for that, I was eternally relieved. I emailed Rona who replied with just ‘ROFL’.
The problem was that we never made it to Gloucestershire at least on the first attempt.
Our route south west mostly followed the route of the old roman road called ‘The Fosse Way’ that runs from Lincoln to Exeter. We’d just passed Rugby when Lucia said,
“Can we make a diversion?”
“Where to and why?”
“We used to live not far from here… when I was married. There are all sorts of high-tech motor companies in this area.”
“Ok, got that but why? Do you want to see your old home?”
She shook her head.
“No. We only rented a place in this country but…”
I smiled.
“Ok, a case of wait, and see?”
She remained impassive.
“Ok, where to?”
Lucia didn’t say anything but entered a new waypoint into the car Satnav.
I took the hint and followed her directions. Lucia was very different in that respect to my former wife. The Mk1 version had zero sense of direction. Lucia was just the opposite which was much appreciated.
We passed a sign saying ‘Battle of Edge Hill 1642’ just before the route ended in the hamlet of the same name.
“Where too now?”
“Go straight on for half a kilometre.”
“Then what?”
“I want to look at a property. Before… before I left, they just started working on the build.”
“And you think that it is for sale?”
Lucia grinned.
“You know it is for sale?”
“Am I in trouble?”
I laughed.
“Lucia darling… you can never be in trouble with me.”
She mouthed,
“Thank you.”
I pulled up at a very obvious entrance. A ‘For Sale’ sign was a big hint.
There was enough space in front of some very impressive iron gates for me to pull right off the road.
We got out and looked through the gates at the property. I waited for Lucia to say something.
“I am in trouble, aren’t I?”
“Why?”
“You are awfully silent?”
“I’m waiting for you to tell me all about the place.”
She looked very guilty.
“Sorry. But when you said that we were coming this way… I wanted to see if this place was finished. I found that it is still for sale.”
“And?”
She looked at me with a puzzled look.
“For a brief description? Sell it to me as if we are in an elevator that is only going up one floor…”
“It is a converted stable block. Four bedrooms, three baths and all the rest. A triple garage and a workshop and a heated indoor pool.”
“How much?”
Lucia hesitated.
“Offers over one point six.”
The figure didn’t shock me. Even from this distance, it looked a very luxurious property.
I pulled out my phone and recalled a number.
“Who are you calling?”
“The Hotel to cancel our reservation for tonight.”
“I don’t understand?”
“We should stay nearby and schedule a viewing of this place. Think of it as an information gathering exercise.”
“And not to put in an offer?”
“I’d never buy the first place that I saw unless I already had others lined up to view. We’ve not physically viewed any homes yet so why not start here? We are on the ground and ready to view it so why delay?”
“I think I understand?”
I took her hand in mine.
“Small steps darling. Have you ever bought a house before?”
She shook her head.
“No. He did all of that before we were married. Why?”
I smiled.
“Two things. Buying a house is regarded as the second most stressful thing we do after getting married. The second is ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’.”
It took Lucia all of two seconds to grasp what I’d said. She chased me around the car. I let her catch me and we kissed.
We only stopped when it came on to rain. After sheltering in the car, I said,
“We have to start looking at homes for real. Watching video tours is one thing but seeing things for real is essential. Buying a house is a journey like the one that I’ve been on since you came into my life. Things can and will go wrong.”
“Like your ex appearing at New Year?”
“Potentially worse, but something like that. Until the sale goes to ‘completed’ state, it can fall through. That can happen just days before you are due to move. It sucks but that is the system we have here.”
Lucia thought for a moment. Then she said with a smile on her face.
“What are we sitting here for?”
We returned to our rented house pretty exhausted but satisfied with what we’d done after setting out for Cheltenham but never getting there.
I left Lucia preparing dinner for us while I walked Scamp. With all our travels and frequent stops her expectations of lots of walks had been mostly wrong. Still, she hadn’t acted up thanks to a good supply of doggie treats. Now it was down to me to let her loose.
