“Thank you so much!”

“My pleasure.”

Once I’d had my fill of that room, I reached out and pulled the fresh water and bathrobe in, changing before heading towards a door labelled “Meditation Room.” Sonia took my old bathrobe away before I entered.

Inside was a row of five contoured loungers, their surface made up of tiles less than an inch across.  Soft music played over speakers as invisible as the ones in the hub, combined with birdsong.  As I listened the track faded out and something that I assumed was whale song gradually faded in seamlessly.

Lights slowly changed colors, illuminating the mosaic art on every wall and breathing a new kind of life into it with every new shade.  I couldn’t fathom how much painstaking effort it must have taken to create this room alone.

I had my doubts about how comfortable the loungers would be though, being made of hard tiles and all, but as I gingerly positioned myself, those doubts were dispelled.  It was almost as if every contour was made for me, and the tiles were heated too.  I was comfort personified.

My thoughts drifted randomly until I heard something in the music that wasn’t so relaxing.  After a few moments I realized it was my own light snoring.  My eyelids fluttered open and I glanced from side to side, relieved to find that I was still alone.

I slid my feet off the side of the lounger and hopped to the floor, surprised at how incredibly refreshed I was.  Now I could understand what Thomas meant when he said people could spend a lifetime here.

Considering how wide-awake I felt, I worried that when I opened the door I’d find that it was already night time and I’d missed another interview with Jace, but everything looked the same when I squinted out at the brighter light of the hub again.

Everything except one detail.  There was a woman who looked to be in her late twenties helping herself to some of the food on the table, and talking a mile a minute to the man there.  Her face lit up when she saw me.

“There she is! Hi, Kendall!”

“Uh… hi.  Do I know you?”

The woman put down her plate and glass of Champagne before quickly walking towards me with her high-heels tock-tocking on the ground.

“No, but you will! I’m Beth!” She grasped my hand and pumped it up and down enthusiastically.

“Nice to meet you,” I said.  “Do you work here too?”

“Me? Nooooo.  I’m your assistant for this afternoon, we’re going to have so much fun!”

“Assistant? What… what would I need an assistant for?”

Beth’s smile grew to a point where I thought I might have to call the Guinness Book of World Records.  She held her hands out to each side as she twinkled her fingers and leaned back a bit, as if what she was about to say needed that little bit more room between us to fit it.

”Shopping!” she squealed.

Chapter 12

Kendall

After a massage from a woman who looked like she could lift me over her head and tear me into two pieces, my ears were almost ringing from all the cracks and pops she managed to stretch and pull out of my joints.  Combined with the various saunas, I was feeling more limber and alert, yet relaxed, than I had in, well, ever, actually.

I needed it, because spending time with Beth was like being driven around with a tornado.  She had something to say about everything, and opened the fresh bottle of Champagne in the back of Thomas’ limo within seconds of entering it.  To my amazement, the dome light I’d shot with the cork earlier had either been fixed, or we were in an entirely new car now.

“You’ve really never heard of me?” asked Beth, pouring me a glass.

“Really, no.  Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.  You will next year, I’m getting my own show.  ‘Beth Knows Best,’ has a nice ring to it, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s great.  What’s the show about?”

“This.” She gestured at me, herself, the car, everything in general.  “It’ll be about me taking the rich and/or famous out shopping and finding all the best stuff.  We’ve got three episodes in the can already.  I can’t tell you who’s in those episodes, but like omigod it’s so fantastic!”

“Congratulations.” I clinked glasses and took a sip while she downed half of hers.  “What are we doing? This isn’t on TV, is it? Like… you don’t pay for things as part of the show, do you?”

“Me? No, are you crazy? Haha! I almost forgot.  This is safer in your hands than in mine.”

Beth reached inside her purse and, with an introduction like that, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she pulled out a gun or something.  Instead, it was a credit card of some kind.  She handed over the little piece of black plastic.

“The limit on this card is so high that, for all intents and purposes, there is no limit.  I mean, if we hit a million dollars then I’ve let the bubbly go to my head, know what I mean?”

“A… a million dollars?”

“Yeah, but we can do everything I’ve got planned and have blast for six figures,” said Beth.

“S-six figures?” I shook my head before I transformed into a parrot completely.

“Oh yeah.  When Mr.  Barlow contacted me and said you seemed like you hadn’t been in Port Magnus very long, but he wanted you to have the works, I knew just what to do.  We’re going to a beauty salon that a friend of mine owns.  Honestly, she’s a goddess with make-up, what she can’t do can’t be done.  She’s got the best, the best, team in the country for everything else too.”

It wasn’t long before I was sitting in a chair, staring at myself in a mirror surrounded by lightbulbs, being poked and prodded by a woman named Becky who spoke almost as quickly as Beth.  I could only follow about half of what they were talking about, with all the beauty-jargon they used.

My heart was racing with nerves, and a fair amount of excitement too.  I’d never done much with my hair, just tidied it up a bit every now and then, and I’d never used much make-up.

“Mmmm, that’s divine, what are you wearing?” asked Becky.

“Uh… a shirt and…”

“No, your perfume.”

“Oh, that’s from AquaVell, the masseuse used some kind of aromatic oils.”

“Ah, AquaVell, of course.  Their own stuff, nobody knows where they get it from.  Smell her, Beth, you know what I’m thinking would go with this?”

Beth leaned in and they both inhaled me like I was a flower before looking at each other in agreement.

“Grand Extrait!” they chorused.

Becky knelt by the side of my chair and tilted my head every which way with gentle pressure on my chin, inspecting how I looked with light coming from different angles I guessed.

“Wow, honey, your skin is flawless.  Look at her bone structure, Beth, you see? Why are you hiding under this mop?”

I shrugged.  There wasn’t enough time in the day to go through all the reasons.  Because I didn’t know what to do with it for one, because hiding had always been the path of least pain for another.  Becky stood and moved behind me, running her fingers through my hair, draping some over her hand like a bolt of cloth for a project she was considering, and inspecting the tips.

“Well, it’s healthy, thick, and long at least.  That’s more than you can say for most people.  We can work miracles with that.  Do you trust me, Kendall?”

I looked at all the pictures on the wall of celebrities and random beautiful women posing with Becky along with notes thanking her.  Then I looked back at myself, the same scared small-town girl I’d always seen in every mirror my whole life.  I gulped.

“OK.  I trust you.”

That trust was immediately shaken when Becky took me to a private room and the first item she unveiled from her grand plan was for me to have a Brazilian wax.  I almost ran for the hills, but she did a remarkable job of lying about how much it would hurt, and how it was all part of her head-to-toe service.