'The main advantages are qualitative: some things can be done in a more straightforward way, there are additional facilities, presentation is better. The broad sweep of what Peter is saying does not depend on these particular enhancements, they would be a sort of starting point...'
'Thank you, Mark, that's been extremely helpful. I think I can speak for us all when I say that we have come to expect no less from you. Would you all agree with me there?' He was evidently deriving pleasure from making me look small. He looked around the table, raising his eyebrows to encourage nods and smiles of agreement. 'I hope we haven't kept you away for too long from your other pressing duties.'
'No, not at all.' I stood up, took a last longing glance at the plate of biscuits, and left Peter on his own, defenceless. Hearing the chairman's patronising dismissal of me he must have realised that none of the old codgers, or even the younger more progressive partners, was in the least interested in his new initiative. He was sure now to be forced into 'submission', to use the word with which the chairman had so contemptuously described his proposals.
At half past five, after the meeting disbanded, he walked into my office. 'Couldn't make them see sense, the old fools. I thought we put up a nigh on irrefutable case. Didn't succeed, but we can't be accused of not trying. Thanks for your support.'
'Maybe if we'd had more time. The chairman completely threw me with that question. I'm sorry, I was struggling.'
'No, no. You put up a good show. Wasn't your fault their ears are stuffed with cotton wool. Cotton wool in their heads too, most of them. We may have lost today, but the issue won't go away; what I was saying makes sense, we both know that.'
'Is it going to make a big difference? In terms of what happens here, I mean.'
'To me personally it will. Hard as it is to believe, the old codgers have somehow managed to run rings around me. What annoys me is that clients were drifting elsewhere before I joined the firm and shook things up! If they think that they've got away with today's little exercise in crushing my ideas they're in for a few surprises. What I could do with now is a pint. Expect you could too. You deserve one.'
Severely battered by the events of the day, what I wanted to do was to go home for a simple meal, and go on to meet Tom as usual on a Friday night. Given the extent of the disaster which had befallen Peter, his request was impossible to refuse.