Pecking Order, page 31
Her girlfriend asked him, “Can you get him to take a picture with us?”
Derrick studied both of them and wondered how far he could take it. First he looked to see if they had drinks in their hands. In his opinion, a drunk white girl was a down white girl, but a sober one he couldn’t count on. However, when he looked at their hands, he noticed that they did have drinks. So he smiled at them.
“Yeah, I’ll go see what he says. But don’t move, I’ll be right back. All right?”
“Okay.”
Derrick stopped and asked them, “Y’all need anything else to drink?”
The girls looked down at their glasses, filled mostly with ice. And they nodded to him.
“Yeah, we could use more drinks.”
“Aw’ight, one minute.”
Christina watched the whole scene from a distance as Derrick walked up to Ivan in the VIP section and whispered into his left ear.
“Looks like you stepped up your game now, Ivan. These girls are all in here buzzing for you. You got a drink tab?”
Ivan turned and looked at his brother. He asked him, “A drink tab for what?”
“For more damn drinks, man, I’m thirsty.”
“Well, spend your money, then,” Ivan told him.
“Look, man, I wasn’t gon’ spend my money if I didn’t have to.”
Ivan looked in the direction his brother had approached him from and spotted the two girls, watching and waiting. They even smiled and waved to him.
Ivan asked his brother, “Did you promise somebody something?”
“They just wanna take pictures with you. You’re more of a star to them than Timbaland. I just happened to hear them talking about you as I walked up.”
Ivan said, “They always wanna take pictures, but I can’t bother with that too much. I got other things on my mind to take care of.”
Just as he said that, he saw Christina walk right past the two girls who were still waiting for a response from him.
Aw, shit, here we go, he thought. Ashley was off to his right and heading back in his direction at the same time as Christina.
Then he spotted his coworker, Chip Garrett, searching through the party.
Ivan shook his head and thought, Too many things are about to go on at once. So he moved to counteraction.
He told his brother, “Aw’ight, get your drinks and handle them two. Tell them I’ll take pictures with them in a minute.”
He moved straight toward Christina.
“Hey, you came out,” he said to her with a smile.
“So did your brother,” she told him.
Ivan mumbled, “Yeah.” Then he addressed the two girls standing nearby. “How are you ladies doing? I’ll take those pictures with you in a minute.”
They both looked shocked by the suddenness of it all.
“Oh, okay. Thanks.”
“No problem,” he told them. “Come on,” he told Chris. He headed in Chip’s direction before his fellow accountant could find him.
“Hey, Chip, you made it out in the eleventh hour. I thought you had changed your mind,” Ivan addressed him.
Chip smiled and said, “Yeah, I got tied up in a prior engagement and had to rush over here to make it.” He wore a light-colored sports jacket, casual blue jeans, and a button-up shirt.
Ivan said, “Okay, that happens sometimes.” Then he turned to Chris. “Christina, can you do me a favor and find, um…”
“Gretchen,” Chip reminded him.
“Yeah, he wants to meet Gretchen. Have you seen her in here?”
“No,” Chris told him. “I wasn’t looking for her.”
“Well, can you be a sweetheart and find her for me?”
Chris gave him a resentful eye and took a deep breath. I don’t believe him, she told herself.
She warned Ivan, “I will, but it’s gonna cost you.”
Chip heard that and grinned. As soon as she walked away, he said, “Wow, I’ve seen her on your website, too. But she’s even more stunning in real life.”
Ivan said, “They all are.”
Ashley reached them before he could get out another word.
“Is there anything you need, Ivan?”
“Naw, not right now. I’m trying to give my friend here a private tour of the party.”
Ashley grinned and said, “Oh, well, have fun with it. And let me know if I can help.”
“Naw, I got it,” Ivan told her.
Chip was grinning his ass off. He asked, “How does that feel, man?”
Ivan told him, “Don’t get it confused, it’s only business. They’re great at giving me the illusion of being in control. When in actuality they’re all getting paid to make it look that way.”
