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“To be fair, it’s a great place,” Jane said. “Ladies’ night is something else if you get the right parties going in there.”
“Jane,” Caitlyn hissed.
“What? He knows we’re members!”
Damon cut back in. “What will set our new venture, name to be determined, apart from The Dark Hour and Le Salon is its exclusivity. You cannot come into town and simplyarriveif you have enough money and made a reservation. You must be invited, either by one of the primary investors – i.e., us – or a current member in excellent standing. Membership numbers will be tightly regulated to ensure that any member, at any time, can reserve a party or event on any weekend. With the current layout of the penthouse, we can have up to two or three groups segregated at a time, each enjoying their own experience, depending on the size of the parties. We’re talking exclusive memberships with exclusive entertainment andexclusiverefreshments that can include a three-course dinner or tapas for your drinks. The idea, if you look at page eight, is to allow a member to reserve a space at a moment’s notice and either provide their own needs for us to meet that very day or select from an assortment of pre-packaged experiences.Part of the ongoing fun will be that these experiences change seasonally, depending on who – and what – is available.” He grinned. “There is a glut of talent in this town, and I want them entertaining our members. Or even being members themselves.”
“I’m confused,” Caitlyn said. “Is this another kink club?”
“If that’s what the member wants,” Alice replied. “We can also provide a completely vanilla opportunity to entertain your friends with dinner and a tasteful show. Bring your family, if you want. As long as they’re over twenty-one, because we serve alcohol.”
“You know what this sounds like?” Jane mused. “One of those rental halls my mother used to contract back in Hong Kong. They provide the space and the staff, and after you reserve your time, you can havewhateveryou want. They will kit you out for a wedding, birthday dinner, business venture, you name it. Obviously, what you two propose is a much smaller scale, but it sounds like there’s no true theme other than small social groups and the opportunity to get dirty if that’s what you want.”
Both Damon and Alice grinned in acknowledgment. “You’re on the right track,” Damon said. “We’ll have staff on call that can provide whatever experience you want.”
“You know whatIthink this sounds like?” Caitlyn tapped her finger on the table. “The New York club. If you’ve got the money, they’ll let you rent out a VIP room and look the other way as long as nobody dies or gets caught with drugs.”
“In that order, too,” Jane quipped. “Except New York requires you to go through the rest of the club and still has that fetishy atmosphere. I love it, but what if you’re entertaining your wealthy aunt and uncle from out of town? The ones who leave half of their estate to some pastor you have never heard of until the reading of the will? You can’t take them to a place like that! So, what if you had a quaint penthouse that you could rent and have decorated and catered to your stipulations? Instead ofFrench maid outfits with the nipples cut out, your hostess is in a sleek cocktail dress or a damncheongsamif that is what it takes to get in the will.”
“Have you thought this through, Lin?” Caitlyn asked with a slight tilt of the head. “Sounds like you have.”
“I am starting to see the vision, is all.”
“Would these staff people who can dress in pasty-based stripper wear one night and a Mennonite’s wedding dress the next happen to be professional sex workers? Because that’s how it works in New York.”
“Yeah, well, that’s New York,” Alice muttered. “They’ve got the people and the access to do whatever they want with their successful business.”
There were still more details to go over while the main course was brought into the room. Jane was bemused – and amused – by the cheese selection for the macaroni if only because she was pretty sure Pule Gruyere was not a standard ingredient in the American casserole.I’m not complaining, but…This was what their daughter ate for dinner too? The most expensive cheese Jane could think of in an entire sauce?
They really, really want our money.Why was that? It was the only thing bothering Jane since Damon approached her about the opportunity. While it wasn’t unusual for experienced hospitality professionals like the Monroes to seek outside investments for new ventures, something like this should have been easy enough to cover from Culver Hospitality, alone.Never mind The Monroe Group…Had they approached anyone else? Or was Jane somehow at the center of this decision?
She wouldn’t normally dwell on this, except this was Damon she was talking about. The only man besides Jane’s doctor who knew what she looked like naked.
This wasn’t the time to ask. Jane didn’t have the opportunity, anyway, since the face poking through the doorway wasnotcertified to carry hot food to and from the kitchen.
“Honey!” Alice shot out of her chair before Damon turned around and saw who was in the private dining room. “What are you doing here? Grandma is supposed to be watching you.”
Jane nudged her wife beside her. “You ever meet the old mum?” she whispered while the others fussed over the seven-year-old shoving herself into the room. “Quite the firecracker. Ah, wrong choice of words…”
Caitlyn switched to Cantonese for her wife’s benefit. “Yes, I’ve heard the story but have never personally met the woman.”
Jane had. She thanked her mother’s incessant training to always be polite and approachable to other ladies because Julia had burn scars all over her body. There was a reason she seldom went out in public, and it wasn’t only because she was Damon’s live-in nanny while he and Alice chased their big family dreams.
“I don’t want to go to school tomorrow,” was all Jane heard from the child commanding her parents’ attention.
Alice ushered Clarise out of the room while Damon apologized for his daughter’s interruption. “She’s been unhappy at school so far this year,” he explained. “As I said earlier, we’re working on getting her either diagnosed with whatever’s going on or exploring other avenues.”
“Winchester, right?”
“Yes, as I also mentioned earlier, she goes to the elementary school on their grounds.”
“Which means it’s a separate school with a completely different faculty from the high school,” Caitlyn said. “So don’t panic about Cecelia.”
“Panic? Cece knows how to talk. She’d tell me if she was having a problem.” Right? “What kind of problem is Clarise having, huh?”
Damon shrugged. “Alice is more involved in the schooling aspect of our children, but from what I understand, she’s acting out a bit in class. At first, we thought there might be a bullying situation, but her teachers assure us that she hasn’t been negatively interacting with anyone.”
“Of course they say that! Why wouldn’t they say otherwise?” Jane scoffed. “Bullying was rampant in every school I grew up in, but did the parents ever get involved? Hardly.”
