(A brief disclaimer: The Ocean Club in this story should in no way be confused with the One and Only Ocean Club, and this story in no way represents any events, occurrences, or incidents at the One and Only Ocean Club, nor is it intended to represent the behaviors, inclinations or proclivities of the One and Only Ocean Club's guests. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.)
Postmarked February 16th, 2009
Front:
A picture of an idyllic white sand beach at sunset, the waters tinted the same glorious shades of orange and red as the clouds. A few palm trees stand in the background, and a few happy couples watch the sun disappear below the horizon. At the bottom, a legend reads, "Paradise Island--The Closest To Heaven You'll Find On Earth".
Back:
Dear Beverly,
Having a wonderful time. Wish you were here.
Hugs,
Tiffany
*****
Postmarked February 18th, 2009
Dear Beverly,
Sure, it was mean, but I couldn't help myself. After all, you were the one who was saying, "Oh, you should just take the cash value of the prize, Tiff! You had your cell phone shut off last month, you had to move back in with your terrible aunt, and you can't afford to jaunt off to the Bahamas, even if the trip is all-expenses paid!" So you'll understand if I decided to tease a bit before giving you all the juicy details. (And don't think I don't totally know you were just saying that because your job was keeping you too busy to take the second ticket. You know you'd be right here with me if you could. I'm still bummed out about that, you know. I mean, it's nice to have handy studliness whenever the urge strikes, but Ethan's nowhere near as much fun to hang out with as you are. He's well-endowed in a lot of attributes, but conversation isn't one of them.)
My aunt said the same thing you did, by the way (the meanest thing I can say to anyone!) She heard the cost of the travel package, and she was all, "Cash that puppy in! Spend a weekend in Miami if you need to waste time at the beach!" But I am so glad I stuck to my guns--this is a once in a freaking lifetime experience! We're not talking about a week at the Hilton, here. This is an all-expenses paid two week vacation at the Ocean Club--and I gotta tell ya, Bev, the words "all-expenses paid" take on a whole new meaning at a place like this. We have our own butler. Seriously, our own butler, on call 24/7. We say "More champagne, please!" and he says, "Yes, Madam." I'm actually being called "Madam" by someone, and without the words, "Could you please be a bit quieter?" after it!
This place is so awesome you wouldn't even begin to believe it, Bev. My nicest outfits barely qualify as casual-wear here. I've seen five actual movie stars--and I'm not talking washed-up actors or guys that you maybe saw on TV once, I'm talking actual bona fide "Oh my god is that Tom Cruise?" type movie stars. This is the kind of place that royalty rents out when they go on vacation. (And I'm not just saying that, by the way. I actually had lunch with a Duchess yesterday. I only ordered a salad so I wouldn't embarrass myself by using the wrong fork.)
We're eating five-star cuisine, Ethan's playing nine holes of golf every day, and I'm blissfully tanning and swimming and snorkeling my brains out. And then at night we hobnob with the rich and famous. Well, I do. Ethan's so totally star-struck that he's coming across like a total twerp, while I have managed to remain suave and calm and talk to them like it's no big deal and I meet big celebrities all the time. Is it wrong of me that I've started ditching him?
I promise I'll write more later.
Hugs,
Tiffany
*****
Postmarked February 21st, 2009
Dear Beverly,
I know, I know, what's the point of writing letters when you're on vacation if you get back before the letters do? Why not use the free wi-fi Internet access, or the free long-distance phone service? Because this is a vacation, honey, and it is one hundred percent traditional when on vacation to take the phone off the hook, let the mail pile up (the email, too), and ignore the rest of the world until it's time to get back on the plane and force yourself back to real life. (I don't know how I'm going to get by without a butler. You laugh, but once you've gone butler-y, you can never go back. Maybe I can press a homeless person into service or something.)
So that's why I haven't called. But I had to write you to tell you about the most unbelievably awesomest awesome thing to happen on this vacation. You know Camille Rothschild? (See, this is the advantage of writing a letter to you about this. I can skip all the parts where you act all nonchalant and pretend not to know who she is, when we both know full well she's one of the richest and most eligible heiresses in the world and she's got her own line of clothes and she's going to inherit a whole vastly huge business empire and you read about her in the tabloids all the time, and then I point that out to you, and you try to insist that you don't read that stuff and I have to go into your bedroom and grab one out and wave it at you triumphantly. This way is much easier.)
Anyway, she's totally hanging out with me!
I will now pause for your squeals of jealous delight. Okay, pause over. I'll tell you how it happened.
I was out dancing the other night--I have by now almost completely ditched Ethan, by the way, and I think he's actually screwing one of the maids. How skanky is that? You come to the height of the upper class, the place where the rich go to get away from it all, and you wind up schtupping one of the maids when she comes in to tidy up. Ugh. I mean, I'm not angry or anything, Ethan and I weren't ever exclusive and I'd never thought of him as much more than "cock of the hour", but still, tacky much?
Anyhow, I was dancing, and drinking, and putting it all on the club's tab because hello, all expenses paid, and I was feeling absolutely no pain because they do these awesome martinis here (it's so totally awesome drinking a martini here, I feel like a female James Bond.) And then I stepped off the dance floor, and I suddenly realized that I was having too much alcohol and dancing and not enough water and stretching, because all of a sudden my legs cramped up so bad I literally fell over.
And this girl spotted me, and ran over, and she was like, "Oh, are you all right?" And I was gritting my teeth, and I was trying to stand but it just was not happening, but I was being all stoic and saying, "Oh, I just over-exerted myself a bit, it's just a bit of cramp."
So she said, "Here, let me try to help," and she stretched me out and started trying to massage my legs back into shape. And that's when I recognized her. If it wasn't for the pain, I would have totally freaked. Camille Rothschild, girl with her own brand of perfume and more jets than I have dresses, is giving me a massage! Suave and calm has its limits, and that would have been mine if my legs hadn't been distracting me.
But the massage wasn't doing any good--and that's not a knock against her. Her hands felt damn good, and she was really working her way up and down my legs, but my muscles were knotted up good and tight and they had no interest in letting go. But this is where it gets truly awesome. Camille recognized me from the Ocean Club! She had her chauffeur (Ooh, chauffeurs! I might need a whole staff of homeless people!) pick me up and help me into the car, and we drove back to her villa at the club.
And oh my god, if you think the rooms are swanky here, you can't even imagine the villas! This is like a four bedroom house in the middle of a luxury resort, and it's all Camille's! I haven't asked her how much a night it is, because rich people don't do that (and no, I'm not pretending to be rich. She knows I won this trip, and she's totally cool with that.) But I looked it up online, and she's spending a cool ten grand a night for this place. She doesn't use the resort staff, either. She has her own private butler (is it still a butler if it's a woman? Does it become a butler-ette or something?), and her own private chauffeur (chauffeuse? Camille doesn't have any guys on staff. Me, I'd have a hard time resisting having some eye-candy around, but I guess she wouldn't have a problem whistling up men when she needs to.)
And most importantly for purposes of this anecdote, her own private masseuse. I thought I was getting good massages at the spa, but this woman had my muscles melting like butter. Seriously, after five minutes I was totally limp, like a ragdoll made of wet cardboard crossed with a boneless kitten. I barely even remembered who I was, let alone where. Those cramps didn't stand a chance.
And after that, we chatted a little. Then we chatted a lot more. Camille thought it was really neat that I'd won this trip, and she agreed with me that Ethan was a total punk, and we totally bonded complaining about guys and how we wished that we could get all the fun of being fucked without the hassles of dealing with them. And the whole time, her masseuse (Andrea, her name turned out to be) was just working away at my muscles until I was tingling all over.