With a quick prayer of thanks, Claire was relieved to see the bar was actually upscale with what looked to be mainly professionals having a drink after work. They grabbed a couple of seats at the bar as Suzy yelled, “Hey, our phone numbers for anyone who buys us a drink.”

“Suz, are you crazy?” asked a horrified Claire.

By the time she finished her sentence, there were six drinks sitting in front of them. “I haven’t bought a drink in years, why would I start tonight? Don’t sweat it; we will give them fake numbers, unless they’re really hot.”

Claire picked up a drink that looked the most harmless. It was very sweet and tasted of pineapple and strawberry. “You better watch yourself; that baby will knock you on your ass,” advised Suzy.

“It doesn’t taste like alcohol; I think it’s safer than those shots.” Halfway through the first drink, two men approached them and took credit for a couple of the drinks. Claire was surprised to find that she could relax and enjoy flirting and conversation.

The men, Chris and Joe, were surprisingly easy to talk to and having them sit beside the girls discouraged other men from approaching Suzy for the phone number payout she’d promised. Claire realized after the first drink that Suzy was right; it might look harmless but her head was already spinning. Chris and Joe teased her about switching to Iced Tea afterwards, but she told them she had to drive home and couldn’t afford to be face down somewhere along the way.

Around ten, Claire told Suzy she was tired and was ready to leave. Much to her surprise, Suzy insisted on leaving as well. When they stepped outside, Claire said, “Suz, you didn’t have to leave, you were having fun; go back in for awhile.”

“Nah, I’m dragging and I was getting ready to bail anyway.”

“Are you sure? You looked like you were really enjoying Chris.”

“That was just a 'drink you', nothing else," replied Suzy.

“A 'drink you'?” asked Claire.

“Yeah, instead of thank you, when someone buys you a drink and you chat them up afterwards it’s a drink you.”

“Um, ok that must be Suzy language, I’ve never heard of it,” laughed Claire. “Sorry I needed to leave early; I just wanted to have a good night’s sleep before working this weekend.”

“Oh, that’s right; you and hot buns are working. Why, I wonder, are you suddenly working weekends when you never have before?”

“It’s because of the merger with Mericom,” replied Claire.

“You mean stuffed shirt Gray is so uptight that you guys have to work seven days a week to keep up with his demands?” sneered Suzy.

"Suz, I don’t think it’s that; it’s just the extra time being spent on that project is causing Jason’s other work to fall behind. I’m sure Grayson isn’t as bad as you make him out to be,” said Claire.

“Yeah right, the man needs to learn how to loosen up. I bet he doesn’t even own a pair of boxers; briefs all the way no doubt,” said Suzy.

“Um sweetie, how did we get on the subject of Grayson’s underwear choices? It seems to be that you have a very suspect amount of interest in Grayson,” teased Claire.

