The meeting with Mr. Wilkinson had gone off without a hitch, Charlie had full confidence in his ability to complete the task at hand, and now he knew it was only a matter of time until the whereabouts of the foreign Golden Ticket winners would be uncovered and a proper reunion could be organized. And not to mention the fact the only reason the meeting transpired as smoothly as it did was most likely due to the relationship that existed between the spy and the master chocolatier, Charlie thought. Wonka didn't create his candy empire without making connections with many interesting characters; how ironic that the world's most awkward and reclusive man had to have such a catalogue of contacts in order to get his candies the international accolades they deserved. Regardless of the pain it put him through just to interact with these people, Wonka knew he had to make these connections if he wanted to become as successful as he eventually became. He had to become acquainted with officials from the Environment Agency who could be persuaded to look the other way at the changes his factory made to the local ecosystem, with the heads of the Health and Safety Executive to keep them from examining the various occupational safety violations that were rumored to plague the factory, and of course high-ranking members of the Crown Prosecution Service in order to stop any potential criminal charges that might arise considering Wonka's business conduct.

Despite knowing many people in power, most of the people Wonka knew were fellow businesspeople, the very people the master chocolatier shoved his shy heir at the first chance he got, leaving Charlie to deal with them so that he could seclude himself inside his factory even more. And, while that act at first looked as if Wonka had thrown Charlie under the bus, in the end it all worked out for the better as it opened doors to many interesting people and organizations that helped keep Charlie's name on the map. One such group was an organization focused on growing business cooperation between Europe and North America, and as the hunt for Wonka's Golden Tickets proved, those two continents happened to be the two largest markets for Wonka Candies. The heir had received many awards and recognitions from this organization, among others, but whenever they reached out to him, the master chocolatier was always the first to notify him, just like this time when Wonka himself walked into the office with an envelope in hand.

"You have a letter, my dear boy, from TABA none the less," Wonka affirmed, handing his heir the white paper casing with his name on it.

"Let me see," Charlie replied as pulled out a letter opener from his desk and slit the envelope open.

Inside the packaging was an invitation printed on ornate stationary, which Charlie partially read aloud, "The Trans-Atlantic Business Association-London Chapter cordially expects your presence at our annual awards banquet where you have been nominated for Most Successful Entrepreneur aged 18-29."

Now, instead of being overtly cheerful for even being nominated, his catastrophizing mind went straight towards diminishing the importance of this award, claiming, "It's such a small category."

"Thus, increasing your odds of winning, but also making it more cutthroat; ironic," the factory's founder retorted before he made his way over to his desk.

"But either way, enjoy the banquet, I know how much your mom likes to get all spiffed up and accompany her boy on a ritzy night out," Wonka added as he sat down behind his desk across from his heir.

The fact that Wonka didn't have to think twice as to who Charlie would take as his guest to the banquet really made him re-assess this part of his life. Charlie had no one else to take with him to these functions, no outside friends, no date, the only person he could think of taking as a guest was his mother who toiled all day, every day, cooking and cleaning the family shack. However, Charlie now had someone he could take with him to the banquet, someone who surely wouldn't feel out of place with the city's elites like he and Mrs. Bucket felt every other time they attended one of these functions. With Veruca on his mind now, Charlie felt this sense of pride surge through him, with literally someone to go out with besides his mother he smiled, and responded, "You know what, Wonka, not this time. There's someone else I'm going to invite to the banquet."

All Wonka did was nod his head, but before he could ask a follow-up, Charlie's conscience caught up with him. A part of him didn't think it was fair to take this golden opportunity from his mother who rarely ever got time to enjoy the finer things in life. The heir needed help, he needed advice from his mentor about what to do in this difficult situation, to which he asked, "You don't think Mum will get upset? I mean, if I tell her I'm nominated for an award but I'm not inviting her with me then I'd hurt her feelings, but if I don't tell her where I'm going, then I'd be lying to her."

