Silver Bells

Chapter 2

"A Titanic reference?" Alya chuckled at Marinette's offended pout. When Alya got home from work she had found Marinette sewing furiously on her sewing machine. She then proceeded to vent to Alya about what had happened at the Real Estate, including the fact that Adrien Agreste was the competition for her building. How dare he!

"I mean, what kind of a dork does that?" Marinette huffed. "I swear he was just trying to get on my nerves."

Opening up a box of rum balls, the reporter popped on into her mouth. "Need I point out that you got the reference because you've only seen the movie like a hundred times."

Marinette glared at her, but relented when Alya offered her a rum ball. "Feeling any better now that you've had a good whine."

"Maybe a glass of good wine would help." Marinette huffed. "What does he even want with the building anyway? He's not a designer." She then sucked in a sudden breath in alarm. "What if he is a designer! What if he wants to fill it with top of the line couture that I'll never be able to compete with?"

"I don't know, girl." Alya shrugged, popping a rum ball into her mouth. "But you have to admit, going above asking price was a smooth move."

Marinette huffed again, putting another rum ball into her mouth and chewing it aggressively before putting her foot back down on the pedal. "You should have seen the smug look on his face. Ugh, he is so unbelievably annoying. Even if I tried to go above his offer, it would take too long and I'm not sure the bank would approve me for a higher loan."

"So... if it's all up to the seller now, what do you know about him?"

"Nothing." Marinette answered. She then stopped what she was doing and lifted her head to look at Alya who was giving her a knowing eye. Abandoning her project, Marinette grabbed her laptop and the two girls crashed onto the lounge and Marientte began to type.

"Okay, let me just put the address in... so the building used to be a Chinese massage and herbalist store and was owned by a Mr Wang Fu."

"Wang Fu." Alya pondered. "He sounds like some kind of Kung Fu master."

Marinette then typed again on her keyboard. "Well, there is a Wang Fu listed here at a place called Silver Lakes... looks like it's only a few hours outside of the city."

Alya was a little concerned at the sudden look of excitement on Marinette's face. "Okay... so?"

"So, I'm not losing my dream just because some bored, rich kid tried to bid above me."

With that Marinette got up and grabbed her coat from the hanger.

"Whoa, hold up girl. You're not going there now are you? The weather report said it was going to be coming down hard later and it's already dark outside. Maybe you should just wait until morning."

"I'll be fine." Marinette assured her. "If I go now I'll be back by morning." She ran over to Alya and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I'm going to find this Wang Fu and save my dream."

With that she was out the door and into her car.

At first the weather seemed fine as Marinette headed outside of the city, but the further she got out into the country, the heavier the snow started to come down. Add to that her heating in the car wasn't working as well as it had been and her windscreen was beginning to frost up. 

In the distance a motel sign started to become viable and as much as Marinette hated to admit it, the weather was getting the better of her and her poor old car. Reluctantly, she turned off the main highway towards the motel which thankfully still had a vacancy.

Parking her car, Marinette held her red coat over her head and ran into the reception where she was greeted by a very prim and proper gentleman. His manner and presentation reminded her of a butler.