Chip said, “I wish I could pay a bunch of girls to act that way with me. I’d surely take it.”
“Hey, I-vaaannn!” a couple of girls yelled out from the dance floor.
Chip looked at him said, “You paid them to do that, too?”
Ivan laughed it off. “Naw, that’s, ah…the regulars. They just know me by now.”
“Hey, Ivan David, we want to thank you, man,” a Latino couple told him in the middle of the dance floor.
Ivan said, “Thank me for what?”
“Your ‘San Diego Spotlight’ page at IDPromotions.com got us together,” the guy told him.
The young woman added, “Yeah, we were like a perfect match, same hobbies and everything.”
“Yeah, so I emailed her, and we’ve been going out now ever since.”
Ivan looked at them both, and they certainly looked good together. He smiled and said, “Well, make sure you invite me out to the wedding.”
They laughed and told him, “We will.”
“Seems to me like they all know you in here,” Chip commented.
“Not all of them, just a lot of them.” He then pointed to Timbaland, who was dancing his heart out with a group of delirious girls around him. He said, “More of them know that guy right there. I’m just playing my position.”
Christina found Gretchen and brought her back to them. Gretchen wasn’t wearing her white hat that night, and her hair was cut short and stylish with blond highlights.
She said, “Hey, what’s up, Ivan?”
Ivan wasted no time with his introductions. “Gretchen, this is Chip. Chip, this is Gretchen.”
Gretchen nodded and smiled to him. “Nice to meet you.”
Chip said, “The pleasure is all mine. After I saw your picture on the website, I told Ivan that I just had to meet you.”
Chip was giving too much information for Ivan’s taste. But to each his own.
“Now you owe me,” Christina told Ivan.
“And Chip owes me,” Ivan joked.
“I have nothing to do with that,” Chris argued.
Finally, Ivan pulled her aside. He said, “Chris, you asked for it, but I got a lot of shit going on in here. I got my brother running around, Nelly Furtado and Timbaland to cater to, the crowd, my money…” He stopped himself short and said, “Look, come with me for a minute.”
He led her to the bathroom area and pulled out the key to his apartment.
He asked her, “Remember you talked about waiting up for me in my bed?”
She said, “Of course.”
“All right, go do that. And let the security know that I gave you the key. All right?”
Chris smiled at him. “All right.”
When Ivan made it back to the VIP area alone, Lucina pulled him aside and told him, “Your brother was trying to hit on Nelly. Can you talk to him about that?”
Ivan said, “What, she complained about it? And you didn’t tell him yourself?”
Lucina shook her head. She said, “He’s a little too much to handle. And I don’t have the energy right now. So you handle it.”
Ivan took a deep breath and thought, This is gonna be a long-ass night.
He walked over to his brother, who was serving the two friends more drinks.
“Oh, can we take that picture now?” they asked Ivan.
Derrick beat his brother to the punch. “With clothes on or off?”
They laughed and responded, “Whatever,” with their new drinks in hand.
Ivan pulled his brother aside and asked him, “What the hell are you doing, man? Is that what you wanted the hotel room for?”
Derrick said, “I’m a grown-ass man, Ivan. And I’m having a good time in here. What do you think I’m doing?”
“I think you already got three sons from three different women, that’s what I think,” Ivan snapped at him.
“Yeah, and my sons are all nearly teenagers now. So what are you saying? I don’t get every girl pregnant. If that was the case, I’d have a hundred kids.”
Ivan said, “And you’re trying to holler at Nelly, too?”
Derrick chuckled. “Aw, man, I just said a few things to her to see where her head was at, that’s all.”
Ivan shook it off. He said, “Sometimes you gotta stop and think about how that shit’s gonna reflect on me, man. Just for a fucking minute.”
Derrick ignored it and said, “Look, are you gonna take pictures with these girls or what? They called you ‘Mr. Likable’ or some shit like that. And they came out here just to see you. So you can’t let these girls down, man.”
