He raised his glass in a grand gesture and smiled at Emma. "To Nana."
Emma gave him a tight smile as she held up her cosmopolitan. "To Nana," she said quietly before taking a drink.
"You know, your grandmother would be a little disappointed in you," Chase said before sipping his martini.
Emma cocked her head to the side. "Why is that?"
"She insisted that the only real martini was a classic martini, or a dirty martini in a pinch. These other things like cosmos and espresso martinis and whatever? Not real martinis."
Emma laughed and looked down at her glass. "Very true. She had specific opinions about martinis and old fashioneds."
"What was her opinion about old fashioneds?"
"No orange peel, no extra cherries or fruit or whatever. 'An old fashioned should be old fashioned, not new fashioned,' she would say."
"That definitely sounds like her," Chase said with a smile.
Emma looked out to take in the decor and the people sitting on the stools at the bar nearby. "She would've liked this."
"She did like this." Emma's head turned back to Chase and he gave her a tight smile. "We always came to this bar when she was in Palm Springs. Very Rat Pack, you know? And she said they made the best drinks here."
"I wonder what she would think of us sitting her together now."
"She would probably be proud of the scheming she did to get us together." Chase cringed, realizing what he had said. "Not together likethat,of course, but you know what I mean."
Emma gave him a scathing look. "Are you kidding? We got stuck in a room with one bed. Wherever she is, Nana is very proud of her work on that one."
"Really?"
Chase didn't mean to sound so surprised, but that wasn't the Nana he knew. She liked drinks and conversation. "Scheming" was not a word he would use to describe her.
"My grandmother was an ambitious wingman," Emma said with a mischievous smile on her face. "I can't tell you how many times she came home from the grocery store with a guy's number. I'm honestly surprised she never tried to set me up on a date with you."
"Um, hello," Chase said sarcastically. "What do you call this?"
"A drink with a friend to remember my grandmother?"
"And dinner with the gold-leaf burger?"
"It's just part of the deal," she said quietly.
Maybe Chase was being too hopeful, but Emma didn't sound convincing when she said that. There was something else there that he couldn't quite pin down. Was she still bitter about her grandmother's challenge? Still upset that she was stuck spending money on a rich actor who wasalready flush with cash?
Or did Chase wish it was something else? Because these past few weeks with Emma had been different. He couldn't remember the last time he spent this much time with a woman who wasn't a co-worker or a girlfriend.
She was just Emma and he was just helping her out. Nothing more. But there were times when he would see her and wish there was something more.
Of course, he couldn't tell her that. After all, this relationship in its own way was strictly professional until they spent the cash and Emma got her inheritance. That was the deal he had agreed to in that stupid lawyer's office.
Of course, he would've loved to talk to Nana about all of this, about what she was thinking when she set this all up, but she wasn't here anymore.
"Can I admit something to you?" Emma gave an intriguing look. "It feels weird not drinking this martini with your grandmother."
Emma looked wistfully down at her drink. "I wonder sometimes if this would be different if she hadn't died so quickly with something so stupid like the flu. I just... I never expected it to be like that."
"Different how?"
"Maybe she could've given me a head's up about what was in her will or explained why she did it this way. But her illness and then the funeraland the inheritance and... It's just been a lot of things in a short amount of time and it's been tough to wrap my brain around."
