Having a part-time job without being discovered was Andrew's biggest issue. Although his uncle never presented such a constraint, to be found out as the heir of Archonte while making burgers for McRonards was not something that the boy wanted to go through.

"Two medium macs! and three kid's specials" A girl said from the teal.

"Right away!" He answered together with his colleagues from behind the kitchen.

There were several advantages to working at McRonards... for one, nobody came to the fake McRonards copy located deep within behind Chinatown. Instead, everyone went to Mcdonald's.

Andrew couldn't afford to work on the teal and risk being seen by any of his classmates or worse... someone related to the Mayers family, hence... he worked in the kitchen doing a splendid job. He earned a good nine hundred dollars a month for working three days a week part-time.

Aside from that, there were also two details that Andrew loved about this job.

"Be careful Andrew, you left the sauce spilling!"

"Sorry, Chase!"

In this local, as long as he was here... he was not 'Mr Mayers'... he was just Andrew. None of his colleagues knew that working among them was the boy that was to inherit a billionaire corporation once he turned eighteen and for him, it was better if they never knew.

As for the advantage it offered him, it was simple... no ghosts entered McRonards to have a burger or at least none had done it so far. His shift was from 5:00 pm to 12:00 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Originally it was supposed to be until 10:00 but in order to get some extra cash, Andrew together with another one of his colleagues stayed to clean everything before closing.

Unlike the famous fast-food titan McDonalds, McRonards wasn't open 24/7.

One by one the colleagues left until only Andrew remained together with someone else... perhaps a fruitful encounter that occurred three months ago.

Beatrice Parker, was one of those beautiful 'peasants' that one sees only several times in life. She had neck-long brown silky brown hair and was utterly gorgeous. She always wore jeans and a jacket before switching to her McRonards uniform just like Andrew.

"You do the tables, I'll do the toilet," He said, usually being the one in charge since he had been working there for longer and also, it was him who taught Beatrice everything she knows.

"No, you cleaned the toilets last time, let me do it, Andrew..." The girl was going to take the cleaning mop from him, but he evaded her.

"It is not-"

"Let me do it! I'm not a princess!" She yanked the mop away from his hands and went into the toilet, locking herself up to do her job. 

He could only sigh and relent... he didn't want this pretty girl to be placing her hands in places she shouldn't, but she was quite insistent when it came to balancing their workloads during the evening. To be fair, he thought cleaning the tables and kitchen was just as stressful as cleaning the toilet.

It usually took around an hour or two just for cleaning up and putting everything back in place during which by the time they finished the streets of Manhattan were mostly clear with nothing but ill-behaved people going around, threading the night wantonly, the domain of evil.

More than once they've had people trying to break into the shop.

Beatrice cleaned her sweat and departed the now clean toilet to find that Andrew was almost done, she smiled when she saw him try to polish the hell out of one of the tables, 'You're too stubborn... that's enough'.

She was always amused at how perfectionist he was at everything it did... even the burgers had to be perfectly symmetric, otherwise, they weren't any good.

Andrew had been working for McRonards for a whole year now and although he wasn't a manager, he wasn't far off. The reason why he hadn't been ascended was that he was a part-timer and he was too young. Andrew also had no intentions of becoming a manager in the branch, this was merely his way to get more cash for his daily expending. The moment he turned eighteen or even before, he'd have to bid his farewells to this life and he was well aware of that.

Three months ago Beatrice started working in the Branch and she was received kindly by Andrew who had to teach her everything. The storage location, the burger recipes, the protocols, how to attend clients, etc etc...

Beatrice, for personal reasons, had three part-time jobs... two of them working as a cashier. Another one consisted of cleaning houses and apartments if she was lucky enough to get a client. Andrew admired that about her, she was always on and about doing something.

The two quickly became friends up to this point. Beatrice was quite beautiful and there was not a lack of boys trying to strike up a conversation with her since she was on the teal, most of them were not a problem for her, but some of them went too far and that was when Andrew had to leave the kitchen to help her up fending off the pests. Although he was no boxer... his size didn't fail to intimidate anyone and discourage them from making an act.

"Everything is done, right?" He asked just to make sure.

"Hmn, let's go!~" Beatrice answered enthusiastically.

Having finished they closed up the shop and put the keys into the safe before departing together at midnight.  It was their custom to walk together to the subway. She'd usually stay first and he'd have to ride to more stations before arriving in the Bronx where he had yet to take another bus back home. Or... he could take an Uber, which he never did since it was expensive.

"How is your mother, better?" He asked, looking around the streets to see nothing except for solitude and shadows; moving silhouettes, and zombie-like people wandering around. It was always the same. Whether they were alive or not, he didn't know and so he ignored them.

"The same... the doctors say as long as she keeps taking her medication, it shouldn't get worse" Beatrice took out a cigarette and a lighter, Andrew sighed when he saw her take a whiff and exhale it as they walked together. She was an adult and they were almost ten years apart in age. He was fifteen, she was twenty-three... yet when they were in their workplace, it was as if they were from the same generation.

Beatrice made some distance between them, this wasn't their first time walking together and she knew Andrew didn't like the smoke from the cigarette.

"Your brother?"

"Studying... I think soon he's going to be able to go to school on his own, can you believe it?"

"The brat is growing up".

"You're a brat too~" Beatrice giggled, exhaling a huff of smoke as they left Chinatown.

"You know what I mean..." Andrew scratched his head awkwardly, sometimes, most of the time, he forgot he was just fifteen years old.

"And you? your girlfriend...?" Beatrice asked all of the sudden with tilted eyebrows.

"She is not my girlfriend" Andrew huffed, still upset with Clare... he had told Beatrice about her, never specifying that the girl was his girlfriend or not; but Beatrice seemed to be able to pick up on many things just because of how he had described Clare's behaviour.

"That girl is too obsessive and volatile. You shouldn't hang out with her"

The beauty exclaimed solemnly, something that irritated Andrew. Even though he and Clare were fighting all the time for different reasons, he was still seemingly unable to completely cast the girl aside.

"And you should stop smoking, Beatrice".

There was some brief silence in which the beauty looked up to the sky at the shining moon; Andrew merely regarded her, although it was not his business, as her friend, he would keep prickling this needle even if she didn't like it.

"I guess we both have things we can't let go of, right?"

"Yes..."

There were several reasons why Andrew was also suspicious of Beatrice and her whole background. For one she was too sexy to be working as a cashier in McRonards or at least that's what he thought.

'She could even be a model' He thought again, looking at her profile with tight jeans, ripe butt and a jacket that left her plain belly exposed. Beatrice kept herself healthy, but she didn't have a gym body... it was merely her curvaceous nature.

After speaking to one another he came to know that Beatrice's mother had developed schizophrenia about five years ago. Beatrice had to drop high school to keep her mother and little brother together. Her mother's treatment and their house rent were being handled by some charity, but she had to take care of both herself and her brother on her own.

Her story sounded legit, but due to his own background which was a secret to Beatrice, Andrew couldn't help being suspicious that such a beauty came to work exactly in the same branch in which he had been working... nevertheless, without any proof... he had to drop the matter and let things slide.

Soon enough they reached the train in an awkward mood, he didn't know what to talk about and Beatrice also seemed like she wanted to talk but didn't know what to say.

'We belong to different worlds...' if there was something Andrew knew very well... was that he had a crush on Beatrice. A crush he couldn't move on for many reasons.