Chapter Four #2
This time, the waiter couldn't hide his shock at her order, and Chase was sure he had a similar look on his face. Apparently, customers did order that ridiculously expensive burger here, and Emma was going to be that customer tonight.
"Uh, yes. Of course. Yes. And the name for that?"
"Emma Colton."
"Emma. OK." The waiter seemed like he had to remember that name as if his entire career at this restaurant depended on it. "And you told them how you wanted it cooked?"
"Just medium, thank you," she said with a sweet smile.
"Right, medium. For Emma." He nodded again, and Chase could tell the waiter was trying to pull himself together. "I'll put those orders in and be right back with your wine."
Chase watched as the waiter walked in a hurry with an extra spring in his step.
"I'm usually the one who makes waiters get flustered like that. It must be the expensive wine you picked out," Chase said, hoping to lighten the mood a bit.
But Emma just crossed her arms and leaned back in the booth. "I just ordered a five-thousand-dollar hamburger," she said bitterly.
"You did what?"
She took a deep breath and looked out over the water beyond the windows.
"I didn't pick this place because of the fish sticks.
I picked it because I saw a story a few days ago about them serving a five-thousand-dollar hamburger.
I figured it would be easy to run up a huge bill for this stupid challenge. "
"Well, that's for sure," Chase said sarcastically. "What the hell is even in a burger that makes it cost five thousand dollars?"
Emma shrugged. "I don't know. Lobster tail on top of a way-something burger."
"Wagyu beef?"
"Yeah, that." She leaned forward and rested her cheek in her hand as she stared out at the water. "It comes with a bun encased in edible gold leaf. I'm going to be eating a gold leaf hamburger bun."
The storminess in her eyes had returned, and Chase couldn't help but feel sorry for her. This was supposed to be fun. She was supposed to be enjoying this. But instead, she just seemed to be going through the motions to rack up the credit card bill so she could get her inheritance.
It honestly didn't seem fair. That sounded like a "poor little rich girl" excuse in his head, but so be it.
This really was a burden for her, and he was getting a little upset at Nana for putting Emma in this position.
He wondered if Nana even knew this was the burden she was going to leave for Emma.
"Hey."
"Hm."
"Hey." Chase said it stronger this time to get Emma's attention, and she finally turned to him.
"You just ordered a really fucking expensive hamburger, and I'm not going to allow you to wallow over there as you eat that gold-leaf bread.
You're going to eat that burger, and you're going to share some of it with me because I honestly don't know what a five-thousand-dollar burger tastes like and I'm really curious. "
"It'll taste like regret and bitterness."
Chase gave her a chastising look. "It's going to taste amazing, and I'm going to force you to enjoy it."
"Really?"
"Really," he said. "I know you don't like this, but Nana said you had to have fun with it. You can't fulfill her challenge if you don't have fun."
"That is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Just like this challenge is stupid as hell."
"Ugh, you wound me." He grabbed his chest in mocking pain. "I don't know how much more my fragile movie-star ego can take."
That finally got a smile from Emma and he chalked it up as a little victory for now.
"Good evening, Mr. Warwick."
A man stepped up to the table with their wine and showed Chase the label with an extra flourish.
Then he opened it in front of them and poured a little bit into a glass in front of Chase.
The star swished it around, trying to look fancy, when he only knew how to do this because he had learned it once for a movie.
Emma seemed unimpressed, but he could see the smirk teasing at her lips. At least he was amusing her a little.
"This is wonderful," he said after taking a sip.
The sommelier gave him an approving smile before pouring Emma a full glass and topping off Chase's wine.
"Mr. Warwick?" Emma asked sarcastically when the sommelier was out of sight.
"Apparently, he didn't realize that you're the one treating me tonight."
Emma rolled her eyes. "Apparently."
Yeah, it was going to be tough to make sure she enjoyed this dinner, but in the meantime, he did appreciate her sarcasm. That was better than the dourness she came in with.
"Should we make a toast?" Chase asked as he raised his glass. "To Nana, wherever you are. Thank you for bringing us together."
Emma gave him a small but real smile and clinked her glass against his. "To Nana, and to spending lots of money."
"To spending money."
He watched as Emma pulled the glass up to her gorgeous red lips and took a drink. The ecstasy that spread across her face was instantaneous.
"Wow," she said. "That really does taste like an expensive bottle of wine."
"Better than the cheap stuff at the grocery store, right?"
"Better than the box stuff I usually had with..." Her voice trailed off and she gave Chase a watery smile. "Well, let's just say that Nana wasn't really picky about her wine."
He couldn't help but give her a reassuring smile back. Without saying a word, he tried to tell Emma that this was going to be fine, it was going to be OK. Hell, she may actually warm up to him and enjoy this whole journey after all.
He was going to have to convince himself of the same thing. This was going to be weird and odd for him. But then again, he needed to just keep reminding himself that this wasn't about him. It was about Emma.