FLASH FICTION FRIDAY
FLASH FICTION FRIDAY #6
The most embarrassing thing in my life happened to me today at work. Today was to be one of the biggest days of my career. I was to lead our team in contract negotiations with the Japanese from Horishimoto Corp. I decided that the occasion warranted the use of the “lucky lavender”, my lucky bra, my lavender lace confection of perfection. It was deemed lucky because I was wearing it when I met James. God I love that man, he’s such a saint to put up with all my bullshit. I only pull out the lucky lavender when absolutely necessary. I had abused its powers so much in the past and as a result, it became somewhat tattered. I had fixed it several times over the past ten years. I never used to be so superstitious.
My team consisted of Tom, Steve, Dieter, and Peter, all perfectly competent to close this deal, except for Steve apparently, whom I delegated to arrange a conference room. He chose conference room number 4, which any idiot knows the number four is bad luck or a death wish to the Japanese. I was luckily able to catch this in our pre-briefing and quickly corrected it. We gathered our presentation materials and headed off to the conference room number 1. As we were walking up the stairs, my left lavender strap let loose, shit! The others looked back with apocalyptic horror in their eyes. Steve made a comment, “I have said from the beginning that it is a foolish mistake to have a woman as the chief negotiator on Asian contracts. Now you see what happens, wardrobe malfunctions!” I asked him to take a chill-pill and to stop being such a chauvinist pig. I ran back to my office to find my industrial strength safety pins, with which my A.A. Janelle put me back together. Lucky lavender don’t fail me now.
We walked in the conference room to find five, well dressed Japanese men patiently waiting. Their chief negotiator, Mr.Yimo, introduced his team: Mr. Sushi, Mr. Toyo, Mr. Kyoto, and an older gentleman referred to as only “Sarto”. Sarto was short in stature with cappuccino brown eyes and a friendly smile and disposition. The others seemed to be wrapped a little too tight. I began with outlining the agenda for the day, and the rest played out like clockwork until it was time for my summary of our presentation. I was at the beamer screen explaining a growth chart when I started to feel a little off-kilter. The safety pins were losing their tenuous grip ever so slowly. My anxiety was growing in opposite proportions to my sinking breast. Everyone at the table became fixated on my falling breast like they were watching a tennis match. When it finally let loose, they all got whiplash their heads flung back so fast. Everyone in the room was mortified, present party included, except for Sarto. He began to quietly chuckle as the tension in the room reached critical mass. Mr.Yimo glared at him and said something very sternly in Japanese to him which immediately shut him up. I continued as if nothing happened, wanting all the time to jump out the window. My lucky lavender had let me down, literally.
Our negotiations stalled, with Sarto’s chuckles every couple of minutes being met with glares from Mr.Yimo. The Japanese asked for a couple of minutes to speak amongst themselves in Japanese. Their exchange became quite heated with most of the energy between Mr.Yimo and Sarto. They came back to the table and announced that they could not agree amongst themselves and therefore wanted to discontinue our discussions and they left. I lop-sided-ly returned to my office after having my first cigarette in ten years to find Sarto waiting for me. He explained that he actually was the Mr. Horishimoto and that Mr.Yimo is his nephew which he is grooming to take over the business. He said he would often attend meetings incognito with his nephew, the whole time antagonizing him. It was his strategy to make him a stronger leader. He said that he would accept our presented contract proposal without changes. He felt that my calm, cool leadership in the face of adversity was something to be admired and felt confident that we will work equally successful together. He chuckled a little, but now somehow it felt comforting. Lucky lavender comes through once again!
The most embarrassing thing in my life happened to me today at work. Today was to be one of the biggest days of my career. I was to lead our team in contract negotiations with the Japanese from Horishimoto Corp. I decided that the occasion warranted the use of the “lucky lavender”, my lucky bra, my lavender lace confection of perfection. It was deemed lucky because I was wearing it when I met James. God I love that man, he’s such a saint to put up with all my bullshit. I only pull out the lucky lavender when absolutely necessary. I had abused its powers so much in the past and as a result, it became somewhat tattered. I had fixed it several times over the past ten years. I never used to be so superstitious.
My team consisted of Tom, Steve, Dieter, and Peter, all perfectly competent to close this deal, except for Steve apparently, whom I delegated to arrange a conference room. He chose conference room number 4, which any idiot knows the number four is bad luck or a death wish to the Japanese. I was luckily able to catch this in our pre-briefing and quickly corrected it. We gathered our presentation materials and headed off to the conference room number 1. As we were walking up the stairs, my left lavender strap let loose, shit! The others looked back with apocalyptic horror in their eyes. Steve made a comment, “I have said from the beginning that it is a foolish mistake to have a woman as the chief negotiator on Asian contracts. Now you see what happens, wardrobe malfunctions!” I asked him to take a chill-pill and to stop being such a chauvinist pig. I ran back to my office to find my industrial strength safety pins, with which my A.A. Janelle put me back together. Lucky lavender don’t fail me now.
We walked in the conference room to find five, well dressed Japanese men patiently waiting. Their chief negotiator, Mr.Yimo, introduced his team: Mr. Sushi, Mr. Toyo, Mr. Kyoto, and an older gentleman referred to as only “Sarto”. Sarto was short in stature with cappuccino brown eyes and a friendly smile and disposition. The others seemed to be wrapped a little too tight. I began with outlining the agenda for the day, and the rest played out like clockwork until it was time for my summary of our presentation. I was at the beamer screen explaining a growth chart when I started to feel a little off-kilter. The safety pins were losing their tenuous grip ever so slowly. My anxiety was growing in opposite proportions to my sinking breast. Everyone at the table became fixated on my falling breast like they were watching a tennis match. When it finally let loose, they all got whiplash their heads flung back so fast. Everyone in the room was mortified, present party included, except for Sarto. He began to quietly chuckle as the tension in the room reached critical mass. Mr.Yimo glared at him and said something very sternly in Japanese to him which immediately shut him up. I continued as if nothing happened, wanting all the time to jump out the window. My lucky lavender had let me down, literally.
Our negotiations stalled, with Sarto’s chuckles every couple of minutes being met with glares from Mr.Yimo. The Japanese asked for a couple of minutes to speak amongst themselves in Japanese. Their exchange became quite heated with most of the energy between Mr.Yimo and Sarto. They came back to the table and announced that they could not agree amongst themselves and therefore wanted to discontinue our discussions and they left. I lop-sided-ly returned to my office after having my first cigarette in ten years to find Sarto waiting for me. He explained that he actually was the Mr. Horishimoto and that Mr.Yimo is his nephew which he is grooming to take over the business. He said he would often attend meetings incognito with his nephew, the whole time antagonizing him. It was his strategy to make him a stronger leader. He said that he would accept our presented contract proposal without changes. He felt that my calm, cool leadership in the face of adversity was something to be admired and felt confident that we will work equally successful together. He chuckled a little, but now somehow it felt comforting. Lucky lavender comes through once again!
posted by Christine Cormier @ 7:55 PM
1 Comments:
At 4:34 PM,
Spinning Girl said…
ahhh! refreshing.
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