Getting Organised. Carolyn Caterer

over from her and keep her clients happy and also keep a percentage of the profits coming into her bank account. After twenty years of hard work it would be madness to just end it all. Finding the right person to take over from her was proving much more difficult than she had imagined and it was over dinner with Mabel a year or so earlier that she had expressed her frustration. Much to her surprise Mabel had offered to help her find the perfect replacement and had set about her task with a dedication which Imogen felt she didn’t really deserve from a former mother-in-law. Maybe it was due to the fact that Mabel felt guilty that she had never realised that Richard was not the type to settle down and that no amount of marriage counselling could change that fact or keep them together. Of course Imogen had always been suspicious but Richard had insisted that he was only interested in her. After three years of marriage and at the age of twenty four years she found herself asking him for a divorce having come home early one day to find him in their bed with one of his work colleagues.

      Imogen was neither shocked nor disappointed as it had demonstrated to her that her hunch was right all the time. Mabel was the one that took it badly as she felt that she had failed as a mother. To have him treat Imogen so badly and to then maintain he was a faithful husband had driven Mabel to distraction and it was only Imogen’s intervention that had prevented Mabel from severing all contact with her son.

      It had been a surprisingly amicable divorce and, though Richard was now based in San Francisco and came home to visit only occasionally, Imogen’s relationship with Mabel had gone from strength to strength.

      Imogen had been completely taken by surprise at Mabel’s support when, a few years later, she had finally discussed the success of her business with her former mother-in-law. Having wondered if this would finally prove to be more of a challenge than even Mabel could handle, Imogen was surprised and not a little astounded that Mabel had given her support to her business and, in complete contrast to Imogen’s expectations, had actually been a constant source of advice and encouragement over the intervening years. Actually Imogen was convinced that Mabel was mainly concerned that she should find a second, more suitable husband than her first and saw Imogen’s business as the perfect opportunity for meeting men who had successful careers and good lifestyles. As Imogen was at pains to point out however, they also had wives and Imogen had never been one to mix business with pleasure after the experience of her first marriage. Instead Imogen worked hard and had the occasional fling (not openly discussed with Mabel, but discretely understood) which she found suited her perfectly.

      Imogen was quite a solitary person and she had often wondered if perhaps this was one of the reasons for her less than successful marriage. She hadn’t really cared enough to pay Richard much attention and had probably married too young, as it was the easy thing to do. She didn’t regret the marriage, simply because she had come out of it feeling liberated and with the benefit of a good friend in Mabel.

      Now, she was going to benefit yet again from her mother-in-law who had been determined to help her find someone with whom she could entrust her thriving business. Yes it would take time, but Imogen knew it would be worth it and she was intrigued with the woman that Mabel had described, who had recently moved into the area. It seemed that she was ‘A blank canvass’ according to Mabel and offered Imogen the perfect opportunity to train someone up from the start to ensure that there was an almost seamless transition between the two of them. Imogen wondered how her clientele would feel about this; after all many people resist change, but she knew that if it was done carefully and if this Abi lived up to her potential as predicted by Mabel, her clients would soon be coming to the conclusion that change was a very good thing indeed.

      Imogen contemplated her new life and hoped that things were going to work out in reality exactly as they were being written in her dreams. She could feel the urge to move on growing stronger and she was in danger of just throwing it all in and moving to Cyprus anyway. She didn’t need any additional revenue from the business, but it would make her life even more comfortable if she could still draw an income from it without having to do any work. In fact she had to admit that this was the perfect solution. After all should she find herself bored with her early retirement in a year or two, she could still return and play an active part in the lives of her clients and give her replacement some time off.

      All in all Imogen had to admit that life was extremely rosy at the moment and she was looking forward to meeting Abi, who held the key to making life even rosier for Imogen. Had Abi known all this Imogen wondered if she would have run away without a backward glance, but Mabel had assured her that under her rather fragile external appearance, Abi was as tough and determined as she needed to be.

      Chapter 8

      Meanwhile Abi was going about her own business, completely oblivious to the plot that was being hatched by Mabel. She had given herself a couple of months to settle in to the area and then she needed to get some kind of a job. Part time would be ideal but, knowing how much it cost to run a house, she wasn’t sure she could afford the luxury of a twenty hour week. She was also aware that even top PA’s didn’t earn anywhere near what those working in the city earned, but she certainly had no interest in a daily commute up to London and the six a.m. starts that this would involve. Nor did she want to work for a demanding boss who would expect her to be there before he arrived and not leave until he had departed.

      Abi shuddered at the very thought of going back to the life she had before she was married. On the other hand it would be good to be earning her own money rather than spending someone else’s. That was something that had always been made clear to her in her marriage; it was David’s money and he had complete control over the purse strings. Every month he would go through her spending with a fine tooth comb and interrogate her about her use of the joint bank account. She constantly felt she had to defend herself and had become very accomplished at spotting bargains in the shops to prove to him that she was spending his hard earned money with care. If she had dared to sneak a look at his credit card bills she would have been surprised at how careless he could be with his money; especially when it came to the little gifts he was buying his mistress. But of course Abi would never dream of looking at his private papers and David was able to live his life on his own terms, only disclosing his misdemeanours and months of deceit once he had decided to leave her.

      For Abi it was now fantastic to be in charge of her finances with no one else to answer to except herself. What she was aware of however, was that the small amount of savings she had would not last forever and that she needed to earn some money. She also knew that she had been out of the job market for a number of years and was hardly going to be considered the perfect PA for most companies. If they wanted cheap and pretty they would be opting for someone in their twenties who wouldn’t be too demanding in terms of pay and would be happy to turn up and do as they were asked.

      At her age Abi realised that the market was against her because of her long absence from the job, which meant that she was probably completely out of date with the latest technological developments. Additionally she was sure they would expect her to be quite expensive and, no doubt would be wondering if she would be starting a family as her biological clock went into meltdown. The fact that they couldn’t legally ask that question made no difference as far as Abi was concerned. She knew the realities of being a woman in your mid thirties and how companies were reluctant to invest in someone that might soon swan off to motherhood and perhaps never return. The smaller the company the less likelihood there was of her being employed and, she had to face it, out in Hampshire the local companies were all pretty small. Basingstoke and Winchester offered the best opportunities, but did she want to immerse herself in corporate life? Abi felt that this would not be for her. No, she wanted a job that she could turn up to, do and then go home at the end of the day to enjoy her garden and her new life. Maybe she would change her mind at some stage in the future, but for the moment, she wasn’t sure she wanted anything that would be too demanding.

      She took to scanning the local paper to check out the kind of PA jobs on offer and realised that they were few and far between. She was determined not to be disheartened and signed up with a temping agency, who looked at her with slight alarm, while at the same time assuring her that they would of course be able to find her something.

      A few weeks later they did just that; but it meant using very little of her skills. She was on a three day job to