Tai Tai often complains when I wax lyrical about the days of old, when my employees treated me with the respect, fear, that I deserve — something Tai Tai certainly does not give me. But she had the pleasure of seeing that reaction at the recent wedding of our niece.
My niece had not informed me that one of my former employees was a good friend of hers. And based on the jaw drop that the young man had upon seeing me at the wedding, I’d guess that she hadn’t informed him of our relationship either.
To be fair, I barely knew the young man, but I did recognise him as a former intern in my office. He had clearly survived the late nights, exhaustive workload and regular haranguing needed to work his way up the corporate ladder. But the sight of me appeared to have sent him straight back to his intern days as he not-so-subtly stashed the glasses of beer and whiskey he’d been balancing and adopted a sheepish grin.
I waited for the chap to come say hello to me, and we had a brief conversation about his work.
While I continued to spend my evening sipping my whiskey and smoking cigars and generally enjoying myself, I couldn’t help by notice that the lad spent the rest of his evening on edge. The poor boy would give a quick look around to locate me any time his friends tried to make him take a shot or go onto the dance floor.
If only Tai Tai would pay such attention to me.