“I moved to the United States in California by myself at eighteen,” Lucina continued. “And I worked many odd jobs: as a waitress, hostess, shoe salesperson, in clothing department stores, anything where I could make money with my charm. Then I started doing parties in L.A.”

When she mentioned L.A., Ivan raised a brow. She had never spoken of it before. But she always made sure to speak about him being from L.A.

“And what happened with that?” he asked her.

Lucina shook her head. She stopped and said, “At first I loved the attention. There were so many stars and so many things to do if you followed the party crowd there. But then I noticed that girls there were willing to starve for the dream of becoming Hollywood stars. They were coming from all over America and every country. Well, I had already been through that. And I was not coming to the United States to do it all over again. I wanted real money that I could count, not promises to be a star in movies and videos,” she told him.

Ivan smiled. He had never tried the Hollywood thing; just living in L.A. allowed him to know that all the glitter was not gold.

Lucina continued her story with rising animation. “So then I came down to San Diego, and I demanded real money from promoters to fill up their clubs with hot girls. And at first they would not pay me. So I would take all of my girls to an empty club and make that club hot. And soon the promoters got my point. You pay me for what I do.”

She said, “So then I became a promoter myself. But my expertise was not really the money side. I just dealt with my girls and how to sell the crowd on a good party. So I always had male partners who would set up the parties and do the deals. But as my popularity in this city grew, I noticed that I was still not getting the money that I deserved from these partnerships.”

She told him, “The promoters, they all had excuses to pay me less. I felt like they had all met in a big room and decided that they would refuse to pay me equal money. And then the rumors started. ‘I hear Lucina does this and that.’ And at first, I tried to fight them. But then I decided to continue to focus on making money and meeting new friends.”

Ivan heard all of that and was hooked. As far as he was concerned, Lucina had finally met the right man. It was perfect timing for both of them. And if she could take care of her part, he would take care of his.

He nodded and said, “That all makes perfect sense for me now. I get you. But, ah…were these promoters all white guys, or have you dealt with brothers before?”