by Andrew Miller TBW Smith Jones Wallace Broadbent and Ndimande is an agency in crisis. Their ‘basket of boutique services’ strategy has bombed. Only a massive new project can keep the doors open – all eyes are now on the corporate tent at Mangaung. Far in the background, an emergency replacement executive PA with decades of experience makes important decisions. Interns rise, board members take unexpected steps and things begin to change…
Prospects of romance recede all round while a foot bleeds and a white boy ponders the absence of venac in his life…
The Gate Keeper (Chapter 9: In which situations don’t quite pan out)
He was surprised, intrigued and yes, a little disappointed to note that the fresh young one had chosen not to overnight at The Cradle Five Star Accommodation within the Springbok Lodge conference venue. No one, in fact, from the strat team had chosen to overnight, which, again, He found strange. They would be getting up at three in morning to make the 7:30 start time. All of which left Him swimming through the lush facilities alone for the entire night. He flashed a sophisticated smile at the waitress – who ducked neatly and professionally – and ordered another whiskey. Sometimes you just couldn’t tell.
He spent as much time as He could at the restaurant, forcing the Chef out the kitchen for a chat and generally intimidating the help by interrogating them as to their Mandela Day activities, and then stumbled off to His room, where he flicked through the channels and the mini bar until He passed out with the remote on his chest and His glass broken in pieces on the floor.
