Catering With Benefits (3) - An Appetite for More - 20. The Fundraiser

One week after the Dare to Bare party, Daniel presented before a magistrate. When he was required to identify himself and his occupation, for the court record, he gave that as a waiter, which strictly speaking he was. He just failed to mention he was a sky waiter, as any such conviction could be detrimental to his employment. He was given a fine and a two year good behaviour order.

***

Thomas had the managers of Poppy’s, Dean’s and Divas all primed and ready to run his first official function for Price’s campaign, the charity fundraiser. With the help of Price’s wealthy friends, those sympathetic to his cause, his wife and Cynthia Broderick, the event was a sellout and all stakeholders were pleased and excitedly looking forward to this event.

Virginia had rounded up all her friends, many of whom had previously attended her own parties. Cynthia Broderick did the same when advised the event would raise funds for local charities. But the real, and less obvious, purpose of the evening was to raise the profile of Jonathan Price with the money raised used to further raise his profile by having the media cover him making direct donations to charities.

Jared provided the security for the event. All the guests were checked at the entrance to ensure they had their highly paid for invitations. They were then greeted by Thomas, offered a welcome drink by one of Dean’s waiters and escorted to their table by Justin, as head waiter for the evening. Dean had extra waiters, sourced from Justin’s list of casuals. Even Andy donned a bow tie as part of his bar attendant’s uniform for the occasion.

Out of sight, but no less busy than the front of house staff were Craig and Charlie supervising their full compliment of cooks, including Snowy, employed just for the evening.

Backstage, Edward, Juanito, Tristan and Max were preparing for their roles later in the evening.

The bookings had been made as tables of eight and to add some fun to the evening, Thomas had each organiser name their table.

Jonathan called his table, The Candidate and a second table for those in the Jewellery industry, named Diamonds Are Forever but Virginia was not on either of these tables, as she had booked two tables for her friends. One called The Diamond Musical Society and another The Rich Wives Club. Max and Charles had a table, for people from the radio station, titled 2GAY and there was a media sponsored table called All the News That’s Fit to Print and Some. Cynthia’s tables were named Girls Just Want to Have Fun for women only and The Other Halves for their partners. Jeremy had made up with Rani and Sandra, and encouraged them to book a table in the name of Hair We Are. Not to be outdone Brett launched their new studio by naming their table Dare to Bare.

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Jonathan wanted to make an entrance, so he and Virginia had timed their arrival for later, after most of the guests had arrived. The Rolls Royce was left at home for the evening and they were driven to the function by, a very subdued Desmond, in the BMW.

At a suitable time, Max took to the stage and called for the audience’s attention. He welcomed the guests, thanked them for their patronage of such a worthy cause and then, as he held out his arm, indicating the entrance door, he asked them “Please welcome the next member for the federal seat of Sydney East, Mr Jonathan Price.” His voice rising in volume with each word.

As Paul Kelly’s From Little Things Big Things Grow, played and the crowd applauded, Jonathan, with Virginia on his arm, entered the room. He escorted his wife to her table and then joined his party of friends at his table.

Max then continued “Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m sure our guest of honour would like to thank you for that rousing welcome and later in the evening I may be able to entice him on stage to say a few words.” The crowd laughed. “Please enjoy the evening. We have a wonderful meal being prepared for you and after the meal some very special entertainment. My name’s Max, from 2GAY fm radio.”

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Max returned to his table and received a round of applause from his friends. “Well I thank you.” He said and took a bow.

“You’re really good at that.” said Trevor, a fellow presenter from the radio station. “This Price guy should give you a job.”

“He has in a way, but not for announcing. Both Charles and I have been invited to join a liaison group to promote his image among the gay community. It’s only volunteer but still an honour for us.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’m not sure exactly, we don’t meet until next week. I guess we’ll find out then. But I’m sure they’ll expect me to promote him on air.”

“Isn’t that against station policy?” asked Trevor.

“Yes, I know we are supposed to be apolitical, so I’ll have to decline if they ask, but it would be ok for say, Edward to interview him, wouldn’t it Charles.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that would pass the pub test.”

“But why have they got a specific gay liaison committee?”

“Probably because this area has the largest proportion of GLBTI residents of any electoral area.”

“Good thinking, he must have a smart campaign manager.”

