THE MOMENT
Anyone who brought up the vacation before Troy and family left to another country for two weeks always got the same response. He was a successful paralegal who thrived on details and he was convinced he was ready for absolutely any possible situation.
"I'm ready for anything," he'd say. Two weeks later, the wife and kids were in the shuttle to the airport, and he was in a minor state of disbelief at the whole experience. He stopped at the desk to check out formally. He ended up having to wait almost five minutes, but he couldn't hold that against Chroma Hotels; it'd been a strange and busy two weeks.
"Mr. Peterson, we hope you enjoyed your stay with us," the young clerk replied as she processed his payment. Her nametag read 'Cheryl', and Troy was a friendly sort who liked to try and connect.
"I'll tell you, Cheryl," he chuckled. "It's not how I thought my holiday to a foreign nation would turn out." Her smile dimmed instantly, and she was overcome with sudden concern.
"Oh no, I'm genuinely sorry to hear that. Please, if you have any outstanding complaints, I'd appreciate the chance to make them right. Chroma Corp. highly values our reputation," she said.
It was unintentional, but her apparent sincerity neatly tied up the two-week vacation for him.
"I'm sorry, Cheryl," Troy shook his head with a chuckle. "It was a bad joke, everything was perfect," he said.
"A joke?" Cheryl seemed hesitant to believe him.
"Yeah, sorry," he continued to smile apologetically as he shook his head. "I guess it's only funny if you know me personally. Before we left, I planned for everything that could possibly go wrong; it's a different country so it's important to know the laws and all that. Then we got here two weeks ago, the first thing my wife asked me was to be understanding. When we made our reservations, we had no idea there was a major convention happening in the hotel too, and with that kind of chaos it's easy to imagine things going wrong even further."
"Uhuh...," Cheryl nodded to indicate he still had her attention. But, she didn't know what he was telling her.
"It's just, even with the convention and the packed hotel, I had absolutely zero complaints. My family was well taken care of, every service came with a smile, and every surface was spotless. It was a perfect 10/10 experience, and you know...," he shrugged with a grin. "Who expects that?"