Maxine is on the phone to her boss Sally on the Bank Holiday Monday evening. The events described in this part run in a parallel timeframe to those described in ‘Doing Business’.

“I want to do things right Sally. To me, that includes working out my notice. I don’t want to suddenly up and disappear. What if at some time in the future, I need to use your research team? I don’t want to burn my bridges and all that.”

There was silence down the phone.

“Sally?”

“No, I’m not some monster that you created. I’m trying to be reasonable and behave like an adult.”

“How about two weeks instead of a month?”

“That’s a deal then.”
Then she added,
“Thanks for all your help so far Sally. Well, both you and Jasmine have been instrumental in seeing what I need to do with my life.”

“Yes, Jasmine. The way she talked about things made me see a lot of things differently. A different perspective I suppose. But it really helped. Sort of like the icing on the cake.”

“Please tell her thanks and that I’ll see her soon.”

“No Sally. I don’t have any romantic intensions towards your daughter. She is a friend so Jasmines ‘Mum’ you don’t need to worry about me.”

Maxine laughed.

“Thanks again Sally. Will we see you as usual on Friday?”

“Ok, see you then, bye.”

Maxine hung up the phone and stood motionless for nearly a minute.

Then she called someone else.

“Hi Mum.”

“No. I’m in Chichester. I’m going to work a two week notice here. I’ve just discussed that with Sally.”

“Then? I’m going to work for Adrian.”

“Mum, I will see you on Friday evening. Then we can talk so get the curry in and we can make an evening of it. Ok?”

“That’s what I promised Mum and I intend to keep it.”

“Ok. See you Friday, bye.”
Then she added,
“I love you Mum and thanks for being there for me.”

Maxine had one more phone call to make but she would do that the next day.

---

Sally came down on Friday to Chichester for her regular meeting with her research team. They all knew of Maxine’s departure.

“As you know, Maxine here is leaving us at the end of next week. But, I don’t think that will be the last you see of her. She is going to work for a dear friend of mine. He and I have similar aims in business but we go about things in a different manner. But, from time to time, our paths cross. The report that Maxine did on the Hotel Chain has spurred my friend into making an offer or will be doing that very shortly for one of the hotels that they will want rid of. Well done Maxine. It has also opened up a new opportunity with my friend for Maxine and just to let you know, she has my blessing.”

There were smiles all around the table.

Then Sally said,
“To celebrate, I’m taking all of you out for Lunch.”

She looked at the clock on the wall.

“Yes, I know it is only just after ten but I think that there is time for you all to go home and get smartened up. We are eating up at the Racecourse. Our table is booked for one.”

There was a stunned silence around the table. Then Marta spoke up.

“What about the report I was supposed to finish today?”

“Marta, when the boss is taking us out to lunch then that does not matter,” said Ralph, the oldest of the team.

“Ralph is right Marta. Tuesday will do fine. So, people?”

The meeting broke up and the others went home to get changed leaving just Sally and myself left in the office.

“Don’t say a word my girl. I know that you don’t have a thing to wear. Neither do I. I only decided to do this on the way down here this morning. I phoned and booked the table from my car. Well Maxine, shall we go shopping?”

Two hours later, the pair were back at Sally's apartment with the clothes they bought. Sally had to stop Maxine going over the top with her choice but she ended up with a decent business suit. The cut of the jacket seemed to hide most of the fact that Maxine didn’t have any real girly hips but what worried her the most was the skirt. It was really tight. She’d never worn anything that tight before. What made it worse was that it ended well below the knee.

Thankfully, Maxine had brought the shoes she’d worn on Saturday evening with her. A quick trip into M&S procured her some stockings. Sally asked why not tights.

“Hips or rather the lack of them," replied Maxine
"As I don’t have any, tights start to sag after a bit of walking. I never noticed it before but wearing stockings on Saturday not only made me feel better, there is nothing to sag.”

Sally laughed but understood. The more she worked with Maxine, the more she realised what a find she’d been. She chuckled internally at how well her intuition had worked out but was also sad that her protégé was about to move on to bigger and better things.

---

Lunch at the historic Goodwood Racecourse where people have been racing horses for more than two hundred years was brilliant. They had a table that looked right out over the famous horseshoe shape of the course. Then the views to the north over the Weald were as brilliant as the weather.

Maxine was saddened to leave such a nice group of people. They’d accepted her into the team but now she was leaving them. She did appreciate the efforts that everyone especially Sally was going to for her. She made a mental note to try to do the same for others in the future. Being nice to people can pay dividends if used in the right situations.

---

“Hi Mum,” said Maxine as she arrived home that Friday evening. She was still on a bit of a high from the lunch.

“I’m in the kitchen,” said her Mother.

