Business Visitors

You know how you can just sense you're in for an interesting evening... I'm in for an interesting evening. A client of one of our companies called me randomly yesterday to say he is in town with a couple of Italian business friends and would like to get together. Normally I have a heads up that someone is coming into town; clients don't call me at random.

I gave my normal response: great, do y'all have time for lunch, dinner or a beverage while you are here? As a matter of fact they do. "Well what are you doing here," he asked.

Not sure how to answer, I launched into the speel about our office capabilities. "No," he interrupted. "I mean, what in the hell are you doing here?" Oh, you're looking for a funny answer. Well, I was drunk in a bar one night, and a guy approached me and asked me if I'd be willing to move to China, and I said yes. Haven't had a drink since. Right answer. He laughed. Then he said, "Well if you don't drink, we're going to have to find someone else to take us out."

Now it's a week night, and I can spot a group who wants to party hard until the wee hours when I see one. So I marched across the hall and announced to my "Party Till You Drop" colleague that I'd just enlisted him for dinner.

A few minutes ago, I received a call: "We are running late, and I have to warn you about something." Really; what's that? "One of the Italians that I'm bringing is incredibly good looking." Great. I'll tell my gay colleague. He'll be thrilled.

As luck would have it, one of my colleagues from the company that this particular client is affiliated with is still in town because of the weather yesterday. So I'm requiring that he attend as well. He's concerned that the client is going to think he's the one who's gay. Possibly.

This sounds like it needs to be a 3 on 3 evening. Thankfully I booked the reservations at a top restaurant in town. I make my company pay dearly for surprise visits and nights when I'm not in the mood to go out. As a result, I'm at some top restaurant two or three nights a week.