Frequent Traveller (Cathy Dixon #1) by Pandora Poikilos Page A

complimentary request from Corporate Office by greeting each guest upon arrival.
     
    Alternatively, they would have a quick "meet-and-greet" drink with them. JG however, announced loud enough for all to hear that the General Managers of the properties he frequented were far beneath him and refused the courtesy. On one occasion, he was even quoted as saying, "he is not important enough for my time."
     
    Cathy understood good customer service usually meant the customer had the upper hand. As most hotels pledged excellent customer service, it was apparent that most guests knew they could get away with insolent behaviour. But at which point did it become practice to throw out common courtesy and behave in uncommonly fashion? That was anybody's guess. The next morning at breakfast, Cathy heard a loud commotion as she bit into her croissant.
     
    "How stupid can you be?! How can you book the flight without checking if it would be delayed?"
     
    With great attention, she watched as JG screamed at a girl in her early twenties. To Cathy's mind, the girl looked like she could use a bite of breakfast instead of being yelled at in front of a hundred other breakfast patrons.
     
    Annie adjusted her spectacles, fully aware of people in the lobby looking at her. The humiliated girl made sure her eyes did not tear up and cause her any further embarrassment. 'Think happy thoughts,' she reminded herself over and over again as she tried to picture her favourite spot in Spain, a holiday destination she had dreamt of as a child. People stared as JG screamed at Annie. Most felt sympathetic but dared not cross the irate man while others just did not wish to get involved. He screamed at her for more than fifteen minutes and blamed the flight delay of a key speaker solely on Annie. When he was finished, Cathy observed the distraught girl as she ran towards the ladies' washroom.
     
    A quick mental image flitted before Cathy of JG on a delayed flight. He would probably grab the controls of the aircraft from its pilot if the crew announced a delay in landing or takeoff. Cathy never understood how people chose to get worked up over situations that could not be controlled.
     
    If a remote control existed for everything that happened in life and the world, global hunger would have been wiped out decades ago. She continued to mull over Annie's situation but she knew that approaching JG directly was out of the question. Something needed to be done for Annie but what?
     
    "Hmmmm ... I'm certainly becoming an interfering mother hen," she muttered to herself. But when in power, you had two options. The choice to do good or to charge at others like life would never find a way of returning what you dished out. Either way you were responsible for how you treated people around you.
     
    It was lunchtime before Cathy heard JG's booming voice again. "You're such a bloody twit! I want an Internet connection now! You hear me?!" he boomed into his mobile phone.
     
    Annie had stepped out to a nearby shopping mall to buy some last minute stationery items and workshop props that were required for the following day. Once in his suite, JG found no Internet connection since he had ignored collecting an Internet card from the check-in counter. What he demanded now was for Annie to come back from "wherever she was", get him an Internet card and then return to "whatever mundane task" she was involved with. Concierge winked at Cathy. Obviously, he too had overheard the conversation.
     
    With great care, he went up behind JG and offered him an Internet card which he explained would be charged to the room. JG grabbed the card from him, looked at it and threw it to the floor.
     
    "I want a connection, not some card that tells me how to get a connection."
     
    "No problem, Sir. I'll come up to your suite and connect it for you, if you'd prefer that," the Concierge offered with a smile and bent down to pick the card from the floor. JG stomped off and the Concierge followed the