Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story!
A/n: Thank you to the people who reviewed the last chapter. As you know, I love reviews, and they motivate me to write more. So please review (and flames, of course, will be going right in the chocolate river!)!
Ronnie could hardly contain her excitement. She had been feeling really down about the fact that she and Willy's special day together was about to come to a close...and now it wasn't going to! At least not that night She wanted to jump up and down and cheer, but she knew that would cause Mrs. Bucket and Charlie to get suspicious and ask questions (after all, most people don't go around cheering when there's a blizzard, or, for that matter, when they find themselves stranded somewhere because of one!). So she settled for saying, "I've always wondered what it would be like to spend the night in a chocolate factory." Willy grinned. "Well, now you don't have to wonder anymore," he said.
Not long after having been told about the blizzard, Ronnie and Willy were sitting down to supper with the Buckets. "This meatloaf is terrific!" Willy exclaimed. "I'll say! You're a great cook, Mrs. Bucket," Ronnie added. "Thanks, but I'm not the one that made the meatloaf," Mrs. Bucket replied. "Then who did make the meatloaf?" Ronnie inquired. "Grandma Josephine did," said Mrs. Bucket. "The grandparents have always tried to give us the day off in some way or another on Valentine's Day," Mr. Bucket added. "It's always been important to them that James and I be able to have the chance to spend time alone together on Valentine's Day," explained Mrs. Bucket.
Mr. Bucket smiled and put his arm around his wife's shoulders. "Usually we just went for a walk, since we couldn't afford anything else, but that didn't matter to us. The most important thing was that we were spending time together, just the two of us," he said. Mrs. Bucket gazed lovingly at her husband. "I looked forward to those walks all year," she said. Mr. Bucket returned the gaze. "Me, too," he said. In response, Mrs. Bucket leaned over and gave her husband a big kiss. Mr. Bucket was all too happy to return it.
Charlie, on the other hand, was completely grossed out. "Mom, dad, no kissing at the dinner table!" he protested. Mr. and Mrs. Bucket (who, fortunately, had been almost finished with their kiss when Charlie had interrupted it!) had to stifle the urge to burst out laughing. Then Mrs. Bucket realized that Willy had not seemed at all bothered by the kiss. Ordinarily, he would have been just as grossed out as Charlie was. Mrs. Bucket had a strong hunch as to what was behind the change in Willy's attitude toward kissing, but she wasn't going to embarrass him by asking. She WAS curious as to how Willy and Ronnie's day had gone, though.
Mr. Bucket must have read her mind, because he suddenly asked, "So Willy, Ronnie, how was your day?" "It was fantastic! Willy and I had a wonderful time," Ronnie said happily. "That's good to hear," said Mrs. Bucket. "So, what did you two do all day?" Charlie asked. "That's personal!" Willy and Ronnie exclaimed in unison.
Charlie felt a little guilty. He hadn't meant to make them uncomfortable. "Sorry about that," he apologized. "It's okay, Charlie," Ronnie assured him. Then Willy, who hated to see Charlie feeling bad asked, "How did things go in the factory today, Charlie?" (naturally, since Willy had been with Ronnie, Charlie had overseen the running of the factory that day). Charlie brightened. "They went great," he said. "I'm very glad to hear that," Willy said.
By this time, everyone had finished their supper, and Ronnie and Willy were helping the Buckets clean up the kitchen. Ronnie was helping Mrs. Bucket wash the dishes when something suddenly occurred to her. Where was she supposed to sleep? After all, this was a chocolate factory, not a motel! The Buckets' house was almost too small for them, let alone an extra person, and Ronnie was pretty sure that, while Willy must have had living quarters for himself, they probably didn't include a guest room. So Ronnie had no idea where Willy was planning to have her sleep.
"Where am I going to sleep?" she asked. "Well, I know you really like strawberries, so I figured you could sleep in the Strawberry Bedroom," Willy replied. "The Strawberry Bedroom?" Ronnie asked, a bit confused. "Yeah. Before all that nasty business with the spies, when I still had human workers, I always had a lot of student interns from other countries every summer. Naturally they also needed a place to live while they worked here, so I added some bedrooms to the factory and gave them room and board, along with their pay of course, in exchange for working for me," Willy explained.
"And you decided to give each of those rooms a special candy-related theme," Ronnie finished for him. Willy grinned. "I sure did!" Then Ronnie remembered that she didn't have pajamas or toiletries with her, either (after all, when she had come to the factory that morning, she hadn't expected to spend the night there!). She wasn't too concerned about toiletries, since she figured that Willy probably had some extras that she could borrow. However, she was pretty sure that Willy didn't have any womens pajamas lying around his factory! Luckily, Mrs. Bucket seemed to have read her mind, because just then she said, "I know I have an extra nightgown somewhere. I'd be more than happy to lend it to you for the night, Ronnie."
