Ivan just stopped and stared at him. He repeated, “Everything isn’t about money? Are you crazy? Money is the reason why we’re both here in San Diego. You got a baseball contract, and I have an accounting job and a promotions business.”

“Yeah, but we could both do that anywhere,” Emilio argued.

Ivan took a deep breath, cursing himself for getting his baseball friend into trouble with a gold digger. He said, “Let me ask you an economic question, E.A. How much money have you spent on this girl so far?”

Emilio shook it off again. He said, “It doesn’t really matter, man. It’s nothing compared to what I make.”

Ivan said, “But you could still make your money work for you instead of against you.”

Emilio said, “I’m not a moneymaking guy like you, Ivan. I’m just a baseball player.”

“Yeah, a rookie,” Ivan reminded him. “And you’re acting like one, man. You think all of these girls are around me and Lucina because they just like being around us? Hell, no. They’re working, man.”

He continued, “So, just look at it this way: you play, what, one hundred-sixty games a season?”

“Yeah, if you’re that healthy,” Emilio answered with a chuckle. He said, “But definitely not that for pitchers.”

Ivan said, “Anyway, so that’s about, sixteen into twenty four…” He did his calculations for two million, four hundred thousand dollars divided by one hundred-sixty games, and came up with, “Fifteen thousand dollars a game. And sometimes you play up to four or five games a week, which gives you sixty to seventy-five thousand dollars with no expenses. Because the team pays for everything, right—travel, hotel, food?”

Emilio nodded. “Yeah.”

Ivan said, “Well, that’s a lot of damn money to make with no expenses, man.” He said, “Now, if a big event promoter could flip some of that money and double it for you twice a month, while you’re still flying around playing ball, that would become an asset.”

Ivan caught himself and laughed it off. “Naw, let me stop that, man. I plan to make close to that myself soon anyway,” he stated.

Emilio smiled and asked him, “What if you bought one of those Hooters franchises? They’re popping up everywhere now.”

Ivan said, “See, now you’re thinking. Those things make money every day of the week. Then you can hire all of the pretty girls you want, right there. And you could pay them minimum wage, plus a couple of hamburgers, and do good.”

They shared a laugh before Emilio added, “We could get Lucina to hire the whole staff.”

Ivan hesitated. He said, “Naw, you wouldn’t want to hire Lucina’s kind of girls. They would want more money than that. They would put you out of business.”

Emilio said, “Well, how do you deal with them?”