Читать книгу The Dog Park - Laura Caldwell, Leslie S. Klinger - Страница 12

5

By the end of the morning, I’d had at least twenty phone calls, most from friends or colleagues who’d seen the video.

“My kid loves it!” said a friend from Manhattan. “She’s carrying around her phone and showing it to everyone in her class.”

The breeder from whom we’d gotten Baxy called, too. “We are getting calls and emails constantly! We don’t have enough litters to satisfy them all.”

“Sorry,” I said.

“Are you kidding?” she said. “This is great. It’s the best business we’ve ever had. We’ll just raise rates. And we’re sending you a finder’s fee for each one who has seen the video and buys a dog.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that.”

“We have to do something! You’ve tripled our business in one day.”

“Really?”

“Really. You know we’re picky about our owners. We only want people who are really serious about caring for the dog. But yeah.”

“So if I think someone’s a good fit, and I make them happy by recommending one of your goldendoodles and they buy one, I’ll get a percentage?”

“Absolutely. We know another family with a smaller but similar business. They have excellent dogs, and we’ve been wanting to partner with them.”

I remembered the price we’d paid for Baxter and did the math. “Wow,” I said. “Hey, thank you for giving us Baxter. He means a lot to both Sebastian and me.”

I realized as I said it that she didn’t know we were divorced. And suddenly I didn’t want to tell her, didn’t want her to worry that our divorce caused a lack of devotion to Baxter.

“You know with your percentage,” she said, “we could also donate to your favorite charity.”

A charitable organization leaped to mind. One I hadn’t thought of in a long, long time.

“The Amalie Project,” I said. Just saying the words flooded my body with memories. I felt flush with embarrassment, humiliation and ultimately triumph from having climbed out of that space.

“The Amalie Project,” the breeder said. “What’s that?”

I couldn’t believe I’d blurted it out. “Uh...they help women in need.”

“Great! We’ll give something in your name. Aside from your fee.”

“Oh...no, that’s okay.” I didn’t want my name on the donation. My name had been associated with the Amalie Project once. Back in New York. “I’d rather it go to a rescue shelter.”

As much as I wanted to support the Amalie Project, as much as it had helped me, I did not want to go back in any way.