At the Gallagher house.
Fiona and Veronica were buzzing with excitement, chattering nonstop.
Lip couldn't take it anymore. He frowned and cut in, his voice a little louder than usual. "Hey, you two—can you calm down for a second?"
The moment he spoke, both Fiona and Veronica froze and turned to look at him.
"Five thousand dollars a month," Lip said bluntly. "What are you even thinking? It's just a server job. Where are you going to find a server making that kind of base pay?"
Lip was genuinely irritated with Dexter. "Yeah, the guy's rich, but he's not stupid. Why would he pay that much to hire a waitress?"
"Fiona, can't you see it?"
"He's obviously setting you up. First he asks you to help recommend a server, then when you say you can do it yourself, he doesn't agree right away on purpose."
"I guarantee you—within a few days, he'll either suddenly agree, or he'll pretend to interview a few people and then 'coincidentally' choose you."
"In reality, that job is already yours. That five grand is meant for you. If you take it, you're basically walking right into his hands. Get it?"
After hearing all that—
Fiona: "????"
Veronica: "????"
At the time, Illinois' minimum wage was $5.50 an hour. For a regular server working, say, ten hours a day, that was $55 in wages.
As for tips—it depended.
The bare minimum for tipping was about 10% of the bill. In a normal restaurant, a server might make around $50 a day in tips.
That put daily income at roughly $100, or about $3,000 a month.
And that was before taxes and other deductions. After all that, you'd be lucky to take home around $2,000.
So—
Was a $5,000 base salary high?
Yeah, it was high.
But was it outrageously insane?
Not really.
On one hand, Dexter was rich and known for being generous. Offering a high salary totally fit his image.
On the other hand, it was a restaurant, and it was in a rough neighborhood like this. How many customers could they realistically expect? Probably not many—meaning tips wouldn't be great.
Fiona thought it over quietly, then looked at Lip. "Are you sure you're not overthinking this?"
"He didn't even mention tips. Maybe that five thousand is the total pay."
"If that's the case, it's honestly not that crazy."
"Besides, he's rich."
Veronica immediately chimed in, laughing casually. "Lip, even if you're right—so what?"
"Dexter has ideas, Fiona's interested, and she gets paid more. What's the problem?"
"She's not asking him for money. She's earning it by working. Nothing wrong with that."
Frank nodded vigorously in agreement. "Exactly, Fiona. Don't listen to Lip's nonsense. He just doesn't like Dexter."
"Step on the gas and lock that job down. Once you do, the Gallagher family's standard of living is going up a level."
That immediately annoyed Fiona. She shot Frank a glare. "Even if I get that job, it has nothing to do with you. You're not welcome here."
Lip sighed, feeling helpless. "Fiona, I'm just saying—think it through. At least observe for a while. If I'm right, then Dexter isn't an ordinary guy, and you won't be able to handle him."
Fiona had actually already decided she wanted the job.
As for falling into Dexter's trap…
So what?
Five thousand dollars was five thousand dollars.
With that money, the Gallaghers' lives would be a lot better.
And besides—Dexter was nice. Handsome. Gentle. Easy to get along with.
So what if she slept with him?
That wasn't selling herself.
What was the problem?
"Yeah, I'll think about it carefully," Fiona said, nodding at Lip and going along with him without arguing further.
Then she changed the subject. "Let's drop this. What's Kevin doing? Why isn't he back yet?"
---
Kevin ran into Dexter and was surprised that he was leaving. He tried to convince Dexter to come back to the Gallagher house with him.
But Dexter insisted on going.
When Kevin realized he couldn't change his mind, he gave up. The two of them agreed on a time and place to meet later.
Kevin hurried back to the Gallagher house. As soon as he walked in and saw Veronica, he asked in confusion, "V, I just ran into Dexter. Did something happen? Why'd he leave?"
Veronica gave a wry smile. "What did he tell you?"
"He said he had something to take care of—needed to buy something," Kevin replied honestly.
Hearing that—
Whether she wanted to admit it or not—
Fiona's liking for Dexter went up another notch.
Veronica felt the same, though not romantically. "That's exactly what he told us. Nothing happened."
"Oh," Kevin said, letting out a breath of relief. "That's good."
Just like that, Dexter didn't come up again in their conversation.
Instead, Kevin and the others started celebrating.
—
At noon.
Kevin, Veronica, and Fiona returned the borrowed body to the morgue.
After that, they dropped Fiona off at the Gallagher house, and Kevin got ready to go meet Dexter.
"I'll come with you," Veronica suggested.
"Oh?" Kevin was surprised. "Why? Don't tell me you've got your eye on Dexter."
Veronica flashed a bright smile. "You guessed it."
"???" Kevin froze. Not sure whether she was serious, he immediately got serious himself. "Wait—really?"
"Of course," Veronica said smoothly. "He's handsome and rich. Is it weird that I'd be into him?" She was clearly messing with Kevin.
The moment he heard that—
Kevin, as dense as ever, believed her. His shoulders drooped instantly. "V…"
Veronica watched him quietly.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
"Haha—look at your face!" Veronica burst out laughing. "I'm kidding!"
Kevin: "!!!!"
Kevin was furious—and the consequences were serious.
"V! How can you joke about something like that?" he shouted. "I thought you were about to dump me! You scared the hell out of me!"
Veronica laughed even harder, reached out, and gave his butt a playful squeeze. "Relax. You're my baby. I'm not dumping you."
"I was just thinking I'd go scam some money off Dexter and come back to support you. Don't be scared."
"!!!! V…" Kevin hesitated for a moment. "Isn't that kind of messed up? Dexter's my friend."
Now it was Veronica's turn to be shocked. "Hey! I was kidding! And you actually thought about it?"
"You jerk—so you'd really be okay with me doing something like that?"
I fell for it! Kevin realized, reacting quickly this time. He hurried to placate her. "No, no, no—I was joking too!"
The two of them messed around for a while.
Not far away, Fiona watched and listened, and couldn't help feeling a little jealous of what they had.
—
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