Tommy glanced at Veronica and Vivian, then had no choice but to give Dexter a thumbs-up.
"You're right—you've got a point!"
Dexter smiled.
After a while, Tommy and the others finished eating and waved Dexter over to settle the bill.
"Vivian, you go handle it," Dexter said to her.
Vivian smiled and nodded, stood up, and went to collect the money.
After settling all ten customers' checks, Vivian counted the cash and looked pleasantly surprised.
"Boss, it's a total of $1,565."
That meant a few customers had tipped more than ten percent.
So even though the South Side was mostly a rough neighborhood, like anywhere else, there were still people doing pretty well.
Which made sense.
After all, Tommy was one of them.
He had skills, a job, and wasn't lazy. He wasn't rich, but he definitely wasn't poor either.
"Put the food money in the register. The rest is yours," Dexter said casually with a smile.
The moment he said that—
Even Veronica felt jealous.
In such a short time, without really doing that much, Vivian had made $285 just like that!
As for Fiona…
Envy, jealousy, resentment—she had all of it.
"Okay," Vivian nodded obediently. "My money… you'll help me keep it safe, right?"
"No problem," Dexter replied with a grin. Then, seeing Kevin and the others looking confused, he explained, "Vivian's a bit special. She can't carry much cash on her—if she does, she'll lose it."
Kevin and the others:
"????"
That was… new.
Kevin couldn't wrap his head around it. "That's… really a thing?"
Veronica hadn't expected her new coworker to have something like this going on either. She was pretty curious.
Before long, the conversation naturally revolved around Vivian.
Right then, the delivery guys for the rented house called, saying the furniture had arrived.
Dexter hung up and didn't waste time.
"Kevin, you guys keep hanging out. I'll take Vivian over there and be back soon."
Kevin and the others had no objections.
Dexter drove Vivian to the house.
"Boss, you can head back. I'll wait for the delivery guys to finish and then walk back myself," Vivian said a little shyly as soon as the car stopped.
Dexter thought for a second, didn't insist on picking her up later, and just smiled.
"You know the way, right?"
"Of course," Vivian nodded confidently.
"Alright, I'll head back then."
Dexter returned to the restaurant.
Time flew by.
Before they knew it, it was nine at night.
Vivian walked back to the restaurant.
Another half hour passed.
Everyone had had enough fun and decided to call it a night.
Fiona—who'd wanted to leave for a while—quickly took Steve and her family and left.
Kevin, Veronica, and Vivian stayed.
"It's still early. Let's get the decorations up," Veronica said, not forgetting about it.
"Isn't that kind of inappropriate? Today's your big day," Dexter replied.
"It's fine. We already celebrated. Come on," Kevin said with a cheerful grin, insisting.
Dexter thought about it and didn't refuse again.
"Then I'll go wash the dishes first and come help after," hardworking as ever, Vivian said. Without waiting for a response, she headed straight for the kitchen.
Dexter smiled and didn't stop her.
That was just how Vivian was—letting her work actually suited her better.
The four of them stayed busy.
By the time they were done, it was past eleven.
Everything was set.
"See you tomorrow, boss," Vivian said goodbye to Dexter.
Kevin and Veronica did the same.
After saying their goodbyes, Kevin, Veronica, and Vivian walked side by side toward North Wallace Street.
After spending the last few hours together, both Kevin and Veronica had really grown to like Vivian—she was such a unique girl.
Vivian, meanwhile, found Kevin and Veronica fun and easy to get along with.
The three of them chatted and laughed, the atmosphere warm and relaxed.
Watching this…
Dexter—now one hundred percent certain that Vivian would never be "corrupted" by this place—couldn't help but imagine an interesting question.
Would Vivian end up influencing this place instead?
Then another thought followed.
Veronica would probably be affected the most. When that happens, would she still stay best friends with Fiona?
If not… without Kevin and Veronica's help, life for the Gallaghers would only get harder.
Thinking that, Dexter laughed.
After all—
In the original story, Kevin and Veronica helped the Gallagher family a lot…
If that help disappeared…
"Yeah, that'd be rough," Dexter muttered with a grin as a fun idea popped into his head.
"In that case… I might as well add some fuel to the fire."
—
A new day arrived.
Because he planned to put that idea into action, Dexter got up at 7:30 sharp. After washing up, he went straight out, drove to buy a laptop, a printer, printer paper, envelopes, and stamps.
Then he returned to his hotel room and got to work.
He was going to write a letter.
A letter to Patrick Gallagher.
Virginia Louise Gallagher—Fiona's "Aunt Ginger"—had, for all intents and purposes, officially died a few days ago.
And judging from Fiona and her group's behavior, they either hadn't thought about who the house belonged to yet… or they had, but didn't think anyone would actually come and take it, so they weren't in a rush.
If that was the case—
Heh. Time for Comrade Patrick to make his entrance.
The letter itself wasn't complicated.
All it did was remind Patrick to hurry up and get a fake will made, then go claim the house Fiona and the others were living in.
No need to mention details.
Patrick would handle the rest himself.
So within just a few minutes, Dexter finished writing the letter, slipped it into an envelope, stuck on a stamp, went outside, and dropped it into a mailbox.
Watching the letter disappear inside, Dexter felt an instant rush of satisfaction. He stretched lazily, checked the time, and then headed toward the restaurant.
Actually, he'd considered writing two letters last night.
One to Patrick Gallagher, telling him to take the house.
The other to Tony, telling him Steve was a car thief—so that simp Tony would start tailing Steve.
But after thinking it over, he changed his mind.
Fiona and Steve had only just gotten together. Making Steve disappear now…
Honestly, that wouldn't hurt Fiona nearly enough.
Better to wait.
Let Fiona really fall in love with Steve first—then pull the trigger.
Wouldn't that be way more exciting?
Dexter couldn't help imagining that scene.
…Alright.
He suddenly realized he might be kind of evil.
—
10:30 a.m.
The Milkovich house.
As time passed, the matter of Terry's death had faded somewhat.
Still, the atmosphere inside the house remained heavy and suffocating.
Mickey sat on the couch, smoking, staring blankly at everything around him. After a long while, he let out a deep sigh, stood up, walked to Mandy's room, and called out,
"Mandy?"
Mandy was curled up on her bed, completely drained. Hearing his voice, she weakly responded,
"Hm?"
"Get up. I'll take you out for lunch. A new place just opened on the street—people say it's really good," Mickey said. After a pause, he added, "My treat."
"Don't feel like going," Mandy said. She just didn't have the energy.
"Doesn't matter—you're going," Mickey said more firmly. "Staying like this won't help anything. Get up. After we eat, I'll take you shopping."
"Buy some normal clothes. From now on, we're gonna live properly."
Terry's death had hit Mickey hard too.
Before that, the money he'd gotten from selling that batch of weed had mostly been hidden away. He'd only used a tiny bit, never really knowing what to do with the rest.
Then Terry got shot and killed…
Facing death up close—
Over the past few days, Mickey had thought about a lot.
Before, he figured that if he kept living like that, the worst outcome would be prison—doing time.
Now he realized that living as chaotically as Terry did… sooner or later, he might get shot too.
He didn't want to die.
He wanted to try living a more normal life—without following the same crazy path as Terry and the other lunatics in the Milkovich family…
Mandy hadn't expected Mickey to say something like that. Confused and surprised, she stayed silent for a moment, then got out of bed, opened the door, and looked at him.
"What's going on with you?" she asked. "Why are you suddenly talking like this?"
Next, we'll shift our focus to Mickey and Mandy. ^_^