The best place for that was the beach at Mabelthorpe. Although it meant driving thirty odd miles each way, Scamp could run the stiffness out of her legs without worrying about not going where she shouldn’t. The downside was that I was going to have to give her a bath afterwards. The result would be that I’d end up just as wet as Scamp.
Over an excellent meal, Lucia and I reviewed the trip.
“Are you any clearer about the sort of place you would like to live in?” I asked as I poured us another glass of Barolo.
“I do like conversions but… they do vary widely as we found out yesterday. That place near Stratford was ok but for one point five… they are certifiable. The finish was the worst of all the places that we viewed by a long way.”
“Those are some good points. The place this morning was a house of two halves. One part was done as if money was no object but the rest was thrown together.”
Lucia smiled.
“Perhaps they did run out of money? The asking price had been reduced by a lot only last week.”
I smiled.
“Tempted? You know buy it at a lot lower than they are asking for and redo the rest of it ‘as if money was no object’?”
Lucia laughed.
“Are you? It would give you something to do.”
“While you sit back and do your nails?”
We both laughed at the stupidity of it.
After a bit of a pause, I said.
“It does raise the issue of what we are going to do with our life together?”
“Grow Roses,” replied Lucia without even having to think about it.”
“That will be the day…”
“It was the first thing that came into my mind.”
“You are forgiven. I’ve been thinking about where we should look for a place to live and also something to do with our lives.”
That got her attention.
“You know how much a certain four-legged member of this household loves running on the beach?”
“I do. So?”
“I was thinking about Cornwall. There are some great sandy beaches there. Plus,…”
I took Lucia’s hand.
“I know that what I am about to say is very much off the cuff, but what about opening a Cookery School? Your rustic Italian food is better than any I’ve ever had in a restaurant. You have taught me since the first day that Italian cuisine is a lot more than Pasta and Pizza. You have a ready made menu list with that black book of yours. Even I can follow the instructions and make… well mostly make decent tasing food. What that book contains is a veritable larder of goodies.”
“Rustic?” said an indignant Lucia who had ignored the rest of my little speech.
“It isn’t safe like what most Italian Restaurants in this country dish up. Your food is full of flavour and is unpretentious. It isn’t what they call on the TV ‘cheffy’ in its presentation or with five different sauces that take three people half a day to prepare. For most viewers, what those pro’s serve up is just a pipe dream. I’m saying, why not teach people how to wow their families with flavour and make it simple enough for normal people. Make it with ingredients that are available at almost all decent supermarkets in the country. You managed to teach me so why not others eh? Running a school does not have the same pressure as a professional kitchen. You’ve seen the shows on TV where the chef gives his team a right load of verbal abuse if they mess up. With a school, you expect the students to mess up and messing up is allowed.”
Lucia thought for a moment before smiling.
“What will you be doing while I sweat over a hot stove?”
“Running the show. I do the management stuff and importantly, the marketing. Plus, I run the residential part and you do the creativity. How about it?”
Lucia smiled.
“I like it. I like it a lot.”
I relaxed.
“I think we should get everything we don’t need put into storage and head to Cornwall just to see what sort of places are on the market?”
“That is a good idea. I also thought that we should spend this year looking around for good sites and suppliers. We could buy a house to use as a base without the fear of the owners wanting it back in a hurry. That house does not have to be perfect but it would be ours. We take our time and find the right place to operate from. If that happens to be close to a beach then even better?”
Lucia kissed me long and hard.
“Welcome to the wonderful world of thinking clearly again.”
For a moment I was confused about what she was going on about. Then I twigged.
“Thank you darling. It has taken me a while but I got there in the end which was what you wanted all the time wasn’t it?”
She was right. I had lost it after the sale of my baby. It had taken a long time to get back onto an even keel again.
“You got me there. Is that so bad?”
“Not in the least, not in the least.”
Scamp didn’t disagree either. She came and put her head on my lap. That was her way of saying ‘more of that please’.
[nine months later]
I was on the phone to the agent from Mevagissey, who was selling a ten-room hotel with an attached restaurant in a small village a few miles away. There were two nice beaches either side of the hamlet where Scamp could run her heart out. There was even a ground floor ‘boot room’ with a shower. That would be perfect for washing a dirty pooch.
