A little wounded by her friend’s lack of enthusiasm, Cora frowned.
“You don’t want my help anyway, Cora. What do I know? I’m just a fucking unemployed loser that watches Netflix all day with a homeless dog.” She looked down at Josie and scratched her head.
“Speaking of Josie, can we talk about what’s going on for a sec? What are we doing, Maggie? Abby has sent a few people my way who saw her photo on the League’s website, and I keep putting them off. It’s not fair to her or you, or the people who might want to adopt her. We need to make the call.” Cora sounded snippier than she meant to.
“That’s cool, I get it.” Maggie sat down on the floor next to Josie, and the dog immediately leaned into her, as if magnetized. “Yeah, let’s find her a home. It’s time, right? Want to meet your new mommy? Huh? We’ll find you a nice house with a yard in the suburbs.” Josie looked at Maggie intently, wagged her tail, and placed a gentle paw on her leg as Maggie scratched the wrinkly part of her forehead. Maggie slowly lowered her head and began to cry.
“What’s wrong?” Cora asked.
“I don’t want to,” she sobbed. “I can’t let someone else have her. She’smy dog!” Her crying intensified, and Josie began pawing at Maggie and licking her face furiously, trying to comfort her.
Cora ran to where Maggie sat and knelt down next to her. Fritz sprawled on the ground in front of them in an attempt to divert their attention, as if he knew that no one could feel sad while petting his belly.
“Of course she is! Everybody knew she was your dog but you! Don’t worry, we’ll keep her. It’s okay, it’s okay.” Cora rubbed Maggie’s back. “She’s your dog.”
Maggie looked at Josie and sniffled. “You’remydog, Josie! You’re mine and you’re not going anywhere!” She leaned over and hugged Josie, who tolerated the intrusion with grace.
“I’ll text Abby and let her know,” Cora said.
“Wait,” Maggie said, untangling from Josie. “Having two dogs means you can’t foster anymore. Now I feel terrible for all of those other dogs you won’t be able to help...” Her bottom lip trembled.
“We’ll figure something out. Maybe we can talk about moving? I feel like we’re outgrowing this place anyway.”
“I’ll be moving back home if I don’t find a job soon,” she replied glumly.
“Mags, you haven’t even tried,” Cora said gently. “You’ve barely left the apartment except to walk the dogs.”
“I know, I know. It’s time. I’m done mourning.”
“Have you thought about what you might want to do next? Retail again?”
“No way! Retail fucked me. I’m done. I’ll figure something out. Maybe I’ll be a high-class escort.”
“The money’s supposed to be great.” Cora shrugged, and they both laughed.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so awful lately.”
“Everyone is allowed to have a bad spell.”
Maggie smiled through her tears. “I really am proud of you, C. Don’t worry, you’re going to be amazing tomorrow.”
“I’m ready,” she said, and for the first time she knew that it was true.
TWENTY-SEVEN
“You must be Cora! I’m Mia Nguyen.” The young woman offered her hand and smiled. Mia was impeccably dressed in the arty girl uniform: a perfectly shrunken striped T-shirt, a long slim black skirt, and funky wedge sandals. Cora coveted her precision-cut angled bob.
“I am, so nice to meet you!” Cora answered, mustering a voice that she hoped didn’t betray her nerves. The two women had been trading e-mails for days, trying to nail down the exact time and location for Cora’s audition. They had settled on a Monday afternoon in an overflow room of a doggy day care center in northwest DC. Cora didn’t know much about the day care facility, but she knew the head trainer on staff, Brooke Keating, had a fame whore-y reputation for putting her famous clients’ testimonials and photos all over her website. Based on the photos, Brooke was only one degree of separation away from the President and the First Dog.
“I just need you to fill this out before we get started,” Mia said, handing Cora a clipboard. Her hand shook as she reached for the pen. “We’re just finishing up with someone else, so I’ll let you take care of that and I’ll be back in a minute. Vaughn, our executive producer, can’t wait to meet you!”
“Great, okay, thanks!” Cora replied, sounding overeager and nerdy. She took a seat on one of the folding chairs ringing the room and got to work filling out her contact information and dog training background, which she had already provided to them in triplicate.
Her phone pinged and she dug it out of her bag quickly.Nothing like texts coming in during the audition to throw me off my game,she thought as she silenced it. There was a good luck text from Wade and Rachel, and a random text from Charlie, a selfie of him holding an upside-down sleeping Ollie. “We miss u,” it said, followed by a frowning emoji. She missed seeing him, too, but she wasn’t about to admit it. “Too cute!” Cora texted back, hoping that it walked the line between dismissive and interested, and shoved her phone back in her purse. This wasn’t the time to think about Charlie Gill.
She took a peek around the room as she filled out the form. It was painted a cheerful yellow with a cartoony dog-themed mural and the unmistakable smell of industrial cleaner just barely masking urine. The walls were surprisingly thin, given what the room was used for, enabling her to hear tantalizing bits of what was happening in the other room. She rushed to complete the form so that she could focus her energies on eavesdropping.
“Brooke, that was great!” Cora heard a male voice exclaim. “Can you get Honey to do it again?”
