John sat there holding the phone to his ear for a moment and then closed his cell phone. The Hotel phone rang on the table by his bed. He reached over to answer it. "Hello?"
"John, this is Michael, I was wondering if you could join me tonight for dinner, I need to go over the inspection schedule for tomorrow with you?"
"Absolutely, when and where do we meet?'
"I'm really tired and I don't want to go anywhere so let's just go to the restaurant in the hotel. Meet me there at seven o'clock would that be okay with you?"
"No problem, see you then."
John hung up the phone and headed for the closet to pick out clothes for dinner. He arrived at the restaurant at seven and the Maitre'D escorted him back to a table where Michael and Jennifer were already seated.
"John, please join us, Jennifer and I were discussing which wine to order. Any preferences you might have?"
"None, my preferences run along California wines, I doubt we will see many of those over here, so I'll trust your judgment." After they looked over their menus and asked what certain things were they all placed their order for dinner with the waiter.
Michael held his wineglass up toward John. "John, here's another toast to your talents for making this trip even possible. For a while there I wasn't sure if we were going to be company number three to not make the CASTER work. I'm glad your friend Ron mentioned to us you were available, Cheers." They all three clinked their glasses together. "Jennifer tells me you met her today on the guided tour."
John felt a little uneasy about the direction the conversation was now taking. He felt like he had done something wrong. During the few minutes that he had been seated at the dinner table, he had tried not to look too much at Jennifer beyond his greetings when he first sat down. "Yeah, amazingly small world, what are the odds. In fact she saw me and called out my name in the plaza where we had stopped to have lunch, I was shocked to hear my name being called out, I mean, seriously, no one should know me over here."
"She says you were very good company for her today, thanks for being there for her when I couldn't."
"No problem, like I told Jennifer today, it was nice to be able to talk to someone who actually spoke and understood English."
"Let's get down to the details of tomorrows inspections. Remember, if you spot anything that you don't like or something that will compromise our product, speak up. This is the time when they are courting us and they want our business very badly. They will agree to almost anything we want at this point in time." Michael pulled a folded sheet of paper from his inner jacket pocket; opens it up and read the locations and times of the plant inspections. "I will be with you part of the day, but I will most likely disappear after lunch sometime. I'm going out of town to visit their home office to meet the President and discuss our venture with him. If you need to reach me, call my cell phone, I'm sure I won't be able to answer immediately so leave as much information as you can in the message, I'll have to call you back when I get a free moment." Their dinners arrived and all three began to eat mostly in silence. After dinner, John bid Michael and Jennifer Goodnight.