The Customer Meeting

Delilah had written the last sentence of the customers’ account three times before remembering she was no longer the person authorised to write it.

She selected the paragraph and moved it into a separate note headed Questions still open. The handover was an account of what she’d done and what remained unanswered. It was not a place to persuade seven people that they would miss her if somebody else finished.

On Thursday afternoon she sent the amended inventory to Leonie. Each client’s section went only where that person had agreed it could go. The woman who had sat beside Oona wanted hers held for a separate conversation. Delilah sent it to Leonie for that purpose and did not fold it into a group conclusion.

Then she returned the part of the original fee allotted to work she would no longer deliver. She checked the amount against their agreement twice. She…