Pecking Order, page 21
“Yeah, I got a little Pontiac convertible,” she responded with a chuckle. “What are you driving, Ivan?” she asked him.
Audrey had watched Emilio pull off in a red Maserati with plenty of fanfare. The Latino crowd had been excited to see him there and to take pictures with him. Audrey couldn’t wait to catch back up to him. She had his personal numbers now.
Ivan smiled at her and answered, “I just drove my company-man car, a black Nissan Altima. All that other stuff can wait.”
Audrey heard him out and agreed. “I know that’s right.”
Ivan then looked at Chris. She was doing her normal silent-smile thing.
He said, “So, we’re all grown people out here, right?”
He waited for them both to respond.
“Yeah.”
“And grown people’s business is grown people’s business?”
Audrey and Chris looked at each other, wondering where Ivan was going with it all.
“I mean, what are you trying to say, Ivan?” Audrey asked him. She had a feeling of where he was going. She also had a response to it if he went there.
I hope he’s not thinking what I think he’s thinking with us, she thought.
Christina had a feeling as well. But she waited hers out to see what Ivan had to say first.
Ivan said, “Well, if it’s all right with Chris, I’ll take her home.”
Both girls froze and looked at each other. Ivan didn’t have to do that out in the open. He could have pulled Chris off to the side and let her tell Audrey something on her own. Even Chris was shocked by it.
Why did he make it so obvious? she asked herself. At the same time, it turned her on a little. He was getting rather bold. And he was making it known that he wanted her.
On Ivan’s side of the coin, he also wanted to test Lucina’s rules.
We’ll see if she doesn’t ask them now, he told himself. But if I’m gonna be around all these girls all the time, they’re not all gonna tell me no.
Audrey opened her mouth and said, “Well—”
“Let me talk to him,” Christina commented, cutting her off.
Audrey looked at her and said, “Okay.” She figured Chris would handle it on her own. Ivan was off base.
Chris walked forward with Ivan for their privacy.
She asked him immediately, “Why did you do that?” He had put her smack inside of a dilemma. What would Audrey think? Lucina had told them all to make sure they returned to their own homes that night. She didn’t say that for no reason. But there was Ivan, deliberately complicating things for all of them.
Ivan said, “If you don’t wanna go, you don’t wanna go. Just tell me you don’t like me that way.”
He doubted she would tell him that. He already knew she liked him. And he was not letting her off the hook.
Christina told him, “It’s not that, it’s just…I mean, we’re all in business together, Ivan.”
Isn’t that why Ida walked out on you earlier? she assumed. Mixing business with pleasure is just bad. It doesn’t work.
Yet she was highly attracted to Ivan’s individual hustle.
He asked her, “You think my business is gonna stop because I take you home tonight?”
She knew better than that. “No, of course not.”
“Are you gonna stop doing business with me?”
Chris had to stop and think about that one. What if she started to hate his guts for some reason? Or what if Lucina began to dislike her? She could tell that Lucina had an attraction to Ivan as well. Maybe she had even ruined his relationship with Ida on purpose.
Christina had read the whole thing. Now Ivan was attempting to take his emotions out on her. She expected that as well, just not as boldly.
She shook her head and told him, “I just don’t want to be in the middle of anything.”
“And how is that gonna happen?” he asked her.
Somebody would have to tell. Who would it be? Audrey?
Christina said, “I have to respect everybody in this, Ivan. I just can’t up and do that.”
“Up and do what?” He wanted her to spell it out to him. He said, “If you don’t like me like that, then it’s not an issue, right?”
She told him, “But you know I like you. I told you that already.”
He said, “You told me you liked me in business. But my life is more than just business.”
“I know that.”
“So why would you let me go home alone tonight if you like me?”
He was killing her. But she already knew that Ivan had it in him. He knew how to press people’s buttons to get them to move. She had watched him in action all night. Now he was turning his focus in her direction.
She read the situation and said, “I just don’t want to be anybody’s substitute, that’s all.”
He smiled and said, “Oh, so now you’re not good enough? What, I’ma put you back on the bench after the game? You can’t handle being a starter?”
Chris smiled back, knowing that he was wrong. Now he was attacking her ego.
He said, “Shit, if I got my chance to start after watching from the sidelines, I’d take that chance and go to the championship with it. But maybe that’s just me.”
Chris was still standing there in silence on the sidewalk. Either she wanted him or she didn’t. But Ivan was going to make her choose right now. Impulsively.
He said, “But if you don’t want me like that, then go on back home with Audrey. She’s still here.”
It was a big risk to go that hard on the girl. Nevertheless, Ivan was training himself. Business was a hard man’s sport. There was little room for softness. Softness either lost the business or ended up on the liabilities column instead of the assets. And Ivan was only thinking about making money now, the assets.
On Christina’s side, she couldn’t take the rejection from him. What if he meant it? And what if she never got another chance to get that close to him? She was certain that he was on his way up. There was no question about it. So she would hate herself for turning her only opportunity down. But it still felt wrong.
She squirmed and said, “Ivan, I really do like you, but—”
Ivan cut her off with a raised hand and said, “Let me let you go, then.”