Ivan told his brother, “Don’t embarrass yourself with them tonight, D. Let it go.” And he walked away from him.
“Well, what did he say?” the girls asked Derrick when he returned to them.
Derrick shrugged. “My brother’s not being ‘Mr. Likable’ for y’all tonight. But I am,” he told them.
The girls giggled at Derrick’s humor, while becoming irritated with Ivan’s rudeness. “Well, what’s wrong with him? He thinks he too good now or something?”
Derrick shook it off. He didn’t want to take things that far. Ivan was still his brother. He said, “Naw, he’s just busy right now. But y’all let me know if you need some more to drink. And I can make sure that all is forgiven tonight.”
“How are you gonna do that? You’re gonna get him to apologize to us and take a picture?”
Derrick said, “I don’t know about all that. But if you’re too slow, then you’ll never know. So, if you both like having a good time, then we can all make a nightcap out of it.”
“Is Ivan going to be there?”
Derrick stared at the girl. It was time to lay down the law and cut the bullshit. He said, “How much does it matter? Do we really need my brother there? He might be busy for the rest of the night. So don’t waste my time if I’m not good enough. Maybe y’all both too good for me.”
“No, we didn’t say that.”
“Good. Then let’s agree to drink and have a good time tonight. Agreed?” he asked them.
“Agreed,” they accepted.
Derrick said, “Well, let’s go ahead and take our pictures, then.”
BY THE TIME the party wound down at two o’clock, Ivan was exhausted, and Derrick was nowhere to be found again. The door take broke another fifty thousand that night, and with the budget slightly over twenty thousand, Ivan and Lucina cleared another fifteen apiece.
“You’re going to bed again, early bird?” Lucina teased Ivan.
“Yup,” he told her. And he meant it this time. Chris will just have to be disappointed until the morning. And I’ll just tell Ashley that I’m tired tonight, too, he plotted.
When he broke Ashley the news over the phone, she said, “I understand. You were working extrahard in there tonight to please everyone. People are really feeling what you’re doing now. And next up is your big birthday party. Are you excited yet?”
Ivan said, “Ask me about that in twelve more hours.”
Ashley laughed and said, “Okay, I will.”
Ivan made it up to his apartment and had to wait for Chris to open the door for him.
“Thanks for coming straight home tonight,” she told him, wearing only a T-shirt. It was after two thirty, and Lucina was still hanging out and showing their guests a good time in San Diego.
Ivan told Chris, “Well, you’ll have to get that thing from me in the morning, because I’m beat right now. That’s on the real.”
She nodded to him and didn’t sweat it. “Okay, as long as I’m the one who’s here with you.”
DERRICK DROVE back up to L.A. after spending a reckless weekend in San Diego, leaving Ivan at peace to prepare himself for the upcoming party of his life. When the San Diego News Link article hit the press, asking the question “Who is Ivan David?” followed by the San Diego Union Tribune feature, “Ivan David: The Party Promoter,” he started getting inquiries about his big event from everyone. The tickets sold briskly, while the IDPromotions.com website jumped from an average of twelve thousand unique hits a day to close to thirty thousand, boosting the daily impressions to more than three hundred thousand.
Thomas Jones called Ivan at his apartment office excitedly. He asked him, “Do you know what you’re about to do, Ivan? You’re about to graduate to a whole new level of business, young brother. I don’t even think you realize it yet.”
Ivan told him, “All I know is that I’m tired, man. This shit is wearing me out.”
Thomas laughed and told him, “It’s all about momentum, Ivan. You deserve to be tired now. But you’ve already done most of the work to receive the fruits of your labor. And you’re not even twenty-nine yet. That’s how you do it right there.”
He said, “I’m still working on the property sales. I’m just trying to hold out a little longer to get our prices. But we just might be able to do it after this big event. We can just call it ‘celebrity-owned property,’” he joked.
