The Club (Ruby Rose fanfic)

TWENTY-THREE (Ruby P.O.V)

"What do you think?" I ask while fixing the collar of her shirt carefully.

"You're very good at this... but why am I shocked? You're a Hollywood star... of course you're a good stylist. It's just that... this looks like a professional work. If you get bored of acting or modelling, you could earn a good living advising people with no sense of style like me."

I smile flattered when hearing her praises while we both stare at Iselen's reflection in the huge mirror of her bathroom in the Club. When I arrived at the usual time to have lunch with her in the pool terrace I found her office was a mess. Several dresses were wrinkled on the couch, shoes and bags scattered around on the rug, pants piled up on a chair and my girl was sitting on the floor in front of her closet surrounded by shirts... she seemed totally lost and about crying.

"Babe, what's wrong? Have a bomb gone off in your closet?" I asked shocked while picking up from the floor a long dark blue dress covered in white pearls, with long sleeves and asymmetrical cuts on the neckline. "Wow, this is gorgeous, where did it come from? I really like it." Iselen stared at me baffled for a few seconds before answering.

"It's a dress by Ana Locking, a Spanish designer... but it's too much for tonight I think..."

"Why? What's happening tonight?" My girl stared at me but I think she was actually lost in though and wasn't really aware that I had walked into her office till she blinked suddenly coming back to reality and got closer crawling very fast.

"Help me, Mistress, please..." she begged while looking at me desperate kneeled down between my legs.

"Of course but you're scaring me. Come on, we'll sit down on..." I realized that there were clothes all over the couch. "On the chairs... and you'll explain me what's happening."

"It's a Super Friday..." Iselen let out before drinking a big gulp of water from a bottle that was on top of a stack of files. It was my turn to stare at her totally lost.

"Care to elaborate?"

"Sure, Carlin..." I rolled my eyes amused, I've heard that OITNB joke a hundred of times before. "Look, this is the list of tables booked tonight in the Club: some people will have dinner and some others just drinks but one thing's for sure... all those members will be gathered in the main hall before midnight." I grabbed the list still confused and focused on reading... I opened my eyes wide in shock and started to understand the problem. "It happens once or twice a year purely by chance, this isn't a planned meeting or a party, and depends on various factors: the stock market is calmed so CEOs of big companies and wealthy financiers have free time, there aren't political scandals or an important vote in Washington and several members of the Senate and Congress come back to their houses in the West Coast for the weekend and have some fun, several important film shoots have ended but there aren't major Hollywood productions starting soon and the stars of the industry have a couple of weeks off and there's not a large-scale event or award ceremony in LA this weekend... That's why all of them: the wealthiest men, the most powerful politicians, the most talented actors, the most beautiful models... everybody who is anybody in town, and in this country, is going to be here tonight in my Club."

"I understand. There'll be a ton of VIPs in the main hall having dinner before everyone goes to the private room they've booked or to the pool to keep dancing and drinking... I fail to see what the problem is."

"My uncle always went downstairs to greet them on such occasions because it was the best moment to have a small talk according to him, make new friends and useful contacts. All those important people, gathered together in one place, it only happens when we hold a big ass party but they're usually busy having fun and don't want to talk about business. However during a Super Friday, my uncle wandered around greeting people sitting at the tables and the bar stools, talking to everybody and gossiping a little, he played the matchmaker introducing an investor to a politician if he believed they'd get on well and could make some profitable business, or he introduced the editor of a magazine to an aristocrat whose daughter was an Instagramer and aspiring top model taking advantage of daddy's name... Members of this Club owe a lot of favours to the manager and they respect us for that reason and not only because we have their membership card in our hands. This is how this place has survived all this time off the grid... everybody benefits enormously and they protect the Club in order to keep making business inside this building."