He approached her with open arms for a hug, as if they had known each other for years.

  “Jacari,” he greeted her in a warm embrace. Ivan had learned to become a much better greeter with women than he had been in the past. It was all a part of comfortable business.

  “Ivan,” she responded, embracing him back.

  She was the perfect size for him, and the same height as Lucina. He held her there for a second near the registration counters. Then he asked her, “Now, how hot are you gonna be wearing all of this leather tonight?”

  She broke away and said, “No, it’s really, really thin. I wouldn’t have worn it if it was thick. Here. Feel it.”

  She pressed his hand into the bottom of her skirt.

  Ivan felt the paper-thin leather and nodded. “Damn. That’s barely even there.”

  “See, that’s what I mean. But what about you, Mr. Fancy? You look like you’re all dressed to go out to a major event tonight.”

  Ivan grinned and said, “Yeah, I went a little overboard for the plane ride. But let me introduce you to the folks we’re gonna be hanging out with here tomorrow.”

  He led her over to Vance and his two assistants to introduce them all.

  “I hear you’re a full-blooded Native American,” Vance commented to her.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “I have a little bit of it in me myself,” he told her.

  As they all made small talk, Ivan thought again about Ida’s comments on him not dating black women anymore. But he wasn’t dating Jacari. They were only going to hang out for a few days and fly back to San Diego together. Or at least that was the plan.

  He collected his key from the counter and told Jacari, “Well, let me get up here to this room and change into something more comfortable to hang out in.”

  “Okay, I’ll wait here,” she told him.

  “Are you sure you want to leave her alone down here all by herself?” Vance asked him.

  He made it sound like a bad idea, but she was right there inside the lobby of a very popular and busy hotel. What could possibly happen to her?

  Vance said, “Well, I’ll just have my guys wait down here with her while you go up and get yourself together.”

  Ivan agreed to it with a nod. “All right. That’s a good idea. Thanks.”

  On their elevator ride up to their floors, Vance said, “She’s quite a pretty girl, hey?”

  She was, but Ivan still wasn’t too pressed about it. “Yeah, she’s dynamite,” he commented.

  “I guess you’re not looking to settle down anytime too soon, hey? I found that the longer it takes for a guy to settle down, the longer that guy wants to stay away from it all. But I’ve been married to my wife now for twenty-three years.”

  Ivan nodded. “That’s good. Since your twenties, hunh? That means you got another twenty-three years to go.”

  “Yeah, we’ll have grandkids by then. You don’t have any kids yet, do you?”

  Ivan was proud to tell him, “No.” He said, “I think I would want to be married before that happens. That way it won’t be a mistake, you know?”

  “That’s the right idea. You always wanna find the right woman first. But how old is, ah, Jacari? She’s pretty young, right? You’ll have to wait her out a few years before she’s ready.”

  The twelfth floor arrived for Ivan before he could respond. Vance’s room was on the fourteenth floor.

  Ivan climbed out and said, “Naw, I’m not looking at her like that. She’s cute, but I’ve already been around the block a few times. I think I may need a harder edge on a woman.”

  Vance laughed. He said, “I hear ya. You need one who can stand her ground. But be careful what you wish for,” he added as the elevator doors closed.

  Ivan let himself into his room with his key card and found his luggage already up in his room.

  “Damn, they move fast,” he commented.

  The room was all done up in deep, rich colors with dark wooden furniture and a high king-sized bed. But it was nothing spectacular.

  Ivan quickly changed his clothes into his casual dress of dark blue denim jeans, a button-up shirt, and a sports jacket. He sprayed soft-scented Joop cologne, and that was that. But by the time he returned to the lobby to meet back up with Jacari, she was surrounded by admirers.

  “Oh, you’re so gorgeous. Are you having an event here this weekend?” an older white woman asked her.

  Jacari was gracious with a smile. “No, I’m just waiting here for a friend.”

  Vance’s two assistants continued to stand by her like a security team. They didn’t even talk much. That only attracted more people to stare at her.

  Ivan walked over to her and was ready to go. “Thanks, guys.”

  “No problem, Ivan. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Ivan asked Jacari, “All right, where to? I’ve never been to New York before.”

  She politely stepped away from the crowd of gawkers. She told Ivan, “Times Square is where all of the tourists go. So let’s start there.”

  She led him out the front door of the hotel to hail a taxi at the curb. A Yellow Cab stopped for her immediately.

  “Damn,” Ivan commented. “You get instant cabs here, hunh?”

