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 thousanddollars."
"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 didnotagree 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 saidit 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 Amazon 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 tableto 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?
