The first step was to contact Richard and see if I could bring Michelle into one of his special rooms in two weeks. Naturally, he was more than agreeable to arranging a get together with my wife along with five or six of his friends. He knew Roger would want to be there and I told him my next call was going to be with my wife's V.P..

When I called her boss, I told him, "Michelle has been working her butt off lately and is pretty stressed. I was hoping that once this project is completed, that she could have a couple of days off to decompress."

Roger was...