Weekends Required (Danvers #1)(35)
The rest of the stack was just as depressing. Dividing up the money that was left after living expenses, Claire made a small payment against almost all the medical bills. She didn’t know how much longer they could keep going. Her finances were built on a stack of cards and sooner or later the cards always folded. Until they did, she would keep hoping for a miracle every day. You turned down your miracle yesterday; it’s not likely to come along twice.
Maybe she should have accepted Jason’s offer after all. Was jumping out of a cake nearly nude actually less damaging to her pride than taking charity? If it was just the charity part, it would be easier to accept; it was the part of feeling like he would expect something in bed as repayment that was harder to handle. Jason had never given her a reason to think that but then things had never been anything but professional between them before.
She knew the taste of his tongue now, the curve of his face, the feel of his erection pressing against her. When she closed her eyes she could almost feel him against her, his breath on her neck, his hands stroking down her back and over her hips. Claire tried to shake the memories of her daydream from her mind. She gave herself an extra few minutes before she joined her mother and Louise for lunch.
Her mother was confused today. She called her Chrissie the entire time and any attempts to correct her only led to agitation. It was so disappointing because she’d seemed better the last few visits. Today, she was quite obviously hovering close to the edge. Claire finally decided to take her leave rather than to continue to upset her. Louise looked at her in sympathy and walked her to the door as usual.
“It happens sometimes honey, there’s nothing you did or nothing you can do about it; she just comes and goes. Now you go on home and get you some rest and don’t worry about anything else today.”
As her eyes began to well up, Claire pulled Louise into a hug and said, “Oh Louise, I love you.”
“I love you too, now go on and get yourself home. We will be just fine here.”
Claire waved at her until she was out of sight. Some rest today did sound good, she was sure she would need it for the upcoming week. Idly, she wondered what Jason was doing and then chastised herself for even caring. He was her boss; that was all she ever needed to know about him. Even as she tried to convince herself of that, she knew it was a lie.
~~~
Monday morning arrived, and Claire was in the rush-hour traffic before she knew it. She was glad to see when she arrived at the office that Jason wasn’t in yet. Suzy called to ask her to lunch later, and she happily accepted. Maybe this would be a good day after all. She was so engrossed in her work; she’d not noticed the door opening and was surprised to look up and see Jason staring at her.
“Good morning Claire, you look happy today.”
“Oh good morning, I didn’t hear you come in,” replied Claire.
“So, why are you so happy today, anything special?” asked Jason.
“No, not really,” Claire turned back towards her computer and hoped that he would continue into his office.
“You look pretty today,” said Jason as he walked to his office and shut the door. Claire looked at his retreating figure in shock. Had he really just said she looked pretty? Surely, she misunderstood that. Jason seemed to have put their argument behind him, and she felt she could do no less.
Around midmorning, Claire remembered to call the credit union concerning her loan. She was surprised and delighted to hear that they could take her application over the telephone. Within a few moments, her application was approved, and she was asked to stop by and pick up her check at the end of the day.
Just as she was ending the call, Leslie, the creditor, explained that they were running a special promotion and that she qualified to defer her first payment for six months with no interest or fees. Claire almost wept with happiness as she assured Leslie that she would love to take advantage of the offer. Claire ended the call and twirled in her chair in happiness.
Finally, she was getting a break, and it felt great. At the end of her second twirl, she was once again facing her boss. “Er… Sorry about that, just taking a short break.”
With a laugh Jason said, “I can see that, please keep going, it’s good to see you enjoying yourself.” Self-consciously, Claire straightened in her seat and tried to school her expression back to professionalism.
“Was there something you needed me for?”
Still smiling at her, Jason replied, “Yes, I wanted to go over this weekend with you. Grayson has decided to travel here and stay at my home, so we will be working from there. I would like for you to come over Saturday morning and be prepared to stay until Sunday afternoon." Then, looking uncomfortable, he continued, “Um… Grayson asked if Suzy might be free to come as well. This isn’t a working weekend for her and I’m not insisting that she come. This is purely her choice, and I’ve no problem with whatever she decides.”
“Does Grayson like Suzy?” asked Claire.
Still looking uncomfortable, Jason replied, “I think she’s different and that intrigues him. Again, please let Suzy know that I’m not requesting she come along, this is totally up to her. Of course knowing Suzy she wouldn’t have a problem telling me no regardless,” laughed Jason.
Claire laughed. “You’re right about that. Are you going to be back in today?”
“Why?” asked Jason,” Are you going to miss me if I’m not?” Unable to resist this teasing side of Jason, Claire laughed and assured him that she would be just fine. “Actually, I’ve a lunch meeting that will run into the afternoon. I probably won’t see you again until tomorrow morning.”