On Saturday I was called into our Dallas office. We had a huge new client in town from Brazil. I wasn’t running point on this pitch, but I was asked to be there because I was in town. As one of the few women in the company, I knew a lot of times this request was due to appearing “diverse”.
I was wearing a sparkly black dress that was a bit on the shorter side, but still professional looking. I hadn’t had time to do laundry while being on the road so much, so I was getting down to the last choices in options.
We filed into the conference room to get set up. There was a small platform in the back with a few extra chairs. Since it wasn’t my pitch I took a seat up on the platform, enjoying the feeling of being over the table. A few minutes later the clients filed in. There was the usual handshaking and we all took our seats.
The head of the Brazilian company sat at the head of table, opposite of me on my raised platform. His skin was jet black and he was dressed in an incredibly expensive suit. He left it unbuttoned so his stomach could hang out. He had a thick mustache and was very tall. Let’s call him Mr. B.