Maxine took off her coat and after hanging it up, she went into the kitchen.

When her mother saw her, she was shocked. She dropped the bowl of chutney she was holding.

“Maxine!”

“Hi Mum,” said her daughter smiling.

“What on earth are you wearing? You don’t go to work looking like that, do you?”

“No Mum I don’t. I bought this to go out to lunch with the team and Sally. We ate at a place that is part of Goodwood Racecourse. I had to look the part, now didn’t I?”

“It is… It is just that you… you look so lovely.”

Maxine went and hugged her mother.
“Thanks Mum. This skirt is a pig to walk in though.”

They both laughed.

“You look good my darling. I guess that you are going the whole way then?”

“Mum?”

“A mother knows her children. Part of being a mother.”
Then her eyes dropped.

“There was a point when you started working for Sally that I wanted you to see that you were doing the wrong thing and Thomas would come back to me. Yes, I know I supported you but… I wanted my son back. I hope that you will forgive me for having those doubts?”

“Mum! I know that you had a hard time accepting that I was going to do this. No one especially me expected that I’d get a job offer from Sally. Then things sort of snowballed. But these past weeks I became sure that Maxine was who I am meant to be.”

“Maxine…?”

“Mum please. I need to say this. Perhaps then you will understand?”

Maxine’s mother nodded her head.

“I was happy as I am…. Well perhaps I’d get some implants but generally I was happy being a man but living as a woman. Then I met Adrian.”

“Things changed?”

“Mum?”

Maxine continued.
“Adrian has offered me a chance to become my own boss. Not soon but in a few years. Then I’d run his company lock stock and barrel. The downside is that I’d need to become a woman and marry Adrian. Before you ask, Adrian is gay and I prefer women so yes, it is a marriage of convenience but it is the only way that Adrian avoid leaving his business to his idle, good for nothing family. This is why it will work.”

Maxine passed over the leaflet that Adrian had given her.

“You should know what this means with your nursing training,” added Maxine.
“It should add some context into what I just said.”

There was silence in the kitchen for quite a while. Eventually, Maxine’s Mother spoke.

“This is an awful big step to take you know. There is no going back once… well, you know that.”

Maxine leaned over the table and took her mother’s hand.

“Mum, I know all that but look at me now and then think how I was after I got made redundant. Don’t you like who I’ve become? I do. I’m so much happier now. It is as if the real me has come to the surface after all these years. I don’t know. Only a shrink can tell me that but be honest Mum, don’t you think I am happier now that I’ve ever been?”

“Oh Darling, it is hard for me. To lose a son and to get another daughter especially as the original one is giving me such a hard time.”

“I’m not Dawn and I will never be like her. These last few months in Chichester have really made me grow up. I have proved that I can do good work. My old boss was forever giving me grief no matter how hard I tried. Now I get thanked and even praised for my work. You really don’t know how good that feels especially after being told for years that I was a useless SOB. Perhaps Thomas was just that but Maxine is a totally different person. I am proud to be your daughter. I won’t let you down I promise.”

The two looked each other right in the eye for several minutes.

“Maxine… I love you. You know that, don’t you?”

“Mum, I know you do. I love you.”

Then Maxine sighed,
“But I am going to do this.”

“I know love but just be careful eh? There are only a finite number of times a mother can take instances of her babies coming home with their tails between their legs.”

Maxine understood the point her mother was trying to make.

---

[one week later]

“That’s it, I’m all set to go.” Said Maxine to her Mother.

“Did you pack the kitchen sink?”

“Mum!”

Then they both laughed. The ‘kitchen sink’ thing was a joke that was always played by Maxine’s late Father whenever they went off on Holiday.

They both hugged for several seconds.

With a small tear in her eye, Maxine headed for the Black BMW that Adrian had sent to take her to his base in Reigate.

The driver was Adrian’s assistant ‘Cliff’.

“Miss, welcome aboard. I’m Cliff,” he said as they left the town and headed for Devizes.

“Thanks Cliff. Can you stop the car please?”

He found a place to pull off the road.

Maxine got out of the rear and climbed into the front.

“I only ride in the back if I am with someone else or it is prudent to do so. Such as if I am wearing evening dress.”

Cliff smiled and shook his head. Maxine was living up to the picture that Adrian had painted.

“Is this a problem Cliff?”

“Miss, it is not going to be a problem at all.”

“Enough of the Miss. Maxine please. Unless it is really needed.”

“Understood Miss Maxine!”

“Drive on then James!”

Both of them had a laugh as they settled down for the drive east.

---

Adrian was waiting for them when they arrived at his home. Maxine marvelled at the size of the place. Her family home was a small 3-bedroom terraced house. This was huge by comparison. It even had its own in and out drive.

