Weekends Required (Danvers #1)(30)
Chapter Eleven
The next morning Claire was waiting outside her apartment at five minutes before eight and, as promised, Jason’s Mercedes pulled into the parking lot at eight. Quickly opening the door before he could leave the car, Claire settled herself in the seat and offered a quick good morning. Jason had the morning news on the radio, and it filled the silence in the car and offered a much-needed diversion. He seemed content to avoid all conversations, and soon they were arriving at Danvers and heading up in the elevator. Jason stepped off to get a coffee and Claire continued on to their office floor.
By the time Jason arrived a short time later Claire was hard at work replying to her emails from the previous day. The morning continued on as if nothing had ever happened. Around noon, Jason came out of his office and said, “Claire, we will need to work on Saturday and possibly Sunday this week and better plan on it for next weekend as well.”
The blood drained from her face as she asked, “Why would that be necessary? Everything is up to date on the merger.”
“I’m going out of town for a few days to visit the headquarters for Mericom and won’t return until Friday. By the time I return I’ll have further revisions to make to the contract that will need to be completed by Monday. The next week will follow a similar course and there’s a possibility you will need to accompany me to Grayson’s, but we will finalize that next week.
“But I already have plans for those weekends,” cried Claire.
His steely gaze burning into hers, Jason said, “Yes, I’m sure that you do have other engagements planned, however, I feel that this job and this merger are your clear priorities and if not, then we’ve a serious problem.”
The threat in his voice was clear and Claire knew that if she continued, she could well find herself unemployed. “Ye… Yes, they are and I’ll be here on Saturday. Are we starting early?” Claire asked hopefully.
“No, I’ll be late getting in on Friday so let’s give ourselves some extra rest on Saturday and come in around lunch. We can have dinner brought in later so no need to worry about that.” With her heart sinking Claire managed a nod and Jason was gone. Oh great, he wasn’t going to let up on the weekend work, ugh.
She already had bachelor parties planned with Pam for the next few weeks, and they were all several hours away. She was going to have to call Pam and cancel and hope that she could find a replacement for her. She decided to put that off for later and gathered up her purse to go to the cafeteria for lunch. As luck would have it, Suzy was just coming down the hall towards her office when she stepped out. Claire walked over to the elevator where her friend was waiting.
“Hey hey girlfriend, I’m starving, let’s go grab some eats,” said Suzy.
“Are we going to the cafeteria?” asked Claire.
“Nah, why don’t we walk around the corner to the sandwich shop? I could use a change of scenery,” replied Suzy.
“Ok, that actually sounds good, maybe we could get a table outside.” Suzy kept the conversation flowing until they’d reached the sandwich shop and settled into a shaded table outdoors.
“So, what were all the fireworks with boss man last night?” asked Suzy.
Nearly choking on her iced tea, Claire said, “What’re you talking about?”
“Oh come on babe, do I look like I suddenly got stupid overnight?” laughed Suzy.
She knew it was pointless to continue to act ignorant. Claire sighed, “I don’t know Suz; I really don’t.”
Suzy finally asked, “Has something been going on between you two that I don’t know about?” Claire decided that if she could tell anyone the whole story without being judged it was Suzy.
She poured out the story of her second job and the reasons behind it. Finally coming to the part of her encounter at Jason’s friend’s bachelor party during the weekend and what had happened in the restroom afterwards, Claire kept going until she’d told Suzy everything, including what occurred the previous night. Suzy sat in silence looking at her with her mouth opening and closing like a fish.
“Holy shit, who are you and where is my friend Claire?” exclaimed Suzy. “I feel like I’ve entered the twilight zone where you turn into me, and I turn into you. Why in the world didn’t you tell me what you were doing on the side? You should know that I of all people wouldn’t give you grief about it.”
Claire reached over and took her hand seeing the hurt on her face. “I know you wouldn’t Suz; I was just embarrassed to tell anyone, including you, about my financial problems and the second job. You know I would never be doing a job like that if I didn’t desperately need the money.”
“Claire, we could have figured out something; I don’t want you to think I would ever look down on you or judge you, hell, I would probably do that job just for kicks.”
As she leaned over to hug Suzy, Claire said tearfully, “No more secrets then, I’m sorry Suz, and I know you’d never look down on me, you’re not made that way.”
“Ok, enough of the slobbering all over each other, tell me when you’re going to do the boss man because I’m dying to know how he is in the sack.”
With a laugh, Claire playfully swatted at her. “I’m not doing anything with him; it was all a mistake, and he appears to regret it as much as I do,” said Claire.