‘Bad break-up?’ Alice asked.

I pulled a face. This I could roll with. ‘He was a lying, cheating sack of crap.’

‘Well, why didn’t you say so?’ Alice rolled her eyes. ‘Grew tired of swanking about with celebrities in free clothes!’

We of course had a good laugh about the retreat, going over our strokes of apparent genius along with the moments of utter cringe.

‘So, what’s next?’ Becky asked. ‘How are you going to get Damson Farm up and running for real?’

I shook my head. ‘I’m not sure. All I was meant to be doing was sprucing up the farm before we decided what to do next. But amongst the lack of sleep, the preposterous activities and the stress of knowing we were one tiny misstep from a calamity the whole time, I sort of loved it.’

‘I totally loved it!’ Becky declared. ‘Although, to be fair, it wasn’t my money on the line.’ She took another sip of her gin fizz then, before placing it carefully on the table. ‘If you were looking for a business partner, however, I’d be up for it.’

I was speechless.

‘I’ve got a fair amount of savings lying about just waiting for the right investment. I’m bored, lonely and I think I could bring something of value.’ She paused to tuck a corkscrew curl behind her ear. ‘I think we could work well together, as long as we draw up a proper agreement, make sure expectations and assumptions are all clear from the start.’

I swallowed. Blinked a few times. Shook my head in wonder.

‘I mean, if you want to go it alone, I totally understand, absolutely no offence taken or feelings hurt. You don’t even have to explain, beyond a “thanks, but no thanks”. I’ll still come and help you out as and when, obviously.’

I cleared my throat in a vain attempt to dislodge the chunk of emotions. Blinked a few more times.

‘That sounds incredible.’

Becky’s blank face broke out into her beaming smile again, bright enough to chase away any twinges of trepidation about whether before she invested in our future together, I should perhaps divulge my past.

New start. New life. New Eleanor.

The past was irrelevant, here, wasn’t it?

‘Well,’ Alice chipped in, once I’d dried my eyes and blown my nose. ‘Last I checked I’ve about thirty-five quid in the bank, but if you need a team member you can pay, instead of them giving you money, I’m all in.’

‘Hurrah, our first employee!’ I chinked Alice’s glass with my now empty one.

‘Who will be hired on a sub-contracted basis, and is therefore not an actual employee who requires national insurance payments!’ Becky added, in an exact mirror of my celebratory tone, adding her glass to the mix.

And there you have it, Old Siders, New Siders, No Siders – Team Damson was born.

Every day the next week, Becky came to the farm. She’d known Daniel forever, and they quickly developed an easy camaraderie that helped settle my nerves about the whole thing. Becky hired a solicitor friend to help us plough through the legal side of our new venture, and it made sense to add Daniel as a director, given that we were using his property. We spent a couple of hours each morning working on the reams of admin, switching to cleaning, painting and sorting in the afternoon. Dotted amongst all this was time spent conducting what Becky deemed the most vital element to any successful business partnership: building trust and establishing a rapport, otherwise known as eating biscuits, savouring long lunches consisting of ‘test menus’ and ‘test cakes’, all accompanied by a steady stream of conversation.