“It’s Thomas, the guy that welcomed you on arrival.” answered Charles.

“The muscle man, checking tickets?”

“No, that’s Jared, who incidentally is Thomas’ partner. Thomas was the next guy, the one offering drinks.”

“I thought he was just a waiter.”

“I wouldn’t let Thomas know that, he thinks very highly of himself.”

“Oh, excuse me. So where did Price get this self-promoting campaign manager?”

“Apparently he used to work for his wife as a PA, but it sounds like he’s been seconded to team Jonathan.”

“So does that mean she’ll have to answer her own phone calls or wipe her own arse now?” asked Chris.

“That’s a bit nasty.” suggested Max.

“I can’t stand these rich types that pretend they understand ordinary people, just so they can get elected and make even more money off the taxpayer.”

“Is he like that Max?” asked Trevor.

“I don’t know really, so far I’ve taken him at face value. Some rich people can be genuine about their intentions to help society.”

“Yeah, high society.”

“If you’re so against this guy why did you come tonight?”

“I was curious about him and wanted to see his performance. And another thing, if that was his wife he arrived with, how come she’s not sitting with him?”

“I guess because they’re each hosting a table; nothing suspicious about that.”

“I’m still not convinced. I think I’ll go over and speak to him.”

“Please be polite and don’t make a scene.” asked Max, I’m on the payroll tonight.

“Ah been bought so easily Max.”

“Not so, it’s only a minimal payment and besides I’m also representing the station tonight, as are we all at this table. Would you like me to introduce you Chris?”

“Oh I’ve met him before, not that he’s likely to remember me.”

Just as Max was about to stand, he noticed Price leave his table and go to another, then another. “Maybe we should wait for a better opportunity Chris, looks like he’s doing the rounds and making a brief appearance at each table.”

“Good, we can pin him down when he reaches us.”

Chris watched Price slowly getting closer until he was just one table away. When he left that table he disappeared down the passageway that led to the toilets.

“Looks like he’s gone to the men’s.” observed Max.

“Great op, he’ll be a captive audience.” And he began to rise.

“No Chris!” snapped Max “Leave it till later please.” asked a worried Max.

***

Backstage was the usual rush and panic associated with a one night stand. The performers were Tristan and Juanito with Edward producing. Raj was keen to assist, so he was also backstage doing what he could to ensure his partner was properly dressed, groomed and calm. As Tristan had no one else, Raj also assisted Tristan prepare.

Edward applied only light make up to both performers, just enough to counteract the washout effect of the stage lights. As Tristan was performing without a shirt his upper body was also given a light application of body make-up.

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At Girls Just Want to Have Fun the girls were in high spirits. The wines were going down well, but increased their thirst for gossip.

“I thought Pru would be here tonight. I haven’t seen her since Australia Day.”

“Me neither, not since she resigned suddenly from the Foundation. Did anyone ever find out why?”

“I haven’t heard a peep out of her. She didn’t even turn up to the extraordinary meeting you called, Cynthia. She just sent her resignation in writing and disappeared.”

“Cynthia you two are close, what happened to make her resign so suddenly.”

“I think she realised she had taken on too much with the treasurer’s role. Any office bearer in such a position has to give a lot of their time to do the job properly. Pru has family responsibilities and maybe couldn’t juggle both.”

“Cynthia may be right, she’s a grandmother now, suddenly with three grandchildren. Triplets must be quite a handful.”

“Sounds like IVF to me.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because they often implant more than one embryo to ensure a better chance of success.”

“Like planting seeds in the garden; you plant more than needed and weed out the weakest seedlings later.”

“That’s a bit tasteless to say.”

“Well, at least they don’t weed out the weakest, so you often finish up with multiple births.”

“Quite frankly, I could never imagine being that keen to have children to go through all that.”

“But you have two children.”

“Yes, and I love them to bits, but if nature deals you a bad hand then you should just live with it.”

One woman who had sat quietly during the conversation finally spoke. “You know the real reason Pru resigned is she was caught having sex in Cynthia’s pool house.”

“What! Where did you hear this?”

“As I was leaving the party I overheard a conversation from behind that big hedge between Cynthia’s garden and the carpark.”

“Who was it?”

