Thomas joked from the crowd and asked him, “What, are you running for mayor now?”

Ivan ran with it and joked back, “You give me five more years of your support, and I’ll let you know by then.”

The man was becoming a natural crowd-pleaser.

I knew he had it in him, the gift of gab, Thomas thought as he watched Ivan woo the crowd.

As the network function wound down and a professional photographer documented the event through his camera, Ivan talked business with one of the lounge owners off to an empty corner of the room.

“So, you don’t have to advertise at all?” he asked the co-owner.

“Well, our clientele already knows us, and they get the word out quite effectively for us through word-of-mouth.”

He was a slim, clean-shaven man with graying hair, wearing a white shirt with no tie under his dark blazer.

“What about being a wine sponsor if we agreed to buy a few cases for a much larger event?” Ivan asked him.

The partner hesitated. That was a good thing.

“Ahh, I would have to talk to Dale on that, but what…what would a sponsorship entail?” he stuttered.

Before Ivan could answer him, he felt the presence of a tall woman waiting patiently behind him. He turned, looked, and failed to recognize her. But she was definitely striking, a caramel-skinned black woman, wearing a daring red dress and professional makeup with seductive long lashes.

“May I help you?” Ivan asked her. Was she coming on to him? He wouldn’t mind it if she was. However, she didn’t even smile when she spoke to him.

“I have someone here who wants to meet you.”

Ivan froze. Whoever it was had excellent taste in women, because the messenger was a hell of an attention getter.

The wine partner looked Ivan in his dazed and confused face. He told him, “Go ahead, Ivan, we’ll catch up. This is your party.”

Ivan hesitated before he nodded. He followed the woman to a lone table at the back end of the room. On the way over, she didn’t even bother to make small talk with him. Then she stepped aside to her left at the table, where Ivan came face-to-face with Lucina Gallo. She was having a bottle of Chardonnay. An extra empty glass sat out on the table across from her.

Ivan panicked. Oh, shit! Is that who I think it is?

She stood up from her seat and extended her delicate hand to him. She was wearing an expensive multicolored dress. It looked like Versace.

“I-van Da-vid, I’m Lucina Gal-lo,” she said with an accent. They looked into each other’s eyes with a double sparkle.

Ivan took her hand and nodded. “Yeah, I know who you are.”

“Good. We talk, then.” She pulled her hand back and sat down across the table. Her messenger walked away.