Malaking Suso Resort and Spa
By CNP
Commissioned by CJ
Day 1, Part 2: Drop Off
Where had he gone? Had she fallen asleep on the table?
There was a knock on the door
“You have good massage? You relax now?” Baya asked as she came into the room before Meredith had time to cover her pale chest.
“Good massage. Yes. Relax. No.” Meredith answered. Cringing at her broken English response and that she’d slipped that she’d enjoyed the massage. Had she? Meredith battled with her own thoughts as she hurried to cover herself in front of the other woman.
“Oh, good you have good massage! Bad you no relax! That no good. You need relax! We fix that! You no worry! Come with Baya!” The short woman said grabbing Meredith by the hand no sooner than she had put back on her bra.
“Wait! My clothes!” She protested.
“Is no problem! Here!” Baya said pulling a robe from a nearby drawer. It was made of the same white fluffy material as the towel. “You no worry about clothes. I take care of. You in spa! Come on! Time for next part of total package! Here, put on sandals too!”
Meredith did as she was told and followed the younger woman. It didn’t make sense to fight her on the issue. She was just trying to do her job.
Whoever the girl’s trainer was, though, clearly was lacking in capability. Meredith made a mental note to talk to a manager about it when she got the chance. She also made a note to be sure to hold the slight against her husband when the time came. It wasn’t his fault, per se. But certainly, if he was hoping to cloud her judgment in whatever he was trying to get her to agree to, she would be sure to remember the black mark.
“Come! Come! Now time for salon! New makeup! Look good to feel good.” Baya said wagging her finger again.
Meredith just let her eyes roll. “I don’t really want a makeover. Can’t I just sit by the pool and relax?”
“Good! You want relax!” Baya said, stopping. “You sure you don’t want go salon now? Feel good when look good. Is already paid for, part of total package!” Again with finger wag.
“I’m sure.” Meredith said with confidence.
“Okay. No problem! I just show you salon now in case you change mind later. Is on way to pool. Okay?”
“Fine.”
It wasn’t a far walk to the salon. Baya held open a heavy door to building.
It was noticeably sturdier than the rest of the resorts structures. Though, it was still of the same style. If Meredith was just looking at it from afar she might not have noticed how thick the walls were.
Inside was two wide rows of expensive beautician’s chairs. A good three quarters of them were full. And for each patron in a chair there were three beaticians. One doing hands, another doing feet, and the last alternating between makeup and hair.
None of them looked up as Baya held the door open for her. “You change your mind is no problem! We come back here anytime! I do great mani!” She said, beaming.
It was the first time Meredith had seen any of the spa’s other patrons. For once she was thankful that she was never big into being made up having a perm. The din from the bunch of female nattering nabobs being made over was too much for her.
Something about nasally high pitched ditzy giggles drew an anger inside of Meredith like she’d not felt since primary school. She sneered at one of the platinum blondes tittering away to her attendants at her chair before turning to look at the rest of the room.
A few of the patrons had ridiculous color jobs. A few bright blues and one even had a cotton candy pink dye.
Nearly all of the attendants had bold hair colors. Vibrant blues, reds and purples, mostly. One even had an oil slicked mane.
Meredith frowned when she spotted a stylist with dark crimson hair. She had always preferred that look to the stereotypical ginger coloring she possessed.
Damn it! She wanted that! But she didn’t want to have to deal with listening to the trophy wives prattle on.
“Maybe later. Right now, I’d really just like to relax by the pool.” Meredith said at last turning away.
“Sure! Sure! No problem!” Baya said closing the salon’s french doors.
The pool was splendid! Meredith couldn’t quite tell what design it was cut to resemble, beyond recognizing it wasn’t a simple rectangle or kidney pool. It was curved, with several little round juts of paved concrete protruding into the water. Most of these housed ornate non-native trees.
It even had multiple levels with what looked to be a hot tub at the very top which overflowed to warm the rest of the pools waters.
