This is mental, I floated the idea of staying on with the US company part-time, and she said she was going to ask me that anyway (because I said I might be staying with my main employer).

I'm getting the best of both worlds - I get to keep my secure and safe job, at least for now (with a new role and salary increase) whilst trying out this contractor stuff indefinitely.

It's been a stressful week but everything seems to have worked out better than expected.