Christina stopped and stared at him. “What does that mean?”
Her heart was pounding in her chest. Did I fuck it up? I just don’t…feel sure about it yet, she told herself. I mean, I want to, but…
Ivan told her, “Go on back to Audrey. I’m done.”
His rejection was even stronger now. She could hardly breathe.
She pleaded, “Don’t be that way with me, Ivan. I’m not like that. If I say I’m down with you, I’m down with you to the end.”
Ivan remained as stony as a downtown building with her.
“Well, show me, then.”
The clock stopped ticking. It was all on Christina. She sized up her chances and gave in.
She took a deep breath and said, “I’ll go tell her I’m going with you.”
AUDREY WAITED down the street for what seemed like forever. When Christina finally returned to her, she asked her, “So, what did you say?” She assumed that she had turned Ivan down.
Chris took another breath and answered, “I’ll just, um…see you later on or whatever. Okay?”
Audrey looked at her, confused. She said, “What, you’re going with him? You know Lucina told us—”
“I know what Lucina said,” Chris argued.
Audrey whispered, “And you’re gonna fuck with her partner in business anyway? I mean, how is that smart?”
“Are you gonna tell her that, Audrey?” Chris asked her.
Audrey frowned and said, “Hell, no. But what if she calls tonight and asks to speak to you?”
“You just tell her to call me on my cell phone.”
“And what are you gonna say when she calls?”
“You let me deal with that. It’s not your concern.”
Audrey backed off and said, “Okay.” I just thought you were smarter than that, she thought. But that’s a dumb decision. You could have any of those guys in there before Ivan. Ivan is, like, off limits.
Even Audrey could tell that Lucina liked her partner in more ways than just business. Lucina was very protective of Ivan’s image. But like Christina had told her, it was not her concern.
IVAN TOOK CHRISTINA HOME with him to solidify his confidence in everything. He wanted to feel like he deserved it. And he wanted to teach everyone around him to give in, starting with the black and Japanese beauty.
But there were no more dreams about Lucina while he did her. Ivan had his full focus on the beautiful mind, body, and soul of Christina, who accepted his passionate weight.
“You like me for real, hunh?” he asked her with a strong thrust of his naked pelvis into hers. They were dead center in Ivan’s king-sized bed.
Christina winced, whimpered, and moaned, “Mmm-hmm.”
“Can I have this whenever I want?” he asked as he continued to push.
She took it and whined with her eyes closed, “If you want to.”
“But do you want me to want it?”
“Oooh,” she moaned, feeling it.
“Hunh?” Ivan asked her, pouring on his weight. “Do you?”
“Yesss,” she hissed back to him, “I want you to want me.”
Ivan was not interested in making their romp into a talkathon. Business was about action. The talk was over. So he pounded into her body without pause. And he planned to continue having things his way.
Eleven
Moving Forward
THROUGH THE FALL and into winter, Lucina fell in line with Ivan’s small cow party idea, making two to five thousand dollars off each event they partnered in to promote. Using his model of consistency, the small parties added up to an average of twelve thousand dollars a week. As Ivan had planned, a few of the other small promoters of San Diego agreed to use IDPromotions.com to increase the awareness and traffic at their events.
The consistent party activity also increased the popularity of the website. But despite the immense traffic, Ivan’s ad manager, Eddie K., still found that many businesses were hesitant to advertise on the site. So Eddie applied the idea of using printout coupons for website viewers to receive 10 percent discounts on selected items bought from the advertising businesses. His plan was to prove the site’s traffic value to the advertisers. However, the price tag was steep, a 25 percent discount off of the website ad price.
At first, Ivan balked. “Damn, twenty-five percent? Why not just match their ten percent?”
Eddie K. explained, “With some of the higher-end retailers, our website costs are not high enough yet to do that. Our ten percent discount wouldn’t be worth the value of a ten percent discount at their stores. At least not right now. But at twenty-five percent it works.”
He said, “What I’ve done is basically swapped the discounts you were trying to give to frequent advertisers, and instead, we use the coupon so we can encourage viewers to utilize the site for retail action. Because if a business can see that an extra two hundred people are walking into their stores each month to buy something because of the coupons on our website, then obviously it makes sense for them to continue to advertise with us.”
Ivan agreed with the philosophy and loved the idea. He said, “That’s why it’s good business to hire the right people.”
Eddie chuckled and said, “You betcha.”
By the end of the year, the discount coupon idea had caught on to help the sales team to pull in thirty advertisers from general retail, restaurants, party promotion, community events, San Diego sights and travel, specialized services, and general branding, producing nearly thirty-five thousand dollars a month in revenue, of which Ivan netted thirteen thousand.
Since the initial ad rates were based on eight thousand unique hits per day and forty thousand daily impressions of visited pages, the end-of-year numbers of ten thousand unique hits and eighty thousand daily impressions of visited pages would allow them to increase their rates another 25 percent in the next quarter.
With a 25 percent ad increase and the same thirty ads, Ivan projected his website could generate more than forty-three thousand dollars a month in revenue, of which he would net nearly twenty thousand. An increase to forty ads a month at the same rate could generate close to sixty thousand, of which Ivan would close in on thirty thousand a month.