“It is ours darling,” I said after I finished the call.
Lucia looked a bit sad.
“Why the downer look?”
“Because my darling, when we get the keys, the hard work really begins.”
“True, but we are not in a rush to open before Easter, are we?”
“I know but…” said Lucia.
I took hold of her hand. As always, her skin was so soft.
“We will get there. As you are so fond of saying, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’.”
I got a glare back from my wife. That turned into a smile.
We were good.
Things were progressing well with setting up the property for use as a cookery school until the world closed down due to COVID. What was worse was that we had just started taking bookings for the first course in late May.
Instead of shutting up shop entirely, we played our part in the village by providing hot meals to those who needed it. These were mostly the elderly and infirm of the area. At first Lucia didn’t like the idea of running a ‘take away’ but she came around after her first dishes were met with rapt enthusiasm.
Lucia proved to be in her element and with the help of a few villagers, we were producing nearly 300 meals a week. Having a recently enlarged kitchen made ‘Social Distancing’ relatively easy. Lucia used the people of the village as Guinea pigs for the series of dishes that she’d be teaching her students once the pandemic was over. We took the time to source all the ingredients wherever possible from the local community of farmers and fishermen.
The pandemic had shut down so many outlets for local producers especially the fishermen. Having somewhere on hand that could take at least some of their catch really helped them. I became an expert at preparing crab and lobster. We got them cheap as long as we kept the prices of what we sold down to affordable levels. He didn’t make a lot but it was enough to keep the place above water after all the expenses had been factored in.
The quality of the produce made Lucia even more adventurous with the meals. The many rapturous comments made her day. For us, the period of lockdown proved to be very beneficial.
I kept in touch with Sue and all seemed to be going well at the company. The unused building that I’d bought for a future expansion had been put into use once the lockdown had eased, so that teams could return to work and like us, adopt ‘Social Distancing’ measures. According to Sue, the order book was even fuller than before. That caused me to have some brief regrets but one look at Lucia playing on the beach with Scamp cured that.
[August 2021]
“Ready?” I asked Lucia.
She looked resplendent in her white chef’s uniform. Two small flags, one Italian and one, the Union Flag was embroidered above her heart.
“As I’ll ever be. You?”
I was dressed in something not that different from the cleaning uniform that Lucia had chosen to for me on that first day. The skirt was still full and frilly as before, but a good deal longer.
“I am. Let me open the door and see if our very special guests have arrived.”
I opened the door to the now much smaller restaurant and felt the full force of the wind on my nether regions. Despite it being August, we were on an exposed headland and any south-westerly wind could be chilly.
Two people with smiles on their faces walked through the door. They were the other two important women in our life, Sue and Rona.
“Greetings ladies,” I said with a smile on my face.
“Your table is this way.”
I led them to a table by the window on the leeward side of the building.
“Lucia has prepared a six-course tasting menu. We hope that at the end of the week, you will be able to prepare at least three of the dishes yourself. Are you ready?”
Sue could not stop herself from giggling mostly at the sight of me wearing something other than a grey or black suit.
Rona just sat back and smiled.
They’d sort of volunteered to be the first customers for ‘the Pink Bow cookery school’. To be honest, it hadn’t taken much arm twisting to get them to agree.
In honour of the occasion Lucia, Scamp and I wore pink bows in our hair.
We were up and running and despite the hard work and long hours, there was no place that I’d rather be unless it was with Lucia at my side.
[the end]
[Postscript]
There were a lot of sad faces when we stopped providing hot meals six days a week as the pandemic waned. We came to a compromise. We’d get those attending our courses to provide cooked meals on the last one or two days of the five-day course. It provided a service to the local community as well as being a goal for the attendees to aim for. The downside was that we had to vary the dishes we sent out. Lucia rose to the challenge without any complaint. That was Lucia through and through.
Oh, and Scamp had to be put on a diet because the participants of the courses kept feeding her tidbits of food.