Eve grinned and nodded. “Okay.” She introduced her two girlfriends before they all climbed inside the limo. The driver closed the door behind them.

“So, Ivan, you’re from L.A., right?” Eve asked him. She sat directly across from him.

He nodded. “Yeah, South Central.” He didn’t need to concern himself with putting a spin on his background for Eve. She was from the hip-hop culture, which respected urban roots.

Ivan asked her, “What’s Philly like?”

“Man, Philly is hectic, but I love it,” she told him. “So, every once in a while, when I need to feel, you know, that realness of my people, I take a trip back home.”

“Or she can just bring her people out west to chill out here with her,” one of her girlfriends commented.

Lucina nodded. “It’s always good to have your friends around you to make you feel at home.”

Eve asked, “Where are you from, Lucina? Gallo’s an Italian name, right?”

“Yes, but I’m from Brazil. Brazil has a lot of Italians.”

“Yeah, that’s the land of the hot models now,” Eve’s second girlfriend commented with a nod. They were both as mellow as Eve was.

Eve said, “You know I have a new fashion line I’m working on, called Fetish. Would you be interested in modeling for us?”

“Yeah, girlfriend definitely got the look,” both of Eve’s girls agreed.

Ivan looked at Lucina to see how she would take it. But his partner quickly blew the attention off.

“Oh, no, no more modeling for me. I have plenty of girls you will like for that at the party. You just let me know which ones you like.”

When they reached the Gaslamp Quarter, Ivan told the limo driver to head straight through Fifth Avenue for the weekend sights.

Eve said, “This reminds me of South Street a little bit back home.”

“Oh, this is way more ritzy than South Street, girl,” one of her friends commented.

“Dig it,” the other friend agreed. “South Street is way longer than this, though. And you’re always stuck in traffic there.”

Eve said, “Well, you know what I mean, just one straight street with a lot of nighttime stores on it.”

Lucina said, “This is nothing compared to the streets in Italy, Paris, Amsterdam, and Japan.”

“Oh, yeah, I fell in love with a lot of those places,” Eve commented. “I love to travel.”

“International travel gives you a lot of places to fall in love with,” Lucina agreed.

Ivan had nothing to add on the subject. He was out of his information range. He hadn’t traveled much at all.

He smiled and said, “I’ll be able to travel like that sometime next year.”

“Oh, we will,” Lucina promised him.