The Girls Club (11 page)

Chapter 5

It was late morning when they got up.  Karen felt like her head was wrapped in a pillow case and Rochelle felt like she hadn’t been asleep at all.

“Here” she passed her a clean shirt, “Last nights shirt suffered some splash damage”

Karen wrinkled her face in disgust. 

“How’s your head?”

“Where it should be. More than I could say last night”

They got washed up and dressed, they thought they might as well have breakfast out.

Karen would never be able to fully articulate the way she had felt last night. Like an nameless object on the skin of the earth, between the devil and the deep blue sea.  Apples. She didn’t think she would ever eat an apple again.  Images of naked darkness and glowing teeth haunted her thoughts.  She knew one thing for sure, if Carolyn shafted her in her report she was apt to go ‘Demi’ on her arse.

“Wonder what Carolyn’s up to this morning” Rosh teased.

Karen made retching noises.  “I just hope whatever she’s doing she does it where the light of day can’t see her sin”

“What?”

“Nothing.”
As they left the apartment building the cutting wind had a very sobering effect on Karen.  Tonight.  Tonight with Miss Steiger.

And you feel like the inside of an astronauts space suit after a 14 hour space walk.

Her gibbering mind was certainly feeling eloquent this morning.  Best not to forget that her mind had given her the wonderful idea of administering the drug to herself.  Fucking trippy shit indeed.  Possibly ruined her shirt.  Worse still, might have put her in poor shape for tonight.

“Breakfast then new clothes” Rochelle had her by the arm and was hauling her down the street.  There was a news stand on the corner, her sluggish morning vision didn’t catch all the headline on the board but she knew a mental cue when she heard one.

There and gone.  She’d only caught one word. 

‘MUTILATION!’

What a way to start the day eh?  Quality headline.  Sure we don’t wanna go and check out the rest of the days news for the city of Angels?

That was a big fat ‘no thank you’.

They stopped at a deli and got breakfast rolls.  Munching them they window shopped at a few clothes stores.  Karen couldn’t decide on how she wanted to look for tonight.  Formal.  Casual.  ‘I don’t care about how I look but don’t I look hot?’, would have been closer to the mark she guessed.

Whatever was left of the pill she had taken was wearing off.  There was a mild under the skin crawling feeling that had remained with her all morning.  Odd but she didn’t remember feeling it until she’d seen the headline on the billboard.

“Are you going to get some new clothes or what? You don’t want to disappoint the luscious Miss Steiger?”

It got to midway through the afternoon before she had elected to purchase something.  Black Armani Jeans and a Pineapple shirt.  Just right she figured.  Not too flash but it would be obvious they had been purchased just for the occasion.

Rochelle drove her home and walked her back to her apartment.

At the door she hugged her again.  Rochelle was a simple gal who really enjoyed the simplest of things, “You going to be alright now?”

“Yeah. Thanks for looking after me. You’re just about the best friend I’ve made in a long time”

“Listen. Call me when you’re done. I want dirt!”

Rochelle left her and she went into her apartment.  She would have to get a wiggle on now, get showered up, make herself neat and tidy.  She didn’t do girlie things like make up and hair straighteners.  She did however believe in being well groomed.

Never again.  Apples are the Queens poison.

Gladly she showered and waited for her mind to return to normal.  Errant thoughts and garbled shite had flittered hither and yon all day.  Not that she blamed Rosh, she explained about the pill and in fairness, it was still her doing that she had taken it.

It was real.  It had been scary.  There had been a few moments when she had felt that the end was indeed fucking nigh.

Hang on?  Have we felt any bit nervous at all today about the ‘date’ with hot boss?

No.  Not one thing.  In fact.  She felt very much in charge of the situation.  Ready for anything.

It was getting time to shoot off and pick her up. 

Shirt buttoned?

Check.

Fly zipped?

Check.

Mobile phone?

Check.

Wallet?

Check.

Everything she needed.  All she needed now was her damn fine boss and a quiet corner.

The ride over to the bar was just enough time for her to start feeling a little nervous.  No trace left of the drug she had taken the night before.  A good thing really.  Having scatty nonsense thoughts when she were trying to be witty and winning wasn’t altogether easy. 

Stepping out of the cab she straightened out her shirt and put on her best strut as she entered the revolving door of the most interesting place she had ever worked.  She felt the game plan running as it should.  At the glass doors she stood and just looked at the woman waiting for her at the bar.  She was stunning!  Dressed in a black skirt and white silk shirt, her hair straightened and silken.  Karen didn’t think she’d be able to let her go on her date. 

Get it together.  Remember.  There are rules.  Only if she wants to.  And only then if she’s got time.  Love your friends.  Is there anything finer?

“Hiya”

Sarah spun round on her stool and Karen took an involuntary step back.  Her heart had double skipped.  This was so unfair.

“Hi Karen, here, grab these” she took the glasses of wine and followed Sarah over to the corner table.  From there they could take in the people passing too and fro and also talk in private.

Say something dammit!

“You look very hot tonight Miss Steiger”

You dog!  As if you’ve just said that!

Sarah smiled, “You look very nice too. New clothes?”

She noticed!

