Mike chuckled at him and joked, “In that case, it’s a great idea. The woman is always right.” He added, “But I don’t have much use for an earring in my ear. That would only give my toddlers something else dangerous to grab at.”

When his coworker walked out of the bathroom, Ivan continued to stand there in the mirror. He mumbled to himself, “Yeah, well, I don’t have any kids.”

Next walked in Dwayne Bellamy, the middle manager. He saw Ivan there in the bathroom alone and said, “Your new clients are still rolling in, Ivan. But you make sure you get your story ready for the brass. I hear your on-the-side thing is getting bigger now.”

Ivan nodded to him. “Yeah, it is.” Then he decided to ask Dwayne what he thought about an earring. “Hey, man, what do you think about a diamond stud?”

“A diamond stud? What do you mean?” Dwayne asked him.

“An earring.”

“Oh, an earring.” He shrugged. “Well, that’s just not my thing.”

Ivan said, “Michael Jordan got two of ’em.”

“Yeah, well, Michael can get away with it,” Dwayne commented.

Get away with it? Ivan repeated to himself. He nodded and said, “All right.”

He was ready to leave.

Dwayne said, “You’re not thinking about that, are you?”

“Well, I wouldn’t have to wear it at the job, right?” Ivan responded.

They eyed each other for a couple of seconds, as if it was a stare-down.

Dwayne finally told him, “Don’t get too far ahead of yourself, Ivan. Sometimes we can jump out of the plane before we have a parachute or a landing pad ready. You catch my drift?”

Ivan nodded again. “I got you. I was only speculating.”

Dwayne nodded back to him. “Okay,” he said, and left it alone to do his business.

Ivan walked out of the bathroom right past Barry Mitchell’s office. He wondered how his boss would take him having an earring. Would it be too much of an obvious signal of change? And how much of Dwayne’s response was built around his knowledge of Ivan joining the party promotions game?

I’m not ready to do that anyway, Ivan told himself of the earring idea while on the way back to his desk. But the low-cut hair was a doable experiment. I might go ahead and get it cut down after work tonight. Fuck it, it’ll grow back! he told himself.

AS SOON AS IVAN finished getting his hair cut down at the barbershop that evening, he received a call from Lucina.

He laughed and said, “What, are you reading my mind now? I’m just walking out from the barbershop. I’m trying that new look you suggested to me. Let’s see how it works.”