No one was swimming, but she did notice a few women lounging in the bamboo cabanas that surrounded the pool. Most were rather secluded.
Just what she’d been wanting!
“This nice?” Baya said leading her to a vacant cabana with a lounge chair and table.
“Very!”
“Good! I go get you more boba juice! You like! Anything else?”
“Yes! Can you get me a copy of today’s newspaper?”
“Okay, but you no like! Newspaper is full of stress! You no want stress! Boba juice much better! You want boba juice! Boba juice is full of relax!” Said the short woman as she started on her errand.
Meredith just shook her head. Then she gave a relaxed sigh. This was what she’d been hoping for!
She started to take her robe off and recline when she realized her predicament.
“Shoot! Baya! Can you get my bathing suit? Crap!” But the attendant was too far out to hear her. She crumpled into the lounger, robe still on. She didn’t want to be in just her bra and panties. And didn’t want to relax outside in a robe.
“Don’t worry, mine did the same thing to me!” Came a pleasant laugh from the nearest cabana. A comely looking auburn hair woman was reclined there. She had done away with her own robe and was wearing only her white bra and panties. “And it seems to just be us girls on this side of the resort anyway.”
“That doesn’t give them any more excuse to leave us here in just our underwear!” Meredith protested.
“Maybe it’s the boba juice talking.” came the friendly chuckle, “But I figured what’s the difference between swimwear and underwear anyway, right? And it wasn’t like I was planning on swimming anyway.”
“You’re not wrong. It’s just… It’s just the principle of the thing!”
“Well, I’m choosing to pick my battles while I’m ‘on vacation’.” Said the woman making quotations with her hands. “And with only women around and a drink in my hand, what to wear to the pool just didn’t make the list. Oh, I’m Alexis, by the way.”
“Meredith. So this vacation wasn’t your idea either, huh?”
Alexis smirked as she shook her head. “No. And the worst part of it was how secretive my husband was about the whole damn thing! Want to send me away on a deluxe resort vacation? Great! But give me more than a week’s notice! And at least let me know where I’m going!”
It was Meredith’s turn to laugh now. “Mine did the same thing! Any other weekend? No problem. But this one with all the deadline’s I’ve got coming up next week… And of course that’s his reasoning for why he’s treating me to be here now. Yes! I do deserve it! But I think he’s up to something.”
“I thought the same thing about David!” Alexis said, excitedly pointing her finger. “So, now, does your story confirm my own suspicions? Or does it reaffirm that I overanalyze everything?”
“Let’s go with the first one. I’m not about to let Chris get away scot free for sending me on the type of vacation of I’ve been asking him to take me on!” Meredith said, self deprecatingly. “You know what? It’s more comforting to know that I wasn’t the only one who ended up on a surprise vacation than it is not be the only woman stranded in her own underwear!”
“Hey, always look on the bright side of life, right?” Alexis said standing up and doing a twirl with her arms out. She looked surprisingly carefree doing so in only her white undergarments.
Meredith’s shared laugh was interrupted as Baya returned with Meredith’s newspaper and a fresh drink.
“Here you are Miss Mary!” The young dark haired woman said handing the redhead the items she brought.
“It’s Meredith, Baya.”
“Oh! Sorry Miss Mary Di The!” Baya said, trying to correct her difficulty pronouncing the last part of Meredith’s name. “I had to get manager permission to get you newspaper! Manager say you no want newspaper, you want relax! But I tell him you want newspaper! And I get!”
Meredith’s eyes rolled at Baya’s story. No doubt the attendant was trying to get an early start at earning her graces and possibly a tip. She could have at least come up with a more believable story. What sort of manager in their right mind wouldn’t want their client to have the day’s newspaper?
“Thank you, Baya.”
“Welcome!” Baya beamed. “Oh! I be back with more boba juice soon! They make fresh evening batch!”
