Community Involvement Ch. 10 - Sex Stories

Community Involvement Ch. 10

... south. However, before that enjoyable part of my day (seeing Clare) I had to negotiate another, and what I hoped to be a short meeting, with my outplacement mentor, Abby. Her ‘services’ were part of the redundancy arrangements but I inwardly felt as if she was just a well paid set of walking platitudes. I was determined that any thoughts of that meeting were not going to darken my attitude toward what was to come after. I would just deal with Abby in my usual professional manner and get away from there at the earliest possible moment. The morning traffic had been kind and it was just after 9am as I drove into the car park adjustment to the shopping precinct in Lane Cove. By the time I walked to the cafe where I was to meet Abby I knew I would still be early but that suited me as it would give me time to get my head into the right space. As a consequence of the warmth of the day, I had dressed in summer-like wear; jeans and a fitted shirt would certainly do for both meetings. I grabbed a table at the rear of the cafe and ordered a large cappuccino. As I waited for Abby to arrive I reviewed my collection of documents I had ready for Clare and literally demolished the coffee…it was one of best coffee’s I had tasted in a long while. “Hi Ray,” Abby’s arrival surprised me, I was too wrapped up with the music tour information I had with me. “You look engrossed?” “No, no, I was just making sure I had some bits and pieces with me for my next meeting. How are you?” I was not going to ...

... fall for her bait and start divulging all. “I’m good and thank you for agreeing to meet me.” She sat opposite with her back to the open expanse of the cafe. For some reason she reminded me of a head on a stick which always made me smile inwardly. Not that she unattractive. Obviously someone thought she was a good sort if the wedding ring on her left hand was anything to go by. She had shoulder length auburn hair which she usually worn out. She dressed in a professional but not overly formal manner which I assumed was to give her clients a sense of her casual yet professional business approach to her work and their needs. She had a round face, a long thin neck and slender body, which is probably where I got the head on a stick impression from. Over the years of my accountancy career, I had usually worked locally, predominantly for manufacturing companies and my last position was no different. It was due to this exposure to manufacturing that I had had the glorious misfortune to have been made redundant six times (including this one). As a consequence, I had been through this out-placement routine a few times, as well having to contend with the circus that I labelled recruitment agencies. To say I viewed people like Abby and recruiters generally as being on the same level as used car sales people (apologies to all the car sellers who might be reading this) gives light to my general attitude to what they have to say. Every now and then they do give some good advice but usually, ...