I have had the exact same issue in all my playthroughs. Never able to talk to Kate about Thomas.
What is the random encounter with the soldiers? The handjob scene during the serving game does appear.
I attached my saves. No mod used. I did use the in-game cheats, but it also happened to me before without using them.
In this playthrough I did use a save editor to bring Kate's earned money to 0 - she was earning too much. Again, still happened to me without cheats.
I'm curious to what the solution or problem is!
I tried with your save, I have ntr enabled but I avoid it if I can (In earlier playthroughs it fucked up the game)
The MC watched Kate and Thomas sex scene and didn't like it. I tried waiting until she went to bed, to discuss it but she went to sleep. So I tried again the next night, screwed up the serving game and when I went to spy on them I got this
View attachment 1406544
I don't think this is supposed to happen. (I helped Claire in the Kitchen already) so I was ok to be there. You may have to watch a few more times until the MC starts to enjoy it but I don't know.
So maybe somebody better tuned to the game knows more than me and can help
Kate will interact with customers in the bar, I got this shot!
View attachment 1406523
Okay guys: So the problem with the MC saying he has to get out of the hallway is due to the fact that Toren & Co. are in their room, and they would be suspicious if MC was wondering around outside their room. So that's not a bug.
Also, it's clear that the MC has already made the deal with Thomas to allow him to punish Kate in exchange for MC staying in the guest room for free. So doing the kitchen work with Claire is unnecessary.
I'm not entirely sure why the MC isn't given a chance to talk to Kate about Thomas, but there are a couple things to bear in mind:
1) Since the random encounter with soldiers (the handjob scene) appears, then it's clear the Talk about Thomas has been somehow bypassed, because the random encounter is supposed to be possible only after the Talk about Thomas.
2) It's possible, though I'm not 100% sure, that stopping Thomas from blackmailing Kate, and then allowing him to punish Kate in exchange for a free room, bypasses the whole Talk about Thomas. MC seems to have already decided he doesn't like it, by the fact that he made Thomas stop blackmailing Kate in the first place.
I suggest starting over, and letting her fail serving games and be blackmailed by Thomas. If you do it this way, then my guess is that during the second time Thomas blackmails Kate into sex, that is when the MC can decide if he likes it or not, and then can have the Talk about Thomas with Kate when she goes to her bed. I'd guess that if you have the Talk about Thomas, you can no longer stop Thomas from blackmailing Kate, so no free room option will appear; but maybe you could give it a shot, after completing the "Talk about Thomas" with Kate.
Hope this helps.
i tried to send the save files
Yes, I figured as much, but it didn't work. Best to try attaching them together as one zip file.