This week I have been at a rubber exhibition in Nuremberg.

Besides a certain horror at seeing restoration work at the speaker tribune in the parade ground (70 years, and yet...) and the shadows of the eagles still on the walls, even if they are masked in a fast food facade, it was quite enjoyable.

I may even have fallen in love, a little, with the potential of several girls who, if there is any justice, will be influential movers in the future. One of the benefits of having several companies together that share the same agent in Germany, that we get quite close even if we meet only every three years.

My heart was pulled in two directions by two new additions,and  the simmetry may have helped me to stay cool and steady. One is 29, Chinese, export manager and customer support for a Chinese research center that somehow has become a manufacturing plant. She is 4'8", and deliberately looks like the cute teens in Japanese manga, kawaii clothes and details included. However I soon noticed how easily she assumed control of any Chinese men that approached, and most Western males as well. One of her strong points is her excellent English (HBO English, as she says, which prompted a discussion on where is Game of Thrones going and Chemist hangups in Breaking Bad), but her triple masters (Polymer Science, Business Administration and Marketing) probably weigh more in the end. Those skills must have cost a lot of effort (she does not sleep much, and Jon Snow has been her only boyfriend in the last years, so she is a bit sad right now) to acquire, but she uses them masterfully as a bludgeon. The fact that she has the perfect attractiveness score for most of the (male and female) product technicians in the business just ices the cake. She also scores high with me, but age has its own perks, and even though she is quite demanding in terms of wit and conversational reflexes, the fact that neither of us was trying to buy or sell anything put us on a relatively equal footing. Or to put it in another way, I was spared the bludgeoning charm just to enter into razor wit and trivia contests. I never thought that trivia about Chongquin would help me score points with a woman, though my ability to drink Szechuan spicy soup and to handle a 13 course Chinese dinner only with chopsticks probably impressed her more. She aspires to be the first woman in her company to become VP. From what her colleagues thought of her, I seriously trust she can do it. I just hope the body count along the way is not too high.

The second object of desire is quite younger, 21, and has left me reeling. In a way it is fortunate she was so young or I would be considerin gselling my soul to the devil. Not to mention she has a boyfriend called Hagen that could probably kill me just by frowning intensely. She is German, and still a student, Sinology and Economics. She was on the exhibition as a general booth girl, even if she is our German agent's daughter. In what is unfortunately a common event, her brother is earmarked to inherit the business, despite her clear superiority for Commercial distribution. Not only does she speak half a dozen languages (though Mandarin is playing havoc with the differences between romance languages, as now they all look the same to her) but she knows better the ins and outs of the business in Asia than her brother. Add true empathy, a great attitude combined with the irresistible charm of dark shadows and secrets that come forth when she drinks too much, specially related to her father and brother... and I suspect a dodged a bullet there. A hedonist streak, though I saw it mostly for food, just completes the attractiveness package, even if the other young girls in the booth were more classical Nordic beauties. I have always felt strange with women my same height. She has already spent six months working in an export company in China, and she might end up coming to Spain. Did I mention she is a husky contralto? Just what I need every morning.

All half in jest, which means it is also half true.

Fortunately they dealt fairly painlessly with me, sometimes even coordinating the tag team in Mandarin before hitting me from both sides. I suspect that besides my modest charm (and everyone appreciates a discrete safe admiration) they enjoyed seeing me squirm when hugged by attractive ladies. I tend to be quite shy about physical contact, most of the time. And hours together on a heat wave... One clearly knew what she was doing, and the other has a natural skill.

It still felt well, this turmoil of feeling, appreciating and being appreciated as well.