As Ida pulled Ivan back into her mother’s office past the kitchen, he could see Catherine watching them from the dance floor in her yellow dress.

I can’t worry about her right now, he mused. I told her what time it was before she came out here tonight.

When Ida got Ivan inside the back office with her mother, she closed and locked the door behind them and pulled out a roll of money from her small purse.

She said, “My mother and I want you to keep all of the door money, Ivan. You’ve earned it. We’ve already made nearly three times what we expected on food and drinks tonight.”

Ivan looked at Carol, sitting behind her desk in the small office. She was nodding with a smile, happy but exhausted from supervising all of the extra cooking.

She said, “You really did it for us tonight. And we are just so grateful that we wanted to donate our share back to you.”

Ivan was speechless. He would do more than cover expenses now. And though it wasn’t a lot, it was a positive start for him.

Finally, he said, “Thank you. And we plan to post the pictures of this first event on the website and continue to promote the restaurant for you.”

Ida asked him, “Well, how much would that cost us, Ivan? Because I already told you, we expect too many freebies from our people as it is.”

Ivan hadn’t even thought about a rate for advertising on his website yet. He didn’t know where to start. But since he was thinking about breaking even, he came up with, “Two hundred dollars for a month,” the exact cost of his website management.

Ida asked him, “That’s all? Well, we can do that tonight.”

Ivan smiled. He said, “That’s actually a discount price because I don’t know what to charge yet. You would be my first advertiser.”

“And we were your first big party,” Carol told him. “So we both start off together.”

Ivan nodded. “That’s cool with me.”

Ida said, “Okay, Mom, I know you’re tired and all, but I need to borrow you for one more second so we can all thank everyone for coming out to support us tonight.”

Carol nodded and grunted, “All right.”

Ivan and Ida walked out with her back to the main floor. Thomas had already asked the DJ to stop the music and get the microphone ready. Once he spotted Carol walking out with her daughter and Ivan, he got the microphone and brought it over to them.

He then addressed the anxious crowd. “If I can, I’d like to have everyone’s attention…I want to introduce the owner of the restaurant, her daughter, and the young man who helped us all to organize and promote this wonderful event this evening.”

“YEAH!” a bunch of the supporters yelled out with hand clapping.