Charlie and Veruca's relationship only blossomed more and more over the course of the next two weeks. The Good Boy cleared up his schedule during the week so that he would not have to wait until the weekend to spend time with his fellow Golden Ticket winner. The heir would wake up early every morning and finish the day's responsibilities as fast as he could; at first, Wonka thought Charlie was just a motivated and creative employee, the same one he saw in the last child standing all those years ago, but that was until he realized what the Good Boy did once he finished his work and began focusing on his free time. Instead of spending the time when he was not working with his family, like he had always done, the amazing chocolatier noticed that his heir would always leave the factory right after wrapping up his duties and venturing off God-knows-where, except he all but knew for a fact he was heading off to meet that someone Charlie wouldn't tell him about. The rest of the Bucket family also grew curious as to their youngest family member's whereabouts as he seldom made it back in time for family dinner, leaving Wonka to explain to the others that the Good Boy was spending his time with someone else, yet he did not know the identity of the person taking up their dear boy's time. In theory, they were all happy Charlie was spending so much time outside the factory, seeing as he never did such a thing throughout his teenage years or even more recently in his young adulthood. This helped quench his parent's fears that their son would only end up like, well, Willy Wonka himself, a socially awkward recluse with only his candied inventions to keep him company.
Nevertheless, the family wished Charlie would tell them where he went every day and even more about this lucky lady who was so obviously drawing him away from them. But they knew they had to let him spread his wings, explore the world and not pressure him into revealing everything he did when they weren't around until he was ready to open up about his private life to them if they did not want to upset him and put him in a place where he refused to share any details of his private life with any of them. And so, it was ultimately a good thing Charlie's family didn't pressure him into discussing what he did when he was out of the factory, because even though they were rather mundane things for someone in their mid-twenties to be doing, they were a far cry from what they had come to expect from their cocoon of a boy. The Good Boy knew Veruca demanded constant excitement and stimulation to be kept pleased, and even though such a rapid and chaotic lifestyle was not one he willingly chose to put himself in for fun before, he went along with it just so that the little brute would be content. The Good Boy wanted to show Veruca that he could keep up with whatever curveball she threw at him and literally keep up with her high-energy lifestyle, so he both agreed to the little brute's suggestions for, and suggested his own, adventurous outings.
One of the places Charlie took his fellow Golden Ticket winner was a trampoline park, probably the perfect encapsulation of an exciting and action-packed night out. Veruca felt more than comfortable at the park, her athletic build and mastery of ballet moves made her a natural on the playground as she jumped from trampoline bed to trampoline bed with ease and reached incredible heights. Charlie, on the other hand, struggled to keep up with the little brute, in fact, he found himself drenching in sweat and panting so rapidly that he thought he was going to pass out of exhaustion. Even worse, the more he tried to overcompensate for his lack of athleticism, the more he found himself getting dragged into situations that were rather dangerous. This adult-friendly playground was equipped with obstacle courses in order to make the trampolines more enticing and exiting, but an exhausted Charlie let the opportunity to impress Veruca get the best of him and when he tried to attempt the course, he ended up slamming his face into one of the obstacles, sending him falling down onto the trampoline below.
Athletic excursions were not the only scenarios where Charlie ventured beyond his comfort zone in the hopes of impressing Veruca. When the little brute wanted to go out drinking one night, the Good Boy took her to the place where they first met up after so many years apart, Fenston's. Now, because of the amount of alcohol that flowed at Fenston's, Charlie was dead set on making sure Veruca did not get utterly pissed like she was on that fateful night when he ended up taking her home, and fate actually granted him his wish, but with an ironic twist. By the time the heir finished his first pint of beer the little brute was already halfway through her fourth strawberry vodka cocktail and had already ordered a fifth, yet the one feeling buzzed was the Good Boy. In reality, that was not all that surprising because even though Veruca left the bar drunker than an Irish stereotype when she and Charlie first reunited, that was only after she arrived at Fenston's following a binge drinking session at home. The brat had a high tolerance for alcohol, unfortunately, the same could not be said for Charlie.
The Good Boy knew he could only handle two beers a night, but with his date taunting him and calling him a wimp for not being able to hold alcohol down, he ordered a third beer, the first time in his life he had done so, in fact, in order to make the pressure campaign stop. Charlie had never had so much alcohol in his system before and his body wasn't equipped to handle it, and so by the time he finished his third pint the heir felt drowsy and struggled to keep eye contact with his date, and not in the more usual way where he did not have the confidence to look Veruca in the eyes while he talked to her. Now, watching the Good Boy struggle to keep down the relatively small amount of alcohol only made Veruca chuckle as she continued to down vodka cocktails without losing control of her motor skills or consciousness. Charlie ended up needing Veruca's help leaving Fenston's and had to spend some time in the little brute's penthouse so that he could sober up enough to call for the Great Glass Elevator to pick him up, all because he wanted to show the little brute that he could go to a bar and handle lots of drinks. Unfortunately, he only seemed to project an even weaker image of himself to the brat when she carried him to her home following his inability tame the beast known as alcohol.
After seeing the utter disaster that was going out to a bar for drinks, the two former Golden Ticket winners decided it was best to change venues for their next night out, instead deciding to go out to restaurants for dinner. The two went to many of the restaurants Charlie suggested and they even returned to El Pescador Tabasqueño, much to Doña Rosita's surprise seeing as how little Good Boy Charlie was still with such an inconsiderate, loud-mouthed brute. Sampling different staples of London's gastronomy every other night immediately became their favorite thing to do together, and they each began suggesting different restaurants to each other to try out. In the process of diving into the local restaurant scene, Veruca discovered a relatively new joint that was generating a lot of attention online, Donovan's, and after letting Charlie know about its existence and getting a green light from him, she went along and reserved a table for the two of them on Friday, July 5th. The day eventually came for them to try out the new restaurant, but unsurprisingly, something had to go wrong at Wonka's Chocolate Factory. There was a leak in the Peanut-Butter Paint Room, resulting in all the equipment getting covered in the creamy spread. It was necessary that the top two in the factory get down to the room immediately if they wanted to make sure the equipment survived the accident and get the room up and running again, but the recovery dug into Charlie's time so much so that he would not have been able to make it on time for their dinner reservation.
Once the leak was under control and as he and Wonka returned to their office, Charlie messaged Veruca to let her know work had gotten in the way and told her to go to the restaurant to claim their reservation and that he would leave the factory later and catch up with her there. From the perspective of the amazing chocolatier, Wonka had never seen Charlie so energetic and impatient, the Good Boy rapidly flipped through all of the day's documents that piled up on his desk and signed off on whatever they said without actually reading them. And, even worse he sampled every new candy still in the trial phase that day without taking the time to truly savor and admire their individually amazing flavors, something that both of them would have thought was unfathomable a month prior, a much simpler time for both of them. The heir eventually wrapped up his work for the day and rushed out of the office, almost forgetting to say goodbye to Wonka. He rushed back home, changed into some nicer clothes, got into his car and drove off into the city. After about a forty plus minute drive into Central London, Charlie arrived at Donovan's and after finding a spot to park he pulled out his phone to let Veruca know that he had finally arrived, the only problem was that when he called her the phone rang twice before the call ended abruptly. He called her once again, but the call got cancelled after just one ring. This was incredibly odd, even for Veruca's standards, she had never hung up before answering any of his calls before, at worst she responded rudely or hung up only after having a conversation, but this, this was different, and Charlie did not like the feeling of it.
