Ivan paused. It sounded as if she were giving him an open invitation. So he went for it.

“Would you cook for me tonight?”

Lucina heard him and laughed. She said, “I can bring you some delicious Italian food from my good friend’s restaurant here in Coronado, but I am not in the mood to cook.”

Ivan asked her, “But will you be dressed for a formal dinner?”

Lucina paused. “As long as it does not include the wrong ideas about what goes on after the dinner.”

That comment made Ivan laugh. He said, “Okay. I can call someone else over after dinner. And they can finish up with the dessert.”

“I don’t believe you said that,” Lucina told him.

“Well, it is my birthday. And I wouldn’t mind having a girl jump out of a cake naked, either.”

“Well, that won’t be me.”

“All right, well, let’s just get dressed and have a candlelit Italian dinner at my place for my birthday, and talk more business.”

“Agreed,” she told him.

That surprised Ivan. “Around what time?” he asked her.

“Eight thirty.”

So Ivan prepared his dining room table with plates, glasses, candles, and dim lighting. He freshened up, dressed in elegant evening clothes, with a dark blue jacket, and awaited his partner’s arrival by eight fifteen.

In the meantime, he called Ashley and Christina back. He called Chris first.

He said, “I know you wanted to spend my birthday with me, but, um, Lucina kind of owes me that.”

“Owes you what?” Christina asked him for clarity.

Ivan answered, “For business. But it’s not a sexual thing at all. We’re just gonna talk about where we are and where we’re going. And afterward, if you still want to celebrate with me…”

Christina cut him off and said, “Wait a minute. You’re gonna have a birthday date with her for business, and then do me for pleasure?”

Ivan stopped to think about it. It may have sounded ultracocky, but it was what it was.

He asked her calmly, “How else do you want me to explain it?”

Christina failed to answer him. She sighed heavily over the line and told him, “I don’t believe you. I mean…what do you want me to say to something like that, Ivan? You’re gonna make me want to hate Lucina.”

“Hate her for what? She’s the reason why we even know each other.”

Christina was silent. She said, “I don’t…I just don’t know about that.”

Ivan told her, “Well, you call me back and let me know later.”

Chris still didn’t want to respond to it. She wanted Ivan to stop and tell her that he was bullshitting, that it was only a birthday joke to get her going. But Ivan was ready to hang up the phone with her and move on.