Young and Curious

“Cruche des Abeilles Dorées,” Nero felt the need to reiterate when they alighted the taxi and gawked at the magnificent structure in front of them.

“Oh, it’s gold, alright,” Jessie nodded. Vince, who stepped out last, struggled with his shoe stuck in a pocket of the taxi before finally tugging free.

“Whaddya think?” Nero nodded to Vince toward the building. He just shrugged.

“Well, it looks just as it does in the ad, so…”

“Awesome, right?” Nero helped him finish. 

“Yeah.” Vince shrugged again. “Awesome.” It seemed the longer he looked at the building, the more appreciative he became of the building’s beauty. They advanced together into the gates of the building and presented their IDs to the hotel security.

A bald man in a suit wearing dark shades interrogated them briefly.

“You’re here for…?” he asked them.

Nero looked at the shirt he was wearing and looked into the hotel, where he could see other people wearing similar shirts moving freely within the premises. He looked back at the security officer, who was still staring at them.

“Ummm…where they’re headed?” he tried sarcastically, nodding toward the people inside.

“Well, where are they headed?” he imposed further.

“The seminar. Brumideheid hall. Fifth floor. ‘Control Your Financial Future Early.’ We’ve been looking forward to it,” Jessie interrupted the two, who were almost into a stare-down. The man eased up and let them through.

“I wonder why he’d ask that. There are people wearing these Ts literally crawling all over the place,” Nero quizzed when he thought he was out of earshot.

“Protocol, kid!” the voice boomed behind them, making them jump. He continued, “I forgot to frisk you.” He took a garret and swished the device through the three guests. “All clear,” he said when he was done.

“Okay? Can we go now?” Nero asked, unsure of what to do.

“Yeah, sure, sure. Just…stay out of trouble,” the man cautioned and turned away back to his post at the gate.

“When he says it like that, it kinda makes me want to do something troubleworthy,” Jessie giggled.

“Well, I don’t want to push it,” Nero stated pointedly.

“Me neither,” Vince agreed.

The further they went, the more impressed Vince seemed to become with the place.

“Guys, look! There’s an actual golden accented mirror on the entire ceiling!” He pointed up. Apart from a few mundane things he had been calling their attention to, this one was a pretty unique sight. They indulged in their reflections from such an odd angle for a while before entering one of the elevators with some other attendees.

“Boy, I can’t wait to get all the life-changing information from this seminar!” Jessie exclaimed in excitement.

“You do know that it’ll take the proper application of the principles and patience for the results to be fully evident right?” Vince asked with a cock of his left eyebrow.

“However long it takes, Vincie, it’s still gonna be something special for me.”

“Never call me that again,” he ground out, even though the crimson color on his cheeks said all but the fact that he hated the name.

“It’s actually not a bad nickname,” Nero adjusted his glasses. “In fact, I think that if Jessie sticks with this one, maybe she’s started developing feelings for you this time.”

The rouge shade on his face was undeniable now.

“Stop,” he warned.

Before Nero could continue making him uncomfortable, the elevator doors opened, ushering them into the hallway. Everything was accented gold. The hotel claimed to use actual gold, but everyone knew that most of it was fake. Only a few things contained actual gold in them. The rest was d****, but it’s not like anyone really cared anyway.

They made their way to the doors of the Brumideheid hall only to find the sign ‘opens by 4 p.m.’ boldly written on a placard and hung securely on the door knob. On the bottom of the sign was the same logo that was boldly printed on their green T-shirt. It was of a person clutching notes of cash that spilled from his body and onto the floor, all silhouettes in a much lighter shade of green to contrast the deep green that was the shirt’s background color.

“Are you kidding!?” Jessie scoffed. “It’s a six-hour seminar!”

“That means we’d be through by 10 p.m.,” Nero expatiated.

“Not cool, Green Bill Holdings,” Vince shook his head in disappointment at the company, but his face lit up again. “Hey, guys, why don’t we take our time to explore the place? We’d probably never be here again till we’re rich and all, so…” he cued

“I’m in,” Nero said, adjusting his glasses and scanning the ceiling for his reflection. “We have three hours to kill. I’m not gonna spend it here, sitting ducks.”

“Exactly,” Jessie said. “Where do we go first?” she asked the boys with her arms akimbo.

