Chapter 11: Blue Moon

Grace met her employees outside Blue Moon.  She had paid for cabs for all her staff to and from the club.  Once they arrived at the venue, Grace could see that the queue was very long.  However, the owners of Blue Moon had arranged those waiting in the queue to be given a bottle of water each and some finger food whilst waiting to get in.   The venue had beautiful lights shining onto the façade.  There were security personnel at the main door checking bags for weapons and drugs and of course checking identification to ensure that those only 21 years old and over could get into the club.

Although the line was long, those that had a room booked could go via a different door which had a much shorter queue, they just had to show their pass. Grace and her contingent lined up at that door.  Grace was wearing a black tight skirt with sparkles that was just above her knees coupled with a mid-riff white top and black wedge espadrille shoes. The white top accentuated her tanned arms and abs on her stomach.  Her golden, curly hair was put up in a messy bun with some strands on either side hanging down. Her make-up was done very lightly, with just some mascara that brought out her ocean blue eyes even more and some lipstick.  Most of her employees were so excited.  “I just can’t wait to get inside the club”, one of them said.  Another one said, “My family and friends were jealous when I told them I’d be attending Blue Moon opening night”. 

Three weeks ago, Messi Group as well as all the other businesses in the area had received an opportunity to book a private room in the club for opening night from Straco Gibson Talent (SGT).  As soon as Grace received the invite, she has her assistant Mara book and pay for a private room. Little did she know that Sebastian owned this night club and at the same time, Sebastian did not know that she owned Messi Group.  The truth was that Messi Group was one of many businesses that had been invited as they were in the local area and she accepted it because the staff had been raving about the new night club that had been marketed very well.  Messi Group had their dinner booked in one of the private rooms from 7:00pm – 9:00pm.  After that, those that could stay back were going to join the dance floor. 

In Blue Moon, Carter, Sebastian, Sean, Tyra and Luana had just made their way into the VIP room after Sebastian had given them a tour of the club.  The club had only opened 15 minutes ago, and there were already a lot of people crowding the bar.

The VIP room they were in had glass windows that could see directly onto the dance floor and the bar area as well as the entertainment stage. “Congratulations Sebastian, the club looks really classy.  I know how much work you’ve put into this club, so well done. I’m sure it is going to do well and tonight will be no exception judging by the long queues of people trying to get in”, said Sean.  The others all agreed that the club looked fantastic and would be a really great hit.

At 6:55pm, Grace and her contingent went through their security check in the shorter line for the private rooms and were at once led into their private room.  The private room was well lit up.  It had a small lounge area, a view of the dance floor via the windows.  It also had a small bar with their own barman to pour their drinks whilst they had the room booking until 9:00pm.  They were all looking forward to the dinner that was going to get served to them shortly.

Back in the VIP room, they were all being served drinks with canapes with some music being played in the background of songs chosen by the group. “Wow Sebastian, thank you for the invite, I just can’t tell you how excited I was to come along”, exclaimed Luana to Sebastian.  “You are welcome.  In fact, I am so happy to have you all here.  I want this to be the club to go to in Straco City”, he said very proudly.  “Well done mate, we’re very proud of you.  This is a dream that you have been talking about since out University days”, Sean said to Sebastian. Sebastian thanked Sean and then went on to explain to his friends that all of the 5 Private rooms upstairs were booked up by local business owners and clubs such as the local gun club, Straco City bank, and even Messi Group was right next door to them. “Did you say Messi Group has booked the room next door? I’d be interested in meeting the big boss of Messi Group.  Like we discussed the other night, Mr Messi is going to be making quite a splash with the 5 star hotel starting to go up here in our City.  Our advertising and marketing arm of Watson Corporation could do well if we collaborate with them.  Sean, you could offer them your legal services and Sebastian, you could have your stars coming in from other cities stay there but get Messi Group to offer you a discount for the patronage you’d be offering them”, said Carter.  “Carter, let’s not bother Mr Messi tonight at his private function and let’s just have fun”, said Tyra as she sat on his lap and gave him a kiss on the lips.  She knew Carter very well, always looking for business opportunities and this was the reason that he was so successful. 

“Hey Tyra, we heard that you and Grace had a meet-up earlier this week.  Care to share anything useful on that hot babe”, asked Sebastian. Tyra looked at him and then at Sean and said, “Yes, we went for a long run along the beach, she pointed out the new apartment she bought and will be moving into and then we had a coffee together. Man, she has a smoking, hot body that puts me to shame.  The girl has some serious abs that had nearly every man turning around looking at her while we were running”.  Talk about Grace peaked both Sean and Sebastian’s attention.

“Uncle Sean, are you going to come with me on the dance floor soon?” Sean was not one that would usually be found on the dance floor, so he said to her “Just go with the girls, but keep away from any men with bad intentions.  I’ll keep an eye on you from up here. Your dad will have my head if anything happens to you”. Luana sighed and nodded.  In his eyes, she was always going to be a little girl. It didn’t matter because tonight she was going to party hard on that dance floor.

Sean and Carter left the room to go visit the bathroom. On the way back, they went past the private room being occupied by Messi Group.  The door was open and as they were walking past, they heard a familiar voice, more specifically, it was an Australian female accent that sounded like Grace. Carter and Sean stopped by the door and listened in.  They couldn’t see who was talking but could hear quite clearly.  “Hi Team, I want to thank you all for attending the Messi Group function tonight.  I want to extend a welcome to those of you that moved over from the Boston office and also a warm welcome to the new recruits. Thank you to my assistant Mara.  You are a god-send helping me with the move, recruitment and just about everything else I threw at you in the past few months. Tonight, let’s celebrate what we have achieved because it’s going to be a busy year with a few projects up our sleeve of which ‘Del Mare Hotel’ here in Straco City being the biggest project.  We have another 30 minutes in here before we can head down to the bar and dance floor.  Most of all, I want you all to have fun and be sure to use the cab vouchers I supplied to you all so that you get home safely”.  Everyone clapped and cheered at Grace’s speech.

Outside the door, Carter and Sean were shocked.  They only just came to realise that the ‘Mr Messi’ of ‘Messi Group’ was not a man but a very capable female by the name of Grace Messi. How had they not joined the dots. No wonder she’s been so busy.  Sean and Carter decided to head back to the VIP room and enlighten the others.