It's Not Prostitution When Happening in Club X

CHAPTER FIVE ~ Mind your own business. I

(Gqii!) The sound of a heavy bag dropping on Kate's feet, I was paying her out. It wasn't a lot, even though the hotel and the club made lots of money, I still had loans to pay off, salaries, rent, electricity and all those many expenses, so the net income was not much, the business was doing just okay to be stable, not yet comfortably making money. I took that okay amount to make sure Kate does not remember the road that will lead her to Towanda.

Kate scornfully laughed at me, like she always does. "What do you think will become of this place in my absence? A disaster!" She was right, I was well aware that she held this place together. "Is this how you react to what happened Friday? You should be thanking me, not chasing me out of town as if you own it." She continued yelling at me, Kate has a strong persona, strong voice, strong body, she is a threat, a big one.

"I don't think I can continue working with a backstabbing person." I said, and she laughed again showing contempt.

"It was a business strategy, an advertisement."

"How Kate?"

"Tabloids, radio shows... people listen to news, especially at this time of the year, do you know how many journalists were at the hotel's front door the past two days? Bad press is still press Azania, move with times." She did make some sense, it is not like I was going to stand in the middle of the crowd and say, "hey people I have opened a brothel, tell a friend!" And start distributing some flyers.

"If this was part of the plan and you managed to tell Pfarelo and others who participated, why could you not tell me?"

She laughed, "you are a bad actor, not to mention a horrible liar, you were going to ruin the entire plan and cost Pfarelo her job. And how do you think Pfarelo was going to protect you if she does not have your docket? Now everything that concerns you or any of your property will be handed over to Pfarelo as you are now her case. You have such a thick skull for an owner of the brothel." I think I have heard enough, her explanation did not make her less of threat. I still wanted her out of town, she took the money and handed me my car keys, safety keys and everything that belonged to me, the hotel and Club X.

As soon as I heard Nick mentioning the town hall event, I got an idea, called Sihle Lonzi and he connected me with the Aphane family. I have five days to organise this event, on my own, no Kate, it's time I minded my own business.

I took a deep breath before entering the hotel, like always I summoned every staff member, including the ones who were on an unpaid leave. When I got inside people were praising the name of Nick for their presence in here today, little did they know that their "union" had nothing to do with this. "I trust everyone is having a good morning." I was expecting 73 people excluding the girls like the first time I got here, but they were less, and even though majority looked happy, others were not. "Miss Radebe is it true that you are using this hotel as a brothel?" One of the employees asked, you could see he was sent by that group he was standing with, they were the only unhappy group. "That is not part of today's agenda. This hotel will be hosting an event on Saturday, meaning we only have less than five days to prepare for it." I took some moment to read the crowd, they were still, we have never hosted an even except for the club opening ever since I took over. "As promised I called our staff members who were on standby to offer us extra hands, I will be managing the event while we are looking for a new manager." Amber raised her hand, "yes Amber." I only know two girls out of the fourteen by names, stripper names. "I thought Kate is the manager, why all of a sudden you are looking for a new manager?" Asked Amber, "yeah and she was here this morning..." the other girls backed her. "Kate resigned due to personal issues and I respected her decision, two positions will be opened for anyone who meets the requirements. May we all focus on the event for this week, other matters shall be discussed after the event, you will receive instructions not later than today for your roles, if we all strictly follow the instructions the event will go well and the Aphane family will allow us to host them even on other events." (Indistinct chatter) the name Aphane set the bar high, but that was the goal when I renovated this hotel, to set high standards and everyone should put that in their mind. "In conclusion I would like to have another meeting with the head of all departments for briefing. Thank you."