The Alchemists

"All right, if you know that. Is there anything else you want to know?" Terry asked. Marion who was posing as Aleksis shook her head. Terry then nodded in satisfaction, "I have to admit that your disguise is very good. I'm amazed. I can't wait to see your performance tomorrow."

"You won't be disappointed," Marion answered confidently while glancing at Jean. It was not only Terry that she wanted to impress, but also Jean. "Alright ... by the way it's already 6 p.m and I'm quite hungry. Where can we eat dinner?"

"You can have a chef go upstairs to cook whatever you want," Jean said. "Do you want me to order it for you?"

"Where will you guys eat then?" Marion asked, frowning. "'Aleksis' just recovered. How come you guys are not taking her out to enjoy a nice dinner together?"

Terry sighed heavily, "I still have to edit my footages. The shooting started so late last week, and I've missed my initial deadlines. I'm really pressed for time. You can just have dinner with Dad."

Jean sighed, "Sorry, I didn't know you would come so suddenly. I already promised to have dinner with Billie. She just arrived in Singapore for her concert tomorrow."

"Oh," For a moment, Marion was stunned.

She remembered that Billie Yves was Jean's ex-girlfriend. Apparently, she came at the wrong time. Billie Yves happened to be in Singapore for a concert, and tonight she would be having dinner with Jean.

"I will be with Billie until 9 pm. If you want, we can go out for a drink at Sky Bar after that," Jean added hurriedly, not wanting to upset Marion.

The woman looked away as if she didn't care, "No need, I'm also busy with a meeting tonight, with the Wolf Pack. Let's just meet up tomorrow."

"Are you serious?" Jean asked again, "I feel like I really need a drink."

"Just drink with Billie then!" Marion hissed, involuntarily stomping her feet as she got up and reached for the telephone on the wall to call the receptionist in the lobby. "Hello, this is Aleksis from the penthouse. Please send the chef here. I want to have dinner."

Jean just looked at Marion's behavior with a wry smile. He really did not know Marion would come suddenly to Singapore to pose as Aleksis. If he knew, he would have postponed his dinner date with Billie.

"Are you jealous of her? Don't tell me you have fallen in love with me?" he inquired casually. "I told you not to."

"Huh? Who is in love with you? You're a shameless narcissist dude. Even if you are a famous actor that women dubbed as the nation's husband, you still have no right to assume that everyone will fall for you!" Marion snorted. She relaxed her posture on the couch then played with her nails, looking a bit bored.

She then turned on the TV which happened to be broadcasting news about Billie Yves's concert in Asia. Ugh, she quickly changed it to another channel. The next channel was showing Billie Yves' latest video clip.

Gosh ... what magic was this? Billie Yves seemed to be everywhere these days! Marion groaned inwardly.

She turned off the TV then strode into her bedroom and only came out 10 minutes later wearing a bathing suit. 

Before leaving for the infinity pool outside, she first roamed her eyes around the living room and then left a message to Jean and Terry. "Once the chef comes, please tell him I want steak. I will go swimming first to cool my head off."

"Dad said okay. As for me,  I want to go home. My editing assignments are piling up," Terry replied, impatiently grabbing his bag. He marched into the elevator after going through the door of the penthouse.

Meanwhile, Jean could only say yes. He walked towards the pool and stood on the edge watching Marion swim swiftly. It was amazing that the girl could maintain her disguise and look like Aleksis even underwater. This made Jean extremely impressed.

"Marion, my dinner with Billie will end at 9 pm. I hope you will come with me for a drink by then. I miss talking to you," he said to her before leaving. He did not wait for Marion's reply since he knew the girl heard him.

It was past 6 pm yet he wasn't ready for his dinner appointment. For nearly six months, he had not seen Billie. He reckoned it would not be nice to be late and make a bad impression.

When he entered the living room, somebody knocked on the penthouse's door. A chef and two waiters then entered to prepare dinner.

Jean told them Marion's order and then got himself ready for his dinner date with Billie.

Even though her heart felt like a mess, Marion pretended to not have noticed when Jean left the penthouse. However, for some reason, she was actually not willing to let Jean have a meal with Billie Yves.

Gosh ... She and Jean were not in a relationship. But why did she feel hurt seeing him going out to see that woman?

It was only natural for Jean to have dinner with Billie since they hadn't seen each other since the break-up. It would be great if the man and his ex-girlfriend could still be on good terms as no one wanted the same incident with Katia to happen again.

The relationship between Caspar and Katia ended badly and it resulted in Katia harboring a grudge that made her attempt to destroy Caspar's life by poisoning his daughter.

Marion got to know a lot about Jean because Alicia, her assistant was a big fan of Jean, and she had talked endlessly about the famous actor after Jean came to her house last month. Alicia discussed all the gossips surrounding Jean.

Duh, now Marion knew that Jean's favorite color was sky blue (same as Marion's), his favorite food is tiramisu (again the same as Marion's) and he really liked dogs even though he never raised a single dog in his adult life. Hmm ... what else was there to know about him?

Gosh ... what's the use knowing all these useless pieces of information? Marion hissed to herself. She finished swimming and immediately cleaned herself up before readying herself to eat at the dinner table.

The chef from the Continental Hotel dutifully prepared several sumptuous dishes ordered by Marion. After that, having completed their task, he and the waiters tacitly went out. Marion then ate alone.

Uhm ... how nice if I won't have to eat alone again, she thought.