Ivan heard that and read her eyes on him. Nothing else had to be said. She was obviously choosing him.

She said, “So, after the next party, you make sure you don’t forget about me. Okay, Ivan?”

He nodded to her. “Okay.”

She reached out and squeezed his right arm to indicate her sincerity. “Bye.” And when she walked off, she displayed all of her curves to give him another look.

Ivan watched her return to her friends before he climbed back into his Altima. He sat behind the wheel a few seconds and mumbled, “Yeah…I definitely need to upgrade my car.”

IVAN AND THOMAS drove around the Chula Vista area, looking at several properties that had already started development, as well as wide-open areas that had yet to break ground. Ivan also asked to see a few commercial areas.

“You thinking about setting up for business down here, too?” Thomas asked him as they walked around.

Ivan said, “Well, it’s obvious we’re gonna be dealing with plenty of Mexicans in this area. And they like to party like everybody else. So, if I just bought the property and had the construction guys build a big enough box on it for a club, I could package the club idea to some of these other owners, finance it, and keep a piece of the ownership, while I help them to pack it out with Spanish talent each month.”

Thomas looked at him and shook his head, amazed. He said, “That lightbulb in your head never goes out, does it?”

Ivan grinned. “That’s why I can’t be sitting around working on proposals and business plans all day. I need to be out here sucking things up to have ideas to work from. You said that about me a while ago,” he reminded Thomas.

He went on, “I didn’t leave Hutch and Mitchell’s offices just to lock myself up in an office of my own. I like being out here rolling around.” Then he added, “And you’re right. It’s time for me to use more upscale cars for my everyday image.”

TO IVAN’S SURPRISE, Lucina helped him hammer out every detail of his first proposals for the luxury car and boat parties. The big and small, public and private combinations helped to make the process a lot easier for them to design.

For the big luxury car show, the idea was to utilize Xzibit to host a free-to-the-public event out at Mission Bay Park, with plenty of sponsors involved to appeal to the general public of San Diego. Roman Zemeckis would display his cars out on an elevated platform at the park, while Xzibit asked his sales force to explain the luxuries, prices, and design histories of each car, helped along by the eye candy of Lucina’s girls, all wearing tasteful summer dresses.