Chapter 18: I have a plan

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At five in the afternoon, a second-hand champagne-colored Chevrolet Chevette two-seater compact drove off Interstate 95 and turned into Warwick City.

The trunk was wide open with Tommy Hawk's bicycle inside, which made Tommy, who was holding a bottle of cheap champagne in the passenger seat, turn his head every few minutes to check if there was any chance his bicycle was falling out.

"So, what kind of business are you going to do with twenty thousand dollars?" Melanie, keeping her eyes on the road and steering with one hand, turned off the car radio that was playing country folk music and asked.

Tommy sat up straight, returning his gaze, "The most important thing right now isn't business, but what's for dinner. I want to make a lavish dinner. Usually, when I'm doing some mindless housework, I tend to free up my mind to think about complex issues."

"Like making up a plausible excuse on the fly?" Melanie glanced at Tommy with some skepticism and asked.

Tommy Hawk let out a breath, "No, it's wondering how to deal with your ex-boyfriend and how to help you start your new job. But before those two things, the important thing is to get my hands busy and make a lavish dinner."

"Yeah, if lemon chicken breast goes well with Italian meat sauce pasta, then you can indeed make a lavish dinner," Melanie laughed when she heard Tommy Hawk was preparing a lavish dinner.

During the time this kid rented her apartment, he lived more modestly than an Indian ascetic most of the time.

His daily routine was roughly as follows: go to school, earn some money with a part-time job after school, buy cheap ingredients after work, go home to cook dinner and prepare his lunch bento for the next day, and after dinner continue reviewing lessons late into the night, day in and day out.

Most of his dinners consisted of a plate of cheap pasta from Costco topped with black pepper meat sauce, accompanied by a piece of chicken breast and a few slices of lemon. Melanie couldn't stand the monotony of the food after a few tries, preferring to drink coffee and munch on some pastries rather than touch Tommy's dinners again. She had suggested to Tommy Hawk to follow her lead and buy some discounted desserts for dinner, but Tommy Hawk refused. His reason was that coffee and pastries would cost $1.20 for a meal, while he only needed 50 cents to enjoy a dinner providing vitamins from the lemon, protein from the chicken, and carbohydrates from the rest, although it might taste a bit off when combined, it was a nutritionally rich dinner.

So when Tommy Hawk brought up dinner, the first thing that came to Melanie's mind was the Italian black pepper pasta that made her stomach involuntarily cramp.

When Tommy heard Melanie mention his signature meat sauce pasta, he also smiled, "I can do more than just meat sauce pasta; I'm also pretty good at cooking Chinese dishes, it's just that I didn't have much time to prepare before."

"Did Sunny, the Chinese owner of the laundry shop, teach you?" Melanie asked casually, knowing that the only possible connection Tommy had had with Chinese food before was his part-time job at a Chinese-owned laundry.

"Kind of," Tommy nodded.

"Alright, let's see what kind of Chinese food you can make." Melanie drove to the Costco parking lot. Tommy went straight into the supermarket without even glancing at the dazzling array of fruits and organic vegetables and headed straight for the refrigerated meats section. He knew the layout and prices of the meat products by heart: chicken legs were 21 cents a pound, chicken breasts 22 cents a pound, pork chops one dollar a pound, pork feet 23 cents a pound, processed beef steaks two dollars each.

After buying some chicken and pork chops, along with some spices, and spending a total of seven dollars, Tommy Hawk, carrying bags both big and small, returned to the apartment with Melanie.

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Tommy picked up the groceries and stepped into the kitchen to start cleaning, and said to Melanie, who had no intentions of helping, "Tell me about your ex-boyfriend, Aunt Melanie, give me some ideas."

From Melanie's mouth, Tommy Hawk learned that her ex-boyfriend was named Hugh Spade, who was currently working at Sinclair Elementary School in East Greenwich, Kent County. They met in college because both of them liked the band 'Smith's Ship,' and eventually, they fell in love.

They had a sweet time together, working part-time jobs and saving money for travel, like going to Boston to see a Smith's Ship concert, going to New York for a New York Dolls gig, and after graduation, they had the same life goals. They strived hard to pass the teacher certification exams and become public-school teachers, aiming to coast through life.

Last year, Hugh Spade was the first to pass the teacher certification exam. Then, by working as a paid substitute teacher, he won over public schools throughout Rhode Island in interviews with his recommendation letters from various elementary and high school principals. Eventually, he got a job at Sinclair Elementary School.

According to their agreement, Hugh should have continued to live with Melanie in the apartment left to her by her parents, but he soon rented another apartment in East Greenwich. His reason was that he was busy with his new job, and Melanie needed to focus on preparing for her exams. However, it was not until Melanie got her teacher certification that she received a "surprise" — that bastard not only got involved with another newly hired female teacher at Sinclair Elementary but even got her pregnant.

After a huge argument, Melanie broke up with him and informed the other female teacher that Hugh Spade was a scumbag. The story should have ended there.

However, what unfolded was a sequel. Hugh Spade did not end up marrying that female teacher, and they broke up.

The only problem was that she had given birth to a child. For Hugh Spade, it was like a bolt from the blue. As the biological father, this meant he had to pay a monthly child support fee to the female teacher. While she was enjoying maternity leave, birth subsidies, and school salary benefits and comfortably raising the child, she also got 40% of his monthly salary as child support. Life for the single mom was simply too comfortable.

Hugh Spade had no right to refuse payments. The Rhode Island Child Protection Agency had the authority to directly deduct from his salary account. After taking a fee, they would forward the rest to the female teacher.

A $240 weekly salary became $140 a week because of this, turning Hugh Spade's life from a happy bachelor to that of a street wanderer.

In the end, he blamed everything on Melanie's appearance. If Melanie had not made a scene, the female teacher would not have broken up with him, and he would not have fallen to such a low point. So, when he learned that Melanie was subbing around and preparing for interview admissions, he approached her, demanding she give him at least five hundred dollars by the next week. Otherwise, the explosive photos they took during their time together would end up in the offices of those school principals, and she could forget about finding a teaching job in Rhode Island for the rest of her life.

But Melanie couldn't pay the five hundred dollars. She had not even finished paying off her college loans, not to mention the property tax on this apartment, and she could barely scrape by with subbing. Out of desperation, Melanie mustered up the courage to consider working part-time at a club to earn some quick money. Unfortunately, her first customer on the first day was her tenant and nephew, Tommy Hawk.

Tommy Hawk listened to Melanie recount her past as he brought dish after dish to the table. Then he took off his apron and opened the champagne, "Dinner is ready. Next, let's talk about what to do with Mr. Hugh Spade."

Looking at the dishes on the table, Melanie exclaimed with a wow, "With such delicacies in front of me, what else is there to talk about?"

Tommy Hawk handed a champagne-filled glass to Melanie, imitating Dutch Vanderlinde's tone, "I have a plan."