But Ivan didn’t laugh at the idea. He stopped and said, “Well, we should put it on my website, then. I didn’t figure it would take you this long to sell.”
Thomas said, “Ivan, I could have sold them both at two-eighty three weeks ago. But I’m holding out for three-twenty, at least. And when you got the money, you can afford to do that.”
Ivan said, “Yeah, but let’s get rid of them after this party, man. Then we’ll have enough to go shopping for these development deals. I got a football player asking me about it now. He’s ready to invest.”
“You got it, partner.”
Ivan called to check up on his website team over at the office.
“Everything is falling right into place, my friend,” Eddie K. told him. “The phones are ringing off the hook over here.” He said, “This birthday party was an awesome idea. Now we have all of corporate San Diego wondering who else is going to be there.”
When he talked to Jeff and Paul, they had news for him on another note.
Jeff told him, “Ivan, you’re crazy popular now on the personal web pages of San Diego, dude. People are taking pictures of you and posting you up on their sites.”
Paul added, “And a whole lot of girls, too,” from the office speakerphone.
Jeff said, “Yeah, and some of them are, like, listing freaky fantasies and shit. So you may want to watch out for who you take pictures with now.”
Ivan shook his head. He said, “You see that? Now I gotta have a bodyguard snatching cameras.”
“Hey, man, the superstars have to live with that every day. And you’re on your way now,” Paul told him. “But just look at it this way: the traffic that we’re generating now is just crazy.”
Jeff joked, “All you have to do now is let your lawyers know you didn’t do any of the things these girls may brag about.”
Ivan laughed and blew it off. He said, “Well, make sure you guys run out and get your suits tailored for the big event.”
“We need to wear suits?” Jeff asked him.
“Well…if not a full suit, then at least a nice jacket,” Ivan told them.
“You mean like you do?” Paul commented.
“Yeah, I want you guys to try and look like mini Ivans,” he joked.
They shared a laugh.
Jeff said, “Sure, then we can get a percentage of the women you get.”
Ivan told them, “Don’t believe the hype on all those women. I’ve only had a select few.”
Jeff and Paul got real quiet at the offices. That claim sounded unbelievable.
Paul said, “Ivan, we’re not the judge and jury here. You don’t have to lie about that to us.”
Jeff broke out laughing. He said, “My sentiments exactly.”
Catherine called Ivan up and had her own laugh about his articles. She quoted, “‘I’ve always been one to blend in well with everyone…That’s why I love living here in San Diego…I would love to just be that guy who you can count on to bring everyone together.’”
She laughed and said, “You are so full of shit now, Ivan. You could care less about bringing people together. You’re all about bringing your pockets together. But I have to admit it, though, that website is banging. Those computer geeks are working that thing out.”
Ivan smiled and corrected her. “They’re my creative executives.”
“Whatever. So your birthday party is fifty dollars?”
“And all the money people can afford it,” Ivan told her.
Catherine paused over the line. She said, “It’s crazy how people choose to spend their money. And no offense, Ivan, but who would have ever thought that you could charge people fifty dollars just to come to a birthday party to see you?”
“It’s not just a birthday party, though,” Ivan explained. “It’s a networking extravaganza. And we’ll be spotlighting all of our sponsors, advertisers, business friends, and associates.”
“Oh, please, save me the hype machine, Ivan. This is me, Catherine. I’ve even talked to some of our old classmates from San Diego State about it, and they couldn’t believe all of this, either. It’s all just overnight. Then you got the whole bald-headed, earring thing. I mean, come on.”
Ivan no longer liked the tone of her conversation.
He said, “First of all, I’m not bald headed. It’s a low haircut. And it may seem all overnight to some, but I’ve been working my ass off to get here.”
“So have other people, Ivan. And they’ve all worked a lot longer than you. But they can’t charge people fifty dollars for a damn hyped-up birthday party.”
“Well, that’s them,” Ivan snapped at her. “Some people can’t get sixty thousand fans to pay to watch them play football every Sunday. But the Chargers can.”
