Weekends Required (5 page)

Claire’s green eyes were sparkling by the time she finished adding some dark shadow to her eyelids. Even though she didn’t like the feel of the makeup, she had to admit that it gave her a somewhat exotic look that she normally lacked. Claire returned to the other room and gathered her bag and her purse and stepped out into the hall. She looked down to open her purse and locate her car keys while she started to walk towards the stairway. Suddenly, the air left her body in a whoosh as she ran into a hard wall. Hands reached out to steady her as Claire looked up into Jason’s amused blue eyes.

“I believe this is your third
mishap
of the day, but who is counting, right?” laughed Jason. He continued to hold onto her arms as though he had suddenly forgotten what he was doing. Claire was frozen as she watched his intent gaze sweep from the top of her head to pause at her lips and then continue on to her breasts. She pulled herself from his grip, her face starting to flame. He slowly, almost reluctantly, released her. “Is there some special-occasion today with your family? You seem really dressed up.” asked Jason.

Claire nervously replied, “Um no, not really. I haven't seen them in a while and wanted to look my best.”
Are the words 'I’m a complete liar' plastered on my forehead?

 “Well you should certainly have no problem with that, you look like you’re ready for a date,” Jason replied tightly.

Oh yeah, I’m ready for a date with a whole room of horny guys in a few hours.
“I, um, no, nothing like that,” Claire replied as she turned away to continue down the hall.

“I’ll walk you down,” said Jason falling into step behind her.

As she hurriedly made her way to the stairs, she heard Jason say with amusement, “Claire let’s slow down before mishap number four occurs before you make it out of the house.” She forced herself to slow her pace lest she end up at the bottom of the stairs in a heap. She prayed that she would give Jason nothing further to laugh about today.

Harold and Liz walked out of the family room and stopped in the foyer to wait for them. “Wow, you look great,” said a smiling Liz. “You’re more than welcome to join my girls' night this evening, Claire.”

“Thank you for offering Liz; however, I have family expecting me.”

“Please drop by in the family room if you get home early Claire, my friends are a little loud but are a really great group of ladies, and I know they’d enjoy your company.”

Claire smiled at Liz warmly and thanked her. She was really surprised at how comfortable she was with Liz and Harold. They seemed the exact opposite of Jason, and Claire was curious as to how the friendship had continued over all these years. Liz and Harold were the type of people to settle down and promptly have two children who were as well-mannered and lovable as they were. 

Jason, however, was the type to spend his whole life driven for the next merger with his eye always on the bottom line. When and if Jason did marry, Claire could picture him with a cool blond who spent most of her time shopping and redesigning their penthouse or country home. Try as she might, Claire couldn’t picture Jason with children, although she could see that being an only child, there must be pressure to provide the next Danvers heir. It was suddenly quiet and Claire realized that Jason had asked her a question.

“I’m sorry; I was just going over the directions to my aunt’s home can you repeat that please?”

Jason’s blue eyes twinkled as if to say, ‘
I know you’re lying, but I’ll let it pass.’
“I asked what area you’ll be traveling to. Harold and I could give you a lift and pick you up later tonight if we’re going to be near your family.”

“No, that’s ok; my aunt lives off the beaten path so to speak, and it would be too far out of the way,” stammered a flustered Claire.

In his quiet voice, Harold said, “Claire it would be no problem; we’d be happy to drop you off anywhere you need to go.”

Hey, great, could you drop me at the gentlemen’s club an hour away? My aunt really likes to party.
She could feel herself starting to panic as she said, “that’s very thoughtful of you both, however, I promised my aunt that I would take her to dinner and I’ll need my own transportation for that. Thank you both though for offering.”

This thankfully appeared to satisfy them both and the topic was dropped. Claire looked down at her watch and announced that her aunt would be waiting for her and after saying goodbye to everyone, Claire walked towards the front door. Jason stepped in front of the door and opened it for her asking, “What time will you be back this evening Claire?”

Wow
, she thought when Jason had assumed a role as her daddy; she gave a vague answer, “I’ve not seen my aunt in quite a while, so I plan to spend several hours with her.”

Claire made her way to her car. She risked a quick look over her shoulder and saw Jason leaned against his black Mercedes watching her with an unreadable expression on his handsome face. She hurriedly climbed into her car and buckled her seatbelt trying to control the urge to speed away.

Claire took a deep breath and turned her car towards Florence. She was familiar with the area of the party she was working tonight so she didn’t anticipate any problems with finding the location. Claire was aghast at her sudden reaction to Jason as not only her boss but very much a man. In the time that Claire worked for him, she’d of course noticed how handsome he was, especially with Suzy pointing it out numerous times a day; and yes, like everyone else in the company, she had plenty of fantasies about various sexual positions with him but she never actually saw him as a person.

Her fantasies were the same as she would have for Tom Cruise or George Clooney, lust from afar but business as usual each day. Away from the office and the stress of her life, Claire was seeing Jason in a different light. She was suddenly noticing things about him that she shouldn’t be; like the way his eyes seemed to sparkle when he was laughed, the way he obviously loved his friends and, lord help her, the way those faded Levis cupped that gorgeous butt. How many times today had she forced herself to stop staring at him? She practically wiped her mouth a few times to make sure she wasn’t drooling. Claire vowed to return things to their usual professional behavior.

The landscape between Columbia and Florence was rather sparse after leaving the city of Columbia. Myrtle Beach seemed like Los Angeles compared to the small towns she was now passing through. Claire knew she was approaching her exit and mentally prepared herself to enter what she called the ‘
Partiez Plus Mode.'

  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.

Hearing Louise’s voice on the other end of the line, Claire smiled and said, “Hey Louise, it’s me. How are you?”

“Oh hey honey, are you home?”

“No, I’m still in Columbia; I’ll be home sometime tomorrow afternoon,” replied Claire. “How is mom doing today?”

“Oh you know honey; she has moments where she’s living in the here and now and others where she’s living in the past. Today has been in the past, mostly,” Louise said sadly. “Physically though, she feels good; we sat outside on the porch for a bit this morning and enjoyed our coffee before the day got so hot; and she really loved that.”

“That’s great Louise; do you think I should try to talk to her?”

“Honey, if you want to I’ll get her, but I think it will just confuse her today since she’ll assume you're Chrissie and you won’t be here in person to try to calm her if she gets upset.”

“Ok Louise, I don’t want you to have to deal with that so would you just please tell her that I called when she’s more lucid?”

“I will honey, don’t you worry about us and try to have yourself a good time for once.”

“Thank you Louise, I’ll see you guys tomorrow when I get home if it’s not too late.” Claire gathered her composure and walked back inside.
Time to put your game face on.

~~~

Jason settled back into the seat of the car they’d hired for the evening. With everyone expected to consume alcohol at Harold’s Bachelor Party, Jason had made the call to hire a car to ensure that no one was driving afterwards. The noise level in the car was steadily rising as the others were picked up at their hotel and a rare guys' night out, especially for those who were married with children, was kicking into full gear.

He was surprised when his thoughts turned to his assistant. In the time that Claire had worked for him, he had never seen her as a desirable woman, hell; he hadn’t noticed her appearance, period. When he had walked into her room after hearing a crash today and saw her standing there with wild auburn hair cascading down her shoulders and those green eyes flashing it had made him lose his train of thought.