"Thank you, Mrs. Bucket. I really appreciate it," Ronnie said. "Well, is everyone ready for some dessert?" Mr. Bucket spoke up suddenly. Grandma Josephine looked at him in surprise. "You insisted that I not make dessert tonight," she said. "Yes, but that doesn't mean we don't have dessert," said Mr. Bucket. Then, looking around at everyone's bewildered expressions, he quickly added, "I took care of dessert. I just have to go get it." With that, he got up and began rummaging around in the freezer. Then, before anyone could say anything more about the dessert, Grandpa Joe spoke up. "I need to go get something from the other room," he said. Now Grandma Josephine looked at HIM in surprise. "Joe, the only other rooms on this level are the bathroom and James and Nora's bedroom. I really don't think you'd have a reason to leave anything in either of those rooms," she said.
"I meant I left something outside," Grandpa Joe corrected himself. Then he quickly got up and headed outside. "Actually, I need to go get something, too," said Grandpa George. He didn't even give anybody a chance to ask questions. He just got up and left. Then, to everyone's surprise, Willy announced that HE had to go get something. After Willy had left, the Bucket women, Ronnie and Charlie looked at each other in confusion (well, Grandma Georgina didn't look confused. In fact, she smiled and said that she thought flowers smelled wonderful.). "What do you suppose the guys are up to?" Ronnie asked. "Your guess is as good as mine," replied Mrs. Bucket.
At that moment Grandpa Joe, Grandpa George, and Willy all returned. "Should I go first?" Grandpa George asked (this, of course, confused the women and Charlie even more. All they could figure out was that the men must have talked on their way to getting whatever they were getting, and told each other what they were doing). Grandpa Joe and Willy nodded, so Grandpa George stepped forward and handed something to Grandma Georgina. Grandma Georgina broke out into a huge grin and held up the thing Grandpa George had given her. It was a candle. "It smells like wild flowers! I like wild flowers!" she said. "Sounds like you like your Valentine's gift, Gigi," Grandpa George said happily. In response, Grandma Georgina leaned over and gave a him a hug and kiss.
Before Charlie even had time to be grossed out, Grandpa Joe stepped over to Grandma Josephine. "Happy Valentines Day, Josie," he said as he handed her a bouquet of flowers. "Thank you, Joe. You're always so thoughtful!" Grandma Josephine exclaimed. Grandpa Joe's response, of course, was to kiss her. Just as Charlie was getting ready to protest, Willy walked over to Ronnie. He cleared his throat, sounding a bit nervous. "Ronnie, I...Well, I just wanted to say..." he began.
Then he brought his hand out from behind his back and revealed a second bouquet of flowers. He handed them to Ronnie. "Happy Valentine's Day!" he finished. Ronnie felt tears of happiness well up in her eyes. Before she could say anything, though, Willy spoke again. "These aren't just regular old ordinary flowers, either. They're Wonka's Special Candy Flowers!" he said proudly. To Ronnie's absolute mortification, her tears spilled onto her cheeks. She quickly looked down at her flowers, hoping the Buckets hadn't noticed. "Thank you, Willy! This is the best Valentine's gift I've ever received!" she said.
Without really thinking about what he was doing, Willy suddenly started to lean forward, towards Ronnie's mouth. "Willy, what are you doing?" Charlie asked. Willy blushed crimson and hurriedly stood up straight. "I...er, I was just, uh..." he trailed off. Mrs. Bucket couldn't help but smile. She knew exactly what Willy had been about to do! "Dessert's ready! Who wants some?" Mr. Bucket called just then. "I do!" cried everyone else. Mr. Bucket served Mrs. Bucket first. "Happy Valentine's Day, Nora," he said as he placed a bowl in front of her. As Mrs. Bucket looked at it, her eyes began filling with tears. "Oh, James! I don't know what to say! 'Thank you' just doesn't seem to be enough!" she said. Then she tilted her bowl slightly, to show the others what was in it. It was a piece of chocolate ice cream cake, topped with a red carnation.
"It's Double Chocolate Fudge ice cream cake, which is my all-time favorite," she explained to her family, Willy and Ronnie. "Of course, we couldn't afford it before. My Nora craved it just as badly as Charlie craved Wonka bars. I always wished I could at least get her some for Valentine's Day, but ice cream cake is a lot more expensive than a Wonka bar, so I couldn't," added Mr. Bucket. "And James proposed to me on Valentine's Day...and gave me a red carnation as a gift," said Mrs. Bucket. Then she looked at her husband. "I love you so much, James!" she exclaimed. Mr. Bucket responded by leaning over and giving her a big, tender kiss.
