Ivan was pleased he had held the guys at the office at bay for as long as he had, but even he understood that he couldn’t continue to hide his promotions business from them forever. His plans for the new year were too big to get away with that.

So he nodded and took a breath to compose himself. He looked up from his desk chair and told his fellow accountant, “Chip, instead of me sitting around complaining about how hard we work in here to make sure that the rich remain rich, I decided to create my own vehicle where I could move in that direction myself.”

At first Chip only stared at him. He said, “So, it’s never really been about a girl?” He wanted to erase the thought from his head. He had really believed the hype that a good woman had done wonders for Ivan, and he was seriously thinking about going in that direction for himself. Maybe the focus of just one woman really is good for you, he had pondered over the past couple of months. He had even started dating one woman more steadily than he had done in the past.

Ivan explained, “Actually, I do have a female partner who was very influential in the process. And there’s no way in the world things could have worked out as well for me at this point had I not teamed up with her.”

He continued, “But we haven’t been dating or anything. I mean, we both realized that making money together is more important than that. So we kind of, like, stayed away from that issue altogether.”

Chip was stunned. Now he was even more interested. “So, what kind of partnership is it?”

Ivan took another breath. He said, “I’m not going into discussing it all while we’re still on Hutch and Mitchell time, but you can go to IDPromotions.com and look through it yourself.”

“IDPromotions.com?” Chip repeated. “I.D. like in ‘Ivan David’?”

Ivan nodded to him. “Yeah.”

Chip said, “All right, I’ll check it out.”

Ivan warned him, “And Chip, I’m not gonna talk about it here. So if you want to discuss it further, we’ll have to do that after work.”

Chip nodded and said, “All right, that’s fair.” He couldn’t wait to log online immediately at his desk.

No more than a minute or two after Chip had left him, Dwayne called Ivan into his office. He closed his door behind them and wasted no words. “Well, the time is now, Ivan. John and Barry want to make you a new salary offer by the end of the day. So get yourself ready to hear them out for a four o’clocker.”

Ivan was poised and ready for it. More money, more money, he told himself.

He nodded to Dwayne and said, “Okay. I’m ready.”