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Chapters (37)
  1. Cover
  2. Colophon
  3. ALSO BY OMAR TYREE
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright
  6. Contents
  7. Introduction
  8. Part I
  9. One
  10. Two
  11. Three
  12. Part II
  13. Four
  14. Five
  15. Six
  16. Part III
  17. Seven
  18. Eight
  19. Nine
  20. Part IV
  21. Ten
  22. Eleven
  23. Twelve
  24. Part V
  25. Thirteen
  26. Fourteen
  27. Fifteen
  28. Part VI
  29. Sixteen
  30. Seventeen
  31. Eighteen
  32. Part VII
  33. Nineteen
  34. Twenty
  35. Twenty-one
  36. Closing Interview:
  37. About the Author

Ivan nodded and said, “Good night,” but he was hardly finished yet. He had energy still left over. So as soon as he made it to the elevator doors inside his apartment building, he called up Ashley.

“Hey, are you still down here?” he asked her.

“I don’t know, why? I shouldn’t be,” she pouted.

He said, “But you are. So stop complaining and come on over here and see me like you know you want to.”

Ashley paused and thought it over. But there was no hiding her true feelings. She said, “I felt really proud of you tonight. That was really a special event for you. I just wish that I could be the one at the center of attention.”

Ivan told her, “You are. I mean, just think about it. Out of all those people there to see me tonight, you’re the only one who gets to spend the night with me.”

She joked, “You would spend the night with other guys?”

Ivan said, “Come on, now. Don’t turn something special into something silly.”

Ashley said, “But that’s just it, I don’t feel special with you, Ivan. I’m always the side chick. And I don’t like that.”

Ivan took another breath and lost his patience with her. He rubbed his temples with his free hand and said, “Man, after all this shit I put together tonight, I still gotta beg a pretty girl to spend the night with me. Is that how I’m living? Because if it is, then I’m about to take a nice walk downtown and find somebody who wants to give a handsome young man a birthday present.”

Ashley chuckled at him. She said, “You’re spoiled, Ivan. That’s what your problem is.”

“Yeah, well, let me know what you’re gonna do,” he told her.

She said, “I’m parking down the street from your apartment. Okay? Are you happy now?”

Ivan smiled. He said, “A man is always happy to see a pretty girl when he’s feeling it late at night.”

“Yeah, whatever. So…I guess I’ll be there in a minute.”

Seventeen

The Bosses

IVAN CALLED an emergency staff meeting at his IDPromotions.com office for Sunday evening. Once everyone had gathered there after eight PM, he made a short, informative speech about his objectives for the week.

“Okay, as I explained to everyone last week, or for the last couple of weeks, our big networking event last night was not just a birthday party but a gigantic key to a big door of new opportunities. We have nearly a thousand business cards and email addresses from the event, and we need to work hard and fast all this week to connect the dots for new advertisers, sponsors, spotlight stories, and new business associates.”