dr_mabeuse
seduce the mind
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2002
- Posts
- 11,528
Rob Taylor
From our conference room in the third floor of the hotel we could look out through the floor-to-ceiling windows and see nothing but white. Occasionally a nasty gust of wind would clear the air enough so that we could see all the snow-covered cars lining the snow covered-streets beneath the snow-covered buildings downtown, but then the scene would be obliterated by the white shroud of falling snow, and we’d be left staring at our own reflections in the windows again. It was almost 5 on a Wednesday night and it was already dark outside, but everyt8ing was white as far as we could see. We sat waiting for the clients that would never come.
It had already been snowing when Julie and I got off our flight from New York and it hadn’t shown any sign of stopping yet. The radio was calling for twenty to thirty inches before this blizzard blew itself out, which meant that we were stuck here, probably for days. AIrports closed, nothing but and occasional plow or emergency vehicle in the empty streets, it was like there wasn;t a soul left alive out there but me and Julie.
There was no question that the client wasn’t coming. We’d already been tracing his snail like progress towards the hotel by a series of cell calls but the last had come over 30 minutes ago. No doubt the man had given up and couldn't get through on his cell phone anymore. As soon as he got a land line free he'd give us the call that made it official. You’d have to be an idiot to try and go out on a day like this.
Even Julie looked depressed. I knew how much she’d wanted us to land this account and how hard she’d worked on the presentation. All the brochures and information packets she’d produced lay neatly placed around the table just where she’d put them three hours ago. The ice had melted in the water glasses, and the coffee in the carafes was hardly fit to drink. She knew that there’d be no meeting, but she was still too disappointed to admit it.
I liked Julie, as much as anyone at Neal & Beititt liked anyone else. She was sharp, funny, and a very good looking woman. It was too bad she was gay, but I didn’t even mind that. She wasn’t anti-male, she wasn’t on any sort of crusade about it, and she didn’t keep shoving her lesbianism in your face, so we got along fine; we could even joke about it. Professionally, she was beyond reproach, and there’s no way anyone would know of her sexual orientation unless Julie herself chose to tell them. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that she preferred women to men, being snowed in with her might not be such a bad thing at all: three days in a good hotel with a gorgeous woman at company expense. Might have been very interesting.
“Why are you smiling?” Julie asked me from her seat at the table.
“Was I? I wasn’t aware.”
“You were smiling.” she said.
“Maybe I was gritting my teeth?”
Julie dropped the pen she’d been playing with and leaned forward on the table, putting her hands behind her neck and trying to rub the tension out.
“Okay.” she said finally. “I guess that’s it. They’re not coming. You were right. There’s no way even a dog sled could get through that stuff outside. Let’s wrap it up.”
It was already five o’clock. Despite the glop outside, Julie’d insisted on waiting until business hours were over before officially canceling the meeting. She was nothing if not conscientious.
“Are you hungry?” I asked her as we collected the brochures and put them back into the box.
“Hungry?” she asked. “I don’t even know. I’m just one giant ball of tension. Everything’s tied in a knot.”
“Maybe you need a drink.” I suggested.
As far as I was concerned, it was now officially a Snow Day. No school, no work. Two or three days just to kick back and relax, courtesy of Mother Nature.
From our conference room in the third floor of the hotel we could look out through the floor-to-ceiling windows and see nothing but white. Occasionally a nasty gust of wind would clear the air enough so that we could see all the snow-covered cars lining the snow covered-streets beneath the snow-covered buildings downtown, but then the scene would be obliterated by the white shroud of falling snow, and we’d be left staring at our own reflections in the windows again. It was almost 5 on a Wednesday night and it was already dark outside, but everyt8ing was white as far as we could see. We sat waiting for the clients that would never come.
It had already been snowing when Julie and I got off our flight from New York and it hadn’t shown any sign of stopping yet. The radio was calling for twenty to thirty inches before this blizzard blew itself out, which meant that we were stuck here, probably for days. AIrports closed, nothing but and occasional plow or emergency vehicle in the empty streets, it was like there wasn;t a soul left alive out there but me and Julie.
There was no question that the client wasn’t coming. We’d already been tracing his snail like progress towards the hotel by a series of cell calls but the last had come over 30 minutes ago. No doubt the man had given up and couldn't get through on his cell phone anymore. As soon as he got a land line free he'd give us the call that made it official. You’d have to be an idiot to try and go out on a day like this.
Even Julie looked depressed. I knew how much she’d wanted us to land this account and how hard she’d worked on the presentation. All the brochures and information packets she’d produced lay neatly placed around the table just where she’d put them three hours ago. The ice had melted in the water glasses, and the coffee in the carafes was hardly fit to drink. She knew that there’d be no meeting, but she was still too disappointed to admit it.
I liked Julie, as much as anyone at Neal & Beititt liked anyone else. She was sharp, funny, and a very good looking woman. It was too bad she was gay, but I didn’t even mind that. She wasn’t anti-male, she wasn’t on any sort of crusade about it, and she didn’t keep shoving her lesbianism in your face, so we got along fine; we could even joke about it. Professionally, she was beyond reproach, and there’s no way anyone would know of her sexual orientation unless Julie herself chose to tell them. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that she preferred women to men, being snowed in with her might not be such a bad thing at all: three days in a good hotel with a gorgeous woman at company expense. Might have been very interesting.
“Why are you smiling?” Julie asked me from her seat at the table.
“Was I? I wasn’t aware.”
“You were smiling.” she said.
“Maybe I was gritting my teeth?”
Julie dropped the pen she’d been playing with and leaned forward on the table, putting her hands behind her neck and trying to rub the tension out.
“Okay.” she said finally. “I guess that’s it. They’re not coming. You were right. There’s no way even a dog sled could get through that stuff outside. Let’s wrap it up.”
It was already five o’clock. Despite the glop outside, Julie’d insisted on waiting until business hours were over before officially canceling the meeting. She was nothing if not conscientious.
“Are you hungry?” I asked her as we collected the brochures and put them back into the box.
“Hungry?” she asked. “I don’t even know. I’m just one giant ball of tension. Everything’s tied in a knot.”
“Maybe you need a drink.” I suggested.
As far as I was concerned, it was now officially a Snow Day. No school, no work. Two or three days just to kick back and relax, courtesy of Mother Nature.
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