The Good Boy had just arrived at Donovan's for another dinner with Veruca, but the little brute was hanging up on all his phone calls, something she had never done before. As far as he could tell, it did not look like Veruca was unconscious or unable to ask for help as she was still able to reach her phone and hang up on the incoming calls. However, the longer the Good Boy's catastrophizing mind stayed focused on what might be leading the little brute to forsake a conversation with him, the more he grew concerned that someone was preventing her from answering her incoming calls. If that was the case, then it would mean that Veruca could be in serious danger, because knowing what he knew about her, she wouldn't let anyone boss her around and control who she could or could not speak to without them getting physical to enforce their decisions with respect to her actions. This strange turn of events was beginning to startle Charlie, but before he thrusted himself through the doors of the restaurant and began calling the little brute's name aloud in order to find her, the Good Boy gave calling her by phone one last chance. Now, the phone rang and rang without a response, but at least she was not hanging up on the call outright like the other times, Charlie thought.

Fortunately, right when it seemed like she was going to miss this call, the Good Boy heard a click, the little brute picked up but said nothing, leading the Good Boy to respond as he relaxed from the scare she put him through, "Hello Veruca. Sorry for running late, again, but thank you for coming down here and claiming our reservation."

While Charlie would have expected Veruca to berate him for showing up late, she didn't engage in any of her snarky banter, she just remained on the call but in utter silence, thinking about what the Good Boy had told her, but once she realized what was going on, she shook herself out of the shock, and retorted, ''What, no? I can't make it to dinner tonight, Charlie, something came up. We'll have to reschedule dinner for some other time, go home."

"Go home? Veruca, are you okay? I'm right outside Donovan's right now, if you'd like I could drive over to Stourton and give you a hand if you need it," Charlie pleaded so that she would let him help her with whatever had happened to her. Unfortunately, it seemed like she did not even want him around her at the moment, let alone his help.

"No, no, I don't need you at my penthouse or at the restaurant. Just go back to your factory, now! Goodbye," the little brute coldly ordered before she hung up on the call.

With Veruca hanging up on the phone call immediately after bidding farewell, she left Charlie to stand out on the sidewalk all by himself and try to decipher what had just happened. Perhaps she was sick and didn't want to get him ill as well. Perhaps she had guests over and Charlie would stick out as an awkward third wheel, so she didn't invite him. Either way, it was evident that Charlie would not be spending the afternoon with his fellow Golden Ticket winner, let alone eating dinner at the restaurant tonight, but if he rushed back to the factory, he could still probably make it back before family dinner wrapped up. But before he walked back to his car, the heir turned around to take a look at the new restaurant once again. He had heard many remarkable things about the owners when he first heard about this place, but it seemed that he would have to wait even longer to experience what all the online buzz on this place was about. The heir could see through the large windows that the room was packed with customers seated at their tables and a crowd of people waiting at the entrance for a table to be cleared so that they could sit down and partake in the dining experience. There were groups of friends and young couples spread about, making up a supermajority of Donovan's' clientele base, yet one table next to a window in particular caught the Good Boy's attention.

Whereas every other table had all its chairs occupied, this one two-person table in particular caught Charlie's eye since it only had one person seated at it. The customer was a handsome young man with dirty blond hair, he was tall, incredibly fit, had a well-defined jawline and a perfect tan to accompany his even-more-perfect skin. This man seemed to be what Charlie could only wish he could be instead of his usual pasty, gangly self. But even with all those flaws, at least the Good Boy finally had someone in his life, unlike the poor chap who sat alone with an impatient look on his face as he stared off into the restaurant with his arms crossed across his chest. However, as time passed, it turned out that a man as handsome as he was did have a dinner date after all, unsurprisingly. A woman appeared out from the direction he was staring off towards, most likely the bathroom, and joined him on the opposite side of the small table. And as was to have been expected, the woman on a date with this handsome fellow was just as attractive, the two seemed to be the perfect couple, nothing about them seemed out of place at all. The woman wore a gorgeous blue cocktail dress and let her long brown hair droop off her shoulders, her outfit seemed so well put together as her dress matched the color of her...eyes? Yes, the woman who sat next to the handsome man had big blue eyes...and long brown hair...and well-defined cheekbones...and was rather tall...and...

Charlie couldn't even think anymore, the shock had gotten to him and there was no way of unlearning what he had just discovered, she was seeing someone else.

It did not take long for Charlie to realize that the woman having dinner with the handsome man was Veruca, it did however take him quite a while to react in a way where he did not look like a deer in headlights. The Good Boy felt an instant queasy sensation take over his stomach, finding out that the girl he liked so much was dining out with an undeniably more handsome man at the same place they were supposed to eat together felt like a punch to the gut for him. Even worse, Veruca had lied to him about what had happened to her, she wasn't in a pickle, she just could not spend her afternoon with Charlie because she was having dinner with someone else. The Good Boy did not want to believe that he had been played for a fool by the brat, but his fears were only more confirmed when he saw what happened next. While Veruca just sat there at the table, staring at the man across from her, Charlie noticed the man put his hands on hers and began caressing them, even worse, he pulled her in closer and gave her a long kiss on the lips, the very thing the Good Boy was too cowardly to do, even after getting rejected after attempting to do such a thing following their first time going out to dinner. Charlie wanted to believe that Veruca was not enjoying the kiss, but even though she did not initiate it or moved away from him in any notable fashion when she was kissed, she did not push the man away when he got too intimate with her.

The Good Boy could not continue to watch this upsetting revelation from the sidewalk, he rushed back to his car and just wanted to leave the scene immediately, but not before burring his face in his arms as he struggled to keep the tears from gushing out of his eyes. His chest began to expand and contrast rapidly as his breathing increased and his pale face became as red as the tint on the TV Room goggles, and that was not even mentioning the feeling of dread and uneasiness that only seemed to increase with each passing moment. As far as Charlie knew, his chance at a relationship with Veruca was over after seeing what he had just uncovered, if he even had a chance to begin with. He always knew it was going to be an uphill battle to get the little brute to even notice him and he gave it nearly all he had when he was trying to win her over, but after seeing her on a date with someone else, the Good Boy had to be honest with himself and accept the fact that he could never compete with that guy. While they both had money, as the stylish way the handsome man dressed suggested, he was much more naturally, well, handsome, his defined jawline and trimmed build was enough to make any woman fawn over him, compared to the pasty, lanky body the Good Boy carried around.

However, Charlie could also tell there were other things about him that made him successful with the ladies, most notably his confidence and lack of social anxiety which allowed him to carelessly grab someone and kiss them without having the other person push back, literally in Charlie's case. The Good Boy could tell the man could have any woman he wanted, unfortunately, that woman just had to be his Veruca. Charlie was eventually able to comport himself and he drove back to the factory, although he was in such a trance that he actually had no memory of maneuvering through the London traffic in order to get back home, but once he was safely home, instead of eating dinner with the rest of the family, he went straight to his crawlspace and went to bed early. Well, he got into bed earlier than he usually did but he remained awake for the next few hours. Even if he wanted to go to sleep then and there, the heir was still too distraught by what he had seen to get a good night's sleep. Now, deep down he knew his eyes did not deceive him, that Veruca was cheating on him, but he needed her to admit it, because even though she did something so unforgivable, a big part of Charlie still wanted to be with her. The Good Boy was eventually able to go to sleep after telling himself that he would confront the little brute about what she had done the next day, while, rather foolheartedly, still holding out hope that this entire ordeal could be overcome and that their relationship would not go down the drain following the confrontation.