Right on cue, Lucina broke him away from his daydreams. “Anyway, back to biz-ness. So, we charge twenty-five dollars per head, times two to three thou-sand, and we make fif-ty to seven-ty-five thou-sand, mi-nus the for-ty thou-sand we pay the football players back. And once we add in the VIP, we can split fif-teen to twenty thou-sand apiece. Is that good enough money for you?”

Ivan couldn’t believe his ears. If they partied like that just twice a month, he could buy a house on La Jolla in a year and look down from above Interstate 5 for the rest of his life.

To keep himself from sounding too excited, he held up his drink and asked her, “What about the liquor? Do you have a liquor license? My brother said that’s how we can make even more money.”

Lucina frowned at him. “And have a bigger head-ache,” she commented. She said, “I have another partner who does that. But to have your own liquor li-cense, you need insurance, trained bar-tenders, storage for the al-cohol, a truck, and your own security team unless you sell drink tickets.”

She shook her head and said, “That’s way too much hassle for a girl. I just want to throw the par-ty.”

Ivan had to agree with her. Or at least for the moment. He had to study it more.

She said, “And by the way, we don’t spend all twenty thou-sand dollars up front. This par-ty should cost no more than twelve. So we take four thou-sand apiece off the top. That’s how you do it. Otherwise, you throw parties with no money left. And I never do that. You should al-ways have money left after budget.”

Ivan took it all in with a nod. By that time, he was glassy eyed from drinking.

Lucina asked him, “Do you need to stay a night here? You don’t look like you can drive.”

Ivan grinned at her. “Are you staying here?”

“No. I have to get up to-morrow and get ready. You have to book the radio spots in advance to get the best times and rates.”

Ivan told her, “I have to get up tomorrow, too. I gotta go back to work at the accounting office in the morning.”

“Well, maybe one day you will have your own firm. Then you won’t have to show up un-til late.”

Ivan chuckled at the thought. “Yeah, those days are coming. But not yet,” he told her.

AFTER LANDING a major party and a partnership with Lucina, Ivan’s next important meeting was with his two young webmasters. Jeff and Paul had produced phenomenal traffic for his start-up website. And that allowed Ivan to pitch solid advertiser rates.