Lurve and Other Five-Letter Words

New York businessman Glenn Peterson sits in the lobby of a major New Orleans hotel, waiting to meet a colleague he has never met before. All he knows is she is blonde. A young, dark-haired lady sits down opposite him. Glenn inadvertently finds himself taking a brief look at her shapely legs. The smartly dressed woman notices and immediately reprimands him. Instead of immediately apologising, brash Brooklyn-born Glenn foolishly decides the best course of action would be to ‘jokingly’ insult the woman by mocking her accent, particularly how she tends to add a letter to four-letter words in her speech. She doesn’t take too well his attitude and gives him a piece of his mind. Glenn belatedly makes an apology and offers to buy the woman a drink. She accepts, and when the drinks arrive (charged to room 1815), Glenn introduces himself and explains he is at the hotel for his firm’s annual conference. He is surprised to learn that the woman, named Mary, knows precisely who he is; she tells him that she is his counterpart in the South and they are to become joint heads of their firm’s new business department of the south-eastern region and that a lady can change the colour of her hair. The entente cordial continues, and they begin to enjoy each other’s company. After ordering a second round of drinks, Glenn suggests they get down to business, as they have to jointly present a speech to the conference the following day. ‘Unfortunately,’ Mary has left her speech in her room. As she walks towards the elevator, she reveals that her room number is 1772 and requests that Glenn bring the drinks up. He happily does what he is told.