“Thank you, Baya.” Meredith said again and the attendant ran away leaving her with her newspaper and half full glass of the purple liquid. Had she drunk that much already? “Oh crap! Baya can you get me my… damn it!”
“Hey, at least you got your newspaper!” Alexis said cheerfully from her cabana. Her own glass of boba juice near empty.
“Bright side of life, right?” Meredith joked, trying to hide her frustration. She gave a quick look around. No one but Alexis seemed to be paying her much attention anyway. “Fuck it!”
“‘Atta girl!” Alexis clapped as Meredith took her robe off.
Encouraged by Alexis’ clapping, and no doubt by the beverage in her hand, Meredith giggled as she repeated Alexis twirl. Her own twirl not quite so carefree, despite wearing the same boring white bra and panties, as her neighbor.
The lounger was certainly more comfortable now than it had been while she was wearing the robe. Of course, she had just downed half of her drink and was feeling good about making a new friendly acquaintance with whom, at the very least, to vent through the weekend with.
The resort’s service was so far leaving much to be desired.
Properly situated in the chair, Meredith took a closer look at the paper.
It was a copy of the capitol city’s paper, folded in half and held together by the cap of a white plastic pen.
“Malaking Suso, Resort and Spa” was printed on the side in maroon. It also had phone number, address as well as a website.
Meredith made a mental note to go to the resort’s business center to check out their website. She shook her head at the notion that Chris had refused to allow her to bring her own laptop saying being online would only stress her out. She knew damn well the weekend was meant for her to relax, but next week was going to be hell if she had to grind through her amassed email all in one day.
She took a big sigh, then a big drink before going back to the paper. The front page was covered in big headlines about the latest political corruption scandal the country was facing. On this point, Meredith was forced to concede Baya and her manager were right: this part of the newspaper was nearly always full of stress.
It wasn’t until after another big drink of the sweet juice that Meredith turned over to the business section. Technically this counted as work. But knowing which direction the stocks were going heading into the weekend would at least give her a heads up as to what to expect once this vacation ended.
No big leaps and bounds anywhere to be seen. Nor any massive tumbles. Sometimes boring was a good omen. Most of the time Meredith could at least intuit something from even the boring numbers. But not today.
That was all she really wanted the paper for. At least there was nothing to dread come the beginning of the work week at this point.
Done with the paper, Meredith looked over toward Alexis to see about continuing their idle banter. But she was talking with her attendant.
Her attendant was much taller than Meredith’s. Though otherwise their features were remarkably similar. Dark hair, slender body, remarkable bust. Baya’s skintone was a bit different though. Whereas Baya looked to be more of Asian descent, Alexi’s attendant looked more to be of Spanish origin.
Meredith licked her lips as she saw the attendant hand Alexis a new drink. This time it the color was of the frothy mixture was white. She immediately went to take a drink from her own glass of purple mix only to realize it was now empty.
She waited patiently as the two chatted. Then as the attendant began to leave Meredith got her attention.
“Excuse me. Can I get one of those as well?” She asked, holding her empty glass for effect as she did so.
“I’ll get Baya.” She said with a genuine Spanish accent, as Meredith had suspected. Surprisingly more attractive to listen to in person than she’d guessed. Maybe it was because of all the poor over acting she’d seen on tv?
As the attendant walked away, Meredith turned her focus back to Alexis and her drink. “Is that as good as it looks?”
Alexis’ eyes were fluttering. “Coconut flavored! Even better than the first!”
Meredith smiled in anticipation and picked up her paper again. She tried to imagine coconut mixed into the drink she’d already had and held no doubt about how pleasant the new taste must be.
Picking up the provided pen, she turned to the crossword puzzle to pass the time as she waited. She knew from experience the Friday editions were usually the easiest. Knowing her own skill level, she figured she could be nearly halfway done with it before Baya returned with her drink.
