Weekends Required (Danvers #1)(34)
Claire jumped to her feet, anger sweeping through her, and yelled, “I’m not your charity case Jason! I can take care of myself!”
“Claire, this isn’t charity, it's assistance; I would offer it to any of my employees.”
“So let me get this straight, if Mona, the janitor, needed financial assistance you’d offer to take care of all of her expenses? Oh wait, does it have to be someone you want to sleep with or is anyone eligible?”
Color darkened Jason’s cheeks, and Claire could see the anger burning in his eyes. “I think you have made your opinion of me perfectly clear. Now unless you have any other derogatory remarks to make about my character, I would like to get to work,” said Jason icily. He handed her a folder across the desk. “Please make the changes I’ve indicated.” Claire remained in front of his desk, and Jason lifted his brow and said, “That will be all, please close my door on the way out.”
Claire shut the door behind her and sat down at her desk. Putting her face in her hands, Claire wondered why she didn’t feel better about defending herself. Jason had seriously looked wounded at her refusal to accept his offer. Maybe he expected the poor working people here to drop to their knees in gratitude if the mighty Jason Danvers offered them something. Well, she wouldn’t be some charity case to appease his rich conscience.
~~~
The day passed by quietly with Jason’s door remaining firmly closed. Dinner was delivered around six from a local deli, and Claire went into his office to take his sandwich. Without looking up at her, he pointed to the corner of his desk and said curtly, “Just leave it there.” Claire quietly shut the door behind her and tried to choke down her sandwich past the lump in her throat.
He had emailed her some additional work that he needed completed and at eight he opened his door and asked her if she was ready to go. Claire grabbed her purse and walked towards the door. “I’ll see you to your car; unless that much of my company would offend you in any way?” She remained quiet and soon they were approaching her car. As she unlocked her car door, Claire asked Jason what time they’d be working on Sunday.
“I’ve had something come up that I need to attend to on Sunday, so we will continue work on Monday. I’m sure you could use the time from… the office.” She knew he had really meant she could use the time away from him. Even though Jason had left her on her own all day, the office had vibrated with tension.
It was quite apparent that Jason was furious with her. Did he think she would fall on her knees before him and weep with gratitude? Maybe she could have phrased her refusal more politely. He blind-sided her with his offer, and she’d reacted on pure instinct. She couldn’t help but think that his offer was more of an advance payment for sex rather than a real need to help her.
Claire spotted Billy as soon as she opened her door. She was so not in the mood for him tonight. She’d put Jason in his place today; maybe it was time to do the same with Billy. With a slam of her door, Claire whirled around to face him. “Claire… I… I’m sorry for bothering you, and you don’t have to worry about it anymore,” said Billy.
Claire couldn’t have been more stunned if he had opened his mouth and started barking. He continued, “I know you don’t really want to go to the Neil Diamond Show with Billy, and that’s cool. I hope things go good with your boyfriend and if anyone here gives you any problem, you just let old Billy know, okay?” Too stunned to do more than nod, Claire watched Billy walk away.
Could this day get any stranger? First, her boss offers to essentially be her fairy godmother and now her stalker neighbor volunteers to stop stalking her and protect her from other stalkers as well; weird. At least her day could end on some kind of positive note. Going inside Claire hoped she could get a good night’s sleep and try not to remember the look on Jason’s face.
Chapter Thirteen
A good night’s sleep seemed to be too much to hope for. Claire had tossed and turned all night, and even though she knew she’d been right to turn down Jason’s offer, it still went against her nature to talk to someone the way she had to Jason. Other than being mad that he hadn’t forced her into bed with him, he had probably washed the whole incident from his mind already. She, however, would never be free of the memory.
Claire grabbed a quick shower and got ready to go to her mother’s house. She usually went through her mother’s bills a few times a month; a chore that she dreaded. Not that she minded helping and if there was sufficient money to pay everything it would be a breeze. Instead, she was forced to spend several hours deciding which bills had priority and which could be put off until the next month.
Louise gave her a quick hug when she arrived and then Claire walked to the study to get started. Her mother always took her nap at this time of the morning so it was quiet and easier to concentrate. Louise left an estimate on the desk from her nephew on repairing the roof damage. He had written a note that the roof needed replacing, which would cost approximately $20,000.00 and to make repairs that he didn’t feel would last through the winter, it would cost $5000.00.
Claire laid her head down on the desk. There was no way she could cover the cost of the patch; much less replacing the roof. Even with income from several jobs it would take some time to save that much money, and apparently time was something in short supply with the current state of the roof. She would talk to the credit union at work on Monday and see if she could work out a loan to at least cover the repairs. It would hopefully buy her several months to decide what she was going to do. The additional monthly payment of a loan would be hard to make, but what choice did she have?