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“See ya,” I mumbled, and reached to hang up the phone, missing a few times until I managed to place the receiver back. “God give me the strength to deal with her today.”
“Deal with who? Are you sleeping?” Andrew’s voice was muffled, and I knew he was snacking.
Peering up, I found him eatingmycookies.
“Joann.”
“Oh, Jesus.”
“Exactly. Those are mine, you know.”
Andrew glanced down at the final bite of a chocolate chip cookie and popped it in his mouth with a shrug. “I’ll buy you a new pack. What does Joann want?”
“To put in applications for her other two children.”
“Shit,” my boss grumbled. “How old are they?”
“Seven and nine.”
Andrew’s mouth formed a grim line. “Damn it. If they were older, we could have turned them away if they didn’t have skating experience.”
“The older one does.”
“We’re screwed, then. How many applications are we at now?”
I sucked my lower lip between my teeth and rolled my tongue over it, back and forth, before I answered. “Ninety-three.”
“Double shit. With three grand, we can place seven and a half kids at four hundred bucks each. Do you know of any half-kids? Because I don’t.”
“So, we would be at less than ten percent placement rate.”
“Ifno one else applies.” Andrew emphasized.
“Which is unlikely.”
“Right on the money, kiddo.” The buzzer to gain access to our building sounded, and Andrew pointed at me. “You’re up.”
“Great.”
* * *
“Have you donated to any worthy causes lately?” I asked Ali as she stirred the goulash that was cooking slowly on the stove.
“Are you asking me for money again?”
“I would never…” I replied coyly. “But if youwereto donate to Power Play, right now you would be a platinum donor, even if you gave us fifty bucks.”
“Yikes,” Ali grumbled and replaced the lid on the pot. “That hard up, huh?”
“We have three thousand dollars.”
“And how much is it to place a kid again?”
I watched as she crossed the room and sat next to me on the couch. “Four hundred.”
“Each?”
“Each,” I agreed. “This is the end. Power Play is over. And it’s all my fault.”
