Cora heard Brooke’s muffled reply from across the room, and then heard her repeating an upbeat cue a few times in a row.
“Yeah, awesome stuff,” the voice exclaimed, and Cora heard clapping. “Okay, I think we’re good here. Thank youso muchfor coming today, you were really perfect. Ryan, get the mic, and, Mia, can you show her out? Honey, you come over here to me. C’mere girl.” Cora heard the dog’s nails on the floor as it ran over to the man. She tried to guess the breed just based on the sound of its paws.
The door opened, and Cora righted herself. Brooke was “really perfect”? Hearing the feedback made Cora even more nervous.
Mia walked out with Brooke. “We loved what you did, thank you so much! Is the number on the form the best way to reach you?” Brooke nodded modestly. “Great, we’ll be in touch soon!” Mia ducked back in the room and shut the door to keep the mystery dog from following them out, leaving Cora and Brooke alone. Brooke walked to her bag on the other side of the room, completely ignoring Cora.
“Hello there?” Cora called out. “I think we’ve met before, but I’m Cora Bellamy from Top Dog?”
Brooke zipped her bag shut and turned to face Cora. “Oh, right, we met at that conference thingy.” Brooke had put extra effort into her look, with her coppery hair ironed flat and more makeup than usual on her handsome face. She was pretty in a slightly inbred British aristocracy kind of way.
“How did it go in there?” Cora asked, grimacing.
“Vaughn and Mia are great,” she replied, emphasizing their names, as if they were old friends. “It’sintense, though. Like, the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I’m really happy with my audition.” She shrugged like she couldn’t help her awesomeness.
“Oh, that’s great,” Cora said, feeling the butterflies migrate from her belly to her throat.
“Good luck,” Brooke said flatly. “Oh, and you’re going to love Honey. She’s a total ringer, I’ve worked with her before.”
Cora felt like she’d been punched in the gut. Just how connectedwasBrooke? And why were they continuing to audition people if Brooke already had it wrapped up?
“Thanks. Oh—what kind of dog is Honey?”
“Doberman. Smart as hell.” As she left the room, Brooke adjusted a light switch on the wall to drive home the fact that she belonged there and Cora was the interloper.
Cora felt her fingers go numb. She looked down at the scar on the top of her hand and rubbed it, as if trying to make it disappear. The bite had occurred in the infancy of her training career, when she reached for a bone her Doberman client was guarding. The dog reacted by nailing her on the hand and forearm in rapid succession. The embarrassment over her misstep—because it was her stupid mistake—was almost as painful as the bite itself. She had trained Dobes over the years and had learned to conquer her nerves and enjoy them, but she was a little superstitious about the breed, and having to audition with one seemed like fate trying to tell her something.
“Cora, all set?” Mia asked as she came in the room.
“Yup, yes indeedy,” she replied brightly. Her nerves were turning her into a flight attendant.
She stood on shaky legs and followed Mia into the audition room, essentially a larger version of the room she had just been in but with a pile of agility equipment stacked in the corner. A dark-haired man approached Cora with his hand out.
“I’m Vaughn, so nice to meet you, Cora! Loved your photo with all of those sleeping dogs!” He had the air of the most raucous guy on the rugby team. His hair was slightly long with a frat boy wave in it, and he swept his palm across his forehead frequently to move it out of his eyes.
“Thank you! My client took it, she’s basically an artist mixed with a magician.” Cora felt instantly at ease in the room despite the circumstances. Brooke was right, Mia and Vaughnweregreat.
“You should see some of the submission photos we got. Sheesh! One woman was bending over petting her dog, and it was basically a clear shot down the front of her blouse to her push-up bra.”
“So what am I doing here then?” Cora asked with a gleam in her eye. “Clearly you found your trainer!”
Vaughn and Mia guffawed, and Cora was pleased that her stupid joke had landed. Maybe Brooke didn’t have this in the bag!
“So let’s get your mic on and get started. Our intern Ryan usually takes care of it, but he took Honey out for a quick potty break.”
Vaughn told Cora how to feed the mic wire down her blouse, and looked away when she had to fish it out of her bra. He attached and reattached the mic on the inside edge of her shirt a few times, stepping back and tilting his head to see if it was visible.
“Fantastic, good to go. Almost as good as when Ryan does it.”
Mia stared at Cora. She spoke to Vaughn quietly. “After all of that work, do you think her shirt is going to read funny?”
“The stripes! How did I miss that? We were so busy talking about cleavage that it slipped my mind.”
“It’s totally my fault. I think I forgot to tell her about wardrobe the last time I talked to her. I’m sorry,” Mia said to Vaughn, as if Cora wasn’t in the room.
“Is my shirt bad? What’s wrong?” Cora asked, her heart pounding.
“I think we’ll be okay, it’s just that black-and-white stripes can make the camera go a little crazy sometimes,” Mia answered.
