On my last afternoon of a very compact business trip to Berlin, I received a special invitation from a client and dear friend Dario Flota, Mexican Diplomat and Director General of Riviera Maya Tourism, to attend a cocktail event at the Mexican Embassy hosted by their Secretary of Tourism.

Invitations of this nature are par for the course in my line of business, nevertheless, I’m always grateful to attend and know that I must be even more gracious in my presence.   Certain that I’ll be not only the youngest female in the room, apart from a few female members of entourages, I’ll also be the blondest, which in respect to my career status, directly translates to: dress conservatively!!!! 

I chose the perfect high necked silk, fitted and structured cocktail dress with my newest pair of patent leather stiletto pumps.  Ok, ok, so the shoes weren’t the most conservative, but everyone’s rocking them in Hollywood and they were toned down with black tights…anyways… a girl’s gotta live a little.

As much as I was trying to blend in, I did sense that I was the center of attention of many watchful eyes at that event, primarily due to my mingling in Spanish with my VIP client friends as well as just being somewhat of a novelty in the room.

The event wrapped up and I had a dinner invitation with a new friend of mine the Governor of The State of Quintana Roo, Beto Borge, as well as the other politicos and their entourages of his state.  We returned to the posh Mitte section of Berlin, where we were all staying, and dined at the chic, Grille Royal along the river.

Proud of myself for maintaining my composure thus far, by placing much more focus on the conversation than downing the contents of my wine glass, I was probably the steadiest one of the group as we wandered to the next stop, being the VIP section of the nightclub Felix.

There, while enjoying a few glasses of champagne and doing my typical
“partying with clients act” of dancing with the group and being fun, yet not flirtatious, I was approached by a young Egyptian Diplomat, who was part of our neighboring party.

At first glance, I could have been mistaken for one of the chicks in the entourage, but he somehow knew better and immediately identified that, having observed the safe distance that I kept from all members of my party.  What was this, Animal Planet or something?

Regardless, the conversation was quite intriguing, he quite good looking and surprisingly could carry himself dancing very well.  That safe distance that I so cautiously kept from my clients was slowly diminishing as we danced, and in an effort of final confirmation, he asked me if I was involved with anyone in my party.  My response was something to the tune of NO WAY!!!, which immediately got met by a kiss that was so perfect that I could do nothing but run my hands through the back of his wavy hair and continue making out with  him in the middle of the dance floor.

The jig was up!  My efforts of perfect composure were broken and all I could do was glance over my shoulder at my clients, who thankfully were far ahead of me in their alcohol intake, hope that they didn’t remember in the morning, and keep dancing.

By the time we left the club, the sun was up and I found myself racing back to the Westin Grand Hotel to do a quick wardrobe change, brush my teeth, grab my luggage and check out, all in an astounding 10 minutes.  This almost became another missed plane flight notch on my belt, if it weren’t for my new friend, who transported me in his town car from the club to my hotel, then to Tegel Airport, where he ever so wittily convinced the airline personnel to check my back with less than half an hour remaining for my flight, then helped with my bags all the way to security.

It felt good to receive his gentleman like chivalry and as I boarded the plane, I could only hope that he didn’t noticed that I hadn’t washed off my makeup from the night out.