Ivan looked at it and smiled at her. “So, you got something hot on under that, right?”

Lucina smiled back at him and undid her coat to reveal a pink knee-length Christian Dior dress, decorated with colorful gems.

“Happy birthday, Ivan David.”

He chuckled and said, “Thank you.” He stared at her and nodded, admiring it all. But his dark blue sports jacket and baby blue button-up shirt failed to complement her dress. “That’s nice,” he told her. “But now I feel like I need to change into a lighter-color jacket to match you.”

“A light earth-tone color,” she told him.

Ivan scampered to his bedroom closet to change his jacket.

Damn, I can’t take this, he told himself. I want this girl bad, but the business is just too good to chance it. But…Lucina doesn’t even talk about guys. Are she and her girl Maya closet dykes or what?

By the time he walked back out to join her, wearing a camel-colored cashmere, Lucina had already started to set the table with food. She looked him over and grinned.

“That’s a much better choice of jacket.”

“Only because you’re wearing pink,” he told her as he helped her set the table. She had ordered veal, steak, chicken, shrimp, spaghetti, salad, vegetables, garlic bread, and a bottle of red wine.

“Are you sure you brought enough food to choose from?” Ivan joked.

Lucina smiled and poured the wine into a pair of wineglasses from his cabinet. “Shall we eat?” she asked him, sitting in the comfortable chair across from his.

“Definitely. I didn’t eat anything tonight while waiting for this.”

As they dug into the various samples of Italian-prepared food, Lucina asked him, “So, are you ready for your big party next week?”

Ivan chewed his steak and asked her, “What should I wear?”

“A black jacket and white shirt,” she answered. She had already thought it over for him. “But no tie or handkerchief because you want to look loose. You can also go with dark blue dress jeans and a very nice pair of black shoes. You might even want to buy a new pair.”

Ivan said, “Dress jeans, at a fifty-dollar party at the Manchester Grand Hyatt? I’ve been telling everyone to dress to impress.”

She said, “And you should tell them that. But for you, you will stand out more by looking classy yet casual.”

“Well, what will you wear?”

Lucina smiled. “I have something very special planned.”

“And you just want me in black and white with dress jeans?”

She said, “You should look like a more urban James Bond. And they must all know that you can mix well in any circle, like you said in your interviews.”

“But wouldn’t dressing down make it look like I’m not on their level yet?” he questioned.