"And this is my wife Wendy," my husband Jamie said as a tall, athletic man with short, greying hair turned to greet me.
"Hi Wendy, I'm Andy. Pleased to meet you."
The man smiled, extending his hand. I shook it smiling back at my husband's new Boss, noting the sharp suit, white shirt, highly polished shoes and Mediterranean tan, as if he'd deliberately modelled himself on a cover from Fortune Magazine.
"Nice to meet you too, Andy," I replied, turning on the charm, holding his hand perhaps a little longer than absolutely necessary and deliberately making eye contact. "James has told me a lot about you and your plans. It's an exciting time."
Quite attractive, I thought as he finally released my hand. No, very attractive in fact - and he knows it too I added to myself a little bitchily. He was tall, in his forties and, now I was close up, I could see he was also very athletic. There was an aura of charisma about him that went some way towards explaining his meteoric business success.
There was something familiar about him too that niggled at the back of my mind but I dismissed the thought and concentrated on making a good impression on the man who had just bought the company for which my husband worked.
In truth this wasn't difficult because he seemed to be directing all his considerable charm in my direction. Flattered, I listened while he explained how the new business would fit into his larger IT empire and how important the staff within my husband's company were to the business' future.
It was mostly a repeat of the main points of the presentation he had just made in the company's in-house theatre but there were enough elements of detail and elaboration to make it interesting even to a layman like me.
My husband Jamie -- James at work -- was on the Operating Board of a large software company. Also in his forties, Jamie had been extremely successful himself since he had left university and was considered one of three high flyers expected to take over the business when the current CEO and principal shareholder retired. This was expected to be within three years so there had been a certain amount of jockeying for position within the Board in anticipation of the event.
Jamie was tall and dark, still handsome and quite fit but now carried a little extra weight around his middle. I had to confess, it matched the little extra I now carried on my hips. In my defence I was still only a size twelve, was still considered quite good-looking and was working on recovering my figure.
It was an uphill struggle.
We had met at University on a weekend trip to Glastonbury during our final year. It had been lust at first sight; he had easily seduced and bedded me under the stars the night we met and after freeing myself of my current boyfriend, we had been together ever since.
As this story begins, we were still childless despite years of marriage. For many years we had told ourselves that our failure to conceive was because of our busy lifestyles and the fact that we hadn't really been 'trying for a baby'. Eventually however, biological clocks had intervened and in recent weeks we had been seeing an IVF specialist, organised through the company's heavily subsidised healthcare programme. We wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise in our current financial position.
Our life plan was ambitious but if we really focussed, we believed it was achievable. Jamie would become CEO with a substantial shareholding; we would have two children in quick succession, twins if possible for convenience, I would complete my Masters and move on to a PhD; we would become millionaires.
The takeover of the business by IT-USA, a large overseas competitor had been an entirely unexpected and completely unwelcome disruption to this plan.
IT-USA had grown rapidly by the aggressive acquisition of smaller, less forceful competitors. It was rumoured to be in some financial difficulties but these hadn't stopped it from undertaking the hostile takeover of the business in which my husband worked.
It was also well known for parachuting management into its overseas acquisitions rather than using home-grown talent, and would usually follow this with a programme of asset-stripping. At the very least, Jamie's job was at serious risk so we were both very anxious when Andy Brown, the founder and CEO of IT-USA had arrived and made the presentation to the whole nervous staff that had just taken place.
He had been mostly reassuring as far as the workforce was concerned; they had, he said, bought the business for its development talent as much as for its brands, but from things he had hinted, the Senior Management was due for a shake-up.
This really was something to worry about.
Apart from potentially thwarting our life-plans, the takeover had come at a terrible time for Jamie and me because we had just completed the purchase of a large house in one of the most select areas of our city. The price, though enormous, had been attractive for a property of that size so we had taken out a large bridging loan and moved quickly to make sure it became ours.
When our 'old' house was sold, the borrowings would reduce to a still-large but more manageable level but property wasn't selling very quickly and ours had become 'stuck'. This debt, added to our original mortgage, the two car loans and the cost of our apartment in France meant we were so 'highly geared' that, if Jamie lost his job, we would immediately become bankrupt.
Jamie's therefore had convince Andy how irreplaceable he was to the new organisation. My role was to help him do this in any way I could. Our future and that of our still-to-be-conceived children depended on it.
I was so deep in thought over this I didn't notice that the crowd was dissipating and the foyer was becoming less crowded.
"You don't recognise me, do you Wendy?" a soft voice at my elbow asked. "You haven't changed -- but I hope I have."
I turned to find Andy by my side, offering me my third glass of champagne within the hour. A little wrong-footed, I took it and smiled at his handsome face, somewhat puzzled.
"Have we met before?" I asked, genuinely nonplussed.
"You could say that," he continued, still smiling. "Remember University? Remember your second year? Remember Glastonbury?"
Suddenly the strange feeling I had been having made sense. A cold chill came over me.
"Glastonbury? Oh my God!" I exclaimed, genuinely shocked. "You're not Andy Jacobson, are you?"
He positively beamed.
"I wondered how long it would take; I could tell you knew something wasn't quite right. I know I changed my name but has the rest of me really changed that much?"
"Massively," I answered honestly. "Unbelievably! You used to be such a... I mean so..."
"Such a dork, you meant to say," he interrupted, still smiling.
"No... I..." I mumbled, flushing with embarrassment.
"Don't worry Wendy," he said, taking my elbow and gently steering me towards a quiet corner of the room. "It's true, I was a dork. I hope I've grown out of it now though," he smiled disarmingly.
"I can't believe it," I said truthfully, my voice shaky and nervous.
Andy Jacobson had been a friend at University. He had very nearly become an intimate friend but then Glastonbury had intervened and Jamie had swept me off my feet. I had felt bad about Andy; it had been his parents' contacts that had got us the half dozen tickets for our little group in the first place and it had been my leading him on that had made the whole weekend possible.
Andy had fancied me for at least two years before that weekend. I hadn't been kind to him; several times I had let him kiss and fondle me when I had been drunk, miserable, single or all three but I had always dumped him immediately afterwards.
To be honest, I had led him on terribly over the whole Glastonbury event, hinting that if he managed to get us all tickets I might actually share a tent with him with the clear implication that things would take place within that tent.
