Arriving at the Company sales meeting at 7: 30 am for the 8:00 am start, I immediately regretted the Limoncello martini's from the night before. After all, it was entirely possible that the night could have unfolded exactly as it did without the aid of alcoholic lubricant. My headache made me wish I had just stuck with beer.
Since I was the "new" guy, I made sure that I was the first one to arrive for the meeting. Unfortunately, I was greeted shortly thereafter by the next person through the door. In a nanosecond, I recognized her; the pretty brunette who watched us in the hotel bar with her friends. I think I may have uttered an audible "shit . ." as she approached and stuck out her petite hand to greet me.
"Well, hello there. Aren't we up bright and early this morning," she chirped. "I'm Kris. Mr. Flaherty's Executive Assistant." She beamed at me with a brilliantly white smile.
Mr. Flaherty was the Vice President of Sales. Kris, dressed casually in jeans, made me realize instantly that the dress code for today's meeting was more relaxed than I had anticipated. I was wearing a suit, without a tie, but it might as well have been a tuxedo. I was going to stick out even more than ever as the new guy in the room.
"Hi, nice to meet you. You don't seem any worse for wear yourself," I responded. "I was just regretting that late-night martini. Not a great idea."
Since we still had time before the meeting, I said. "I didn't realize the dress code for the meeting was casual. At my last job, we wore suits all the time. If you don't mind, I am going to zip up to my room and change."
"No problem. You have plenty of time," Kris said. "By the way, Lisa speaks very highly of you."
"Oh?" I blurted out. "Well, I'm glad to know that. Lisa didn't mention that she noticed anybody from work last night at the bar. Did she see you?"
"No, she must not have. You guys were already seated when my friends and I came in," Kris said. "I didn't want to interrupt."
There was no point in asking whether she saw what we were up to in the bar last night. I could tell by the look in her eyes. I was simply relieved that I had bought myself some time to ponder the situation with the excuse of heading back to my room for a change of clothes. I told Kris that I would be back in a few minutes.
By the time I returned, the other attendees had arrived. Lisa took me around the room to introduce me to some of the reps from the other regions. With the meeting ready to start, we looked for seats in the back row and Lisa motioned for me to sit next to her.
"I met Kris this morning," I mentioned to Lisa. "She was in the bar last night with some friends."
"Really?" Lisa asked, surprised. "Yikes."
"She seems really nice. But I'm afraid that Hank was not the only voyeur in the bar. She was there with two friends and they might have figured us out." I said.
"Oh well, there's no point in avoiding the obvious," she shrugged. "I know her pretty well. She will be cool about it."
The day's agenda actually moved along fairly quickly. Soon enough, it was 5 pm, and the meeting was over for the day. As we were preparing to head back to our rooms to change for the sales team awards dinner, Kris walked up to Lisa and asked her "what are you guys doing tonight after dinner?"
"I'm not sure yet," Lisa replied. "We asked for a recommendation from our waiter last night at the bar upstairs, but I haven't heard back from him."
"drumBar is fun," Kris offered. "It's the rooftop bar at the Raffaello Hotel. You guys should check it out. They have an outdoor terrace that is really nice."
The dinner was over at 9 pm. The awards ceremony itself was mercifully short. Lisa was recognized as the top sales rep for the previous year, and she earned a gold Rolex watch for her achievement. While we stood at the curb waiting for a taxi to drumBar, I congratulated Lisa and checked out her new watch. As a joke, I also texted her the "pussy" picture from the night before with the caption "Unfair Advantage." She was too busy chatting away and she didn't bother to look at her phone until we were walking into the Raffaello lobby.
"Oh my God," she squawked when she finally checked her phone. "You have to delete that picture right now, as in immediately."
Once we made our way up to the bar, I was pleased with the recommendation from Kris. It seemed slightly touristy and pretentious, but the atmosphere and decor at drumBar was interesting and there was a good buzz in the room. We both checked out the well-dressed crowd, commenting that this was a good place for people watching.
Outside on the rooftop, the center of the terrace had an arrangement of patio seats made of white wood with large, comfortable green cushions. The seats were oriented around a couple of fire pits. Along the four corners of the terrace - with a bit more privacy - there was a series of L-shaped lounges separated by planter boxes that served as divider screens. Unfortunately, those corner lounges were all occupied. We grabbed two of the seats at the center, near the fire pits, and took in the view.