~~~
As she studied Jason, Claire’s first reaction was to tell him to go to hell and that it was none of his business. If anything that he had said had held one hint of sarcasm, she would have done just that. He seemed genuinely concerned and confused. With a deep breath, Claire started all the way back with the death of her father and sister and continued on to her mother’s health problems and the financial strain of maintaining her house, buying her medication and the reason why she couldn’t live with her.
Once the words started pouring out of her, Claire didn’t even realize that she had tears running down her face until she felt one drop on her hand. Jason leaned quietly over the desk and handed her some tissue. Claire turned to the side to dry her face before looking at Jason. Terrified that he would be looking at her with disgust or pity, she was surprised to see admiration in his eyes. “Claire, I’d no idea,” began Jason quietly, “why didn’t you tell me what was going on?”
“Why would I?” said Claire. “You’re my employer; it’s not your job to handle the personal problems of your employees.”
“Claire, I would think you’d know me well enough by now to see that I’m not a bottom line employer. I do care about every single person who works here. This company wouldn’t be where it is without you and everyone; I would never turn my back on anyone in trouble.”
Her eyes started to well up again as tears threatened. Claire said quietly, “I do know that Jason, but I’ve never had anyone to depend on and truthfully this is more than a little embarrassing for me. I’ve managed to get by, and if I need to work five jobs to make ends meet then I will; I have to,” she finished.
Jason settled back in his chair and said, “Claire, let me help you. Danvers does extensive work in this community, and I would be happy to know some of that work would benefit someone whom I… er… Danvers values so highly. If you furnish me with the cost of all of your mother’s medication, I’ll see that you have a check by Monday. Furthermore, we have a construction crew on our payroll as well. They’ll be sent to your mother’s home on Monday to make all the repairs that are needed.”
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?
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 the
y 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.”
With a warm smile, Jason left before she could reply. She tried to assure herself that she was just feeling so happy because everything had worked out well with her loan. She was still smiling when she collected her purse and locked up to meet Suzy for lunch.
Chapter Fourteen
They’d decided to go to the outdoor café around the corner again, and Suzy was waiting for her in the lobby. Today Suzy was dressed in a denim skirt, short of course; her bare legs were tanned and appeared to sparkle from some type of glitter. Mile-high red platform sandals that wrapped several inches up her legs and a red silk tank top with a black vest completed her look. Claire was sure her boss was relieved to see a shirt with no writing or advertisements on it.
Suzy talked about her weekend as they found a table and placed their order. After taking a long drink of her iced tea, Suzy asked, “So, how are things with hot buns? Anymore bumping and grinding?” Wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, Suzy laughed as Claire’s face turned bright red.
“You’re horrible, why do I tell you anything?” laughed Claire.
“Maybe because you need my fresh insight into your dull but not yet hopeless sex life," said Suzy.
“There’s nothing new to tell, well nothing of the bumping variety at least. Jason and I did have sort of an argument last week though.”
“Do tell; was it at least over sex?” asked Suzy hopefully.
“No, get your mind out of the gutter, everything doesn’t resolve around sex.”
“Well, why the hell not?” asked Suzy.
“It was over money and maybe I made it into something about sex,” admitted Claire.
As the waiter delivered their lunch Suzy impatiently shooed him away and said to Claire, “Get on with it!”
“Well Jason asked me to explain my, er… weekend job to him and when I told him I needed the money he wanted to know why. I told him about my mother, her medical bills and the upkeep on her house; I basically poured the whole thing out.”
“Did you tell him about your father?” asked Suzy gently.
Claire looked away and quietly said, “No, not that. So anyway, get this, he starts barking off instructions. He wanted me to get him the amount of my mother’s medication for the month and to give him the address of my mother’s home so he could line the construction crew from Danvers up to make all the necessary repairs. He told me he would have a check waiting for me today. I just went off on him Suzy; I was so mad at him for wanting to make me his charity case or worse yet, wanting to buy his way into my bed. Can you believe him? I also told him I felt sure he wouldn’t be making the same offer to Mona the janitor if she were in my position,” finished Claire indigently.
Finished, she waited for the approval from Suzy that she knew would be coming and was surprised when Suzy instead gave her an almost pitying look. “Oh babe, I’m all for sticking it to someone when they deserve it but if you were going to throw something back in Mr. D’s face, you should have picked something better than money. The man seems to give it out hand over fist and trust me, it’s got nothing to do with sex.
“You know Cindy, who works in my department?” asked Suzy. Claire nodded her head as she pictured the little dynamo with a personality much like Suzy’s. “Remember last year when she was knocked up? Well, her husband lost his job when she was getting close to popping and somehow Jason found out about it. He actually went to her house one evening and talked to her so that she wouldn’t be embarrassed at the office.
"He paid their bills for two months until she had her baby and her husband was employed again. He said he didn’t want the stress to cause problems with her pregnancy. She said he was so sweet, and she cried all over him. Oh and George, when his girlfriend had the surgery thingy a few months back, said Jason stopped by the hospital to visit and offered to pay the difference left after her insurance. I’m sure they’re both good-looking chicks, but I don’t think he wants to get them in the sack, you know what I’m saying?”
Claire was stunned. How could she work so closely with Jason and never know about any of this? Wouldn’t someone in his position want the credit for so many good deeds? She felt horrible remembering all the nasty things she’d said to him. He hadn’t wanted to help her for sex, actually that was embarrassing assuming that a man like him would need to buy sex from someone like her. After he got over his anger, he probably had a big laugh over that.