171: An Invitation to Dinner?

At the lush golf course, Wayne and Bauer found themselves in an uneasy standstill, their conversation teetering on the brink of personal and professional realms. Wayne, with a hint of accusation in his tone, broke the silence, "Bauer, you've been quite attentive to Emma lately. What's your angle?" Bauer, striving to maintain his composure, replied, "Wayne, you're reading too much into it. My interactions with Emma have been purely cordial." Meanwhile, Emma, feeling a tug of guilt for inadvertently sparking this tension, tried to shift the focus, "Francis, why do you ask such things? Your dad and I are just acquaintances." Francis, puzzled by the adults' complexities, innocently retorted, "But Dad looks at you a lot, Emma. Doesn't that mean something?" Bauer, catching Francis's words, quickly intervened, "Francis, it's not polite to make hasty assumptions, okay? Let's not complicate things further." As the conversation veered off course, Wayne's protective instincts ki