F Is for Fiona

"Well, Emma, one best friend, a mate of mine since way back, and my parents obviously, and one other doctor and one therapist I was referred to. And Kate. My secretary, she's the only member of my staff I've told."

"Your secretary!? She knows? What was her reaction, what did she say when you first told her?"

"Kate is a very loyal secretary, Emma. She's worked for me, actually I'd prefer to say with me, for almost four years now. She came just after I was promoted to this position. She's very efficient, and very pragmatic."

"Pragmatic? That surprises me, I'd have thought she would have been against this, then. As impracticable, maybe."

"I didn't tell her here, Emma, I invited her back for dinner one evening. And before you begin thinking the wrong thing, we have never been in any way romantically involved, not at all. I know she's had a couple of boyfriends in these past four years, I only ever met one of them. But to get back to the point, I told her after dinner one evening. As you suggest, she was very surprised. But then I explained, and got changed, to show her. You can ask her yourself if you like, maybe on your way out. I don't want to sound dismissive, Emma, but I have a supplier coming in at three, we've gone over time as it is. Look, how about coming down here again next week, say on Thursday, for lunch. We can discuss how things have gone then?"

Emma did discuss things with Kate, but as I expected my secretary was very supportive. I like to think I'm a good boss, and that all my staff were going to be equally positive. But I wasn't sure. However many were on my side some were bound to be wary, or even opposed, even in these enlightened times.

However, Saturday had been D-day. Or F-day rather, or G-day maybe. W-day more probably. I'd broken the news to my department heads in our lunchtime meeting, and then gone off-site, I'd booked a long period off which must have surprised them. I'd always been a bit of a workaholic, rarely going through a weekend without popping in to the store to see how things were going. So I'd left them to tell their own people during the afternoon before we'd closed that evening, and I'd taken ten days off. The whole of the following week, and the Monday and the Tuesday.