Finally, the master of ceremonies walked on stage to everyone’s anxious applause. When he reached the microphone, he welcomed the participants and explained the purpose ofthe benefit. The money was going to an animal hospital. She remembered Jason telling her how much he loved animals and how he didn’t know if he should get a pet considering how often he was away during baseball season. Also, certain pets didn’t fare well in the city. She had teased him about raising llamas on the little patch of grass they called a yard. How she missed him already!
A female veterinarian spoke about the amount their last auction had raised and the good use they had made of that money. A shelter in the suburbs had been opened and apparently many of those pets had been adopted.
Merry wondered about the unlucky ones and what became of them. Were they released back into the wild? This woman seemed too nice to “put them down” as the euphemism goes. What did that mean? They insulted the unadoptable until they slunk away with their tails between their legs?
She couldn’t help thinking about her birth parents any time the word “adoption” was used. She had always assumed they had been young and in love but unable to support a family. What if they had been one of these spoiled socialites who didn’t want the bother of having children? Maybe her birth mother pretended to be on a world cruise for nine months, then hired a personal trainer to get her slim figure back. Doubtful, but it could happen.Ugh.She preferred to think her parents had been a young unmarried couple.
The show started—at last. The first bachelor was apparently some sort of self-made millionaire with real estate all over Boston. She had never heard of him, but most of the crowd certainly had. Wild applause accompanied his model-like parade down the catwalk. At the end, he took off his jacket, tossed it over his shoulder and winked at the crowd.Oh yeah, he’s done this before.
The bidding began at what the auctioneer called a modest$500.00 and escalated quickly.Crap, did Jason underestimate the deep pockets of these enthusiastic vultures?
She extracted the money clip from her black no-name clutch bag and began to count the bills. The woman next to her gave her a dirty look as if counting one’s money in public was about the rudest thing she could do.Tough noogies, nosy woman. She had to know how much bargaining power she had. Only one thousand dollars. The bidding on the first gentleman, a mediocre-looking guy at that, rapidly approached the thousand dollar mark.Crap.
Jason waited nervously backstage. He had volunteered for this gig along with a Bullet’s buddy who became a free agent at the end of the season and signed with Jacksonville. Apparently, his short-stop pal had canceled, so Jason felt very much alone. At one point, he peeked around the curtain, partly to see how the other guys were handling this, but mostly to see if he could find Merry in the crowd.
His gut twisted as he realized he hadn’t given her enough money. The bidding for the first two guys topped out at twelve and fifteen hundred dollars. Why the hell would anyone pay fifteen hundred dollars for a single date?
He wanted to raise awareness and money for the shelter, but damned if he wanted to become someone’s pet. Somehow, he doubted this crowd would be interested in shelter pups, even if they were paper trained. If they had any pets, they probably paid a fortune for a purebred with papers and a dog walker to take care of their pedigree pooches and scoop the poop. Merry would definitely buy a shelter pet. She had told him so, right after asking his permission to have an animal in her apartment.
He didn’t like the idea of leaving an animal alone for longstretches, or else he’d have a dog. A Shepherd like his boyhood pal, Duke. He pictured the kind of dog Merry would take home. Probably a mutt version of a goofy sheepdog or something equally as humorous. A smile touched his lips just thinking about her and her huge heart.
Where the hell was she? He had scanned as much of the room as he could see. Maybe she had left as soon as she realized she didn’t have enough money.Oh no.She wouldn’t have gone out to an ATM, would she? He wanted to kick himself, and then realized that ATMs wouldn’t allow enough of a withdrawal to make up the difference. So where was she?
She certainly had enough to take a cab home. No, she wouldn’t do that unless… Would she think he was making this into some sort of test? That he knew he didn’t give her enough money? What a pickle.
“You’re up next, Jason.” A hand clamped over his shoulder. He felt as if he had just been told he was going for “a little ride” by the mafia. Now all he could hope for was a major lack of baseball fans out there. Maybe if no one knew who he was, the bidding would stay low.
The gentleman steered him to the place where each bachelor did his walk-on. The MC glanced to his left and his face lit up when he saw Jason.
Even before the last bachelor exited the stage, he announced, “and on deck… We have one of the best baseball pitchers the Boston Bullets has ever seen. I predict he’ll make the hall of fame along with other lefties like Sandy Koufax and Steve Carlton. But that may not happen for a while, since he’s only twenty-seven years old. Ladies, I give you,Jason Falco!”
A huge roar rose from the crowd. All he wanted to do was turn and run, but his honest upbringing kicked in and he dutifully marched down the catwalk as he promised he would. He was used to stadium noise, and this seemed louder. Perhapssince he was concentrating on something else while on the mound, he could tune it out. Now he felt stupid and afraid! So, he tried to concentrate on finding Merry—if she was out there.
Like the others, he stopped at the end of the runway, but he refused to remove his jacket as though he was a Chippendale dancer. Instead, he stood tall with his feet shoulder-width apart and his hands clasped behind his back. He would have resembled a soldier standing at ease, except that instead of keeping his eyes fixed, he frantically searched the crowd for Merry.
At last, he spotted her near the back of the room. She seemed so tiny back there, but when she smiled, a grin spread over his face, too. Apparently, the women thought it was for them, so they yelled even louder.
At last, the bidding started and began at the usual five-hundred dollars. Merry didn’t raise her number. He kept her in the corner of his eye as they darted from one raised sign to another. Wondering why she wasn’t bidding, he tried to put himself in her shoes. Perhaps she realized it was fruitless.I hope she’ll forgive me for this,he thought as the bidding rapidly climbed toward one thousand dollars.
At last, she raised her number and he heard the auctioneer yell, “One thousand dollars!” The room cheered, but that was no surprise. They cheered every time the amount reached a thousand. Her number sixty-nine amused him. Was the universe trying to tell him something?
Bidding continued with no indication the pace was about to slow down. After it reached seventeen hundred a few of the avid bidders lowered their numbers, permanently.
Just as the bidding was about to end, a familiar voice yelled out, “Two thousand!”
Stunned, Jason snapped his gaze to Merry. She stood, holding her sign at shoulder level. Her other hand was plantedon her hip in a “Don’t mess with me, bitches” stance. That made him chuckle to himself.
Oh, no. Another woman jumped to her feet and yelled, “Twenty-one hundred.”
As the bidding war broke out, the auctioneer tried to take back control. “Ladies… Ladies!” They ignored him.
“Twenty-three hundred.”
“Twenty-four.”
“Twenty-five!”
The auctioneer threw his hands in the air and allowed the two angry rivals to finish his job for him.
