Chapter Three
Emma sat there in silence. Her grandmother had told her that she needed to have more of a life outside of their house.
She even mentioned a year ago that she was changing her will and was going to force Emma to have more fun somehow.
Emma thought that would mean a little bit of money for some new clothes or money for a weekend getaway or something.
Emma wasn't expecting this. Spending money to make money? And she had to spend it on a movie star?
She could feel her chest tighten, and she reached for the buttons of this stupid blazer she bought for Nana's funeral. She wore it today to look professional and confident, but she wasn't feeling confident right now.
What the hell had Nana been thinking with this proposal of hers?
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, hoping that would steady her a bit. That's when she felt his hand on her shoulder.
Chase Warwick was still here, and he was still sitting next to her.
Emma knew Nana had befriended him. It seemed odd to Emma, but Nana loved it.
She always put aside some of her pension every month for a convention and would go to three or so a year, but always close to home.
It was cheaper that way. She also spent a little money on ingredients for cookies and would take dozens with her to share with fans she had become friends with over the years.
She would specifically make her special chocolate chip cookies just for Chase too.
"Don't worry," Nana would say. "Chase is paying for my martinis."
As if that was the issue.
Her grandmother was on a fixed income and while her pension was nice, she didn't really have a lot of money in savings.
Meanwhile, Emma was just a librarian with student loans so it helped to live rent-free with Nana.
It was also nice to live there and spend time with her.
They had grown close over the past years with Emma out here.
But they didn't live extravagantly. It was just a nice house that Nana had owned for a long time in a neighborhood she definitely couldn't afford if she had to buy it today.
So this whole challenge to spend money wasn't really making sense.
Emma finally looked up to see Chase giving her a reassuring smile, but it wasn't all that reassuring. "Well, I guess you're stuck with me for awhile, huh?"
"I just...I don't understand this," she stammered. "I don't have any extra money to spend."
Charles the financial guy, who she had never met before, cleared his throat on the other side of the desk. "Actually, the one percent will come from your total inheritance. Once that's spent in thirty days, you'll get the other ninety-nine percent of the money."
Emma took another deep breath, and her head was still swimming a bit. Then she felt Chase's hand tighten its grip on her shoulder.
"You're going to be OK," he said reassuringly. "This is OK."
"Is it?"
"Totally!" Chase replied. "Charles, it's going to be just fine, isn't it?"
"Yes."
She turned to look at Chase, who rolled his eyes at the boring financial planner. Charles was not helping them out, and Chase was doing some act that she assumed actors did. But when he gave her that movie star smile of his, she had to admit that it made her feel better.
"It's just one percent, right?"
She tried to ask him the question with strength and determination, like she actually believed it. But it didn't really come out that way. Chase didn't seem to mind though, and that movie star smile of his just got wider.
"Exactly. It's just one percent. We got this." Chase turned to the financial planner. "How much is there?"
"It's one hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars."
"See? One percent of that is maybe a few thousand dollars.
" Chase gave her a wink that she had to admit had an effect on her.
"I don't mean to brag, but I can get us reservations at a really exclusive restaurant in Malibu.
The money will pay for a spectacular dinner, and we can even get martinis afterward.
Well, you can get a martini. I'll get a gin and tonic. We'll have a great night with that."
Charles cleared his throat and gave them an apologetic look. "I should've been clearer. The total value of the portfolio is twelve-point-two million. One percent of that is one hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars."
The room suddenly went into a tailspin, and Emma felt like she was going to literally fall off of her chair. "What the fuck!"
"Yeah, what she said." Chase's demeanor had suddenly changed too, and he didn't sound like that easy-going actor anymore. "Listen, Charlie. You need to back this bus up. I did not agree to that."
She glared at Chase. "What do you mean you didn't agree to that?" she yelled. "What did you agree to?"
"I just told Nana—"
"She is not your Nana!"
