At Your Service

Morning After

'Kim, wake up!' An annoying voice called for my name.

I groaned and pulled the covers over my head, 'Di, I am going to kill you!'

My housemate only chuckled and walked to my drapes, pulling them open and letting the late morning sunlight in.

The light penetrated through the sheet I had over my head, hurting my eyes and causing the throbbing of my head to increase, 'I am going to kill you in your sleep!' I groaned as I pulled the sheet off my face and glared at her.

Diana, standing only in a pair of lace underwear rolled her eyes on me. 'Promises, promises. Come on, we are already late.'

I frowned at her, 'for what?' My hangover brain worked in slow motion.

'Seriously, Kim!' she folded her arms, it was her turn to glare at me. 'New sofas, ring a bell?'

'That's today?' I asked as I struggled to sit on my bed. 'Remind me not to drink ever again!'

Diana laughed, 'not going to happen. And yes, it's today, your day off. The only day that you and I can get things sorted out in this apartment of ours if we want to bring it back to the twenty-first century. I am giving you thirty minutes to get ready!' Diana started making her way out of my room, ducking the clumsily thrown pillow before she turned to my purse on the floor.

'Lookie here,' she reached down to collect it, removing the platinum card from my bag. Waving it, she raised her eyes to me. 'Exclusive membership from the newest and most expensive club in town?'

I shrugged and swung my legs down to stand up. The room was still going in circles around me. 'Yeah.'

'How were you able to get this? I hear there are some people who have made reservations months prior and they still couldn't make it through to the door, let alone get the Platinum card. You had to spend over a hundred thousand to get this baby right here.'

My eyes widened, 'how do you know that?' This was news to me. The card was handed over to me by Mas, telling me that it was from the owner. I had tried to refuse it but Mas would not hear about it, walking away after handing me the card.

Diana shrugged, 'the new surgeon at the hospital was talking about it. He is a Gold member, and only because he knows one of the owners.'

My interest piqued, 'he knows the owners? Can you please get me a name or something?'

Diana frowned, 'why?'

I shook my head, big mistake. 'f**k! s**t! Darn, alcohol can really ruin lives!' I placed my hands on my head, trying to stop the feeling of it being too heavy for my body.

'So, wait. Did you get this card without meeting the owners? How is that possible? The way Zander explained it is that you are called into the room with them, then they offer you the card according to your spending. Each card has a limitation, except for this baby right here. You can have as many people as you want with you and they will be covered.'

I reached for the card, my frown growing. 'And how much is the membership fee if I have to spend a hundred thousand just to get this?'

'You were not told?' Diana’s puzzlement was clear in her voice. “Just what did you do? Take your clothes off or something?”

“Ha, very funny.” I started shaking my head, only to stop myself, and said instead, 'no. I was handed this card by Mas, the front doorman who knows my name. I have never met the guy in my life but he knew me. And then once inside we were shown to a private VIP section where we were told all drinks were on the house.'

'Well,' Diana smirked as she folded her hands before her. 'Someone in that club must really like you!'

'That's why I need to know who owns the place! Please talk to your surgeon guy and ask him for me? I'll take you with the next time we go.'

Diana studied me for a few seconds before slowly nodding. 'I will do that. Twenty minutes!' she pivoted on her heels and left my room.

Running a hand through my hair and tying it up, I quickly made my way to the bathroom. Completing my morning ritual of brushing my teeth and a quick shower, I dressed in a simple flowery summer dress before making my way to the kitchen.

Diana was already there, a cup of tea in her hand. 'Your coffee is right there,' she pointed with her own cup.

'You are a lifesaver!' I attacked my cup, savoring the bitter taste of cheap coffee. 'So, where do we start?'

'I was thinking about the second-hand shop downtown. I saw something on their f*******: page that we might both like.'

'Downtown, huh?' I smirked at her. 'Is this an excuse to drive your gazillion-tone truck there? Just to show off?'

Diana laughed as she turned to the sink and rinsed her cup. 'Gazillion? And people downtown have bigger trucks than mine. And mine is not even a truck! It's an SUV!'

'Same difference,' I shrugged as I stood up from my chair and walked to the sink. Rinsing my cup real quick I wiped my hands and turned to her 'Well, driver. I am waiting.'

The drive downtown was not that long and soon enough we found ourselves at a huge second-hand shop for furniture. They had beautiful stuff. From rugs to coffee tables to sofas.

'Why didn't we know about this shop before we bought that squeaky old table?' I mumbled as my eyes took in the amazing stuff that could be found in there. 'Why would a person want to get rid of this?' My hand moved on the edges of a mahogany table.

'Because they found something better?' Diana laughed as she hooked her arm on mine 'Come on, we don't have all day, you know. I have night duty today.'

