"He very much regrets that he will not be able to join you this evening. He is in bed with a serious bout of `flu."
"He has not got `flu," said Hercule Poirot. "He has only a nasty cold. [...]"
LoL. That´s exactly what I´m telling my customers whenever they say that they got the flu. If they would have the flu, they wouldn´t be able to stand in front of me. So stop saying that!
Gosh, I love Poirot so much right now.