  “Yeah, you get used to it,” she responded with a chuckle. When they climbed inside the back of the tight cab, she told their East Indian driver, “Times Square,” and he took off driving.

  Ivan asked, “So, there’s no private driver for an international model?”

  Jacari frowned. “If you think you need one. But I don’t think I need all of that. I can pretty much take care of myself. I’ve been here for a year now.”

  “Thanks to us,” Ivan teased her.

  She laughed and squeezed his left arm. “Yeah, thanks to you.”

  Ivan immediately asked her about the name issue. “So, Jeff and Paul were telling me that bloggers said your real name was Kaya, and that there is no ‘Jacari’ as a tribal name,” he commented.

  She smirked and said, “Well, I’m the first one now. And Jacari means ‘she who drums to her own beat.’”

  Ivan stared at her. “Are you for real? Well, what does Kaya mean?”

  “Kaya means ‘oldest sister,’ which I’m not. But I guess I can act like an oldest sister when I need to.”

  “So, how was Italy?”

  “Great! I loved it over there.”

  “How many models were over there with you?”

  “Waaay too many. I was like, how can they even tell who’s up here with the whole catwalk thing? It was just one after another after another. And they try to make us all look the same in ponytails.”

  Ivan said, “So, ah, I hear your father wants to meet me.”

  Jacari nodded. “Oh, yeah, he does. He wants to ask you about your website to inform visitors about our reservation casinos.”

  Bingo! The man stayed about his business. “Where are they located?” he asked her.

  “Northeast of San Diego. But I haven’t really lived there since I was ten. I moved in with my cousins in Spring Valley. And I didn’t really know how my parents would take the whole modeling thing, especially since I started with posting up my pictures on a MySpace page. So I kind of made up the name ‘Jacari’ to hide it, but then your guys Paul and Jeff decided to put me up on your spotlight page, and the rest was just, like…wow! I still can’t believe it all.”

  The taxi reached a block full of movie theaters, reminding Ivan of Hollywood Boulevard in L.A., only it was bigger and brighter, with no fake movie stars or film characters posing for pictures with tourists on the sidewalks.

  Out of the blue, Ivan asked her, “You want to go to the movies?”

  “Sure.” Jacari grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the taxi, paying their fare with a twenty-dollar bill. “Come on,” she told him.

  Ivan felt like a much older man with the girl. He only had her by eight years, but her look and energy made her seem much younger.

  “What do you wanna see?” he asked her.

  “The new Batman movie.”

  She whisked him into the movie line before he could even agree to it.

  “I can see you’re used to having your way with people,” he told her.

  She smiled at him. “Only with those I like. And I like to make the first move sometimes, too. Which is really different from most Native American girls. But like I said, I like to drum to my own beat. So I guess you can call me the rebel drummer girl.”

  She continued to give Ivan quick looks, as if she couldn’t bear to stare at him. Ivan noticed that a lot from girls as a teenager. They were hesitant to gaze into his eyes sometimes, while others seemed hypnotized by them. But Derrick had used the eyes much more than Ivan had.

  Ivan asked her, “Do you have a problem staring right at the camera on photo shoots?”

  She flashed a look at him again and stared a little longer. “No, why?”

  He said, “You just seem to be a little jumpy around me, that’s all.”

  She smiled. “Maybe.”

  “Maybe what? Maybe you’re nervous around me?”

  She smiled again and remained silent. Her elusiveness reminded him of Lucina. Only Lucina was much better at it. She was elusive in a grown woman’s way. When Ivan thought about it, he realized that he had never even gone to a movie with Lucina before.

  How the hell did we manage never to do that? he questioned. At least once or twice. They had surely been around each other enough.

  Ivan bought the tickets, popcorn, nachos with cheese, and two medium drinks. Then they chose seats in the middle of the theater to watch the extralong movie. And before it was over, Ivan began to stroke Jacari’s long hair with his left hand. It ran halfway down her back, and he couldn’t help himself. But instead of thinking about the young model while he did it, he thought more about being back home in San Diego and going after his real prize.

  I just need to go at her hard and tell her how it is, man, he told himself. This shit has gone on between us long enough.

  As Ivan continued to stroke her hair, Jacari found herself stimulated by it. So she placed her right hand on his thigh. There was an enticing comfort, having Ivan David so far away from San Diego with her. She had often stared at his pictures on the IDPromotions .com website and wondered about him. Now they were together in New York in a dark theater. And it felt romantic.

  I’m not supposed to feel this way, she told herself. But it feels good. I want to be with him.

