Two.
2025 Words
Asher sat down in the back of the car as the driver wove through the roads in the city.
"Find me a comfortable place to sleep tonight." Asher said to the driver.
"Yes boss," the driver nodded and continued to drive, stopping in front of a 4 star luxury hotel.
"It's not the best in the city, but it's the closest sir." The driver said to him.
"It's fine," Asher replied. He opened a small black box that was kept on the seat beside him in the car. In the box was a black card with a glittering silver stripe along one side, and a sleek black smartphone. He tucked both items into the pocket of his jeans and stepped out of the car and into the hotel lobby.
Once he entered the hotel, he went straight to the front desk where a young woman was sitting behind it. She took one look at him, noticing his old jeans and rough t-shirt and her face dissolved into a frown.
"I'd like a room for the night, please." Asher said to her.
She wrinkled her nose at him as if he smelled bad, then said rudely, "We don't give out rooms to beggars for free, as you can see this is a luxury hotel."
Asher replied calmly, "I'm not asking for a free room, I can pay the bill." He wasn't lying, as the black card currently in his pocket was a Diamond Access card, which was so rare that only ten existed in the world.
Of course the receptionist didn't know this. She was already getting annoyed by him and wondering why the security guards allowed such a crazy person into the hotel.
"I've told you to stop wasting my time! Get out of here before I call the security to throw you out!" She said, even more rudely this time.
A small frown appeared on Asher's face. Why was this woman being so unreasonable? Allhe wanted was a room. As he opened his mouth to try to reason with her, she started to shout once again,
" Why are you still standing here? In fact, security! Please come and throw this beggar out!"
Asher noticed that the woman's shouting had attracted the attention of some burly men dressed in all black. As they reached the front desk, they ignored Asher and one of them asked the woman," What's the matter, Miss Lim?"
"It's that useless loser over there. He's here wasting my time saying he wants a room, whenhe clearly can't afford one. I've told him we don't offer free services but he kept on pestering me." The receptionist, Miss Lim, pointed at Asher.
Asher was starting to get annoyed. He had a rough evening and this woman was being unreasonable. He had had enough. He turned to regard one of the security men instead, saying,
"Is this how you treat your customers? I'd like to have a word with your manager."
The four security guards and Miss Lim all began to laugh. One of the guards said to Asher,
"And who do you think you are to want to see our manager? Get out of here before we throw you out!"
"I said I would like to see your manager." Asher insisted.
"Okay, enough of his rubbish, let's throw this loser out," Another guard said.
As they started to move towards him, a middle aged man in a gray suit holding a briefcase stepped out of one of the elevators. As the security guards saw the man, they smiled cruelly amongst themselves. Miss Lim noticed the man too the gave a wicked smile of her own.
"Okay Mr big shot," she said to Asher, "there's the manager over there. Why don't you go and talk to him?"
"Thank you." Asher deadpanned and moved towards the man. "Excuse me, sir, are you the manager of this hotel?"
The manager stopped in the middle of the lobby and frowned when he saw who was calling him. "Yes, can I help you?"
"I wanted to get a room for the night, but your receptionist was very rude to me. She even called security to throw me out."Asher explained to the man.
"And what do you want me to do?" The manager asked with a frown.
Asher was tired of people looking down on him, as he noticed the cold attitude the manager was putting up to him.
"In fact, forget a room. I'd like to buy the whole hotel." Asher said with a serious face.
The receptionist and security guards burst into laughter as they heard Asher's words. The manager too looked at Asher like he was a fool.
"This is a four star luxury hotel, young man. You can hardly afford a room here, talk more of buying the whole hotel." The manager said to Asher with derision dripping from his words.
"Are you sure about that?" Asher said as he reached into his pocket and brought out the Diamond Access card, showing it to the manager.
The manager was just about to ask the security guards to throw Asher out, before he took a good look at what the young man in front of him was holding out. As he saw the glittering silver stripe on the front of the card, his heart did a somersault as his briefcase dropped to the floor.
He dropped to his knees and began to plead with Asher, "I'm terribly sorry sir, I've made a huge mistake."
Miss Lim and the security guards were taken aback at the new turn of events. Why was their manager apologising to this trash?
"Why are you kneeling to this useless man sir?" Miss Lim asked.
The manager felt a chill crawl up his spine as he heard those words. That foolish woman! Asher was standing with his back facing her, that was why she didn't see the Diamond Access Card. He thanked his lucky stars that he was able to recognise it, as only extremely wealthy individuals were known to possess that card. The penalty for forging one was death, so no one even thought about trying to make a fake one.
He rushed to the receptionist and gave her a hard slap.
