Veruca had begun to grow impatient waiting since the food was going to take many more minutes to arrive. Every time someone from the restaurant, all of them members of Doña Rosita's family, passed by her, she made sure to give them that side sneer of disgust of hers so that they all knew she was displeased. Charlie did not know if this would be the right time to ask her the question he had been yearning to ask since the day they met up again, what had she been up to since the tour of the factory, but if he did not act now, she might just grow too angry and shut down any potential conversation the two could have. There surely was a lot for Charlie to learn about, but also some stuff for Veruca to learn about her dinner-inviter, albeit most of that information was already public knowledge. Most of the world already knew an abridged version of his life; Charlie Bucket, a kid born into crippling poverty who one day found the last of the elusive Willy Wonka's Golden Tickets and ended up becoming the heir to his candy empire. However, only those who were a part of the tour knew exactly why Charlie was the one that ended up becoming the heir, and only Wonka, the rest of the Bucket family and himself knew what it took for Charlie to officially be pronounced Wonka's heir and business partner. He would graciously share his story in exchange for his fellow Golden Ticket winner reciprocating the act, thus leaving each of them more enlightened about the life of the other.

After taking a sip from his glass of hibiscus tea, Charlie turned to face his bored invitee, and asked, "Do you have any questions about my...line of work?"

"What's there to ask? You work at that factory," Veruca rudely replied, not just disinterested in Charlie's life, but downright repulsed by the mere thought of Wonka's factory.

Unsurprisingly, Veruca held so much contempt for the mysterious factory as she had almost died inside the elaborate structure years ago. Nevertheless, Charlie began to press her on her knowledge about him specifically, asking, "May I ask, how did you discover that I had been chosen to inherit Mr. Wonka's empire?"

Charlie got a kick out of hearing the different myths people invented in an attempt to explain his rise to power in Wonka world, but Veruca could have cared less about the life of her fellow Golden Ticket winner, and she made that known when she carelessly responded, "Years ago, it was all people in the business world could speak of. I remember Daddy and his business mates talking about your rise once. It didn't seem important, so I ignored it, but just by being alive you hear stories about how the Wonka heir is making a name for himself."

She paused to take another sip of her hibiscus tea and proceeded to put that smug look back on her face before adding, "Plus, seeing that nice car of yours and your outfits that don't look like you got them from a deceased pauper...there's no way a street urchin could ever reach a level like that without someone backing him."

Of course, the Good Boy kept a smile on his face, even as he was being insulted, and by choosing to present a positive outlook he had managed to manifest the confidence needed to ask the follow up, "Any other questions, Veruca?"

This was the problem Veruca knew she would have to deal with the moment she gave Charlie her phone number, this street urchin has a desire to pick at old wounds in hopes of discovering something new. She already regretted giving him her number, yet she might as well poke around her inviter's life now that both of them were trapped inside this unique restaurant as he possibly might have something interesting to talk about. The little brute sighed before rolling her eyes, and asked in a rushed tone, "Fine, tell me, what's working for the amazing chocolatier, Willy Wonka, like?"

"Well, I actually work with him," Charlie replied, chuckling while he corrected her on a common mistake many people made, because as far as he was concerned, him and Wonka were equals when it came to their business relationship.

But Veruca did not like to be corrected, especially not when she was graciously asking questions to keep a conversation that she wanted to end already going. She did not really care to know the answers to said questions, she just did it to keep the person sitting across from her content, and she made her frustrations known by asking indignantly, "I thought I was the one putting forward the questions?"

It was times like these that Charlie told himself he had to carefully craft his response to keep the person he was interacting with from growing bored or displeased and leaving, so he made sure to concede a bit to her before responding, "You are, but the fact of the matter is that when it comes to Mr. Wonka and I, we work together as a team. One of us is not more important than the other and it's been that way since I won the special prize for being the last kid standing during the tour."

Everyone knew Wonka met his future business partner and heir during the tour of his chocolate factory, but the world, including Veruca, had not yet pieced together that fact with an additional claim the chocolatier made in his initial announcement of the contest, which the little brute brought up after realizing it, "So, the special prize was to work for Wonka when you became an adult?"

It was obvious the brat was disregarding the Good Boy's clarification about the nature of his business relationship with Willy Wonka, but instead of choosing to fight her about it, and thus guaranteeing that this would have been the hill their relationship would have died on, Charlie did not correct her, and instead replied facetiously to the question she posed at him, "As far as the Department for Work and Pensions and child welfare services are concerned, then yes, when I became an adult."

The fact of the matter was Charlie had been unofficially working with Wonka whenever he was not at school since he was 10. He was not legally an employee of Wonka's companies, and thus he did not receive a paycheck until he turned 18. And while that would have raised red flags by itself, it was not like Wonka did not have a history of skirting the law in the past. The entire factory was basically taunting the Health and Safety Executive to shut it down for unsafe workplace facilities and practices, but Willy Wonka always managed to get the law to look the other way and leave him and his factory be. In return, he created the world's greatest candies, with Oompa Loompa labor paid for with housing and food.

Now, with that question having been answered, Veruca began reminiscing about the day of the tour, and afterwards, she asked Charlie something she had occasionally wondered about their former tour guide, asking, "Tell me, does Wonka still dress like a pimp?"

Honestly, the Good Boy did not know what to make of such an outlandish statement, but seeing how Veruca critiqued his choice of clothing before, Charlie took her attack on Wonka as hyperbole, and replied, "If you're referring to his unique choice of outfits, then yes, he's still very much fond of long coats...and top hats...and a cane."

"Good God, he does dress like a fleshmonger!" Charlie screamed, genuinely surprised as he had not picked up on such a resemblance before, not that his mind would ever start thinking about something so deviant to begin with.

However, he did not let that coincidence change the way he saw his benefactor, instead he rationalized Wonka's choices, adding, "But, I wouldn't say it's any different than your penchant for fur coats."

Charlie could not stop stepping in it, Veruca did not take kindly to her love of furs being compared to a recluse's idea of fashion, and now the heir had to dig himself out of another hole that his words had gotten him into, which he started to do by saying, "Well, my point is Mr. Wonka is still very much the same person you met on the tour all those years ago."

"Then it's a miracle you're not dead already," Veruca sniped back, speaking from her own personal experience with the confectioner while still upset at Charlie's comparison of her to the man who let her almost die.

It was more than evident now that Veruca had no love for Willy Wonka, the joy he brought to her as a child was gone and replaced by cynicism and hatred stemming from the tragic events of that fateful February day, none of which was surprising, of course, but still a fact the Good Boy wished was not so. In fact, Charlie wondered if all the other Golden Ticket winners felt this way about the amazing chocolatier, but all he could do now was chuckle and defend Wonka, replying, "I guess that's true. He's gotten us into our fair share of sticky situations. But I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything."

The Lucky Boy's continued devotion to his mentor was astonishing. Even after he almost got him killed on multiple occasions, Charlie continued to hold the kooky candymaker in high regards, and he was now going to tell The Bad Nut all about those death-defying adventures.