'While I will be at home watching movies!' I laughed at her murderous look. 'Ok, come on then.'

That is the difference between Diana and me. I would have taken my time checking things out, might have even walked out with something I really did not need. Diana was more precise, she knows exactly what she wants and goes straight to the place, with no stops on the way. When we reached the sofa section we were both taken aback at the selection.

'Are you sure this is a second-hand shop?' I mumbled to her through closed lips. The sofas that were in front of us were not only great looking, but they were also expensive looking.

Diana shrugged as she moved forward, running her hand on the back of a black-covered sofa. 'Gosh, it feels expensive as well!'

I walked forward and checked at the price tag. My mouth hung open for a few seconds, 'are you kidding me?' I turned it to Diana so she could also see it. 'With our current budget, we could replace all the furniture in our apartment if this is the price tag of everything here!'

Diana laughed, 'see, I told you this was a treasure!'

I looked around, skepticism written on my face. Spying a helper I walked to her, 'hi, I am Kim!' I offered her a hand.

She took it and smiled, 'I am Maureen.'

'So, Maureen, tell me what is wrong with all this furniture.'

She frowned with confusion. “What do you mean?”'

I hooked my arm around hers and made her follow me to the sofa that Diana was currently examining. 'Let's take for example this sofa right here. Excellent condition, good quality of material used and I can bet you it cost the person who bought it, an arm and a leg. And here you are selling it at,' I checked the price tag. 'Waaaaay below the thousands, it cost the poor guy.'

Maureen laughed, 'the person who owned that was not poor, I assure you. We get our furniture from people who think spending thousands of dollars on a rug is nothing, and we get most of them for a price that if I tell you, you will think I am kidding. We sometimes have to make a donation to a charity of their choice and we get all the furniture in their house! That said, the prices you see are correct and the sofas or any furniture you see here is of great quality with no hidden defaults.'

I smiled at her, 'well, I guess we better start shopping. We will be taking a sofa, or two as we can now afford it. Together with a nice rug, I saw at the entrance.'

'Oh, no, we are not!' Diana was up and pulling me away from Maureen as fast as she could. 'What are you doing?'

I shrugged, 'shopping! Come on, Di With the money that we had set aside for furniture we can afford to get three things in here. And you said it yourself that our apartment needs to get pimped. What better way than to get that fluffy-looking carpet?' I blinked at her 'Besides it being  a decoration, you can always look at it as a s*x surface.'

Diana rolled her eyes. 'I don't know why I bother arguing with you! You always talk rubbish.' Turning to Maureen who seemed to have turned as red as a tomato, she smiled, 'we will be taking the fluffy-looking carpet after all.'

That evening as I lay on one of our new sofas I could not help but smile. In the end, we did not only get two sofas but the carpet as well as the coffee table. Our old furniture had been collected for charity an hour ago.

Just as I was getting comfortable my mobile started ringing. 'Oh, come on!' I shouted to the empty room. 'Tyrell, this had better be good!'

'Hi to you too!' He said, sounding exasperated. 'Are you ever on f*******: these days?'

I frowned. Come to think of it, not really. I was more on i********:. 'What now?'

'Well, we have been invited to a party.'

I frowned. 'What do you mean? What party?'

Tyrell sighed. 'Read your inbox and let me know if we are going or not. It's in two hours.' He rang off.

I looked at my phone for a bit. What the hell is going on? I thought as I logged into my f*******: account. There I found one inbox message. Opening it, it was an invite to another opening of a sister club of the one we went to the night before, in a different state for that matter.

I quickly dialed Tyrell's number. 'What the f**k is this? And how do you know I got an inbox?”

'Because I got one too. So did Sam and Fred and Katie. This is a chance to rub shoulders with the rich and famous for another night.'

'You cannot be considering going!' I shouted at him. 'We have work tomorrow morning, remember?'

Tyrell laughed. 'I bet you never read the whole darn thing. They are taking us there and bringing us back.'

I shook my head. 'And do you know who they are? Or are you just going because you got an invite from a f*******: page?'

'I got a call as well. From a guy called Mas.'

I frowned, 'Mas called you?'

'You know him?' Tyrell asked, sounding excited. 

'No, I mean yes, kinda,' I ran a hand through my hair. 'He is the guy who let us in yesterday. What did he say when he called you?” 

“Only to be ready to go by seven. A car will come to pick us up. I am sure he'll call you next. The others are already getting ready.”

I sighed and shook my head. 'This is the making of a horror movie, I tell you! We will be kidnapped, our organs sold to the highest bidders, or worse it'll be like Hostel where we will be tortured for fun!”

Tyrell laughed, 'you are always so dramatic, Kim. Be ready by seven. I have to go. Baby wants some.”