A Catered Birthday Party Read Online Free Page B

other three pugs had on a tux and top hat, a pink tutu and tiara, and a fireman’s coat and hat. Clearly, Bernie thought, Trudy was the grande dame of the group. As the sisters watched, the pug in the tux and the top hat ran over to the kitchen table, lifted his hind leg, and peed on one of the legs.
    “Conklin,” the tall, thin lady in frayed Chanel and black slacks shrieked as she scooped him up. “That was very, very naughty of you.” She turned to Annabel. “I’m just mortified.”
    “Joyce, it’s perfectly fine,” Annabel said, even though her expression said that it wasn’t. “Conklin is just a tad overexcited.”
    “If you ask me, he’s a tad undertrained,” an overly made-up woman dressed in jeans and a clean white T-shirt declared.
    “Melissa, that is not true,” the fireplug of a woman standing next to her snapped.
    “That certainly is, Ramona. As well you know.”
    Ramona sniffed. “I know nothing of the kind. Conklin is one of my star pupils. I’m very proud of him. We’ve worked extremely hard to overcome his deficits.”
    Melissa rolled her eyes. “Deficits. Deficits?” she repeated in a louder voice. “That’s a good one. My dogs don’t have deficits. Every single one is a paragon of its breed. As my record attests to.”
    “Really,” Ramona said, picking up the pug in the pink tutu and yanking its tiara back in place.
    “Yes. Really,” Melissa replied.
    “What about the disqualification at the Hartford dog show last year for poor dentition?” Ramona asked. “That was your pug, wasn’t it?”
    Two spots of color appeared on Melissa’s cheeks, but before she could answer Annabel stepped in and clapped her hands. “Ladies, ladies,” she said. “Please. This is a special day. Let’s maintain a festive mood.”
    Melissa swallowed. “By all means let’s,” she said with a notable lack of enthusiasm.
    “Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Ramona added.
    Were those notes of sarcasm Bernie detected? Yes indeedy. The two women looked as if they’d prefer to be having a root canal. The third one didn’t look much happier, Bernie decided. Her mouth was smiling but her eyes weren’t going along with the program. But if Annabel noticed her guests’ reactions she gave no indication of that fact.
    Instead she pointed to Libby and Bernie and said, “These are the wonderful people who are catering this little soiree for me. And they’ve made sure that everything being served today is both dog and human friendly, because as everyone here knows, I make it a point of pride to never feed Trudy anything that I wouldn’t eat myself.”
    Then Annabel made the introductions. The woman whose pug had peed on the kitchen table was her best friend, Joyce; Melissa Geist owned Precious Pug, the kennel the redoubtable Trudy had come from; and Ramona was Trudy’s trainer.
    Everyone murmured polite, uninterested hellos, while the pugs ran around the kitchen looking to lick up any odd bits of food that had fallen on the floor. Trudy was in the middle of trying to hump the dog in the pink tutu when Annabel announced they’d start with the hors d’oeuvres in the Eaton room.
    “Now there’s a jolly little group,” Bernie said when everyone was out of earshot.
    “Add Richard, Joanna, and Bree and it’s going to be a long two hours,” Libby observed.
    Bernie put a sprig of parsley on one of the plates. “I think it’s going to be an interesting two hours.”
    “But not in a good way,” Libby countered.
    Bernie picked a speck of cheese off of her blouse sleeve. “I’m wagering there’s going to be lots of drama.”
    “And it’s not going to be the baked Alaska supplying it,” Libby replied, not that they were serving that particular dish. It had just seemed like a good thing to say.
    However, despite the sisters’ misgivings, the appetizers went smoothly. Everyone seemed to like the toast points, the pugs particularly liking the bacon and peanut butter canapés.
    Libby started to