“Yeah. Me and Rochelle went shopping today. She showed me around a little. Pretty big place”

She took a sip of the wine.  Wine wasn’t really her thing at all.

“I know I haven’t had the time to put you fully in the picture. Heaven knows its hard sometimes to find a minute. What with work, the Chain, politics and stress”
“To the Chain” she raised her glass, Sarah clinked hers against it.

“You’ve taken this really well. I’m pleased. I worried that maybe it would all be too much, too fast. Incidentally, I’ve had Carolyn’s report. You are on your way up by all accounts. Congratulations, I remember you saying that she wasn’t something you were looking forward too”

Karen felt herself go red.

“Its alright. You did what you had to do. Hell. Even I had to once you know. You do what you have to. Get it?
You do what you have to!
”
There was hidden meaning to what Miss Steiger was saying.  Of that much she was sure.

“The ‘Demi’ thing. Unfortunate” Sarah studied the stem of her glass.

It wasn’t a ‘thing’, it was a person.

“Where there is passion and secrecy there’s always going to be risk and sometimes animosity. That’s why we have rules. There are things written down in files in the homes of some of the most powerful women in LA. Documents that exist because I helped write them. Image. Money. These things exist too,
but people are entitled to their privacy
”

She took a bigger gulp of the wine.  This felt so heavy.

“If there is someone on the Chain with a grudge or someone isn’t playing by the rules.  they have to be dealt with. There’s too much to lose. The rules are simple. Privacy.  Honesty. Keep the secrets of the Chain. If you have a beef with someone on the Chain you can request a fight”

Karen choked on her wine and started to cough.  Sarah came round and patted her on the back a few times.

“Does that surprise you?” she took her seat again.

“Well. Yeah. Fighting? Why? What good does that do” 

Sarah reached across the table and gripped her hand.  Karen felt roughly 100,000 volts of pure electricity rush into her body.

“If you let something slide it festers. Look at how Demi was in the end, she was crazy.  If she had requested a match and they’d have fought it out she’d have felt vindicated.  It would have been done properly, it would have been supervised. Rochelle wouldn’t have been jumped on like that. The Chain protects its weaker members. She could have nominated someone to go in her place.”

Karen looked over her shoulder to see if Elvis had just walked in. It wouldn’t be the strangest thing that had happened today.

“Listen”
Sarah shook her arm and gripped it tighter.

“If you’re gonna shoot for the moon remember this: if you rattle someone, be ready for the rebound. And, watch your back!”

A cold slab of marble rolled across her heart.  What the fuck was this she was hearing.  All this, this, garbage!  She’d tasted forbidden fruit and now,
now!,
was being warned of possible peril.

“Demi?”

“Forget about her. You won’t hear about it again.”
She felt frantic but was doing a pretty good job and looking collected on the surface.

“When you sent me to Prestons their receptionist said she’d left here in fear for her life!”

Sarah finished her wine. 

“And that’s all you should ever think of.”

Sarah looked a little scared.  But a little excited as well.

“Come on. I want to show you what you mean to me”

Karen followed her to the lift.  They were going upstairs. 

Isn’t this what you wanted? 

She wasn’t sure of that any more.  They rode in silence until the lift stopped.

“I knew you were for us from the start. Rochelle might have been badly hurt, or worse, if you hadn’t protected her from Demi.”

Boing!

The offices were empty and dark.  Sarah swished in her skirt, when she reached the corner she looked over at Karen who still stood at the lift entrance.

“Come on. I don’t bite” Teasing in her voice.  Karen just wanted to go home.  She’d talked about Demi like she was nothing more than a piece of meat.  Just how far did this madness go?

Well.  Look at it this way then.  She’d just more or less told you to forget about Demi.  All sounded fatally past tense to me.  If you piss her off you might find yourself, ‘leaving LA in fear for your life’.

Horse shit.

The pill.  That fucking pill.  This was more of that paranoid bullshit she was sure.  Pasting her best cheesy grin on she followed her boss down to the back office.  The den of inequity.  Where all crimes of passion were committed.

“It’s all very civilised. You’ll see. I’ve wondered about what it would be like since you got here. There’s a lot of pressure when you get higher up on the Chain. You can’t enjoy yourself. Starts to feel like business too much”

She hung up her silk shirt and Karen watched as she let her skirt fall, then she hung that up too.

“You’re my practice run. Later on I’m meeting the number 10. You’d know who she was if I was to tell you her name. She’s been a government official for many years.  Tonight she is flying to LA for a rest. Tonight if I rock her world I enter the realm of the elite.”

Karen remembered her secret weapon. 

Feel don’t think.

Her boss wanted a practice session.  Fine.  Sure.

Ever since you clapped eyes on this nubile female flesh you’ve wanted to get to know her more intimately.  Take it.  Its yours.  Whatever might have happened to Demi might not have even had anything to do with her.

It was an uneasy peace but she relaxed a little and undid her own shirt.  Sarah hopped up on the table.  It was her turn to watch.  Karen let Sarah do as she pleased.  Then Karen gave her the best of her new found abilities.  There was no rush for Karen.  Seeing a little something green under the veneer had done that to her.  It had been agreeable enough, but Karen’s heart hadn’t been in it.  Something about Miss Steiger had come across real ugly all of a sudden.