The Art of Wag by Susan C. Daffron

meeting.”
    “Well, maybe you could give me some information now. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. What is this web site even going to be about? You said it is supposed to have real estate listings on it?”
    “Yes, that’s part of it. The idea is that it will be a tourist destination site with everything that you need to know if you want to visit or move to Alpine Grove.”
    “What? Alpine Grove? It’s about...here?” Tracy glanced at the windows of her apartment, which faced the street.
    “Yes. It’s so great that you live there! You can bring a local perspective, since you know the area. That will help us sell the deal.”
    “I’m not sure I’m a great advertisement, but it is my home town, I guess. I’ll try to smile and say nice things.” Even if there was no way to earn a living, it was a beautiful area.
    Rob cleared his throat. “Do you have any pictures you could bring?”
    “Maybe. I have snapshots I’ve taken on camping trips with my family and stuff. A lot of them are kind of old, though.” And kind of odd. But it would be hilarious to put a photo of her dad in his hippie garb online. It would serve him right for being such a jerk about the whole moving out thing.
    “Please bring whatever photographs you can find. Maybe we can create some history pages. And if you have anything that shows some of the local attractions, that would be perfect. Isn’t there a waterfall trail or something?”
    “Yes. Everyone knows about that and the lake, of course.”
    “Not yet. That’s why we need the web site!”
    Tracy looked at Roxy and rolled her eyes melodramatically at her. Oh brother. “Okay. I’ll go through my pictures and see what I can find. My mom owns the gift store in town and my father took some pictures of the area that he got enlarged to hang on the walls for decoration. I’ll see if I can grab some of those too. Some of them are pretty good.”
    “This is so great. I’m going to draw up some rough page layouts to show where menus and stuff might go. I’ll bring them to lunch and we can talk about it.”
    Tracy sat down on the box of paints. “So um, what should I wear?”
    Rob paused and she could hear the muffled sound of him coughing in the background. He cleared his throat again. “Well, I’m not an expert at women’s clothes.”
    “Okay, what are you going to wear? A suit? Tie? I’m guessing you’re not going to wear what you wore to class, right?”
    “I hadn’t really thought about it.”
    Tracy tried not to sigh too loudly into his ear. “Well, think about it now. It’s a business meeting. Shouldn’t you look business-like?”
    “I guess so. I do have a suit. I could wear that.”
    Tracy bent over to pet Roxy, who was sleeping on the floor next to her. “You might want to leave the backpack at home too.” There, she said it.
    “But what will I carry my stuff in?”
    “A briefcase?”
    “I guess I could get one of those.”
    Tracy pulled a tuft of hair off Roxy’s ruff. The fall shedding season had begun. “Hey, I’m just making suggestions here. If you want this contract, you should look like a professional.”
    “Well, what are you going to wear?”
    “I have an interview suit that I bought a while ago.” It was sitting in Shelby’s closet, since she had let her friend borrow it for her grad-school interviews ages ago. The suit had been much luckier for Shelby than it had been for Tracy. Hopefully it still fit. If not, she was going to have a serious wardrobe crisis. The nursing scrubs she wore as a vet assistant, while good at repelling fur and animal excrement, probably didn’t qualify as business casual.
    Rob paused to cough again. “That sounds nice. I’m glad I talked to you about this stuff. I didn’t really think about it.”
    “It’s a girl thing. Women tend to think about clothes. Our options are more complicated than yours. As a guy, all you have to do is put on a suit and you’re good. We have to figure out jewelry,