Chapter 73: Meeting Kate. Club Prep. Thanksgiving Visitors

Mark

Two weeks before the Grand Opening of the Club Infinity, I stood in the middle of the dance floor and looked around at the beehive of activity going on around me.

Elsa and Stacy stood on the stage with a tall handsome man named Lee Olerich – the new club manager that Stacy had hired on my behalf. They were auditioning female and male strippers. Stacy had a clipboard with one page for each girl or guy who had applied to her ads. There was a boom box on the corner of the stage with Stacy’s old iPod plugged into the top of the box.

Stacy yelled out, “Number twenty four. Thank you, twenty three.”

The girl who had been dancing flounced off the stage, collecting her clothes along the way. She’d given me a hard-on, but nothing like what twenty-four did next. She came out with some serious sashaying, and swung on the chrome pole. As she did, the skirt she wore swung out and around her, displaying her bare ass to the audience. Some of the men putting the finishing touches on the bar stopped to watch her. Unlike the prior audition, this one was worth watching.

She had a total of five minutes to prove her worth and sexiness as an entertaining dancer and stripper. Gradually, her clothes fell away until she was nude. She pretended there were patrons at the stage side tables, and danced to and near each of them with the sexiest sway of hips and exposure of female genitalia I’d ever seen. Even Elsa looked impressed.

As the song ended, Elsa and Stacy compared notes. Lee said something too. Stacy looked at the job application and said, “You’re Kate Kenworthy, right? You were dancing when we looked at this place a few months ago. I liked you then and I like you now.”

The girl stood naked a few feet from them without a trace of embarrassment, “Right, that was me – all of me.” She used her hands to gesture to her entire nude body and laughed. She also struck a sexy pose that would have made a photographer’s mouth water.

“Well, Kate. You just got yourself a job, although I would have given you one if you’d simply identified yourself as the one we’d seen on our first visit here. Please feel free to get dressed and then see Mr. Olerich here, and he’ll get your paperwork underway. Can you start on December first?”

“I can. Thank you. This is good news. I need the job.” Kate’s voice was smooth and beautiful, although I did detect some stress in it.

Kate stepped into her skirt and shrugged her blouse on her shoulders. She was buttoning up when I went over to her.

Out of curiosity, I asked, “Why do you need the job? You sounded stressed before when you spoke. Is everything all right?”

She smiled, “Besides day-to-day expenses, I have a teen. She needs braces. Bad teeth – crooked and some need to be pulled to make room. It’s affecting her self-image and speech, and hence her schoolwork and ability to attract friends in her opinion. I was working two jobs to build up some savings to pay for it, but I lost my waitress job four months ago, and haven’t been able to scrape together enough to do much for her. I guess I’ll run my overall debt up a little higher. What’s that line from some old song, ‘another day older and deeper in debt.’ That’ll be me for the foreseeable future.”

“You’re single?”

“Single white female seeks work,” she laughed and gestured towards the stage. “Will strip for money.”

I asked, “How much are the braces?”

“The whole package is five grand, but they’ll let me put it on time at only three percent. I’ll be paying it off for forever, but I’ll have a happy and well-adjusted young adult – I hope. As it is, I’ve waited a couple of years too long; she’s seventeen. Everybody else in her grade has already had their orthodontic work years ago and has moved on with straight teeth. I just couldn’t afford it then, or now; but we can’t wait any longer.”

She was searching for her regular shoes instead of the sexy six inch spike heels she’d danced in, and I went over to Elsa and briefly talked to her, and then did something that made me feel good. As Kate collected her things and started to walk off towards Lee, who’d moved down on the patron dance floor, Elsa called her over. “Kate. Join us for a moment. Lee won’t mind.” Lee waved over his shoulder at the two of us; he’d heard her request.

She looked puzzled and even slightly worried, but came over. I handed her a personal check for six thousand dollars that I just written from my personal account.

Kate looked at the check and tears came to her eyes. She looked over at me, “Really?” She paused and then responded with a sense of urgency, “I can’t be bought for anything. I’m not a prostitute.”

I shook my head, “Did I say anything about conditions going with that check? There are none except to get those braces for your teen before another day goes by.”