“Let’s just work the ground up,” Vince suggested, and they stuck to the plan.

By the third floor, they were already drunk with hallucinations about having affiliations with anything they saw. There was just so much to want. So much that the hotel made it seem like a necessity even though it wasn’t.

For instance, apart from the ceiling mirror that they still hadn’t gotten over, there was a golden strip on the floor that connected every major entrance to all the elevators on the floor. There was a similar silver strip that connected the stairwell. Given how large the place was, it was much appreciated. There were also living lounges on literally every floor, displaying luxurious pieces of furniture that you could indulge in for a break. On the fourth floor, there were two of those lounges.

On every floor – at least, the ones they had been to, there was a dispenser that dispensed the most ridiculously delicious fruit juice they had ever tasted.

“Oh my God,” Vince mused on the third floor after his fourth cup of fruit juice. “If I have to wait till midnight to attend this seminar, I would. I need to get rich enough to frequent this place.”

“Right!? This tastes like literal gold!” Jessie exhaled in awe. She was still on her first cup since the first floor, treating the drink like that was the last available life source on a dilapidated dystopian planet. Nero just nodded in agreement. He still had a mouthful and was busy casually swirling the liquid around his mouth.

“I’d be here at least once a week,” Vince promised himself. “There’s no way anyone can get used to this lush lifestyle.”

“Hey, slow down, dude. We’re just drinking tropical fruit juice here,” Nero laughed at his friend’s wistful thoughts.

“You can get used to this life, Vince. We just have to own it,” Jessie inputted. “All we have to do is talk to the manager and ask him how much a service room costs for yearly rent,” she smiled.

“I don’t think it works like that, Jessie,” Nero said.

“Really? They can rent it out for a few days, maybe some weeks, but a year is too much. Doesn’t sound smart if you ask me.”

“Well, technically, you can rent it for a year, just not under permanent accommodation terms. Talk more like lodging…but for a very long time…”

“Oh…Oh well, I’ll just ask for the contact details of the construction company that built this place, then have him construct my own condo. Just like this one…just…you know…mini everything,” Jessie swirled around on that statement.

Nero just shook his head. “I’m surprised none of you mentioned anything like owning an establishment like this. I mean…do you know how much the owner of this place makes in a day!?”

“More than our monthly pay combined?” Vince tried. Nero shook his head and pulled out his mobile phone.

“Double that? No, triple it,” Jessie answered.

“The Cruche des Abeilles Dorées makes an average of $567,009 every day,” he quoted proudly. Their jaws dropped. 

“Exactly. It must have cost a fortune to build this, but the rewards are already starting to show,” Nero said and looked at the place with a sense of respect. “When I can, I’d build something like this, maybe smaller for a start, but no less luxurious. People will pay once they get the slightest inkling that they will be getting anything more than the comfort of their regular home. That’s the critical selling point here.”

“Hey, guys, these placards read that there’s a free food testing in the kitchen today by exactly this time,” Vince called their attention.

“Come on,” Jessie pried both their hands in the direction of the elevator. “Kitchen’s down that way.”

When they got to the kitchen, they were surprisingly some of the only few people that were in for the free food tasting.

“Who in their right mind ignores a food test?” Nero asked in exasperation and soon understood why. There were three new dishes being launched. They were each given only morsels of the sample products and asked obtrusively invasive questions. The couple on the right from them had no issues answering the questions, but they got too queasy and abandoned the test together.

They then arrived, after several twists and turns and elevator rides, to the game room.

“I’ve never played a better Battle Royale in my entire existence,” Vince praised.

“It’s an 8k Q-led smart TV. The best in the market,” Nero said as they rapidly tapped the controllers to control their avatars. “The theater has an epiphany.”

“Ohhh! Let’s go see!” Jessie squealed and tried dragging the boys, but Nero shook himself off while Vince let her hold on to him.

“Restricted access to lodgers only,” Nero apologized.

“Awwww,” Jessie whined. She watched them play for a while before getting bored. Suddenly, her eyes lit up again.

She called them in a sly tone, dragging the word too long. “Guys?” 

“I know that sound, and I don’t like it,” Vince laughed.

“Guuuyyyysss!”

“Stop ‘guysing’ us, demon! Be gone with you!” Nero joked.

“Let’s play hide and seek,” she divulged.