Maybe they had a new crossword editor. Maybe it was a special edition. Maybe it was the drink. Whatever the case, Meredith found herself struggling to get more than a few words in by the time Alexis’ attendant came back with another drink.
Meredith furrowed her brow. Why hadn’t she gotten her own white drink yet? Where was Baya?
Once again she waited patiently until the attendant was done talking with Alexis before she took initiative.
“Excuse me, um…” Meredith paused to read her nametag this time. “Tetas. I asked for one of those drinks earlier. You said you were going to get Baya.”
“Oh, I did Miss! Baya said that you weren’t ready for it yet.”
Her eyes rolled at the answer. No doubt another scheme to try and earn a tip. “Well, I am ready. I’d like it sooner rather than later!”
“Okay, Miss. I’ll go tell Baya!” Tetas said running off.
Meredith shook her head in Alexis’ direction. Alexis just shrugged her shoulders as she took a drink from her fresh white bubbly drink.
Sighing, Meredith left her neighbor alone to enjoy the drink in peace. And looked back down at the paper.
Well, if she was stumped on the crossword she could at least do the sudoku while she waited. Unlike crossword puzzles, Meredith liked the fact that all the answers to any given sudoku were already on the puzzle itself.
The end of her pen ended up being chewed on. Meredith was able to get in a few numbers. But only just a few. Maybe she’d put in a wrong answer early on? That was a sure fire way to ruin the puzzle. Mistakes were much harder to find and correct as all the numbers seemed to jumble together after staring at them for awhile.
With a huff, Meredith tossed the paper and pen down on the side table. She wallowed in her own frustration for a moment before she started to wonder again about her attendant and drink.
It was only after a moment of looking around that Meredith found herself pleased to see Baya approaching her with her own with glass of boba juice. She found herself snatching it from Baya’s tray before it was even offered to her.
Meredith didn’t think much of it. After all, she’d been sitting here with no drink for who knows how long.
Baya giggled. “Glad you like drink! Is special evening batch! You like?”
It took a moment for Meredith to realize that Baya had been talking to here. She’d sort of lost herself in the drink’s smooth flavor. Definitely coconut, not overly sweet nor entirely bland like some of the waters that she’d had previously.
She ended up downing the entire drink before she answered. Must have been a smaller glass. “Yes, that was very tasty Baya. Another please!” She said with a smile.
“Of course, Miss Mary!” Baya giggled again.
Her frown returned. The slight of her name reminded her of her previous frustrations. Granted, her name wasn’t worth fighting over at the moment given Baya’s pronunciation difficulties. But the service so far…
“Hold on, Baya.” Meredith said sternly, stopping her attendant before she got too far this time. “What took you so long? I asked, um...” She pointed toward Alexis’ cabana trying to remember her attendant’s name “Tetas forever ago for this drink. She said that she’d talked to you and you said that I wasn’t ready for it yet. What’s with the lie?”
For the first time since she’d met her, the smile left Baya’s face. It was almost painful to see such a forlorn look on the young woman.
“No lie, Miss Mary. Manager say no drink until done with paper. So I wait. You done with paper now? I can take and get new drink, yes?” She said with a glimmer of hope.
“Wait. Why did manager said that?” Meredith was shaking her head.
“You here to relax. Yes? He say newspaper no help relax. No more juice until she ready to relax. You ready now. More juice!”
That made less sense than the story Baya had told earlier. Why would she bother making this one up? Maybe her manager was just an idiot? Meredith shook her head again. She’d fight that battle later. No sense shooting the messenger.
“Thank you, Baya. I would like another. You can have the newspaper back.” She was done with it anyway.
The dark haired attendant beamed as she grabbed it. “More juice coming soon!” Baya said and ran off to fetch it.
The drink certainly was helping her relax.
Funny, she didn’t feel drunk.
But she certainly seemed to be missing a lot of things she wouldn’t otherwise from the puzzles in the newspaper to her cabana neighbor.
