The icy wash needled into her back and across her shoulders, invigorating her physically and energizing her mentally. She counted to ten, quickly ended the shower, wrapped her shivering form in a fluffy rose bath towel and stepped out of the cubicle onto the white tiled floor of a bathroom that was the size of most people's living room. Bathroom, she decided with an irreverent grin, was such a bourgeois word to call this impressive ensemble of intimate furnishings. The room continued the bedroom suite's pastel pink theme, with sink, toilet, tub and bidet all blushing against white Roman tiles. A crystal chandelier shimmered over a sunken tub surrounded by a garden of potted palms and ten parakeets that were artificial but had eyes that stared with unsettling interest. Marlayna found herself duplicated into infinity in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors that paneled two of the walls. "Nice." She patted her cheek and in doing so patted hundreds of others. "But we don't have time for more than the original right now." With a silent promise to wallow in bubbles for at least an hour in the jetted tub, she adjourned to the globe-lit mirror over the pedestal sink and began to make up the 'Face of the Century.' "So, Noah Drake, you had trouble believing this face could grace a magazine cover, did you?" She leaned closer to the mirror and inspected the insulted area.
