In an area like the South Side of Chicago, where things are falling apart, and the minimum wage is only $5.50 an hour, the salary Dexter offered was seriously tempting.
For that kind of money, forget just surrounding Dexter—some of the women who grew up on the South Side wouldn't hesitate to go head-to-head with him right then and there.
Because of that, Dexter actually had to put in quite a bit of effort just to finally break free from the crowd.
Afterward, the envious and jealous workers started putting up the sign.
Dexter walked back inside the restaurant, gathered up the scattered resumes, and put them on a table. The number of resumes was truly impressive; Dexter didn't count them but roughly estimated there were about two hundred or so.
With the resumes tidied up, and needing to stick around to pay the workers the final installment, Dexter didn't leave. He sat down, lit a cigarette, and since he had nothing else going on, he started going through the resumes.
Before he knew it, half an hour passed.
Fiona arrived at the restaurant entrance with Carl.
The restaurant's glass door was closed. Fiona saw Dexter looking at the resumes, raised her hand, and knocked on the door.
Dexter heard it, looked up, smiled, and got up to open the door. "Good morning."
"Good morning, boss," Fiona said, smiling brightly. After blowing off some steam with Veronica, she had adjusted her mood by now.
"Dexter, is this your restaurant? It's really cool," Carl chimed in, holding his paintball gun.
"Right?" Dexter replied with a smile. "But you can't play paintball in here."
Carl's face instantly dropped, and he looked bummed out.
Fiona quickly laughed and said, "There are no paintballs in the gun; I took them all out."
"That's good. Come on in, have a seat," Dexter invited.
Soon, Fiona and Dexter were sitting across from each other.
"Have you thought about it?" Dexter asked directly.
Fiona nodded decisively. "Yep."
"Then the job is yours. You can quit those part-time gigs and focus on studying for your GED," Dexter said without wasting any time.
"Thank you," Fiona said, expressing her gratitude. She hesitated for a moment and then asked, "You mentioned last night that you had a lot of requirements, but you only told me two. Are you able to talk about the others now?"
"Sure, I don't have anything pressing right now anyway," Dexter thought to himself with a grin. He didn't hold back. "The other requirements aren't hard. Broadly speaking, it comes down to one thing: improving yourself."
> "For example, you need to finish reading one book a week; I'll provide the books. For example, you need to always be in a state of learning, especially when it comes to computer skills. You can also learn any other skills you're interested in."
> "The reading part is mandatory. The learning part is not, but if you're willing to study, the restaurant can provide some financial support."
After hearing all that, Fiona was completely, and understandably, baffled. She genuinely couldn't figure out why a waitress would need to do all this. This is way too weird.
"Boss, why? I'm having a hard time understanding," Fiona asked thoughtfully, trying to be polite.
Dexter smiled but didn't answer right away. Instead, he asked, "Do you want to keep working as a waitress until you're thirty or forty?"
The Fiona of today is stuck deep in the Gallagher family pit. Every day she wakes up, she has five kids to take care of, so she hasn't really thought about, or dared to think about, the future.
Being asked that by Dexter left Fiona speechless.
Seeing her reaction, Dexter pressed on. "Don't you want to own your own business someday, make some serious money, and achieve something with your life?"
Fiona: "..."
"A great life isn't just going to fall out of the sky; you have to work for it. Even if a miracle happened and something good came your way, you'd still need the ability to grab hold of it."
"You ask why I have these requirements? The answer is simple."
"I'm not looking for a waitress. I'm looking for a future business partner."
"I hope you, the other waitress I still need to hire, and the waitresses who eventually replace you after you all move on to bigger and better things, can go far. Then, we can help each other out and make even greater gains."
"Does that make sense?"
Fiona was frozen, utterly stunned.
---
About ten minutes later, Fiona left Carl behind and walked out of Dex Restaurant, still in a daze.
As she walked, her mind was buzzing for a long time, unable to calm down.
What Dexter said... she had never heard anything like it from anyone.
But that wasn't the main point.
The main point was...
A great future, her own business, a purpose in life?
Those things felt way too unreal.
---
Even after walking for a long time, Fiona couldn't settle down.
She couldn't help it. She needed to talk to someone.
Who should she call?
It could only be Veronica... Although Lip might be a better choice, his attitude toward Dexter was a known quantity, so he wasn't the right person.
About twenty minutes later, at the Alibi Room.
Fiona, Veronica, and Kevin were sitting together. Fiona recounted everything Dexter had said in one breath.
Veronica and Kevin were both stunned when they heard it.
The three of them sat in silence for a good while.
"Damn!" Veronica exclaimed sincerely. "I honestly don't even know how to describe this Dexter. Fiona, you have seriously hit the jackpot this time!"
Kevin chimed in, genuinely regretful. "Too bad I'm not a young, hot chick. Why don't good things like this ever happen to me?"
Fiona forced a laugh. "You two, can you calm down...? I still feel like it's not real. Do you think he's serious?"
Veronica got impatient right away. "Fiona, don't be an idiot! He's giving you such a high wage and is willing to pay for you to learn skills. What do you have to lose?"
"Forget about him not sleeping with you yet—even if he did, it would still be worth it."
Fiona: "...Don't talk nonsense."
Veronica grinned. "I'm serious, don't mess this up! If there's such a thing as good luck, he's your good luck charm. He has requirements, so just meet them. It's just a little extra work, right? You're not scared of hard work, are you?"
Fiona immediately shook her head. There was no way she was afraid of hard work.
"Fiona," Kevin said, realizing something and correctly guessing Fiona's inner thoughts. "Are you worried that this is all going to turn out to be nothing?"
Fiona paused slightly, then nodded. "Yeah."
Veronica understood immediately. After thinking it over for a moment, she said earnestly, "I don't think you need to worry about that. To be blunt, you have nothing right now anyway. If it ends up being a bust, so what?"
Ding.
Fiona snapped back to reality. That long-standing feeling of unreality suddenly faded a lot.
She's right. I already have nothing, so what am I afraid of?
Sometimes, people are like that. Their thoughts are blocked, and they just need a single moment of clarity.
Fiona smiled and nodded seriously. "You're right. I get it now."
Kevin and Veronica exchanged a smile.
---
Dexter didn't know about the conversation between Fiona, Veronica, and Kevin.
If he did...
Dexter would be smiling, too.
However, his reasons for smiling would be different from Kevin's and Veronica's.
He'd be smiling because he was certain that before too long, Fiona would throw that mindset right out the window and start causing all sorts of trouble.
After all, Fiona couldn't keep her pants on and was a master of self-sabotage.
There was a reason Fiona ended up in such a bad place in the original show.