My Standby Ticket Ruined Them

Summary

The company sent me to secure a three-hundred-million-dollar investment deal.

Our finance director quietly downgraded my first-class roomette to an unreserved coach ticket. I didn’t say a word.

I spent twenty-two hours standing in the rattling vestibules and sitting on the floor of the lounge car. When I finally stood before the foreign investors, I was a crumpled, exhausted mess.

The look in their eyes told me everything. To them, I was a joke.

At the post-trip board meeting, the Chairman paced the room, radiating unearned confidence. "So, what did the Germans say? Did we sign?"