He calmed himself down, realizing he had said enough. He wasn’t even sure if Lucina could take that from him. Was she ready to move on and mark him off as another lost business partner?

She nodded to him and said, “Okay. You did a good job. Just make sure they all get home safe tonight.”

She started walking back toward her Mercedes parked in the street.

Ivan said, “You’re not staying? You can make sure they get home for yourself if you stay.”

Lucina looked back at Ivan from the street and shook her head. “Maya and I are expected at another event tonight.”

Ivan was ready to ask her more about it, but what difference did it make? She had promised to attend someone else’s event on a night when he had set up a party for them to make easy money. He thought about that and was irritated again. It seemed disrespectful to him. She knew he had planned the “Monday Night Football Bash.” She could have at least supported him on the first one.

Nevertheless, he nodded and blew it off. “All right, then. Y’all have a good time tonight.”

“Thank you,” she told him.

Ivan headed back inside the lounge without another word. The third quarter would be starting after halftime.

Lucina watched her determined partner walk away and felt betrayed by her pettiness. She wanted to hurt him just to see if he would bleed. She wanted to know if he still had a heart outside of business. And if he bled, then it proved that he cared. But was it fair for her to test him in that way just to satisfy her own insecurities about their partnership?

When she climbed back into her black Mercedes she felt guilty about it. She sat there in silence for a minute behind the wheel.

“Of course, he wanted us to stay,” she commented to Maya.

Maya read Lucina’s volatile emotions and already knew.

She likes him, she thought with a silent nod. So she’s going through a power struggle with him now. But there was no sense in her speaking up about it. Maya knew that Lucina liked to keep her intimate emotions to herself until she expressed them on her own. Even when they were obvious.

Finally, Lucina took a deep breath and said, “Let’s go,” before she restarted the car to drive off.

IVAN WALKED BACK inside the lounge and made his way over to Ida to calm the rough waters he could sense between them. Ida had already begun to complain about Lucina’s blatant disrespect of her. She also hinted that Ivan gave the woman far too much leeway in their partnership. But the power-play antic Lucina had just pulled inside the lounge may have been the straw to break the camel’s back.