Chapter 6 Special Services

• The final point was directly linked to the third matter I wanted to discuss.
• The third service, and the most profitable one at Saint Riveria Spa, was the massage and special services.
• Massage was just the regular kind, but the “special services” were jobs like Melanie's. Almost everyone who came to book a room here did it to hire a masseuse for the night.
• And this whole massage section was managed by Matthias. All the girls followed his orders and scheduling.
• Tigre told me that my job would be relatively laid-back—starting work at one in the afternoon and finishing around nine in the evening.
• There would be a front desk and attendants to handle room bookings. My main responsibilities were dealing with any issues the attendants couldn't handle and performing routine inspections to make sure the rooms were clean.
• After chatting for a while, Tigre looked at me with a grin.
• “Theros, you haven't eaten yet, have you? Normally, I'd take you out to celebrate your release today, but I've got something to take care of later.”
• As he spoke, Tigre opened his drawer, pulled out a stack of blue bills, and tossed them over to me.
• “Go grab something to eat yourself, then buy a phone. Use the rest however you need.”
• I stood there, a bit at a loss. “Mr. Hackett, I haven't even started working yet. I can't just take your money!”
• “Take it. Consider it a little gift from me. Do a good job from now on!” Tigre replied generously.
• I didn't refuse further. After all, I was flat broke. When I picked up the stack of bills and glanced at it, I realized it was a full thousand.
• Tigre's generosity was something else—that was a month's wages!
• “Theros, tomorrow morning, you and Matthias will go rent a place. If you run into any trouble, just let me know. In Dreamouth, Bronzestad, my word carries weight,” Tigre said proudly, handing me the cash.
• With a sense of admiration for Tigre's confidence and the cash in my hand, I couldn't help but feel like I had made the right choice by sticking with him. I was convinced that I'd eventually rise to the top one day.
• After thanking Tigre a few more times, I left his office. It was still early, so I put on the clothes Matthias had given me and headed out of the spa.
• I have to say, Matthias had great taste. The clothes he picked out fit me perfectly, especially the padded coat—it was much warmer than the one I had when I got out of prison.
• After a shower and a change of clothes, I looked in the mirror and—though not a stunning transformation—I definitely looked more put together.
• How would I describe my looks? Well, let's just say that at his peak, even the movie star Zac Efron was just a little more handsome than me.
• After leaving Saint Riveria Spa, I hailed a taxi and headed to a mobile phone store. With a stack of cash in my pocket, my steps felt a little more confident.
• When I entered the shop and saw the price tags on the phones, I was immediately stunned.
• The reason? I couldn't afford them.
• Despite having a thousand on me, phones were expensive back then.
• A Nokia 7610, for example, cost over three thousand.
• After some browsing, I ended up spending eight hundred on a black-and-white screen generic phone—and it was even second-hand.
• But it could make calls, send texts, and came with the game Snake, so it wasn't too bad.
• I bought a SIM card and installed it. The first thing I did was send a text to Tigre with my new number. After all, making a call in those days was way more expensive than sending a text.
• With just over one hundred left in my pocket, I decided to have a little fun. After all, I had been in prison for three years—I wasn't about to spend my first day out just sitting around.
• I asked someone for directions and eventually found a game arcade.
• Back in the day, many of my classmates would go crazy just to play the arcade machines.
• I was different, though—I never skipped school and would only go to the arcade during summer vacations.
• After all, I didn't want to spend the money that my aunt had worked hard to give me here.
• Now, things were different!
• I entered a place called Sea Arcade and went straight to the front desk to exchange ten in cash for game tokens.
• One got me eight tokens, so I ended up with eighty token in total. I was ready to play to my heart's content!
• I found an empty machine, lit a cigarette, and placed the small bucket of tokens on top of it. Just as I dropped a token into the machine, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
• I turned around and saw a stranger—probably in his thirties—with a buzz cut standing behind me, smiling.
• “Hey, man, looks like you've got a lot of tokens. Mind lending me a few to play?”
• I frowned and replied, “Dude, I don't think we know each other.”
• “Ah, come on, buddy. If you lend me a few tokens, we'll know each other soon enough! You've got so many, there's no way you'll use them all!” he said, reaching for my tokens without waiting for my permission.
• I grabbed his hand and glared at him, irritated. “Hey, don't push your luck!”
• Seeing that I wasn't backing down, the man's face darkened, and he snorted coldly.
• “Kid, I'm doing you a favor by asking for a few tokens. Don't act all high and mighty. If you p*ss me off, you'll regret it!”