Juvenile Detention Center.
Lip's conflicting reactions were just too drastically different.
Mandy, the die-hard romantic, hadn't reached a level of stupidity that was completely incurable; she wasn't so blind that she couldn't see Lip's differential treatment...
Her heart ached fiercely for a few seconds. Mandy suddenly blinked and sneered coldly at Lip. "Karen told me that you just treat me as a tool to fxxk."
"Is that true?"
It was indeed true.
But saying it so directly would be too hurtful.
Although Lip was irritable, after a brief silence, he still shook his head. "No. Did she say anything else?"
Mandy sneered again. At this point, her mind inexplicably cleared up a bit. "She said you're a scumbag. I think she's right."
As the words left her mouth, Mandy stood up and left.
Lip moved his mouth, but said nothing.
What could he say?
There were no feelings anyway, just fxxk buddies.
This was fine too.
Leaving the visitation room, Mandy, experiencing the pain of love for the first time in her life and having never expected it to hurt this much, raised her hand to rub her eyes. She didn't cry, but her eyes felt very uncomfortable.
In any case, Mandy was a Milkovich.
A Milkovich doesn't shed tears easily.
After rubbing her eyes, Mandy took a deep breath and strode out with determined steps.
With this, the dream with Lip came to an end... or at least, that was what Mandy thought in this moment.
Time flew by.
Evening.
Several days later.
Mandy walked into Dex Restaurant again.
It was dinnertime. Veronica and Vivian, who were busy, saw Mandy and immediately went up to greet her in tacit understanding.
Veronica smiled at Mandy and said in a very gentle tone, "You're back?"
Such a sentence truly carried the warmth of home. It felt really good.
Mandy suddenly felt a little better. She subconsciously smiled a bit and nodded. "Yeah. Is the boss in the kitchen?"
"Mm, go ahead. Talk to him properly," Veronica reminded her with a smile.
Vivian also chimed in, "The boss is a good person. It'll be fine."
Mandy hoped so. She took a deep breath and walked toward the kitchen.
In the kitchen.
Dexter was busy working on a new dish, full of enthusiasm. Hearing someone come in, he turned his head, saw Mandy, and couldn't help but be amused.
However, despite his amusement, Dexter didn't say anything, just waiting for Mandy to speak.
Mandy was actually very embarrassed. She knew in her heart that coming back like this after so many days was really thick-skinned. Therefore, facing Dexter's gaze, a clear sense of embarrassment gradually appeared on her face.
After several seconds, Mandy bit her lip and forced herself to speak. "Boss, I want to come back to work. Is that okay?"
"First tell me what happened," Dexter replied with a smile, then withdrew his gaze and continued with his work.
Mandy didn't want to recount the messy business with Lip, but Dexter's attitude was obvious. She had no choice but to speak, explaining as briefly as possible.
"...Lip, that scumbag, just treated me as a tool to fxxk. I don't know why I was so obsessed over the past few days..."
After listening.
Dexter smiled faintly and asked, "If I agree to let you come back to work, will this kind of thing happen again?"
Hearing this, Mandy immediately shook her head decisively. "Absolutely not! I won't have anything to do with that scumbag again!"
Mandy sounded so certain.
Listening to her, Dexter couldn't help but want to laugh.
Would Mandy still get entangled with Lip?
There was a high probability she would.
After all, Mandy was extremely starved for love, almost pathologically so... Given this, when Lip got out, with just a little sweet talk and coaxing, Mandy would likely surrender immediately and get all lovey-dovey with Lip again...
People are so interesting, Dexter silently mused with a sigh, then replied, "I hope so. This is the last chance. If you screw it up again this time, don't come looking for me."
Mandy's heart tightened. She knew Dexter wasn't joking and hurriedly nodded in promise. "I promise I won't screw it up again!"
Dexter smiled. "Welcome back."
"Thank you," Mandy thanked him sincerely. Seeing that Dexter didn't say anything more and focused on cooking, she consciously said nothing more and backed out of the kitchen.
---
The Gallagher house, without Frank, Monica, and Lip, was generally quite peaceful.
Beyond peaceful, it even had a sense of serenity.
So.
Fiona looked around. She really wanted to like this peace, but no matter what, she couldn't bring herself to like it.
Too peaceful... too boring, not lively at all!
Fiona sighed silently, feeling a bit irritable. She had to shake her head, forcing herself not to think too much.
Soon.
After giving a few instructions to Carl, who said he had nothing to do tonight and was staring blankly at the TV on the sofa, Fiona stepped out to go to work.
Ian hadn't come back yet and she didn't know where he went. Liam had been taken by Ian. So, with Fiona leaving, only Carl was left in the Gallagher house.
Carl didn't notice at first. After a good while, he realized this and couldn't help but feel very bored.
Unfortunately, it was so late, and there was nowhere to go play.
Carl had to continue watching TV.
Somewhere in Indiana.
Frank and Monica were also watching TV.
The two had found a decent motel and settled down temporarily. Because they had money, they had food and drink and were reasonably happy, but it was somewhat boring.
Not only did Frank feel this way, but Monica felt the same.
This was normal. Both were lunatics who loved chaos. Such a peaceful life was truly unsuitable for them.
Because of the boredom...
Frank struggled with it repeatedly but finally couldn't hold back. He spoke up, "Monica, we have to go out and have some fun. If we stay here like this, I'm gonna grow mold!"
"Me too!" Monica heard this and hit it off instantly. "What should we do for fun?"
Frank had already thought it through.
They had to drink.
Otherwise, this life couldn't go on...
As for the bet with Dexter, in Frank's view, they had left Chicago. If he drank a little, how could Dexter possibly know? He wasn't a god.
"Let's go bar hopping!" Frank said decisively.
Monica also wanted to go to a bar, but she also wanted to get that money from Dexter, so she hesitated. "Drinking? If we do that, won't we lose the bet?"
Frank grinned and nimbly explained his thoughts to Monica.
After listening and pondering for a moment, Monica felt it made sense and nodded happily. "You're right. Dexter won't know. Let's go!"
Time flew.
In a bar.
Frank got drunk.
Monica also drank quite a bit.
Then, not long after.
In the bar's restroom, Monica started frantically fxxking a reasonably handsome drunkard.
Monica missed this feeling very much.