Somehow Alexis had slipped off without her knowing it and her cabana had been cleaned leaving no trace of her.
Meredith wasn’t given long to think about it when Baya returned with a new drink. It appeared not having the newspaper on hand did improve service. Strange.
This time, she was patient enough for Baya to hand her the drink. She also had the self restraint not to down the thing in one go as she had last time. No sense suffering the next day.
Baya stood by patiently this time as she drank. Perhaps making up for her lost time attending.
“So, um, Baya. What sort of alcohol is in the boba juice?” Meredith asked trying to make small talk.
The attendant’s previous glow seemed to be returning. “No alcohol! Only tea, milk, fruit. First purple drink lavandula. White drink coconut!”
“Lavender? No alcohol?” Meredith asked again, incredulous.
“No alcohol!” Baya said again, laughing. “Fresh fruit, fresh tea, fresh milk! All relaxing!”
Meredith couldn’t argue with that. And she’d noted earlier that she didn’t feel drunk. Not exactly anyway.
“Okay. You finish drink. No we go to milk bath and then bed time. Tomorrow, the works! Full package! You enjoy! Trust, Baya!”
It was getting late. Unfortunately the resort didn’t offer much in the way of sunset views. Meredith yawned. It had been a long day.
“Actually, Baya. I think I’ll skip the bath for tonight. If you could show me to the business center. I’d like to check my email first.”
A look of concern crossed Baya’s face. “No no no! You here for relax! No email no stress!”
Standing up, Meredith strummed her fingers at the absurdity of not being allowed to check her email. She knew this fight was coming. But she wasn’t it going to pick it with Baya.
“The customer is always right, Baya. Don’t worry. And if I have to talk to the manager myself over this: I will.” Meredith said. Almost relishing the idea of confronting whoever the fool was
After a bit of thought Baya nodded. “Okay. No bath tonight. But after email straight to bed?”
Meredith laughed. What a strange place. “Straight to bed.” She agreed and Baya began to lead her back to the resort’s main building.
Before opening the door for her, Baya stopped and pointed her finger down a tiki lit boardwalk to the side of the building. “Room that way. You sure no just go straight to bed? Email just stress.”
“I promise I’ll go straight to bed after. And I promise you won’t get in trouble for it.”
“Okay.” Baya sighed, unsure as she opened the door and led Meredith inside.
The side rooms all appeared to be as lavish as the main entry way. The evening’s lighting providing even more exotic mystique.
A not entirely unpleasant smell of cigar came from down the hall when Baya stopped in front of a glass door. Inside Meredith could see a few people seated in front of a row of computers. At the end of the row was a big heavy duty copy/printer.
“You sure you no want just go to room?” Baya asked one last time.
“I’m sure.” Meredith sighed.
“Okay. I wait here.” Baya said, reluctantly opening the door. “ When done, I show you your room! Okay?”
“Okay. Thank you, Baya.”
“Welcome.”
An older man in a panama hat turned from his screen to look at her as she came in. He leered at her a moment before chuckling and turning back to his computer.
Meredith shook her head trying to ignore the man, and took a vacant seat away from the room’s other occupants. All men.
She logged on and gave a quick glance around. At least none of them seemed to be ogling her at the moment.
For once, her Friday inbox wasn’t flooded with panicked notes about the coming week. Meredith smiled. Maybe it was the mild stock report. Or maybe she hadn’t given Chris full credit for planning this out. Maybe he’d told her coworkers about his plan to send her away for her well deserved vacation and had asked them not to bother her on her holiday.
She laughed to herself. If she wasn’t going to let Chris get away with whatever he was conspiring, she wasn’t going to let them either if they were part of the plot.
Finished with her email, Meredith went to the search engine and typed in the resorts web address.
Images of Malaking Suso flooded the page. Apparently she’d only seen a fraction of the resort so far. The salon she’d seen earlier in the day was just the most generic the resort offered: there were three separate branches dedicated to pedis, a special salon dedicated solely to hair touchups, and numerous different types of special rooms for wax treatments.
