Ivan nodded to him. “You got it, man. That’s the same thing I want to do. I just can’t afford to be quiet about it,” he joked again. “I need people to want to look me up and talk business, twenty-four/seven.”

Jeffrey told him, “And that’s how you should be as a businessman.

But I’m still a football player right now. So let me just learn the game by watching you. And once my career is over with, I’ll see how deep I want to get into it.”

“That’s a good money deal,” Ivan told him. “I can respect that.”

Thomas witnessed it all from the table. He told himself, I’m in the right damn place to be. This boy Ivan is a gold mine.

WHEN THOMAS WAS ALONE with Ivan inside of his new Bentley luxury car, he wanted to advise him on a few things. He said, “Ivan, I know you like explaining everything as a part of closing out your deals, but as you start to hire your business plan and proposal writers, you wanna get in the habit of letting the numbers do the talking for you. Because you’ll find yourself in shark waters soon, with plenty of people who may bite your ideas and take them somewhere else to eat. You catch my drift?”

He continued, “Now, I know that Jeffrey is your own personal connection, but when you start pitching these real money people who you don’t really know like that, you might want to stay close-mouthed and let them sign letters of confidentiality before you talk about too many details.”

Ivan listened to him without response. He was beginning to like other people’s opinions. Opinions gave him more information to make his own decisions from.

Thomas added, “So what you want to do at this point, as superficial as it may seem, is use your new car, your appearance, your reputation, references, good-looking women, and whatever the hell else you need to sell the business before you even speak.” He said, “In fact, it’s that time now where only the serious people should even be allowed to get in your ear.”

Ivan finally smiled at him. He asked, “So I’m a made man now, Thomas? Is that it?”

Thomas grinned back at him inside the extravagance of the car. He said, “You’re driving a quarter-of-a-million-dollar car now, ain’t ya? That speaks volumes for itself. Now you have to learn when to shut up and let everything else do the talking for you.”

Ivan grinned and laughed it off as they cruised back toward the interior of San Diego. Gawkers watched him in his Continental GT at every turn now. It was a serious upgrade from driving his Altima. Other drivers even gave him extra space to avoid accidents and fender benders. No one wanted to come close to hitting a car that they couldn’t afford to repair.