The onus is on me to create that opportunity. So I began thinking if there was a way to convene the LLTLF meeting such that only Jenny and I would be able to attend. That way we could get work done and later, after the meeting, we could maybe have a couple of drinks, relax, catch a bite of dinner and then, when two young individuals are involved, whatever will happen will happen.

(Not that I will just like that forget Gouri and give in to Jenny’s seductions or anything. I will fight very hard if it comes to that.)

So this morning I looked at all the emails from the LLTLF leads and realized that Jenny was free only tonight and tomorrow evening. Unfortunately everyone is free tonight. But only Jenny and a guy called Alex (Funding) is free tomorrow. So I decided to schedule it tomorrow evening. I apologized (drama) for the short notice but ‘unless I had a chance to start right now it would be difficult to draw up the most important Finance slides for our presentation to the board on the 7th’.

Jenny and Alex confirmed right away and I promised to email proceedings of the meeting to the other leads for their feedback and value addition. After that, and this is my master stroke, I mailed Jenny and told her that the meeting would be in my apartment at 7.30 p.m. She confirmed with one of those wink smileys!

Then I sent an email to Alex with a cc to Jenny and I told him that the meeting was at the coffee shop in the Dufresne lobby at 7.30 p.m. tomorrow. But, and this is sheer genius, I put an invisible spelling mistake in Jenny’s email id ([email protected]). This way Alex thinks she also knows. But Jenny won’t. She will come to my house. And later I can tell Alex that I had relocated the meeting but the ‘email I sent him to clarify’ must have bounced due to a ‘server problem’.

Alex, poor innocent unsuspecting Alex, responded enthusiastically for the coffee shop meeting. Fool.

Everything is set for a business+pleasure meeting in my room tomorrow. I have already told Sugandh not to interrupt us.

The plan is to leave office early, come home, take bath, change into my semi-casual checked shirt and fitted jeans, open a bottle of wine and then wait for Jenny. If she refuses to drink it then I can tell her that I am celebrating my birthday alone and was hoping to add some colour to my dry, boring life in London. This will hopefully create a soft corner for me. Once this corner is created I can then use it as a base to attack the rest of … the rest of Jenny’s corners.