Weekends Required (Danvers #1)(12)



Chapter Six

Claire easily located the address of the party and parked her car in the employee lot. She looked up with a smile as Julie knocked on her car window. She’d met Julie during her first party and they bonded instantly. Julie was a single mother to a precious four-year-old boy named Kyle and the extra income from working weekends as a bartender for Partiez Plus allowed her to send Kyle to a great preschool close to their home. She was also attending night school to be a registered nurse.

Claire watched Kyle for her in the evenings occasionally when her regular sitter was not available. “Hey Claire, are you ready to get your party on?”

Claire laughed and said, “You bet, another day, and another cake to jump out of.” She lifted her bag out of the backseat and walked with Julie to the side employees' entrance. They waved at the usual crew from Partiez Plus as they walked to the ladies’ restroom to change clothes.

Claire opened her bag and removed the corset with matching panties and garter belt that she would use for her cake routine. She also pulled out the wait staff uniform she would need afterwards from her bag. “Do you think our clothes will be ok left in here?”

“Unless one of the men at the bachelor party decides to go drag, I think we’re fine,” joked Julie.

Claire stepped into one of the stalls and began taking off her clothes and putting on the sexy lingerie. When she stepped back out Julie was buttoning her shirt. Unlike her, Julie had no problem showing a little skin and would never resort to dressing in a restroom stall. Julie was truly a tall drink of water. She had long blond hair worn to her shoulders in a straight pageboy cut, and her skin had a summer glow year 'round. Julie was very blessed in the chest area and didn’t mind putting those assets on display. Naturally, she earned more tips than most of the other wait staff without even trying.

Julie turned around and gave her version of a wolf whistle. “You look hot in that Claire; I think we can find one of these rich guys for you tonight; just give that junk in the trunk an extra wiggle!”

“You’re a nut,” laughed Claire. She wondered how it could be that all her female friends seemed to be in heat and always looking for a fast fix up for her. She walked to the mirror to touch up her make-up and hair. “How is Kyle doing?”

Julie had the special smile that she wore when talking about her son. “He’s doing really well and he asked if you’d be here tonight, he misses you.”

“I miss him too; I would be happy to watch him for you anytime; he’s such a pleasure to have around.”

“Thanks Claire, I appreciate it. He’s doing well in school, and the teacher there thinks he’s really advanced for his age group so my kid may be the future Bill Gates and take his mother away from all this!"

“Hey don’t forget me if that happens, I could be your overpaid assistant, right?” laughed Claire.

“You bet; it’s a deal, you know I would share the wealth.”

“Do you know anything about the bachelor in question for this party tonight?” asked Claire.

“Just that his name is Winthrop, and he has some numbers at the end so that means spoiled snooty rich kid who is marrying probably equally spoiled girl named something like Buffy or Miffy.”

“You’re bad Julie,” laughed Claire. She looked in the mirror and tried to tame her mass of auburn hair into something manageable. She longed to put it up in a clip for a neater look; however, Pam didn’t like the cake girl popping out with her hair in a bun. She’d made it clear that the school teacher look wasn’t a turn on. Instead Claire thought the cake girl probably popped out looking like Cousin IT from the Adams Family with all her hair in disarray.

She gave a disgusted sigh, and Julie looked over and said, “I would kill for your hair; I don’t know why you’d ever want to put it up. It's so sexy down.” Giving her best leer Julie said, “Babe, I would almost do you.”

Claire nearly blinded herself with mascara laughing. “You must be kidding; I love your hair; and it always looks so neat.”

“Ugh, neat is another word for boring," growled Julie, "I want the wavy, sexy look that you’re rocking tonight, give me some of that curl, girl!”

Even though she felt that Julie was kidding, Claire did feel better about herself as she applied her lipstick. Claire took a last look in the mirror and thought, well damn, maybe there’s hope for me after all! I bet Jason would be surprised to see me now. Wow! Where did Jason come into this? Flustered to be thinking of her boss and actually wondering what he would think of her appearance was a bit of a shock to Claire. Since when did her carpet burn fantasy carry over into her after-hours life? Apparently, she’d been under more stressed lately than she had realized if she was now starting to have some sort of fantasy life where Jason was the star 24-7.

Claire needed to get this weekend behind her and return home to her normal routine where Jason was the boss whom she lusted after from eight to five, and she neither thought about nor cared how he looked in jeans, well much, or how his eyes sparkled or whether he thought she was attractive. Claire looked over and noticed Julie giving her a questioning look.

“Did you say something?” asked Claire.

“Just asked if you were almost finished.” replied Julie. "You seemed like you were a million miles away with some interesting thoughts.” Claire quickly assured Julie she was just worrying about her mother. From the look on Julie’s face, there was no way she bought that excuse, but she was polite enough to let it go. She grabbed her cover-up from her bag, pulling it on as she walked out into the hallway to call home before the party started.

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