  Instead of an undesirable photographer, an obnoxious businessman, or an ego-tripping ball player, all of whom had lusted to have her company after many fashion shows, Ivan David was someone Jacari felt a warm affinity for. She was impressed with his ability to make local dreams come true with his website. He was a young and touchable power broker on the rise. And even though they had just met in person, she felt much closer to him than to any New York celebrity.

  No one has to know if we do anything, she told herself. We’re all the way in New York.

  So her hand remained frozen on his thigh for the rest of the movie. She was too nervous to rub him back, and she was too curious to move it away.

  AT THE END of the Batman movie, Ivan knew for a fact that he could have a beautiful dessert if he wanted it. He was no longer an amateur. All he had to do was ask Jacari the right questions. But he was hesitant to ruin her.

  It wouldn’t be fair, he told himself. I’m not really feeling her like that. I mean, she’s nice, but my mind is preoccupied. Then again…we’re all the way in New York. I could just act like it’s a vacation thing.

  He held her hand comfortably until the end of the night. Then he asked her, as they strolled up the New York street, “Are you looking forward to getting all dolled up for me tomorrow?”

  She grinned. “Of course.” She sounded more confident now.

  “And you got some more Italian clothes you wanna show off?”

  “Yup.”

  “And lingerie?” Ivan couldn’t help but slip that in as they walked, hand in hand, outside the movie theaters. They hadn’t bothered to hail a cab yet. What was the rush? The New York City lights were beautiful.

  Jacari felt all hot and jittery as she failed to answer his sneak attack of a question. All she could do was smile at it.

  He’s teasing me now, she told herself. What do I say?

  As a respectable young woman, she felt obligated to back him off.

  “I don’t know about that,” she forced out with a smirk.

  Ivan smiled back at her knowingly. She don’t mean that, he assumed. But I wouldn’t rush it anyway…if I even decide to do it.

  However, he was thinking about it. So abruptly he stopped walking. Things were getting too clouded in his mind. He said, “I guess I need to get you a taxi back home now, right?”

  She nodded, still undecided about them herself.

  “Yeah, I guess so. I’ll just see you again tomorrow.”

  Ivan said, “You will.” And when he grabbed an available taxi for her to ride home in, he pulled her close to him and kissed her on the lips anyway. He felt like she deserved it.

  “That’s just because you’re beautiful,” he told her. “Now I need to see how you’ll look for me tomorrow.”

  Jacari continued to smile and climbed into the back of the taxi. “Okay. We’ll see,” she responded to him. She gave him a girlish wave. “Bye.” And when he closed the taxi door back behind her, she had to squeeze her legs together to knock the edge off her feelings of looseness.

  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.

  “Good,” he told her. “Stand by the elevators. I’m on my way down in a minute.” Then he called Vance Wellings on the hotel phone. “Hey, Vance, this is Ivan. You guys ready yet? I’m going down.”

  Vance laughed and said, “Ivan, it’s only six o’clock. You’re gonna be caught in the early rush. Settle yourself down. We want to arrive closer to seven.”

  Ivan said, “Yeah, but my date is already here. And you know how women get when they go out of their way to wear something pretty. They want to be seen in it.”

  Vance chuckled. He said, “Okay, I see your point. But that’s why I rarely take my wife out on business anymore. It all gets too complicated.”

  Ivan hung up with him, expecting to see him later. In the meantime, he wanted to find who the event organizers were. As soon as he walked onto the elevator going down, he discovered suits, ties, dresses, colognes, and perfumes were already out in force.

  Ivan squeezed onto the crowded elevator and got his charm ready. “I guess we’re all here for the big event tonight,” he commented to no one in particular.

  A few people laughed.

  Another guy joked, “What big event? You mean there’s a big event tonight?”

  Ivan joked back to him, “It’s either that or we’re all overdressed for dinner.”

  He got a stronger laugh from the passengers as they reached the bottom floor.

  Ivan walked out of the overcrowded elevator and spotted Jacari. Her silky turquoise dress, matching heels, long elegant frame, and dark flowing hair all stood out in the crowd. But with so many older business folk around, her youth made her look like someone’s beautiful lost daughter.

  Ivan looked young in this crowd himself. He didn’t sweat it, though. He greeted Jacari with a hug and a smile, and was ready to do his work.

  “You look fabulous tonight,” he told her.

  She grinned. “Thank you. You look nice yourself.”

  Ivan took her hand and followed the well-dressed crowd toward the ballroom.