“I couldn’t pick the voices because they were whispering, but I think one of them must have been Pru, because one said, they had such beautiful bodies it was such a turn-on and when I came, my god it was like fireworks on new year’s eve. But then we got interrupted and thrown out of the pool house. Then the other person said, keep your voice down Pru.”

“Did you say they?”

“That’s what I thought she said.”

“My god, what a brazen hussy, but you’ve got to give her points for taking on two guys at the same time.”

“Who were they, someone else’s husbands?”

“I have no idea.”

“Why have you kept this information until now?”

“I didn’t want to cause trouble and I was waiting to see if anyone else knew about it. Then judging by tonight’s conversation it seems no one else does.”

“The other person in that whispered conversation obviously knows.”

“You’re right, I wonder who that could be?”

“Cynthia, what do you know about this?”

Caught unawares, she stumbled over here reply. “What...well...nothing really, why ask me?”

“It was at your home, you must have heard something.”

“In case it escaped your attention, I am the president of the foundation, the principal organiser for the function and therefore was extremely busy on the night attending to guests and ensuring all went well for our fledgling foundation.”

“Ok, ok, no need to be so touchy. I thought you would show more interest in such goings on at your own home.”

“This is the first I’ve heard of such accusations. And if you’re all such god friends of Pru, why haven’t any of you seen her for so many months.”

“Girls, Cynthia’s right. Pru may need our support and what are we doing, just gossiping about her.”

“Then we need to talk to her and find out directly what happened.”

“Ladies, I don’t think that’s what’s meant by giving support.” concluded Cynthia.

“Maybe you’re right Cynthia. Now who else is missing tonight that we can gossip about?”

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“Jeremy went over to the Hair We Are table. To ensure he was still in their good books, he complimented both Sandra and Rani on their dresses. Sandra accepted the compliment and added, “You don’t scrub up too badly yourself. The bare arms and midriff’s quite a sexy look on you.”

Rani, on the other hand, was still seething about Daniel’s arrest, had laid the blame on Brett and Jeremy, so was not inclined to be complimentary towards Jeremy. “You should join your mate under the street light. You’re dressed just the part.”

Jeremy did not reply to Rani, but instead turned his attention to Daniel. “I’m sorry about what happened to you Daniel. I hope there won’t be any long term repercussions.”

“Thank you Jeremy, I think all will be ok, HR don’t seem to have gotten wind of it, so as long as I keep my nose clean for two years my job should be safe. So far as I know, no one at Qantas knows about it.”

“Good to hear, mate.”

“Yeah, but court convictions are public records.” added Rani.

“Please Rani, don’t spoil, what’s going to be a good night, with such negative talk.”

“Oh, excuse me if I show some concern for you.”

“I appreciate that, but now is not the time.”

Sandra sought to re-direction the conversation. “So how’s biz Jeremy?”

“Not too bad Sandra, we’re happy with the slow build up or our client base, and thanks for asking.”

“If they can find you down that dirty alley.” added Rani, but Sandra deliberately chose to ignore her by continuing. “Good to hear Jeremy, we all need to show an interest and support each other in such a competitive business.”

“Thank you.” He was going to ask Sandra about the Bondi salon but thought it would only wind up Rani again, so he excused himself, wished them all a happy evening and went back to his own table.

“Rani why are you so negative towards Jeremy, he’s apologised for the walkout and to Daniel, why can’t you just be friendly towards him and move on?” asked Sandra.

“It was him who let the police into the party.”

“I don’t think he had much choice, when the drug squad showed up.”

“And why did the drug squad show up, I’d like to know who alerted them.”

“I can answer that Rani.” replied Daniel “My solicitor asked the same question in court and was told that the building had previously been a source of drugs. They must have had a record of it at the local cop shop.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“After the court hearing I just wanted to put it all behind me and didn’t think it was worth mentioning.”

“There Rani, it wasn’t Jeremy’s fault, just an unfortunate set of circumstances...” replied Sandra, “ ...and no offence meant Daniel, but you were in possession. Although I’m surprised you had anything left you passed out so many earlier in the evening.”

“I understand Sandra, but if you and Rani had accepted my offer earlier, I might not have had any left.”

“So now it’s our fault, is it?” accused Rani.

“I’m not trying to apportion blame, just saying.” replied Daniel.

 
Next Chapter - Entertainment, on and off the stage.