Thank you both for the deeply appreciated comments, Paul and Star!
Well, shoulda known you guys would figure it out! I guess it's hard to throw my fellow comic writers off the scent!
Star, I can certainly see where your suggestions would work very well indeed but I chose the method I did for two reasons: The first being to tell the story in the shortest and most economical manner as part of the style and secondly, while your ending might play out more dramatically, I rather liked the idea of not spelling it out for the reader and allowing them to decide whether she was shooting him more for his ATM card or love (or equally).