“Seriously? A Disney princess? Which one?” It was the most creative compliment she’d ever received.
“Umm, I think that one with the really long hair.” He snapped his fingers trying to recall the name.
“Rapunzel.Howdo you know the Disney princesses?”
He shrugged again. “Three sisters. I put in my time as both Prince Eric and the Beast.”
Chanel put on the brakes the moment they got to the double doors, as if she couldn’t bear to go back inside.
“She isnothaving it.” Cora took a step forward and tried to encourage Chanel to follow by making kissy noises, but she refused to move.
Eli gently picked up the trembling dog and spoke softly to her. “You poor thing. I’m sorry things are so rough for you. Maybe you can come visit me sometime? I live right down the hall, so come knock on my door anytime.” Chanel climbed up Eli’s chest and nuzzled her face in his neck. “Wow, she stinks.”
They got off the elevator and stood close so Cora could untangle Chanel from Eli. He looked sweet cradling the bedraggled dog who was already in love with him.
“Ow, ow, little dog! She’s digging her claws into my shoulder!”
“She doesn’t want you to let go! Oh my God, this iskillingme!” Cora whispered, just in case Beth Ann was standing near her door and could hear them. When she took Chanel from Eli’s arms, the dog air-swam in an attempt to get back to him. “She really likes you!”
“I really like her, too. I might have to steal her.”
“Shhhh!” Cora widened her eyes and jutted her head toward Beth Ann’s door.
He grimaced and nodded. “Okay, I’m going to go now!” He spoke loudly and overenunciated, as if trying to reach the people in the cheap seats.
“Nice talking to you, see you later,” Cora answered with a similar fake cadence. They smiled at each other, whispered “Bye,” and went their separate ways.
Cora knocked on Beth Ann’s door and opened it at the same time. “Knock, knock! We’re back.” She followed the sound of the TV and found Beth Ann standing in the center of the pitch-black room looking down at her iPad. Chanel didn’t go over to greet her, instead choosing to sit next to Cora.
Beth Ann didn’t look up. “Oh, hey. I’m just ordering some stuff I need from Bergdorf’s. I’ll be done in a sec.”
“Sure, um. I’ll just unpack my things so we can get started.”
“Actually,” Beth answered, still looking down at her device, “I need to talk to you about training.”
Cora’s stomach dropped. What had changed in the past fifteen minutes? Was she getting fired? “Okay. What’s up?”
“I don’t want to use treats to train Chanel. She’s going to get too fat. If you can do it without treats, we can keep going, but if not, maybe we should just stop now.”
Cora had heard the complaint from a few clients over the years but had always managed to convince them of the need for treats during the early stages of training. Beth Ann had seemed fine using them during the few minutes they had worked together at their abbreviated first session.
“Um. What if we use really tiny pieces? You don’t have to use treats for every repetition for the rest of Chanel’s life, just during the foundation steps.”
“Nope. No treats,” she answered dully.
Cora felt her flush rising but she didn’t want to anger Beth Ann and lose the opportunity to try to help Chanel. “Does she like to play? Is she toy driven? Maybe we could use balls or tug toys so that we’re not using as many treats?”
Beth Ann finally pried herself away from her tablet and stared at Cora. “How would I know if she’s ‘toy driven’? That’s your job.”
Another piece of the puzzle fell into place; Beth Ann had never played with Chanel. Cora knew to tread lightly. Normally she couldn’t tolerate a client as unpredictable as Beth Ann, but she was determined to make life better for Chanel.
“You know what? Maybe it’s best if I head out today, and then we can regroup and really get started at our next session? I get the feeling that you’re not a hundred percent good to go right now, so let’s just call it a day and then we can try again next week. I’ll bring a bunch of different toy options, and we can try some play training together.”
“Um-hm.” Beth Ann was once again immersed in her device, scrolling rapidly.
“Great. I’ll text you the day before to confirm. Oh, and I wanted to let you know that I trimmed her nails.”
“Okay?” Beth Ann shrugged her shoulders and shook her head as if she had no idea why Cora was telling her.
