Weekends Required (Danvers #1)(3)
Claire first began working weekends for Pam quite by chance. With the medical bills piling up for her mother, Claire had gotten desperate for a second income to help make a dent in the constant stream of expenses. While pondering how successful someone such as herself might be as a hooker, an ad in the Sunday paper caught her attention. Ok so it’s Sunday and I shouldn’t have been wondering if I could sell my body for extra money while skipping church, talk about guilt.
Partiez Plus, a party planning company, was advertising the perfect evening and weekend flexible schedule that Claire needed. She’d called Partiez Plus that day and talked to Pam, who was frantically trying to find a party assistant for a big local celebrity’s party that evening. When Claire had inquired about the job opening, Pam had said if she could start in two hours, then she was hired. This had been the beginning of a quick friendship and some very busy weekends.
Partiez Plus covered everything from children’s birthday parties to bachelor and bachelorette parties for adults. Although very hesitant to work the bachelor parties at first, Claire had been doing them now almost exclusively for a year. If someone had told her a few years ago that she would be jumping out of birthday or bachelor party cakes, she would have told them they were crazy but after awhile, it became just like any job. Maybe in some small way it gave her a thrill to know that her father would have been so horrified that his daughter was doing something like that.
The bachelor parties paid the best and, with every cent crucial, Claire was too hard-pressed for money to stick with the lower-paying parties. This particular bachelor party was for a groom to be who lived in Florence, which was around two hours from Myrtle Beach. Claire regularly traveled on the weekends when working the parties. This party paid very well, and Claire felt sick to be forced to miss it even though Jason was generous when paying for any type of overtime hours.
Just as she was leaving the bathroom, her cell phone rang. Claire saw Pam’s name on the caller ID and answered the phone saying, “Pam, I’m really sorry about this.”
“Claire, I’ve got to have you this weekend, you know that I’ve no one else on this short notice, and these people are VIPs and use our service for a lot of different functions. If I’m forced to cancel I’ll lose their future business.”
“Pam, I don’t know what to say, I can’t get out of it. I have to travel to Columbia in the morning and will be there through Sunday.”
“Columbia, hmmm," muttered Pam, "That’s only an hour from Florence, which is closer to the party than you are now. Claire, do you think you could get away for awhile on Saturday evening and do the party and then return to Columbia?”
A small flicker of hope sprang to life within her. “Pam, I don’t know."
"I’ll double your rate if you can, Claire, I’m desperate.”
“Let me ask Jason if he’ll need me in the evening, and I’ll let you know.” After bribes and pleading from Pam, Claire closed the phone and headed back towards her office. Claire returned to her desk and tried to work up the nerve to ask Jason about Saturday Night. The switch board showed that he was on the telephone. Ok chicken, go ahead and email him instead of asking him in person. Claire opened her email program and wrote Jason a short line inquiring about Saturday Night and just stopped herself from signing it 'love', or 'lust', Claire. A few moments later the door to Jason’s office opened, and he stepped out with his briefcase.
“Claire did you get the directions I sent you?”
“Yes, I have them.”
As Jason was leaving he said, “About Saturday night, if you’d like some time off, that’s fine as I’ll also be going out to dinner with Harold and some other friends.”
“Oh that’s great; I’ve some family close to the area that I would really like to visit.” Liar, Liar, pants on fire.
“See you tomorrow Claire,” Jason replied as he shut the door.
Holy Moly, Suzy was right; that man did have a smoking hot set of buns, whew! Breathing a sigh of relief, Claire started clearing off her desk and shutting her computer down. Bringing out her cell phone, she sent a text to Pam letting her know that she would be available to do the party on Saturday evening as planned. Claire gave her watch a quick glance and hurriedly gathered her purse. Her mother and Louise would be waiting on her for dinner.
Chapter Three
Claire’s mother had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes almost five years ago and despite their best efforts, each year seemed to take a further toll on her health. To add to the problem, her mother was also in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Louise had been her mother and father’s housekeeper for as long as she could remember. Her father was a corporate lawyer and prided himself on leading a certain lifestyle. Being waited on and able to brag about having a maid was part of that lifestyle. When Claire’s father and sister were killed in a tragic auto accident three years ago, Louise had moved in with her mother for some much-needed companionship.
Her mother had never really recovered and blamed herself for the accident. Her father was always very particular about their meals and when her mother hadn’t purchased what he wanted for dinner, he had insisted on going back to the supermarket to get the correct items, since no one else was intelligent enough to make sure it was handled correctly. Her father had also discovered that day that her sister had been seeing a boy that he deemed unacceptable, so he had made her go along so he could spend the travel time lecturing her. In a sense, her father and sister died for gratin potatoes versus plain mashed potatoes.