It was a beautiful afternoon and the sun was shining brightly. Anjali and I were raking leaves and clearing up the house as any couple would do on a Sunday. We were getting ready for the boss to come to our house. He was trying to strike a deal with some new clients and it was our job to entertain them. They were going to come to the House at 5 p.m. Meanwhile a couple of guys from the office were supposed to come to set things up.
I saw the boss' car pull up. Anjali, my wife, gave me a look like "Here you are, good luck."
Mr.Khanna, the boss stepped out of his Esteem and walked over to us.
"Anjali, you look better each time I see you". He said, giving her a hug.
I could see why he said that. She had just turned 30 and was still looking good. Same size as when she was in high school.
"Hi, Mr.Khanna. Thanks for the compliment. Don't worry, I will change before the guests get here." She was in bare feet wearing blue jeans and a work shirt.
"No, stay like that. We are shooting for informal, remember? I want them to feel at home. This is a very important deal and I want everything to go well." He said and then turned to me.
"Amit, if we score this deal, you will need to start that new development department you have been asking me about. This is a make it or break it deal, man."
That caught my attention. "What do you mean ‘break it’ Sir?"
He became very serious and looked at Anjali. He leaned between the two of us and said, "The investors are looking to sell the company if we can't start moving ahead.... So lets really get these guys on our side, okay?"
We both nodded to him and the three of us walked around to the back yard. We had set it up as a simple barbecue, there was a keg of beer and the grill was just getting warmed up.
"Here's the plan," Mr.Khanna explained. "Jim is bringing them over here in a few minutes and after a nice BBQ and a lot of beer, we have tickets to the overnight cricket match.They are looking forward to the pre-game entertainment..." He said with a glint in his eye.
"What is that, exactly?" Anjali asked innocently "I thought it was simple outing for a few guests."
"No Anjali. By the way, did I tell you that these guys are from a big Japanese company? There are 3 of them, in their late forties and Sammy said that they like to get wild on their business trips.”
"That sounds interesting,Mr.Khanna. Anjali said. "By the way, what is the entertainment before the game?"
"Come on Anjali, let that be. This is the way business is conducted at high levels..."
"Please,I’d like to know. What is the entertainment tonight?" She persisted.
"Okay. We are going to hire a stripper to entertain the clients at our own farm in the backyard before the game."
"Now that is stooping low for business. Are your guys that desperate?" Anjali did not appear to be too pleased.
"This is a big deal," I explained to her and then went into great detail about how this was a make or break deal for the company and for us personally.
"In other words, honey, we need to keep their attention or we lose the business".
"Why would we lose their attention?" she asked, now very serious about the success of the evening.
"Worldwide Inc. also wants their business and if they can lure them away from us to some other farm house, we might lose their attention and their business. I hope this goes smoothly tonight."
As the three of us were standing in the yard and talking, Jim arrived with the Japanese businessmen. They were all laughing and it appeared obvious that they were in the mood for recreation. Ties were off and they were relaxed.
They came around to the back of the house and Jim closed the high gate and latched it when everyone was inside. They had the usual polite greetings and Anjali and I got them all situated comfortably in lawn chairs, drinks in their hands. It was a private gathering and the high fence around the yard made it more intimate. As Anjali mingled with the guests, I ran into the house to get the ringing phone.
It was Singh. He was stuck at the stadium and he was having problems with the people who rented out the best seats. No strippers were available because of a number of other reasons,one of which was that they were unwilling to go to a farm house. He was going to leave the place and come to our gathering but he had no entertainment to offer. The stripper would also not come out to the suburbs because she did not want to be recognized.
After he hung up I was confused. We needed to come up with something to show the guests that we meant business about signing them on. My boss was coming into the house.
"Sir. That was Singh... no pregame entertainment." I gave him the details.
"Well, shit. We need to do something or we are fucked." He said and we both just stood there trying to come up with an alternative. Then Anjali came in.
"How's it going ?" She said, then she noted that we were not so cheerful.
"Honey, we need some entertainment for these guys. The stripper fell through." I said, looking out into the yard, watching Jim fill their glasses yet again with beer.
"Those Japanese sure are getting juiced." She said. "They are looking at me like I was the next course after the hamburgers."
Mr.Khanna stood in front of Anjali with a very solumn tone, glancing at me as he spoke. His tone was even, measured. "Anjali, we are in trouble. I am sure you understand the enormity of landing this Japanese deal, right?"
She looked at him with an equally serious face and said, "Yes, I do."
He continued. " I am going to say something that is very strange and I apologize ahead of time for what I am going to ask of you... actually both of you, in a way."
Anjali looked at me and helped Mr.Khanna out. "You need entertainment and you need it now, right?"
"That's right, Anjali..."
"I know exactly how important this is and I also know that you are asking me to entertain these guys. Am I right?"
Mr.Khanna and I looked at each other and nodded.
"How far do I have to go... as a stripper, I mean..." She stammered.
I stepped in. "Honey, I think I know what you are leading to but I want you to think over carefully what you are suggesting..."
She continued. "Do you think a simple tease will be enough to keep their interest for a while?" And then,taking me into a corner she asked, ”These Japs are strangers so stripping for them is not a problem.But what will your boss think?He has never seen me topless.I hope he does not form a poor opinion of me.”I assured her that he would be grateful since this is being done for the firm as a whole.Mr.Khanna also joined us with a very worried look on his face.
He gulped and said, "Yes, that may be all we need. I would never ask you to do more than that. We will present it like it is a joke and they will get so drunk that they won't even know that they missed the cricket match.If however they still want to go, we have no problems with that either.”
"I'll give it a try. And just pray that I do not mess it up.? Just play along with me." And with that, she walked back out into the yard. "Is everyone doing well out here?" She asked everyone. They all shouted and said they were having fun and looking forward to a great evening. She smiled and looked at me, waiting for me to say something.
"Honey, why don't we take some pictures for our guests to remember the evening?" I said loudly.
"Wait, I have a camera!" Shouted the younger of the three Japanese, as he began rummaging through the jackets they had thrown onto one of the lounge chairs.
"What shall we take pictures of?" Mr.Khanna asked, to no one in particular.
Almost on cue, one of them suggested the hostess, if her husband had no objection. I was hardly in a position to say no,especially since Mr.Khanna looked so forlorn.
They decided that she stand over near the fence with her hair loose and they took a few basic shots. It turned out that they each had a small camera in their jackets.