Q. Can you please advise. If you have been invited to meet someone at a club or a restaurant for a meeting or get-together, and you arrive before them (either because you are early or they are late for some reason), is it polite to accept the offer of a drink from the staff and make yourself comfortable? Or is it better manners to wait until your host arrives but then risk the embarrassment of their discomfort which has been added to by your own fastidious manners and patience? Assuming they are going to pick up the tab (it was definitely their invitation) one wouldn’t order a glass of champagne, but on the other hand one doesn’t want to sit there with a glass of water and the air of a nervous interviewee either. What would you recommend?
P.R., London W11
A.
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