“You ever been to Paris, kid?”

“Vince, I’ll make a deal with you. If you stop calling me ‘kid’, I won’t start calling you ‘Grandpa’. How’s that sound?”

The older man trilled out a whistle, as though in admiration. “Ooh, pretty touchy, aren’t you, Gene? What’s the matter, kid? I hit a sore point? It’s okay, you can tell old Uncle Vince. Oh, I got it. You never been to Paris before and you’re nervous, right?”

“I’ve been to Paris, Vince.”

“On vacation, maybe. But you’ve never attended one of these Eurozone division annual meetings. Or did I read your file wrong?”

The younger man turned his face away and looked out the cab window.

Vince chuckled. “There’s a first time for everybody. Yeah, this is a high-powered group, a bunch of real bastards who’ll rip you a new one if you screw up, but so long as you don’t make any mistakes, it’s just another wine and cheese party.”

“I won’t make any mistakes, Vince.”

“Naturally. A young hotshot like you doesn’t make mistakes; that’s why you’re in the company’s Succession Management and Reallocation of Talent pool, right? Because you’re a SMART-arse?”

“Knock it off, will you? I didn’t pick the name of the leadership training program, I just applied for it.”

“Sure, kid. Just make sure you don’t slur your accent.”

“Slur my accent? What do you mean?”

Their cab stopped in front of Pangaean Airlines in the international terminal. Gene paid the driver and the men got out. The two men took several steps apart as Vince moved directly to the terminal doors while Gene headed for the curbside baggage check station. “Aren’t you checking your bag?”

“What, are you crazy? Never check a bag, kid.” Vince patted his carry-on laptop bag. “If you can’t travel light, don’t travel.”

“But we’re in Paris for a week.”

Vince laughed. “See you inside, kid.”

Gene checked his bag, thanked the porter and went into the terminal. Vince was tapping at his phone’s screen. Gene waited a moment then said, “Well? Are you ready?”

“Hold your horses, kid, boarding won’t be for another two hours. Let me just… and then… there! Okay, let’s go.”

As they walked toward the Pangaean line, Gene said, “Hey, what did you mean back there in the cab, about not slurring my accent?”

“During your presentation. If you slur your French they get all ne vous comprends pas on you. It’s all an act; they understand you just fine, but they can make trouble for you, so just remember to enunciate clearly.”

Gene stopped, his face paling. “Enunciate… in French?”

Vince turned to look at him. “Of course in French. Unless you want to try Chinese. Maybe Portuguese?”

“But Mr Glover told me everything would be in English.”

Vince looked surprised, then grinned. “He did, did he? Really? Well, ain’t that a bowl of rattail stew. Look, Charlie Glover hasn’t moved his arse out of his corner office in fifteen years, so I guess he didn’t know what the score is. Ah, don’t worry about it, kid. Go ahead and tell ’em you don’t speak French. What else can you do? If they want to get insulted, just stare ’em down. To hell with ’em, right?” He started to walk, turned back. “Come on, kid. You okay?”

“I, I took some French in high school, maybe I could…” Gene tapered off and stepped forward to join Vince.

Vince nodded, as if considering. “Yeah, good idea. This evening’s meeting is what, thirteen hours from now? Plenty of time to learn French. Get yourself a phrasebook, knock the rust off, no problem. At least you’ll be able to say excusez-moi, je ne parle pas le français with a straight face. That’ll win ’em over.”

They joined the line of passengers snaking its way up to the Pangaean counter, Vince whistling through his teeth, Gene swallowing hard and looking sweaty. In silence, they held their laptop bags and moved forward a few steps at a time.

Twice, Vince nudged Gene and nodded, once to indicate the older, professional-looking woman in line in front of them, and again towards the younger, intense-looking woman immediately after them. Both times, he waggled his eyebrows and twitched his lips, apparently trying to communicate something complicated but obviously lurid. Gene scowled. Vince smiled and resumed his whistling.