Ivan smiled and kept his silence. He still had to figure out how he wanted to get it. But he definitely wanted the car. It just wasn’t in his budget at the moment.

Once they reached his office upstairs overlooking the showroom, Ivan noticed that all of the other offices were on the bottom-floor level.

There’s no question who the boss is in here, he told himself. Ivan felt special even being upstairs with the man. Then he looked to his left and through a full twelve-foot window. Roman Zemeckis had a complete view of the green and brown mountains, the vast ocean waters, and the light blue sky, all framed in the window like a giant portrait.

Ivan nodded and said, “Now, that right there is nice. That’s what I want before a car, a house in La Jolla that has a view of everything you have right here.” He said, “I’ve been thinking about that ever since I came to San Diego eleven years ago.”

Roman said, “Don’t let that be enough for you, Ivan. I’ve been here a little longer than that myself, from the Miami area. Most of my family’s still involved there with the boats and shipping business. But I wanted to do something different. So I came out west and got involved in selling exotic cars.”

He continued, “No sense in having toys that you can’t trade and sell, you know. And sure, you keep some of your favorites for yourself, but the real fun is in trying to see how many of them you can move.”

Ivan nodded, still hypnotized by the astounding view at the window. But he did manage to hear everything that was said. What Roman was telling him was that he had nothing to lose. His family had long money already. So his exotic cars were nothing more than a kid’s trading-card game.

Ivan asked him, “Do you invest in the different car companies that make the brands and models?”

Roman stared at him and thought about it with a pause. He said, “Ivan, you’re one of the few people who ever asked me that question.”

Ivan shrugged it off. It only made sense to him. He said, “If you like cars that much, and you got the money to be a part of the real competition, then why wouldn’t you want to invest in the companies?”

Ivan wanted to see what his investment tendencies were like before he tried to pitch him on anything. He took a seat in the deep leather office chair that sat in front of Roman’s open desk. He had several wooden file cabinets against the wall behind his chair. The setup reminded Ivan of how he had created open space for Paul and Jeff at his own office. Only Roman’s office was ten times more plush, with an Oriental rug that covered the center of his shiny hardwood floor.