The Alchemists

At 7.30pm, Finland arrived in front of De Lune Restaurant. Because no one knew who she was, Finland was dropped off at the restaurant front.

She was wearing an expensive dress from the latest La Pearl collection and the doorkeeper, who saw her coming out of a fancy Rolls Royce car, greeted her warmly and opened the door for her.

"My office has a reservation here, LTX International." Finland said at the reception.

"Fine, Miss. Please come with me."

Finland was directed to the VIP dining room which was separated from the main restaurant. Lilly and Tony were already sitting at the table. They arrived a few minutes before her.

They were both impressed by Finland's appearance.

"Your clothes are very nice," said Lily earnestly. "This is the latest collection of House of La Pearl that just came out last week. Where did you get such a well-made counterfeit version? At a glance, people will think you are wearing their original dress."

Finland shook her head trying to humble, "Nice, huh? Thank you, I just grabbed it without giving it much thought."

Of course, because Finland was a poor employee, Lily thought that the expensive-looking clothes worn by Finland were fake goods or counterfeits. Finland was not bothered by it. The important thing was that she looked good according to the demands of her role.

"We arrived five minutes early. Our client will come soon." Tony said later.

Sure enough, five minutes later three American men arrived; one was of Chinese descent, two were white men. They entered the room and introduced themselves as people from Atlas Corp.

"Please, let me introduce my colleagues. This is William Chan, our engineering director who happened to stop by on his way to Beijing. I am Noah Janssen, the Marketing Manager, and this is Jonathan Brown's, the Marketing Manager Assistant."

They all shook hands with each other, and Tony Wu turned to introduce his team.

"This is Lily, she's my assistant at marketing for the East Asia region, and this is Finland for Southeast Asia. We can't wait to work with Atlas Corp." he said.

They then ordered food and talked about business in a warm and friendly atmosphere. It was clear that Finland's beauty interested the guests from Atlas Corp. The three of them, especially Noah, were talking more to Finland than to Tony or Lily.

Noah was an attractive 30 something year-old man. He was handsome but certainly nothing compared to Caspar. He could not take his eyes off Finland and this made the girl a little nervous. She ate slowly and only answered to Noah's questions as needed.

[Jean... please help me...]

She finally sent a text to Jean asking for help.

[What is wrong?]

[I'm having dinner with a company client. One person is rather flirty and I find it hard to find a way to make him realize that I'm not interested in him.]

[Where are you?]

[De Lune Restaurant.]

[Wait there, okay, I'll be right there.]

"So, is it easy for me to go to Bali from here?" Noah asked Finland. "It's a shame if we don't stop by in Bali after coming all the way from Seattle. I heard that Bali is a very famous island."

"Yeah, it is just a 2.5 hour flight from Singapore. You can get there very easy." Finland replied, trying to still sound friendly.

"But people say Bali is a very romantic place. It doesn't feel right to go there alone." Noah laughed, "Hey, why don't you guys from LTX come to Bali with us? We can continue the meeting there and meet potential clients."

Tony seemed to be considering the proposal, but Finland felt very annoyed. She knew Noah's intentions. He wanted her to accompany him in Bali.

Ugh, I'm not that kind of girl, thought Finland.

They were still talking about Bali when suddenly Jean appeared, escorted by a restaurant server.

"Hey, Honey..." Jean approached Finland and kissed her forehead, "What a coincidence, I also have a meeting here with a client. Later when you have finished dinner, wait for me, so we can go home together."

Everyone at Finland's table was surprised with that sudden scene. Finland was also surprised because she did not think Jean would kiss her forehead like that and pretended to be her lover.

"Oh... yes, sure. Thank you." Finland replied in stutter. Jean winked and rubbed her head before going to the corner of the main restaurant.

"That's... Jean, right?" Noah asked in surprise.

"Do you know him?" Finland asked. She didn't expect someone like Noah would know who Jean was. Her best friend was indeed extremely popular.

"He is the model for our single helicopter product. Our CEO's daughter is a fan, so she specifically requested that Jean be the model and ambassador of our product lines." Noah answered. His tone sounded a bit bitter. His attitude immediately changed. He no longer flirted as before.

"Oh..."

Finland was proud of Jean. She didn't expect Jean to be this famous.

[Your dress is beautiful.] She received a text from Jean.

[Thank you. Caspar bought the whole boutique yesterday and moved all their products to my closet.]

[He has good taste.]

[Thank you.]

They returned to discussing Atlas Corp products and there was no more discussion about Bali. Noah and his friends' attitudes toward Finland were more respectful.