“No, Yes ... but...” She choked slightly. “It’s too much.” She suddenly looked panicked about what I wanted or how she was supposed to respond.

“It’s not, so just take the check, go get your daughter some braces, and knock everybody’s socks off when you perform here. There’s a little extra in the check just in case. There are always extras.” I dug in my pocket and peeled off five one hundred dollar bills and passed those to her. She reluctantly took them almost automatically, but looked searchingly into my eyes. The whole scene had made her numb. She was starting to cry.

She was practically jumping up and down, and kept blurting out, “I promise I’ll pay you back. It’ll take me a long time, but I promise I will.”

I put my hand on her arm in a comforting way, “It’s not necessary, Kate. Pay it forward in some way. Help someone else some day.”

“Who are you?” She’d suddenly woken up to fact that I was being treated as an important person; however, she had no idea who I was. I was the guy dressed in a business suit when everybody else was in construction clothes or casual duds.

I gestured to the entire club behind me. “The new owner.” I smiled. “The name is Mark.”

Kate lurched forward and hugged me. She had tears and could barely speak. “Thank you ... Mark. This is like a dream come true. I’ll bring my daughter in someday so you can meet her. She’ll want to thank you personally. Her name is Tori. This will be a dream come true for her. She’s so sensitive about her crooked teeth. She tries not to smile. Thank you. Thank you.”

She backed away from me as though she didn’t want to forget any detail about what I looked like, and connected with Lee and they went off to his office to do all the employment forms and government stuff.

Elsa poked me, “Making friends and influencing people.”

“Hey, if I can’t have some fun with my money, then what’s the use of having it.”

Elsa teased, “You’re a nice guy after all. I take back all those rotten nasty things I said about you.”

We both worshipped the ground each other walked on, but we did tease each other incessantly. Except for a few hiccups around when we first met and started to date, we’d been peaches and cream with each other.

“Come here, slut.” I pulled Elsa to me and gave her a very significant kiss. The longer the kiss went on, the more romantic it became.

As we broke apart, Elsa said, “Here I am trying to be all business like and official and you turn my knees to jelly and make my pussy wet.”

Stacy wedged herself between us. “Hey, I need some of what you’re giving out ... and my pussy needs to be wet too. You both have my permission to make that happen.”

I kissed her and said, “Then you’d better come over to the condo after you knock off work today.” I patted her ass lightly, and then headed over towards the bar to see how that was shaping up.

Doug Reed, the job’s construction manager, found me. He said, “As you approved, we’re working around the clock now. I think we’ll have all but the spit and polish completed by next weekend, a week ahead of schedule.

We talked about the crews, and my bonus plan for them: finish so we make December first opening date, and everybody gets a five percent bonus – a desirable chunk of money coming right before Christmas. The crews quickly determined that a whole lot of teamwork was needed. I had plumbers helping out the electricians, electricians helping run ductwork for the HVAC or cables for the sound system, and the finish carpenters painting walls and doing cleanup duty. Everyone worked together, and there was a constant stream of suggestions about how to make the job go smoother and faster. The same ethic had prevailed when The Meadows had been built.

Behind me, I heard Stacy yell, “Number twenty five, front and center please.” The loud music started to blare again. I shrugged at Doug because we really couldn’t talk over the music. We were pretty well through, in any case. We both watched the next performer: a hefty woman, with little sex appeal and no sense of keeping time to the music. After a couple of minutes, Elsa stopped the music, thanked her for auditioning, and yelled out, “Number twenty six.” I watched the woman flip Elsa the bird behind her back as she dressed. Even if Elsa had seen her insult, all she would have done was laugh.

Lucas had been poking around. He joined me and gestured for me to come with him for a moment. He led me upstairs, through the VIP area we’d created with a series of booths with sofas and cocktail tables in them that looked down on the stage and dance floor, and into a special room or office.

Lucas said, “I wanted you to see this now that it’s finished. This is your safe room when you’re here and there’s trouble in the club of any kind. Come here. A fight breaks out, you’re in here. Somebody starts throwing bottles, you’re in here. Come here at the first sign of trouble. The walls and floor have plate steel in them, the one-way glass windows that look out at the VIP booths and over the downstairs are also bulletproof. There’s a quick exit through that fire door that goes down a special fire escape to the rear parking lot. Hopefully, you won’t have to use it, but it’s there. When you’re here, Marshall or one of the security guys will always have the limousine or a war wagon there waiting and ready to roll, just in case.

