I Secretly Own Your Dream Venue

The company was planning a team-building retreat when Cody Francis, our newly hired administrative intern, approached me privately during lunch.

"Simon, I heard your family owns that boutique eco-estate upstate. The company has a retreat next weekend—why don't we host the picking event there?"

He smiled, that slick, overly familiar smile of a young man who thought he could charm his way into anything. "We're all colleagues, after all. The company will throw you a five-hundred-dollar stipend. Consider it a way to support your small business."

I stared at him, momentarily speechless.