At the Gallagher house.
Fiona and Veronica were buzzing with excitent, 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 mont 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 recomnd 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 ant for you. If you take it, you're basically walking right into his hands. Get it?"
After hearing all that—
Fiona: "????"
Veronica: "????"
At the ti, 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 inco 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 ho 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 custors could they realistically expect? Probably not many—aning 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 ntion 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 imdiately chid 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 agreent. "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 imdiately annoyed Fiona. She shot Frank a glare. "Even if I get that job, it has nothing to do with you. You're not welco 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. Handso. 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 co 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 ti and place to et 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 sothing happen? Why'd he leave?"
Veronica gave a wry smile. "What did he tell you?"
"He said he had sothing to take care of—needed to buy sothing," 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 sa, 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 co 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 et Dexter.
"I'll co with you," Veronica suggested.
"Oh?" Kevin was surprised. "Why? Don't tell you've got your eye on Dexter."
Veronica flashed a bright smile. "You guessed it."
"???" Kevin froze. Not sure whether she was serious, he imdiately got serious himself. "Wait—really?"
"Of course," Veronica said smoothly. "He's handso and rich. Is it weird that I'd be into him?" She was clearly ssing with Kevin.
The mont 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 sothing like that?" he shouted. "I thought you were about to dump ! You scared the hell out of !"
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 so money off Dexter and co back to support you. Don't be scared."
"!!!! V…" Kevin hesitated for a mont. "Isn't that kind of ssed 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 doing sothing like that?"
I fell for it! Kevin realized, reacting quickly this ti. He hurried to placate her. "No, no, no—I was joking too!"
The two of them ssed 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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