No thank you! Meredith thought to herself, laughing as she continued to browse.
There was special part of the site dedicated to the spa’s boutique section. It boasted a wider variety of professional skincare and body products than she knew existed.
Meredith bit her lip as her masseur’s photo popped up under the spa treatments. He really was handsome.
She chided herself at being so intimidated by the massage. It all seemed to silly in retrospect.
She licked her lips. She hadn’t realized quite how becoming the man was. Maybe next time she wouldn’t spend the entirety of it with her face buried in a pillow!
There were also multiple types of massages listed including herbal, stone, and fusion. Not to mention all the others she didn’t recognize by name.
Eventually she got down to see the pictures of the bath houses… The mud baths looked incredible but the milk bath… Maybe she would take Baya up on that.
She closed the browser and took a quick glance at the clock in the bottom right corner.
It was past midnight!
Meredith stood up and looked around to find she was the only one left in the room.
Then she looked down and turned a deep crimson.
She immediately covered herself and looked around again to ensure she was alone. She’d come into the business center full of men wearing only her underwear! Then she scowled as she saw Baya notice her through the window.
Baya turned away for a moment before opening the door. “You ready straight for bed now?” She asked, innocently offering her a new robe.
She took it and began her tirade as she put it on. “Baya! How could you let me come in here half naked! Especially in front of all those strange men! What were you thinking!”
Her buxom attendant appeared to be fighting back a grin “Is okay Miss Mary. You relaxed. Not problem before, not problem now, right?”
“I…”
Baya cut of her further protest. “I make sure everything okay with manager. He make sure you only on computer if computer relax. Baya come get you otherwise.” She put her hand on Meredith’s now robed shoulder. “You relax on computer, yes?”
The touch seemed to make Meredith realize how tired she was. And Baya wasn’t entirely wrong… there really hadn’t been a problem before…
“You relax on computer, yes?” Baya repeated, squeezing her shoulder.
“Yes.” Meredith assented. She was too tired to put up a fight now anyway.
“Good! Tomorrow relax more! Tomorrow you get full package. You like. Trust Baya!” The short buxom woman said nodding her head before leading Meredith out of the building. “Now is time for sleep! Straight to bed! You promised!” Baya turned and pointed her finger.
“Straight to bed.” Meredith ceded. She wasn’t going to argue anymore.
“Good! You get good sleep! Better sleep better relax! Straight to bed!” Baya repeated again holding the door open to Meredith’s cabin.
She could see her luggage next to the bed. With a sigh of relief, Meredith entered the room.
“I come get you in the morning! Good night!” Baya said and closed the door leaving Meredith alone.
The room was dimly lit from a light outside the window. In this light, the bed was its most prominent feature. And it was calling to her.
Meredith pulled the covers back and crawled in.
She only pulled back the sheets. The room was rather warm.
The day’s events repeating through her mind as she lay there readied for sleep.
Laying on her back, the image of her masseur filled her thoughts.
She undid her bra and panties, tossing them to the floor. The cotton sheets of the bed felt more comfortable with them off.
At last naked, Meredith’s memory then flitted from her masseur to the old man in the panama hat. Laughing at her. She couldn’t believe she’d gone in there without noticing she was still only wearing her underwear. She couldn’t imagine Chris ever finding out about her being seen half naked in front of another man like that… Several other men.
Meredith knew it was wrong… And she knew she’d promised Baya she’d go straight to bed. But somehow the thought, mixed with the events of the day was too much for her.
Maybe it was the sun. Maybe it was the drinks. Maybe Baya didn’t know what alcohol meant.
The room wasn’t hot. She was. And she was here to relax. And if was to errant acts of exhibition: so be it!
With the final thought of resistance put down for the night, Meredith allowed a hand to find its way between her legs.