"Will you shut up!" He said. "That man over there is a big shot with a Diamond Access Card! Don't make him get angry with you, because I won't intervene if he decides to do anything with you. Now, go kneel and apologise to him!"
Miss Lim was flabbergasted. A billionaire with a Diamond Access card? How could she have been so foolish? She quickly rushed to kowtow at his feet, saying,
" Please forgive me sir, please I'm so sorry sir."
Asher ignored her and turned to the manager and asked him, "Can I at least get a room and some food?"
The manager hurriedly nodded and led Asher towards a private elevator, saying,
"Y-yes sir, of course sir. Right this way. This leads to our presidential suite, it's the most luxurious suite in the hotel. And I'll tell the chefs to prepare the best dishes on the menu and send them up to you." He handed Asher a golden key card with trembling fingers and pressed the red button to open the elevator doors.
Asher thanked him and stepped into the elevator, taking the key card.
" Will you need anything else, sir?" The manager asked Asher.
"That will be all, thank you." Asher said and closed the elevator doors. As the elevator began to move upwards, Asher was already formulating a plan in his head to deal with the Harpers.
Meanwhile ourtside, the manager was outside, wondering just who the mysterious billionaire was.
The next morning, Asher stood on the balcony of the hotel room, making a phone call.
"We need to meet with the families, so we can know our next plan of action. I'll see you soon. Send a car to pick me up this morning." Asher said into the phone.
"As you wish, boss." The voice on the other side replied.
"Good." Asher said and hung up.
He moved about to get ready for the day. He looked at his rumpled shirt and jeans, and made a mental note to get himself new clothes. He left the suite and took the elevator downstairs to the lobby. There, he saw the manager from yesterday standing by the front desk, talking sternly to a new receptionist.
The manager turned and noticed him, then rushed forward and began to offer greetings.
"Uh, good morning, Mr…" The manager then realised that he didn't even know Asher's name.
"You can call me Mr. Griffin." Asher told him, noticing his discomfort.
"Thank you very much, sir," The manager supplied.
"I'll be leaving this morning." Asher announced.
The manager paled. He wondered if he had done something to offend Asher and he began to sweat.
"S-sir, if we have offended you in any way, I apologise, I even fired the other receptionist so you won't have to see her again, I…" The manager began to trail off before Asher interrupted him.
"It's okay. I jusy have business I need to attend to." Asher said.
"What about the documents for the hotel sir?" The manager asked.
"What documents?" Asher wondered.
"You offered to buy the hotel last night, sir." The manager said, wiping sweat from his brow.
Asher remembered then. He had only offered to buy the hotel last night as a threat, as he had no use for a four star hotel, but he figured that it didn't hurt to have an extra business.
" Name your price and send it to this number, and you'll receive a call from my bank before the end of the day. I have to go now." Asher gave him a phone number, then walked out of the hotel and into the black car that was waiting for him outside.
The manager, whose name was Mr. Cheng, was in shock. He stared at the card containing only a single phone number and thought to himself,
"That man must never be offended."
Meanwhile, in the Harper household, things were not looking very good. Their company, Harper Corporation was crumbling. They needed backing from strong investors or they would go bankrupt. They were currently having a meeting in their family room, along with other distant relatives who worked in the company.
Roland was currently talking to Roxanne in a very harsh tone.
"If you just go ahead and marry Seth, things will be much better. The Larsens are a second rate family, their involvement in our company will bring us a lot of good invrstors, maybe even a few top rate families." He said, pointing at Roxanne.
"Don't mind her, she's so selfish. And Seth is so rich and handsome too." Roxanne's sister, Meredith said with a hint of jealousy in her tone.
Roxanne ignored her and looked to her father, saying,
"But father, if you can just give me a little time, I can get a few proposals ready which will pull some really strong investors to our company."
Her father seemed to consider her words, then he smiled a slow smile.
"Okay then," he agreed, causing looks of shock to appear on the family members' faces.
"In fact," he continued, "our previous deal for you to marry Seth is off the table."
Odette jumped out of her chair with a shout, "You can't be serious, Roland!"
He shut her up with a stern look, and turned to look at his daughter. She was too valuable to the company for him to fire her, so he had come up with another plan.
"Roxanne, I'll allow you submit your proposals. But you have three days. If you don't find new investors in three days, then you must divorce your trash husband and marry Seth Larsen immediately."
Roxanne felt her blood run cold. How could her family be so cruel? But she couldn't show any weaknesses in front of them, so she agreed to her father's impossible deal.
As she watched the cruel smiles of her family members, she hoped she hadn't made a terrible mistake.
- Writer