By this point, Charlie had had more than his fill of, as he called it, "mushy stuff". "Have you guys forgotten that there's a kid at the table?" he asked disgustedly. It took all of the adults' will-power not to laugh. "Are we getting too mushy for you?" Mrs. Bucket teased. Before Charlie could reply, a loud musical sound suddenly filled the air. It seemed to be coming from near the door. "Did somebody turn on the radio or something?" Mr. Bucket asked (which was a pretty silly question since no one had left the table for the last five minutes...but Mr. Bucket didn't know what else the sound could be!). Ronnie looked sheepish. "No, it's my cellphone," she explained. Then she got up and hurried over to her purse (which she had left by the door, explaining why the sound was coming from there) and grabbed her phone out of it.
The Buckets and Willy waited patiently while Ronnie ducked outside to take the call (which turned out to be her mother, wishing her a happy Valentine's Day). A few minutes later, she returned. "Sorry about that. I thought I'd put my phone on silent mode," she apologized. "That's all right, Ronnie," Mrs. Bucket assured her. "Yeah, no biggie," Willy agreed. After checking to make sure that she really HAD put her phone on silent mode this time, Ronnie replaced it in her purse. Then, as she was getting ready to return to the table, Ronnie managed to embarrass herself even further. Her foot got caught in her purse's shoulder strap and she tripped, pulling the purse over onto its side in the process. Even worse, she had forgotten to zip the purse back up after putting the cell phone away, so most of the purse's contents spilled onto the floor.
"Are you all right, Ronnie?" Mrs. Bucket asked. "Yeah, I'm fine...but how embarrassing!" Ronnie answered as she got to her feet (inwardly vowing never ever again to buy a purse with such a long shoulder strap!). "It's 'kay, Ronnie. I've done some crazy things myself. Just ask Charlie!" Willy assured her.
Ronnie smiled gratefully at him. "Good to know I'm not the only one," she giggled. "Of course you're not! Now, would you like us to help you clean up?" Mrs. Bucket offered. "Sure. Thanks for offering," Ronnie said. With the Buckets' and Willy's help, Ronnie put her cellphone, her make-up bag, her wallet, her car keys, and a few other things back in her purse. Then, to her horror, she noticed that the name tag she had to wear for work had also fallen out. If the Buckets saw that... "Stop that! You've already told Willy you work for Slugworth. It's time you're honest about that with the Buckets, too," she scolded herself.
Ronnie took a deep breath and faced the Buckets. "You know how, on my first visit here, you asked me where I work? Well, I work for Slugworth," she said, holding up the name tag. "No wonder you didn't want to tell us the other night!" Mr. Bucket said. "Ronnie, I want to assure you that we don't think you're a spy because you work for Slugworth," Mrs. Bucket added. "'Course she's not!" Willy spoke up. Ronnie grinned at him. "As I told Willy, there's no way I'd ever agree to be a spy for that creep!" Mrs. Bucket laughed. "Why do I get the impression you're not too fond of Slugworth?" she teased. "Believe me, I regret taking that job. But I needed the money, and I wanted to work with candy," Ronnie replied.
Mrs. Bucket could sense that Ronnie didn't really want to keep talking about Slugworth, so she quickly changed the subject. "Would you like to me find that nightgown for you now?" she asked. "Sure," Ronnie responded. While Mrs. Bucket retrieved the nightgown, Ronnie looked at her watch and realized just how late it was. She wasn't all that tired, but she figured she and Willy should let the grandparents and Charlie get to bed. Willy seemed to be having the same thought. "I suppose we should get going. It's getting late, and Charlie, you need to be fresh for work tomorrow!" he said as Mrs. Bucket returned with the nightgown. "Awww, Willy!" Charlie groaned. "Willy's right, Charlie. It's getting late, and you need your sleep," Mrs. Bucket said firmly. "Oh, all right! Good night, everyone," Charlie said as he headed to his loft room. "Goodnight, Charlie," the Buckets, Willy and Ronnie replied.
"Goodnight, Willy and Ronnie. Naturally you're more than welcome to join us for breakfast tomorrow morning," said Mrs. Bucket. Then she handed the nightgown to Ronnie. "Thanks, Mrs. Bucket," Ronnie said. "And thanks for the breakfast invitation," Willy added. Then he and Ronnie said goodnight to the rest of the Buckets and headed for the glass elevator. "Ready to see your room?" Willy asked. Ronnie grinned. "I can't wait!" she exclaimed.
Chapter 14 Preview: Willy and Ronnie take a walk after discovering they can't get to sleep...and poor Ronnie has a few more embarassing experiences!