Burlington Coat Factory.
Chris and Tina walked around the shop, Lena was sleeping in Tina's arm. They looked around many aisles, but Chris was too choosy for his own good. You can also see two shopping bags in his hand, which meant he had bought two coats already.
"Here, this is long and will suit you."
Tina grabbed an ivory-colored faux fur coat, it was long and looked good, Chris first looked at the price, and seeing it was $350, he sighed with relief. It's not that he did not like any available coats, it's just that they were too expensive for him right now.
His initial budget was four thousand with gifts included, but he had spent $3700 in the mall, then bought two nice coats for the twins for $1000, and now he was with his last $400.
Damn! I am not rich at all, I need more money.
As Chris nodded his head and tried out the coat, it did suit him a lot. He was thinking about how to make more money, this much money, which he thought was too much, was nothing in real life.
"Alright, are we done then?"
Tina asked as they walked back to the car, she was tired and wanted to go back home, but she also felt a little grateful.
"Yeah, we are done."
I don't have any money left, so yeah!
Chris nodded his head as he opened the back seat door for her first. Tina went inside and placed the sleeping Lena in the car seat first, then gently went back out after properly latching her to the seat.
Chris gently closed the door, and then both he and Tina did everything gently as Lena was asleep, the time was 06:15 PM.
"I will drive you back home, then leave for the party, sigh! I don't like that area at all, people live in big houses, and in this cold weather that place feels frozen over."
As the small drops of snow touched the front windshield of Sam's car, he felt colder even though the heater was running at a high temperature.
"The weather is getting bad, I wish I was in California in weather like this."
Tina suddenly muttered while looking at the white snow lines in Chris's car, she looked nostalgic and sad for some reason.
"California? I heard even in winter it's not as cold as a summer here in Scranton. How did you adjust there? Although it's cold here, it's home."
Chris, with a smile, said he wanted to cheer her up, her mood was down as if bad memories still haunted her, so Chris reminded her where true warmth resides.
"That's right, it really is home. Lena was born in the same hospital I was born in, so yeah, It really is. Home is where you stick together and give each other warmth even if it's snowing outside."
Tina looked up and met Chris's eyes briefly, then, touching her warm new coat, she smiled. Her smile was genuinely kind and very pleasing to the eye.
The Mazda stopped near her apartment. The windows were tightly shut, and the building looked cold and a bit distant from the car as Tina unlocked the seat belt. She was smiling, and it looked like she was in a good mood for some reason, and her earlier dark phase was gone, and she was back to her usual self.
"I can carry Lena to your apartment if you need."
Chris offered, seeing it was snowing and the car seat was heavy as it is, the pavements might be slippery, and walking on them with a heavy car seat and a baby might be dangerous.
"No need. Trying to excuse yourself into a lady's apartment? Not that easy.
Tina chuckled and then untied the car seat first and then showed Chris she can carry Lena with the car seat easily, Chris nodded his head with a smile.
"Now then, would you believe it if I said this glove box has $10,000?"
As the mood was light and they were about to part ways, Chris asked randomly when Tina was about to jump out of the car.
"What? No, idiot."
Tina looked back with a smile, she thought he was trying to cheer her on one last time, so she smiled broadly to show how happy she was.
[You have just been believed. Reward: Your glove box now has $10,000 in cash (with tax-paid documents).]
[Make people believe 16 more times to Level up the system]
She did believe it and sixteen more times to go.
Tina ran inside with arms full of shopping bags, which had her and Lena's old jackets in them and also some treats for Lena.
Chris, after waving at her one final time, unlocked the glove box. There it was, a bundle of cash in front of his eyes, he took it and slowly flipped through every note and was about to smell it.
Damn! I am becoming crazy like McMahon.
Chris threw the bundle inside the glove box again when he remembered Vince McMahon from WWE and checked the pay stub instead, it was from a logistics delivery. He somehow sold eight seventy-five-inch TVs on Amazon.
"Nice."
Chris folded the pay stub and threw it inside with the cash, and shutting the glove box, his car drove away from Tina's neighborhood.
As Chris drove towards Abington Hills, as the name suggests, it was an uphill drive. The roads became cleaner as he approached the Silverpine Ridge, a closed private community, inside only a handfulof mansions could be seen.
Chris's car stopped in front of the community gate, the gate opened after a few seconds of waiting, and as he was passing by it, an old security guard nodded his head with a smile.
Chris also nodded back with a smile on his face, it felt like they had known each other for a long time.