‘So you’re really going to leave us this time?’ Davina pouted across her desk the following morning. She clearly couldn’t understand why anyone could possibly want to work for someone other than her. We’d been through all this before, of course, only last time the fact that Alex and I were moving abroad stopped her taking it quite so personally. Telling her that Henry Halliday had offered me a job in his company had gone down about as well as if I’d told her I thought her fancy new shoes made her ankles look fat.
‘Yes, Davina, I’m sorry but this time it’s really happening.’ I’d had to fudge a bit about not going to join Alex in Dubai. I couldn’t bring myself, after three weeks, to admit to Davina and the girls that he’d left me, and that I’d stayed on as part of a bizarre plan born out of sheer bloody-mindedness. I’d just told her that Henry and I had got chatting about his work a few times and that I’d thought it sounded like something I’d like to have a go at. She seemed to find this a poor reason for abandoning all my furry customers, as if my leaving meant they were all going to starve and spend days crossing their little paws because nobody was going to be there to take them for their walks.
‘Well, you will work out your notice before you toddle off and desert me, won’t you?’
‘Of course I will,’ I assured her. I’d already discussed this with Henry, and he’d agreed completely. He was the sort of person who valued loyalty and I think he’d have been disappointed if I’d even thought about not working my notice.
Davina seemed to be satisfied with this. I had a sneaky feeling, though, that she was expecting me to do another turn-around in a week and stay working for her. But this time she was going to be disappointed. Henry Halliday was no Alex Petropoulos.