Chapter 305: Is Superficial Vanity Important?
The group quickly headed out, taking two cars to their destination.
Amelia and Samuel rode in one car, while Natalie, Quinton, and Grant took the one behind.
Samuel's car led the way.
As they drove along, they ended up at All Seasons Table.
Amelia was quite surprised.
"Your father actually chose this restaurant?"
"Yes, he thinks the food here is pretty good too."
"It really is good. They've opened their third hundredth branch by now, right?"
"Last time I meant to have Yosef give you some shares, almost forgot about that. Before he goes on his trip, I should remind him."
"Don't, I'm not short on money."
"Who complains about having too much money? Don't worry, you saved Sunny, and they've been wondering how to thank you anyway. If I bring this up, he'll actually be grateful to me."
Amelia nodded with a smile, feeling less nervous.
About forty minutes later, the car pulled into the All Seasons Table parking lot.
This All Seasons Table was the main location, with six floors in total.
Besides the first and second floors, the upper four floors were all private rooms.
Samuel led Amelia and the others to the sixth floor.
Natalie had heard of All Seasons Table but had never been there.
Quinton had been dealing with a pile of things since getting out of detention and hadn't had the time for this either.
Coming here today, both of them said they'd heard so much about it.
"It's Yosef's place," Amelia explained. "None of us need to pay later, so order whatever you want."
Grant immediately said, "Then I'm getting the most expensive stuff."
But Natalie said, "Should we wait until Mr. Crawford arrives to order?"
Samuel replied, "No need, go ahead and order. Once we've ordered, we can start eating. He said something came up and he'll be an hour late. He asked me to apologize to you all."
Everyone relaxed a bit.
Before long, the dishes arrived.
The ingredients were indeed all unique to spring, and everything tasted excellent.
Samuel's phone rang at that moment.
Without even looking, he pressed the power button to turn it off.
After about an hour, everyone had eaten their fill.
Natalie couldn't help asking, "What's keeping your father? If he's really that busy, we could always have dinner another day."
"Just a small matter. He should be on his way now. Let me call and check."
Samuel stood up and went out with his phone.
At the end of the hallway, Samuel turned his phone back on.
The screen showed that there had been thirty-two missed calls.
Thirty-one of them were from Stanley, and the remaining one was from Jeremy.
He called Jeremy back first.
Jeremy got straight to the point: "Mr. Crawford, Stanley called me asking why your phone was turned off. He also asked when you'd be arriving at The Copper Kettle."
The Copper Kettle was an upscale members-only restaurant.
Stanley had made reservations at The Copper Kettle, not All Seasons Table.
Samuel said, "Got it, I'll call him back."
"Yes, sir."
After hanging up, Samuel lit a cigarette, turned down his phone volume, and only then unhurriedly called Stanley.
The call was answered almost instantly, and Stanley's furious voice came through:
"It's one o'clock! Where the hell are you? I've been waiting here for an hour. They've brought out new rounds of dishes twice already. Where are you people?"
If it weren't for his pride about being left waiting, Stanley would have broken down and called Quinton and Natalie directly to ask.
Samuel held the phone away from his ear a bit.
He was glad he'd lowered the volume before calling.
Only after Stanley had finished lashing out did Samuel speak.
"You're asking where I am? I want to ask where you are. We've already finished eating, so why haven't you shown up yet? You've been waiting for us for an hour—where are you?"
"What do you mean finished eating? I haven't seen any of you."
"We're right upstairs."
"What upstairs? Above The Copper Kettle is a hotel. There's no place to eat up here."
"What Copper Kettle? We're at All Seasons Table. Didn't you say we were eating at All Seasons Table?"
Stanley suddenly fell silent.
Samuel smartly moved the phone away from his ear again in advance.
Sure enough, Stanley's angry cursing came through.
Fortunately, holding it at a distance, it didn't hurt his ears.
Samuel still waited for him to finish venting before slowly speaking: "Don't be angry, Dad."
"You bastard! And you dare tell me not to be angry? I was being nice, inviting them to dinner, and this is what you pull?"
Samuel replied calmly:
"Whether you were being nice inviting them to dinner, I don't know. What I do know is that in families like ours, dinner reservations are always made a day in advance."
"But you? You wait until mealtime to invite people to dinner. You really think I don't know you were trying to intimidate them?"
"They married Amelia to me—they didn't take anything from you."
"They're willing to show you respect, but I'm not."
"If you dare disrespect them again next time, I can guarantee you won't have any sons left."
Stanley was so angry he could spit blood.
If his body hadn't already recovered and the tumor in his brain hadn't been successfully removed, he might actually have been angry enough to drop dead right then.
"You... you!"
For a long while he couldn't get out a complete sentence.
He only heard Samuel say, "You should thank me for making sure this dinner didn't happen. Otherwise, word would get out that you mistreated your daughter-in-law's family. Think about it—wouldn't that be even more embarrassing than the Evelyn situation?"
He added, "Now that you've blown off steam, think it over carefully."
With that, he hung up directly.
Stanley furiously smashed everything breakable in the private room.
Rex hesitated outside about whether to go in, but finally gathered his courage and walked in.
"Mr. Crawford."
Looking at the mess throughout the room, there was nowhere to step.
How angry must he have been?
In public, Stanley had never lost his composure like this.
Just as he was about to say something, he saw Stanley light a cigarette and suddenly seem to calm down.
After thinking it over, Rex simply closed his mouth and quietly backed out, letting Stanley calm down on his own first.
As the door closed, the private room fell into an eerie silence.
Whether it was embarrassing or not, he actually hadn't thought that much about it at the time.
He'd just wanted to teach Amelia a lesson, to make her remember that he was an elder she shouldn't offend.
That way he could regain the dignity he'd lost when threatened and intimidated on the operating table.
But now, thinking about it again, was that dignity from the operating table really that important?
Of course it was important!
He'd had smooth sailing his whole life—no one had ever dared threaten him with his own life.
But his life had indeed been saved, which made that bit of dignity seem not quite so important after all.