Now, despite his hermitlike behavior, Wonka was never one to shy away from critiquing other's life choices, and even Charlie was not immune to this, and so he countered, "Well, my dear boy, I'm pretty sure she'll understand if you invite someone else; as for you not telling her, well, lying by omission is your favorite way of concealing the truth. It's the only way your goodie-goodie conscience can handle misleading someone."

As much as Charlie hated to admit it, he was lying by omission to Wonka; occulting what he was doing with Veruca and his search for the other Golden Ticket winners was the only way he could sleep knowing he was going against his benefactor's wishes. But what was even scarier was that Wonka had now picked up on Charlie's go-to deception technique, meaning he would now have to be even more careful when it came to his actions concerning the other winners in order to keep it from blowing up in his face. However, when it came to Wonka's advice on the matter at hand, Charlie simply nodded his head, and replied, "Then, I'll have to think it over."

At first, it looked like they'd wrapped all of this banquet stuff up, but Wonka wasn't going to let an unsolved mystery just slide like that. He needed to know who Charlie's new guest was, and like the ever-intrusive family member he essentially was, he off-handedly asked his heir, "So, are you going to tell me who this other person you're inviting is? Is she the same friend you accompanied furniture shopping?"

"It's just someone, no need to be such a nosy-parker."

"Fine, don't tell me. I just want you to know that you've never invited me to one of these functions."

Charlie let out a notable sigh of frustration, but to be nice he reached out with an olive branch, proposing, "If this is how you're going to act, then would you like to come with me as my plus one, Mr. Wonka?"

"I would, but…I don't want to go out," Wonka playfully jabbed back.

"Then why did you act all offended at me never inviting you before?"

"It's just common courtesy to invite the person that help you get to the top."

This was the most difficult part about working with Willy Wonka, despite almost reaching advanced age he still acted like a child; and while such a literally-wonderful juvenile mind sure helped when it came to new creations, it was also an impediment when it came to Charlie's interactions with the outside world. As a kid, Charlie relished in all of Wonka's zany antics, he was even the only one of the five Golden Ticket winners to appreciate the amazing chocolatier's calculated madness during the tour of the factory, but now as a reserved adult he often found himself frustrated by Wonka's stubbornness yet too afraid to bite the hand that literally fed him for so many years. Wonka had to have everything his way or else he would erupt into a silly fit, that's why Charlie had to go behind his back if he wanted to plan a reunion for the Golden Ticket winners, although the reunion wasn't the first time he'd done so concerning these particular individuals. Charlie's private collection of pictures, newspapers, magazines and other reports cataloguing the other winners was something he procured without his mentor's knowledge or permission.

He didn't like keeping them in his drawer, not just because they got bent, but because he couldn't admire the time and effort that went into collecting each one of these pieces. Charlie would've loved to frame each individual piece and mount them up on a wall as a sort of shrine not that different from the one Dr. Wonka had of his son, the confectionary prodigy. However, Charlie knew that if he mounted even a simple newspaper article about one of the other winners, Wonka would not hesitate to yank it off the wall and throw it down the garbage chute; it's where all the other bad nuts go, as he would say. But, despite such emotional imagery conjuring in Charlie's mind about his mentor, Wonka really wasn't that much of an angry person. Charlie had only seen Wonka get frustrated on a handful of occasions, like after Crump got him to reveal the secrets behind the Great Glass Elevator to eavesdropping Russians, and when he did, he typically vented through the use of humor, such as referring to Mike as Mumbler. But, despite all those flaws, his unique personality was the driving engine behind the success of their candies, and if they wanted to be on top, then Charlie couldn't push Wonka to change one bit.

