As expected, Charlie woke up the next day feeling completely sore from moving Veruca's sofa all the way from the street corner up to her penthouse all by himself, and the fact that he slept in a small bed in the crawlspace of his family's shack's attic surely did not have help with his posture. Luckily, he was not needed anywhere that day other than at his desk opposite of Mr. Wonka where the pair went over briefs sent to them by the administrators down below and tried coming up with new candy ideas. But, even after being stationed at his desk all day, Charlie tried to move the least bit he possibly could as to not bring attention to his pain, he did not want Wonka asking questions about why he was injured or where he hurt himself. He knew Wonka would get hopping mad if Charlie said he spent the afternoon using his trucks full of his fuel and driven by his Oompa Loompas to fulfil an undeserved favor for The Bad Nut, so it was best to keep him in the dark for a bit. The Good Boy sure felt guilty doing this to his mentor, but if he wanted to continue connecting with Veruca then he would have to start keeping small secrets from Wonka, at least small secrets from Charlie's point of view. If they were small to him, he feared they would be huge betrayals to Wonka, and betraying the man who lifted his family out of poverty was one thing he did not want to do, but it was something he was willing to risk in order to come to peace with the fact that he failed to save Veruca when she most needed his help.

The more he thought about how to keep Wonka from finding out about what happened the afternoon before, the more he realized he had not ordered the Oompa Loompas that accompanied him to keep quiet about their journey. Those two workers saw the heir to the Wonka empire do the work of a common laborer and move a piece of furniture all by himself. There was also the fact he did all that for a former Golden Ticket winner, and a very spoiled one at that. Even though it had been years since the Golden Ticket winner's factory tour, it would not have surprised Charlie if the Oompa Loompas recognized Veruca. Despite the appearance of their civilization being rather primitive, over the years Charlie began to realize that the Oompa Loompas were some of the most intelligent individuals he had ever encountered. It was the Oompa Loompas who came up with most of the machinery that automated the Wonka Bar manufacturing process, it was them that built and tested every single project, candy or machine that went on inside the factory, and it was them who maintained all the equipment and kept the factory running. If they could train squirrels to distinguish bad nuts from good nuts, transport chocolate bars through a television and find a way to reverse the effects of aging, then surely, they could have remembered an entitled brat their brothers had to liberate out of a malfunctioning incinerator. It would only be a matter of time before the story of the lucky boy submitting himself to the little brute who went down the garbage chute would begin to spread around the facility. What would start off as typical water cooler office talk would become full-blown factory-wide gossip, spreading from the Loading Docks to every corner of Wonka's factory. And once every single Oompa Loompa learned of Charlie's night out with Veruca, it would be near impossible for Wonka to not hear about it from one of his faithful workers. At least that's how Charlie's over-imaginative, catastrophizing mind rationalized the situation he found himself in.

Now, back in the real world and not in the mind of the injured heir, Wonka had left the office a while back and since Charlie was now all alone without anything to do, he thought this would be the perfect time to call Veruca back. He spent the night prior fleshing out all the details for their night out, now he just needed to call her and find out when she would be available to meet up. He could not call too early or he would look desperate, well, more desperate than he already looked like he was. However, he also could not call too late because he feared Veruca would think he was ghosting her and she would forget all about him and move on with her life. With both of these conflicting fears rattling around in his mind, Charlie pulled out both his phone and the piece of wrapping paper where Veruca had written down her phone number for Charlie the night before from his pants' pockets and began punching in the eleven digits onto the digital dial pad in hopes that by just jumping in and getting it over with he could end the torture both options created. He then pressed the green call icon and brought the device up to his ear, but the phone just kept ringing and ringing. This was Charlie's worst fear, that Veruca would just ignore his calls and that he would be left all alone once again.

Fortunately, those fears were put to rest when the little brute answered her phone in the most quintessentially Veruca way possible, "Who's this? What do you want?"

Clearing his throat, Charlie tried to ease her tension by speaking in a meek and tender voice, replying, "H...hi, is this Veruca? It's Charlie."

The other end of the phone went silent for a bit, but instead of apologizing for such a brash introduction, all Veruca did was respond with a primal sound, "Mmm."

Understanding the grunt as a sign of agreement, Charlie took a deep breath in an attempt to combat the anxiety that overcame him at such a pivotal moment, and responded, "So, listen, I've taken a look at my schedule and my weekend afternoons are wide open. How's this Saturday afternoon for you?"

"I could do Saturday afternoon," Veruca replied, actually taking the time to articulate a near full response to Charlie's question.

Veruca's seeming eagerness to actually converse with Charlie only made him more exited, something that caused a bit of a blowback after he over-enthusiastically asked, "Does six work for you?"

Charlie might have spoken too soon, after replying with such energy, Veruca was back to barely responding, this time simply saying, "I guess."

"That's good, so listen, I have an idea about where to go. Do you like fresh seafood and salads?" The ever-considerate Charlie asked, checking to see if his plan was acceptable to his guest.

Luckily, Veruca seemed to be fine with such a restaurant, replying, "I'll eat both."

"Great, then I think you'll like it. So, I guess I will see you Saturday at six," Charlie added, sounding just a bit too excited.

Veruca had picked up on Charlie's enthusiasm from the other end of the line and acted like his polar opposite, as all she had to say was, "Sure."

With the two of them now entrenched in an awkward silence and with nothing else to say, Charlie thought it would be best for him to initiate a valediction, saying, "Alright then, take care Veruca, buh-bye."

Veruca didn't hesitate to end the call, but instead of focusing on her bad manners all Charlie could do was criticize his own conversational skills, whispering to himself, "Buh-bye? What kind of farewell is that? I might as well have said toodles."

It was moments like these that emphasized just how tough Charlie was on himself. Instead of being upset at how his upcoming dinner guest treated him on their call, he had to criticize himself for a rather arbitrarily sub-par method on how to end a phone call. While it was not fair for Charlie to put so much pressure on himself to correct supposed errors, it was also just the way he grew up, no matter how hurtful the schoolyard bullies were to him he always kept the pain under wraps and showed up to school the next day with a smile on his face. Even after everyone learned that Charlie would be moving into Wonka's factory the taunts did not stop, nor did real friendships blossom. If anyone did approach him at all it was in hopes of getting to see the inside of the mysterious factory. That was why reconnecting with Veruca and the other Golden Ticket winners was so important to Charlie, they were already well-defined in his mind. He knew what to expect from them and at least they would not want to hang out with him just because they wanted to experience Willy Wonka's chocolate factory firsthand. This upcoming dinner would be the next step in making his dream of a reunion become reality. After he brought Veruca closer to him, the two of them would bring in the other Golden Ticket winners and they could all be like a family of sorts, at least that is what Charlie dreamed of.