All this talk about reunions and family made Charlie think about his own family. His desk was littered with framed photos of all his loved ones, from his parents, his grandparents and even Willy Wonka as well. There was one photo of all of them together that stood out to Charlie; it was taken after Wonka moved the Bucket's shack into the Chocolate Room and Mrs. Bucket had prepared a huge feast to celebrate their new life inside Wonka's factory. Wonka had an Oompa Loompa take the photograph of the entire family, Wonka included, huddled together around the dinner table with all the food Mrs. Bucket prepared spread out. The smile on Charlie's face only grew bigger when he realized this framed photograph stood right above the part of his desk where he kept his collection of media reports on the Golden Ticket winners and of their special tour. Charlie opened the drawer and pulled out a magazine that featured all the winners and their guardians standing outside the gates of Wonka's factory, waiting to get inside, on the cover and again noticed that Veruca was the one standing right beside him.
With Veruca back in his life, Charlie thought he should pull up a digital copy of a photo taken outside the gates, crop everybody but Veruca and him out, have it photo-printed and then frame it and place it on his desk with all of his other photos. It surely would not be difficult to find one seeing as he would often find himself scrolling through pages of them on the image section of a web browser whenever he was feeling down or just had nothing else to do. Although, framing such a picture might send the wrong message, especially to Wonka who was quite addiment he wanted nothing to do with The Bad Nut. So, instead of rushing into things and framing a picture of him and Veruca as kids, Charlie thought it might be best to try and get a picture of the two of them at dinner. At least this way if Wonka noticed the picture, he might have to give it a minute or two before figuring out who the woman in the photograph was. Charlie knew that his mentor would react rather negatively if he did such a thing, and that bothered him a lot the more he thought about it. The Good Boy could not understand how Wonka could make up with his father but could not do the same with the Golden Ticket winners. They had both offended him in the past, but they were not evil, just simply misguided and not in tune with Wonka's personality.
Nevertheless, the Good Boy still wanted to frame a picture of him and Veruca together as kids, and so he came up with a great way to do this while minimizing the chance of provoking Wonka's wrath. He found a picture in the magazine of just the Golden Ticket winners, no guardians at all, that just so happened to feature Charlie and Veruca once again standing next to each other. If he could find the digital copy of this image, he could have this one turned into a photograph and he could frame it under the guise of reliving the greatest day of his life if Wonka ever got too curious. With nothing else to do for the day, Charlie turned his attention to the computer on his desk and began searching the web for a copy of the image from the magazine. Charlie struck gold with his luck, he located a digital album of good quality images from press coverage of the event and downloaded the one he wanted onto a flash drive with plans to take it somewhere where the image could be turned into an actual photograph.
The day came and went and so did the following day until Saturday afternoon rolled around. Charlie had been waiting for this moment all week, yet at the expense of him overanalyzing and overthinking everything down to the bone. Charlie had pondered every possible scenario, too many of them ending rather nasty, but he was confident enough that if he played his cards just right, he could get Veruca to become closer to him. After another day of work, Charlie put away his duties, went back to his house, changed into something cleaner, and left the factory in his car. It would still take him about an hour to get to The Stourton Block, but he needed to make a stop somewhere beforehand. Following some additional online research, Charlie found a place where they could develop the image he downloaded into a photograph, so he decided to stop by before to have the image developed while he was having dinner with Veruca. He would stop by to pick up the photo afterwards, and if he got lucky, to develop the picture he would have taken of him and his fellow Golden Ticket winner together that evening as well.
Charlie arrived at Stourton some time before six and called Veruca from his phone to let her know he had arrived to pick her up, no longer needing Herp to do him the favor of calling one of the tenants for him. Nevertheless, Charlie thought it appropriate to step into the lobby and greet Herp, he did not know why but he had a good feeling about him. Luckily, Veruca did not take long to descend the elevator and when she did she presented herself in that most elegant manner that she had mastered since when she was a child. Her outfits were always carefully coordinated, and this time she wore a black skirt that made it half-way down her thighs, a black-and-white horizontal striped long-sleeve u-neck top, and red flats. She also hung another clutch purse around her right shoulder, tucked her slinky brown curls behind her ears and kept them in place with clips on either side, and of course, sported another fur coat, this time one made out of red fox fur.