Suzy stalked ahead of her and grumbled over her shoulder, “I was just making an observation, no need to get your panties in a wad girlfriend.” Claire ran to catch up with her giving Suzy a brief hug as they walked on.

~~~

Claire scanned the area and saw no sign of Billy. She was almost to her front door when she heard a voice behind her and looked around to find that Billy had indeed seen her arrive. “Hey Claire, where is your boyfriend tonight?” asked Billy in a sullen tone.

“Er… He’s out of town tonight, he should be back soon though,” said Claire.

“How come you never mentioned you were dating anyone?” accused Billy.

Claire was starting to get angry as well at the nasty tone in his voice. “Billy, I really think my private life is my business, don’t you?” demanded Claire. Billy’s face reddened as Claire stuck her key in her lock and quickly opened her door.

Before she could close it, Billy said, “I thought you were different, I guess I was wrong.” Not bothering to reply, Claire slammed her door shut and vowed that she would start looking for another place to live. It was obvious that Billy was going to continue to be a problem.

She didn’t think the idea of her having a boyfriend would help especially since said boyfriend wasn’t likely to be at her place again. Great, like my life isn’t hectic enough, now I’ve a nut job neighbor stalking me, greeaat. The confrontation with Billy took some of the enjoyment out of the evening. After a quick shower, Claire climbed into bed and tried to forget the angry expression on Billy’s face; maybe Jason was right about him after all.

Chapter Twelve

Saturday morning she was up and out early. She picked up a few things at the market that Louise had requested then dropped them by along with her mother’s medicine. Claire went inside and spent an enjoyable hour eating breakfast and chatting. Her mother was having another good day and seeing how well she was doing this week made Claire that much more determined to keep her mother in her home no matter what it took.

All too soon it was time to go to the office. It felt strange to see the usually full parking garage bare but for a few other cars. The office door was ajar when she arrived on their floor, and Jason was already seated at his desk with his door open. Claire stored her handbag and walked through his door to see what he needed her to work on. Jason leaned back in his leather chair and studied her as she approached his desk.

“Thanks for coming in today, I hope it didn’t interfere with your weekend plans,” said Jason. The amused smirk on his face told her exactly what plans he was referring to.

“No, not at all. What shall I get started on?” asked Claire.

Completely ignoring her question Jason continued on, “No big party this weekend huh?”

“Did we come here to work or discuss my private life?” asked Claire.

“Well if your private life is open for discussion, I would be happy to put work aside because, quite frankly, I’m dying to hear more about your other life as a stripper.” Claire could only look at him in surprise.

After Jason hadn’t broached the subject of her second job during the week, she assumed he had decided to let it go. The look on his face assured her that he had far from forgotten it and intended to have that discussion now. “I don’t think my private life is any of your business so no; it isn’t open for discussion,” snapped Claire.

“Oh that’s where you’re wrong Claire; it is indeed my business when it reflects on Danvers. Now have a seat and let’s have this long-overdue discussion shall we?”

~~~

What the hell am I doing? I had no intention of having this conversation today. She’d reduced him to an aching, obsessing mess in the last week. That night in her apartment, with her wrapped around him, still haunted him so much he could barely concentrate on what was the biggest deal this company had ever been involved in. This was about the worst time possible to go crazy over a woman. That never happened; he enjoyed women but always on his own terms. Never had someone so completely confused and intrigued him.

The one piece to the puzzle that he couldn’t figure out was the side job. Sure, people worked two jobs all the time, hell he felt like he worked three most of the time so that wasn’t the confusing part, it was the second job that she’d obviously chosen that floored him. Claire was about as far from a stripper as he could imagine. Ok, so she didn’t actually take all her clothes off, but she was damn near naked when she popped out of that cake. She was beautiful, and no doubt men loved looking at her; he hated to admit that. He had never noticed exactly how beautiful she was until the weekend with Liz and Harold.

She presented a whole different person daily in the office, and even though he was sure he had to have noticed she was attractive, he had never been tempted to cross the line with her. Now he was practically running and clawing his way across that line. She’d become an ache that he couldn’t get past. He needed to have her, be inside her, but more than that, he needed to know what was going on with her because none of it made any sense to him.

He rarely thought or cared what was going on in any woman’s life he was seeing. His life was this company, and that left very little to give to anyone else. With Claire though, it was fast becoming her first and the company second. It had to just be the mystery there. Once he had his questions answered then life could return to normal.

Claire seated herself stiffly in the chair in front of Jason, and the silence stretched as he seemed to be lost in thought. “Jason?”

His name seemed to jerk him back to the present, and he said, “Um… yes, where were we?”

Confused Claire said, “you wanted to tell me why my private life was your business I believe.”

“Oh yes, let’s see….Why don’t we just start at the beginning? How long have you been working your er… second job?”

Stiffly, Claire replied, “About a year.”

Jason looked at her in surprise. “You have been stripping for a year, and I never knew it?”

“It’s not stripping and you know that,” defended Claire hotly.

“Ok, ok, I mean cake jumping or whatever you call it. Claire, truthfully I’m a little baffled here. No offense to her but Suzy, I could easily see doing that; you not so much. Suzy is a very secure person who wants and enjoys the attention of men, and it shows. That’s her personality, it’s who she is and that’s great. You, however, obviously don’t want or seek that type of attention. If you did, your main wardrobe color wouldn’t be tan or brown, and I’m quite sure I would have seen a hint of cleavage before. Well other than the last week. I know you didn’t just decide you needed some excitement so what gives Claire?”

~~~

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.”