“This is some place you have here,” said I slightly overawed Maxine.

“It is a great place to live and work and convenient for London,” replied Adrian in his matter of fact manner.

“Well, to me it is huge.”

“Come on in and I’ll show you to your rooms.”

Maxine was about to question his use of ‘rooms’ rather than ‘room’. She stopped. She’d find out soon enough.

Adrian led her upstairs and into a large room at the front of the house.

“This is your sitting room. Your bedroom is through those doors. There is also your own toilet and bathroom and a walk in Wardrobe.”

Maxine was a bit in awe. Adrian saw this.

“The house was built in the late Victorian period. This was the lady of the house’s day room. Here, she could entertain her friends in here away from the men. I added a toilet and bathroom when I bought the house some years ago once I’d stripped the place back to bare walls and removed the changes made in the early 1960’s.”

“Thanks. I am sure that I’ll be comfortable here.”

“Good. Cliff will bring up your things. Take some time and get things put away. We will go out to a local pub for dinner if you are agreeable?”

“Yes. What time?”

“Seven ok?”

“Great, I’ll be there.”

---

Maxine started to put her things away but soon got diverted by that perennial problem, ‘what to wear’.

By the time virtually all her clothes were strewn on her bed she’d finally decided. She’d wear the outfit that she’d worn to the lunch at Goodwood. She’d grown to like wearing the very tight skirt with the longer jacket.

The evening went off very well and Adrian being the perfect gentleman impressed itself on Maxine. This was a very new experience to her and one that she could get to like.

The following day, they got down to business. Maxine was surprised when Adrian said,

“We will be putting in a formal offer for the hotel in Devon later this week. I went down to there and explained what was going on to the manager and her partner. They agreed to come in with me or rather us. They signed the contract with me on the following Friday and had it couriered up here.”

“I wasn’t expecting things to happen that quickly.”

“Neither was I but I indirectly greased a few palms with a couple of secretaries at their head office. That resulted in me getting a call telling me that several key board members were on their way to Atlanta. So, I went to Devon and laid my cards on the table. Where we are today is all thanks to you, you know.”

“I didn’t see any notification of the deal being announced on the news wires?”

Adrian smiled and thought, ‘she is very clued up already’.

“It will be more than likely tomorrow. There is a board meeting in the morning. The deal will be rubber stamped so a formal announcement will be made in the afternoon. They will need to sync it with the American company so that the LSE and Wall St are informed at the same time. My guess is Wall St will get the announcement at 5pm Eastern and the LSE will be notified before the market opens the day after.”

Maxine felt herself shaking.

“But… what if I was wrong with my projections?”

Adrian smiled.

“Then I lose some money and you learn a valuable lesson.”

Then he leaned over the table and took Maxine’s hand.

“Don’t worry. Your work was perfect. I could not fault it. If anything, it was rather conservative. With people taking more short breaks hotels like this will do very well as long as they keep up their level of service. That’s why the extension makes perfect sense.”

Then he smiled.

“Besides, as I said in Bath, the manager is like you. They are very LGBT friendly especially with their staff. The whole ethos of the place is to give really excellent service which is why they are so profitable.”

“How do you know this?” asked Maxine slightly confused.

“Simple really, I paid for Cliff and his wife to spend two nights there in the week after I received your report. I’d stayed there for one night but didn’t get the chance to get to the bottom of why they were doing so well. Nothing like a bit of first-hand experience to fill in the missing blanks. A few subtle questions here, a few there and a lot of the unknowns became a clear as day. It is amazing how many people who were staying there that week were repeat customers. They rated the place very highly indeed. That was more than enough to confirm what you’d put in your report.”

Adrian continued.
“This is very how I work. I get the background research done, check it, and if I like what I see, I do at least one bit of personal on the ground investigation before making a move. It does work believe me. You can only go so far with online research.”

“I have so much to learn,” said Maxine with a deep sigh in her voice.

“You will, in time.”

“But how long?”

“Enough but, the clock is ticking.”

Adrian’s matter of fact reply did worry Maxine. She wondered how he could talk like that about something so important. Then she wondered how she’d be if she was in his shoes. His slightly fatalistic attitude was totally understandable but still rather unnerving.

As had happened many times since she’d first met Adrian and before that, Sally, Maxine was troubled by two questions. Firstly, and always uppermost in her mind was the ‘why me?’ question. Why had she been so lucky in getting a job even though she was a total fake and then how lucky she’d been to have gotten the job for Adrian. Then the other question was ‘am I up to this and what happens when I fall on my face’.

She didn’t know the answers to either of them but from her expression when talking with Adrian was that she was going to do her hardest to not fall flat on her face each and every day.

[to be continued in ‘Forsythe Saga – Done Deal’]