The little brute looked pleased, well, as pleased as she could feel out in a world where hardly anybody catered to her every whim, but that was until she stopped to look at Charlie, and asked, "Oh, dear lord. You're not actually planning on going out dressed like that, are you?"
"What seems to be the problem, Veruca? This is what I wear all the time," Charlie responded, smiling and tugging on his shirt and pants in order to accentuate them.
Even though Charlie was as well dressed as Veruca the last two times they had met, the only reason he looked as good as he did was because he had just come back from a business conference before reuniting with her at Fenston's the first time and because he did not want to stand out among the high-end crowd of Coûteux the second time they met up. This time around, Charlie was wearing an outfit that more matched his everyday style; he wore a generic plaid dress shirt with an autumn-colored sweater vest, a pair of some rather baggy brown pants and some clunky dark shoes. With Veruca looking at Charlie with a sense of hopelessness and Charlie looking at Veruca utterly confused, Herp just stood behind the concierge's desk, feeling like a child of divorce stuck in between two dueling parents. All he could do was observe the differences that lead to this divorce, and the contrasts couldn't have been clearer. He had all the money in the world yet he lived a similar lifestyle to that of his impoverished child-self while she relied on Daddy's money to keep up appearances. Charlie and Veruca no longer looked like an affluent couple from Central London, they looked like grown-up versions of those two polar opposite kids standing side-by-side while they waited to enter Wonka's factory.
With Charlie seemingly oblivious to Veruca's issue with his outfit, she rolled her eyes, and commented, "And here I was thinking you had quit being a street urchin."
But, regardless of her attacks on Charlie's social standing, Veruca headed out of the lobby and made her way to his car where Charlie knew beforehand to open the door so his fellow Golden Ticket could enter. And with Veruca seated, Charlie rushed over and got back in the driver's seat, where his guest asked, "So, tell me, where is it that you're taking me for dinner?"
"Because by the look of your rags, I'm guessing we're not going anywhere Michelin certified," Veruca added, giving Charlie one of those side smirks she constantly dispensed during the factory tour.
As Charlie buckled up, he confirmed Veruca's fears yet also tried to assure her that she could have a good time on their night out, replying, "Well, you're right about that. I am taking you to this little restaurant called El Pescador Tabasqueño, The Tabascan Fisherman. It's a regional Southern Mexican restaurant, I really like it and I hope you like it too."
Rather surprised that Charlie would pick such an out-of-the blue spot for a dinner he so desperately wanted, Veruca asked rather confused, "Why would you want go to a Mexican restaurant? It seems so esoteric."
Surprisingly enough, there was a reason why Charlie had a penchant for such a food rare in his native Britain, which he explained to his guest, "The thing is I know the owner, her and I go a while back. Basically, she used to cook for a business partner in Mexico and I really liked her cooking, so I offered to help her and her family immigrate to the UK. They accepted, I gave them the money for a restaurant and now they are entrepreneurs. So now whenever I'm in the mood I drive on down to their quaint restaurant and they treat me like family."
"I actually thought that kind of environment would be perfect for our dinner," Charlie added, already imaging the tiny two-person tables and all the possibilities that might arise from such an intimate setting.
However, Veruca did not see it that way, all she could think of was Charlie's plebian clothes and after hearing about how he had decided to invest his money, she replied, "So you have money to move people from the other side of the globe and open up a restaurant for them, yet you don't buy yourself an entirely decent wardrobe."
"You seem like a brilliant businessman," the little brute sarcastically added, throwing in another one of her signature smirks into mix as well.