If Ivan could also reach his small cow party goal of twenty thousand dollars a week with Lucina, they could make over eighty thousand dollars a month, of which he would net more than forty thousand. Combining his website projections and party promotions for the year 2004, Ivan estimated that he could pull in seventy thousand dollars a month by the beginning of summer.
“That’s good money. And that’s not even including my increased salary now at Hutch and Mitchell,” he told himself from the balcony of a new downtown apartment.
From his party introductions to new friends, associates, and businesses, Ivan had brought in twenty-three new clients for Hutch & Mitchell Accounting. The commission on those new clients earned him another seven thousand dollars before taxes and increased his general income by two to four thousand dollars a month.
Pocketing a total of sixty-five thousand entrepreneurial dollars after taxes for the year 2003, plus twenty thousand added to his retirement fund, Ivan had never done so well in one year in his life. So to make himself feel worthy of his new progress, he moved into a two-bedroom apartment near the downtown Gaslamp area. He then paid an interior decorator friend of Lucina’s to furnish his new pad, creating a luxurious appeal for a sane price. And as he overlooked the San Diego skyline from his new high-rise balcony downtown, Ivan felt invincible.
“Yeah, this is the life, right here,” he told himself, grinning, with both hands clasped behind his head. His move downtown was only the beginning of his ambitions. Ivan still had a short-term goal to buy property in the university area to house his website offices. And he still thought of owning a home in La Jolla, with a half million dollars needed for a down payment.
“Why not?” he asked himself out loud. At seventy thousand a month by this summer, I’ll be able to do that by next year, he plotted. He could even see the hills of La Jolla from his downtown balcony, facing north.
He then looked out to his left to the nearly completed downtown baseball stadium for the Padres. Several other downtown apartment complexes, condominiums, and hotels were all under construction.
“Real estate and development, hunh?” he questioned. “Maybe it’s time to have another talk with Thomas.”
Ivan’s phone rang in the living room, breaking him from his ruminations.
He walked back inside and answered it. “Hello.”
“Yes, Mr. David, this is the front desk calling. We have a Mr. Emilio Alvarez here to see you. Shall we send him up?”
“Oh, yeah, send him right up.”
Ivan hung up the phone and smiled. The gatekeeper system was another perk of wealth. He had never had such a luxury before.
Emilio arrived at his door a few minutes later. Ivan planned to receive a lot more company after moving into his new two-bedroom apartment. The downtown location was more convenient for business, and the new pad allowed him to feel more confident about having folks over to entertain. So he took the leap from less than a thousand dollars a month for rent to double that and change.
Emilio walked in and commented, “Hey, man, this is a nice place.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing like your place,” Ivan assumed. Emilio was a two-and-a-half-million-dollar-a-year baseball player. His signing bonus had been three million.
“Well, your place is much neater,” he responded with a chuckle. “I still have to hire a maid.”
He continued to walk around Ivan’s new pad to check out the decor: the plush furniture, artwork, accents, rugs, vases, exotic lamps, everything.
“So, how much it cost you to decorate this place, thirty, forty grand?” Emilio asked him.
Ivan answered him with a frown, “Thirty, forty grand? Hell, no! Try half of that.”
Emilio looked surprised. “You’re kidding me. You did all this for less than thirty?”
Ivan said, “Look, man, I took a lot of the things from my old apartment in La Mesa, and I just told the guy to build around that. And that’s what he did. So a lot of this stuff in here is just an illusion of wealth. But as long as it looks good and feels good, I’m cool with it.”
Emilio took a seat on the plush beige sofa facing the entertainment center and said, “Yeah, I see what you mean.”
Ivan sat on a twin sofa next to him. “So, what’s been going on, man? I didn’t see you at the New Year’s Eve party we had.”
Ivan had made another five thousand after Lucina’s share. There were too many parties going on that night to make much more than that. However, his ad team pulled in another two grand for the website from New Year’s Eve party promotions. Ivan even had liquor sponsors courting his business now.
Emilio grinned. He said, “To tell you the truth, man, I hung out with Audrey that night, and she, ah…didn’t want to go to your party.”
Ivan nodded. “Yeah, I understand.” Audrey no longer worked with them. She got her hooks into Emilio and left with her own plans. Lucina had warned him that would happen with many of the girls. There was no way they could control it. So he felt guilty now for introducing the girl to his baseball friend. Ivan had used them both.
“So, ah…how are you doing with her now?” He wanted to ease into a conversation about it. It had been on his mind lately after seeing Audrey’s upgrades in car, wardrobe, and appearance.
Emilio smirked and said, “Man, she’s expensive as hell, but I like her.”
Ivan didn’t like any part of that statement. Emilio was still a client of his accounting firm.
He said, “I understand that you like her, man. A lot of guys would like her. But don’t let her spend up your money, E. You gotta have a budget for everything you do with that girl. A tight one. And I would know.”
Emilio looked at him and wondered. He figured that Ivan had had all the girls. Some guys just had that thing about them that made the women flock. So Emilio planned to ask him a few questions that night. That was why he had shown up.