Charlie loved Wonka dearly, but even he needed his space from the kooky candymaker every once and a while, but unfortunately, he always found himself short on people to spend time with apart from the factory's founder. Luckily, that changed when Veruca reemerged as a figure in Charlie's life, and an interesting one at that, the heir now had someone to share all of life's joys with, but also another reason to be weary of his mentor's wrath if he unraveled the truth. Apart for his disdain of most children, especially rotten ones like the kind that infested his factory that fateful February day, there was another reason why Wonka would go completely mad if he found out Charlie was spending time with Veruca; simply put, he'd be jealous of her. Over the past fourteen years, Charlie and he did everything together, and if the chocolatier ever found out about his heir's guest to the banquet, it would seem to him as if The Bad Nut just waltzed in and messed up the dynamic of their relationship. Charlie took all precautions when it came to concealing his relationship with the little brute, so much so that he separated the pictures he developed, with the group shot of the five Golden Ticket winners placed on the inside of the desk and the more recent image of him and Veruca at dinner near the edge. This way, if Wonka ever walked over to Charlie's desk and saw one of them, it would take him that much longer to uncover the hidden meaning behind their presence. Especially compared to putting both framed pictures together, where an observant person could notice the physical similarities between the woman with the bright smile eating dinner with Charlie and the spoiled brat sporting a silver mink coat waiting to get inside the most magnificent factory in the world.

Charlie knew he could not let fear of disappointing Wonka get in the way of him having a good time, so the heir made his way to the elevator and took it all the way down to the courtyard where he parked his Areoscoot and pulled out his phone from his pocket. He found Veruca in his contacts, called the number, and surprisingly enough she picked up after only two rings, simply saying, "Hello, Charlie."

"Oh, hello, Veruca. It's great to be talking to you," Charlie responded, still dazed by the brat's seemingly fast response time, unlike the other times he called where she seemed to let the ring tone stretch out until the last second.

While Charlie tried to adjust himself to the reality that Veruca actually wanted to talk to him, an awkward silence descended over their phone call, a science only broken after he nervously added, "Listen, I just got a letter requesting my presence at an awards banquet next week. It's a black-tie affair and I thought it might be something you would be interested in attending as my guest."

There was silence on the other end of the line, the little brute was not as enthusiastic about this as she was when she answered the phone call almost immediately, and all she did to respond to Charlie's offer was to verbalize a primal noise, "Mmm."

"What's the matter, Veruca?" Charlie asked carefully, not wanting to set her off but also wanting to get to the bottom of what was bothering her.

And, in true Veruca fashion, what was bothering her was something so minute that only a pampered brat like her could find fault with, which lead her to explain, "You're not bragging? If you got nominated for an award, then you should be bragging."

"I'm just being humble, Veruca."

"Don't do that!"

The little brute's cold, quick slap-down of the Good Boy's approach to bragging disgusted her because she could not imaging not spending every second of the day talking about how great she was, and Charlie knew this, so he turned the tables around in order to get her to clarify what she meant in order for her to hear what she was saying, and so he asked, "Well, what do you expect me to do, be all braggadocious about my nomination?"

"Exactly! That's what I do whenever I get recognized for anything," the little brute responded without hesitation, but, surprisingly, she then tried to raise Charlie's self-esteem levels by asking him, "Now, tell me, are you great?"

By this point, Charlie realized what Veruca was trying to do, and so he proudly responded, "Yes, I am, I'm the Most Successful Entrepreneur…aged 18-29."

"Great, act like that, besides that weak verbal appendage at the end. Although, this is something obvious you should know by now anyways," Veruca replied, stating the obvious, or at least what was obvious to someone who lived her entire life having everyone around her cater to her every whim and tell her how amazing and perfect she was.

Charlie didn't really know how he felt about this approach to life, sure, he received immediate gratification for his action, but he also knew how bad things could get if he let his ego grow too big; nevertheless, Veruca derailed Charlie's train of thought when she returned to the question of the banquet, and asked the Good Boy, "Alright, so when's the banquet then?"

"It's next Tuesday, the fourth of June, in the evening."

"I'm in."

Such a rapid agreement from Veruca to accompany him hit Charlie like a bullet train, leaving him to pick up the pieces and stutter, in response, "Oh...great. I...I'll call you later when I get more details about the event."

"Sound's good, bye."

"Bye," Charlie replied as he put down his phone, all the while possessing a grin on his face rivaling the one Veruca put on for the camera after dinner.

"Alright, Charlie, it looks like you just got yourself a banquet date, a real-life banquet date," the heir worded through his smile, proud of his accomplishment as he was finally coming out of his shell.