“What do you see putting in this room?”

Lucas gave me a diabolical smile. “I think a couple of sofas, tables, and perhaps a desk. You could do anything in this room and no one would know about it. The room is about as soundproof as you can get because of all the protection. The glass is all one-way; no one can see in under any light conditions. You do hear the throbbing beat of the music, but it’s nowhere near as loud as outside the door.”

We walked back downstairs and I went back to Elsa and Stacy. “I just looked at the special room upstairs. What are you going to put in there?”

Elsa gave me her lecherous smile. “First, that’s not only a safe room, it a sex room. There’s going to be three convertible sofa beds in the room positioned so they can see the stage. There’ll be some end tables, a nice plush carpet, a coffee table, and some wall photographs from Brite Reber that’ll give you a hard-on to die for. If any of us want sex while we’re here at the club we have a place to go to. There’s even a private bath off that room.”

Stacy pulled my face down and kissed me. Her lip ring was quite evident but I rolled with it. She said, “You are also and repeatedly supposed to fuck me blue in that room. If any of the strippers want to fuck you, that’s also the place to go. I may even become a stripper just so I can tantalize you in there ... but first I have to learn how to give lap dances.” She frowned at that thought; she was obviously giving the whole idea serious consideration.

Elsa laughed, “You have a lot of competition for that post.”

Stacy put on a pretend pout. “All I want is Mark’s big, hard cock pounding into my teenie-weenie little pussy, and then filling same with a gallon of his sweet tasting spunk. Do you know, he’s the best guy I’ve ever met? He has my heart. I really am in love with him. I hope that’s all right.”

Elsa ran her finger down Stacy’s neck into her cleavage, “That’s because he gave you The Experience.”

“Well, that too,” Stacy admitted with a lecherous grin, “but there’s more to it. I feel it in my heart. He’s this tall, handsome conservative guy, and I’m this little Goth girl with tats and piercings, but I still love him. I love our differences too.”

I said to Stacy, “So, did you complete all the action items I gave you?” I smiled so she’d know I was teasing her. I knew she had. She’d been diligent in giving me almost daily progress reports on every step on every action item.

Stacy grinned and rattled them off, “You just want to hear it again. OK. I got dozens of ideas from other clubs; many of them are in here or will be by the night of the opening. You have the best bands within five hundred miles playing here until next July, and most will extend if the place proves to be good on their resumes. The art work is completed and installed,” she gestured to the walls of the club. “Lee is the manager I hired for you, and I’m sure he’ll do really well. He has experience. He and I completed the management plan for the club and also laid out the marketing campaign, which is now in full swing. We have about three hundred club members already signed up, and most will be here on opening night with their friends. Lastly, we have hired six part-time male strippers and eight of the sexiest women strippers you’ll ever hope to see in one place ... except maybe at your home. Kate was one of them, and we want two more for our roster. I wouldn’t mind being done by any of them.”

I leaned down and kissed the petite woman. “Very nice work, Stacy. Did I mention you were getting a raise and a new job?”

“WHAT?” Stacy croaked.

Elsa

We did Thanksgiving at The Meadows, and it was a highly unusual celebration because almost everyone’s parents and a few siblings were our guests, some for the day and some staying for a few days.

Our visitors started to arrive the day before the holiday. Cindy and my parents came down from Upstate New York. Melanie’s parents lived nearby, but they came to stay overnight at The Meadows too. KC’s mother and sister came from outside of Washington. Izzy’s mother and father arrived for the holiday with two large golden retrievers. Sheila’s widower father arrived with her older sister. Lastly, Mark’s mother and father were flown in on the Citation from Arizona where they were semi-retired. Lucas was an orphan for the holiday since his family was on the west coast, so he was invited to join us. Marcia, our other dear friend and bodyguard, had gone back to the D.C. area to be with her family. Stacy wanted to be with us, but had to spend most of the day home in the burbs with her family, so she promised to come over late in the afternoon on Turkey Day. We were to hold a place of prominence for her in our large bed.