From Ivan’s view on the sidewalk, he watched the taxi pull away with her before he decided to look for a taxi of his own. Then he cursed himself. “Shit!” What the fuck am I doing? he questioned. I’m out here about to ruin another girl when I need to be taking this all out on Lucina.

So he went ahead and called her. “Fuck it. It’s only nine o’clock back home.”

Lucina answered her cell phone as if she were still upset with him over old business. “Yes, Ivan?”

All of his smoothness seemed to evaporate whenever he was up against her.

He said, “I’m out here walking the streets of New York, and I just thought of calling you to say hi.”

“What are you doing in New York?”

Ivan paused. “Thinking about you,” he told her.

She said, “Why would you go all the way to New York to think about me?”

“Actually, I’m out here for a business network function with some bigwigs at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel tomorrow. I’m trying to study how they do business in New York.”

Lucina told him, “They do business there the same way they do business everywhere. They pitch what they have to sell, and they buy what they want to buy. But I have a few phone calls that I need to return. So good luck for tomorrow.”

Just like that, she was off the line. Nevertheless, Ivan felt at peace with even a small conversation with her. Every time he talked to Lucina, she seemed to ignite his focus and creativity. So he repeated in his mind what she had just told him.

They pitch what they have to sell, and they buy what they want to buy…Business is that simple, Ivan told himself. All around the world.

He thought about that for a minute, while walking around the downtown streets of New York City, and he began to smile and talk to himself.

“This girl is money in the bank…Damn, she’s money!”

Not that he didn’t already know, but the steady reminders she gave him were priceless.

THAT THURSDAY EVENING at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Ivan looked at himself in the full-sized mirror of his room. He wore a fine black suit with a powerful, mint-green-and-black-striped tie. He wanted to look like money in a room of money. And he planned to distribute and collect plenty of valuable business cards.

“It’s all about pitching and buying,” he reminded himself of Lucina’s comments again. “Who’s pitching what, and who’s buying what?”

His cell phone went off with a call from Jacari. “Are you down in the lobby yet?” he asked her.

“Yes.”

“What color dress are you wearing?”

“Turquoise.”

Turquoise was not far from mint green, but it was not close enough to consider them coordinated.