Chase closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Dorothy asked me if I would agree to be part of a challenge that she was adding to her will. She said it would just be a little thing and that would be it."
"Maybe for you one hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars is a little thing, but that's a lot of money to me!" Emma yelled. "And I have to spend it on you?"
Charles cleared his throat again from across the table. "If I may interject—"
"No!" Emma and Chase yelled together.
"I didn't know the challenge was going to involve that much money. So let's just take a breath, and we can figure this out together, OK?"
He gave her that reassuring smile again that was no longer reassuring. Now, it made her want to rip his head from the rest of his body and drop kick it into the trash can.
She watched as he turned to the financial planner with that cheesy movie star smile of his. "I'm sure you're great at your job, but maybe you made a mistake with your calculations or something?"
"I triple checked these numbers, and they're right," Charles replied defensively.
"Dorothy gave my dad a lump sum of money from her divorce in 1988.
She told him to invest it however he saw fit, and then she never touched it.
So my dad bought some Microsoft and Apple stocks.
He bought when it started trading. When he handed it over to me, I invested it in real estate in places like Las Vegas before it was a big deal.
We made some great investments for her."
Charles slid a piece of paper across the table to Emma, and she stared down at numbers that seemed to be swimming all over the page. There was a whole list of company names and real estate investments and mutual fund whatevers.
Emma was still paying off her student loans, and there were bills that piled up when Nana was in the hospital before she.
.. Well, before she was gone. Emma knew there was some money from the divorce between Nana and Emma's grandfather, but it was a topic Emma learned not to bring up after once asking about the divorce settlement.
"I'm not taking a dime of that money from that ex-husband of mine!" Nana had yelled. "You can enjoy it when I'm dead!"
Now Emma was staring at this paper, and she wasn't enjoying any of this. She had to spend money to get money, and she had to spend it on this himbo movie star who made more in the past month than she would ever make in her entire boring life.
Emma was mad. Furious. Her dad got her house and was probably going to evict her soon, and any money for rent for a new place was tied up in some stupid challenge her grandmother created.
A challenge that was forcing her to spend one hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars having fun with Chase fuckin' Warwick. What the hell was that about?
"Wow," Chase said as he stared at the page over her shoulder.
He didn't look like a movie star in Emma's eyes anymore. Now, he was just a dumbass that she was stuck with for the next thirty days.
Chase leaned back, looking a little scared of the face Emma was giving him, and turned to Charles. "So this is no big deal then. Emma and I, we can... go buy a car together! Maybe a Ferrari or something. Problem solved!"
"No," Charles replied sternly. "The purpose of this stipulation was that Emma would have a meaningful experience with you and enjoy living her life by spending the money. Shopping at the motor mall is not a meaningful experience."
"Says who?" Emma asked incredulously. "Who is the referee in all of this?"
"I am," Charles said. "I discussed this with Dorothy a few years ago, and she made her rules clear."
"Wait, so you talked to my grandmother about this stupid challenge, you agreed to the rules she made for it, but you didn't think to mention that this was going to cost me one hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars?"
"She specifically said at the very beginning of our conversation that she did not want to know how much money was in the account."
She clasped her hands together in front of her face and had to take a deep breath to get control of her emotions.
When she finally opened her eyes, three men were staring back at her with concern.
Good. They deserved to be concerned. This was a concerning situation.
These three assholes were responsible for going along with her grandmother's stupid idea, which is how they were all stuck in a conference room with her now.
"Alright, fine." She put her hands on top of the financial pages sitting in front of her and pulled them closer. "What do I have to do now?"
George gave her a tight smile. "I know this is very unusual for you. It's very unusual for all of us. But this is what your grandmother wanted."
"And yet you never thought to talk her out of it," Emma replied bitterly.
"I only do what my clients want."
"That's bullshit." Chase turned and gave Emma a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I don't mean to disparage Nana that way—"
"She wasn't your Nana," Emma said through gritted teeth.