Jason had been working for close to a year on the acquisition of Mericom to the Danvers International Family. Danvers International was the second biggest communications company in the US and with the acquisition of Mericom Danvers would move firmly into first place.
“No Jason, that’s fine, would it be a problem if you gave me directions so that I could meet you tomorrow morning?”
“I guess that’s ok, I’ll email the information to you shortly.”
When Jason’s cell phone rang, Claire took the opportunity to excuse herself from his office. Crap, crap, crap, what am I going to do about this weekend?!
Chapter Two
Claire pulled out her cell phone and left her office to go down the hall to the ladies’ restroom. She looked under the stalls to make sure she was alone and called her friend Pam. Geez, has my life become a sneak to the bathroom kind of covert operation, am I back to being 15 again?
‘Hello, you have reached the voicemail of Pam Stalls at Partiez Plus, please leave a message after the tone, and I’ll return your call as soon as possible.’
Claire rolled her eyes as her call went straight to voicemail. “Pam, it's Claire, I have a problem with Saturday night; my boss needs me to work this weekend. I have to travel to Columbia, and I won’t be able to work the Hunter party; I’m sorry about leaving you hanging at the last minute.” She closed her cell phone and leaned her forehead against the bathroom wall and tried not to focus on what kind of nasty things had been there before her.
Claire first began working weekends for Pam quite by chance. With the medical bills piling up for her mother, Claire had gotten desperate for a second income to help make a dent in the constant stream of expenses. While pondering how successful someone such as herself might be as a hooker, an ad in the Sunday paper caught her attention. Ok so it’s Sunday and I shouldn’t have been wondering if I could sell my body for extra money while skipping church, talk about guilt.
Partiez Plus, a party planning company, was advertising the perfect evening and weekend flexible schedule that Claire needed. She’d called Partiez Plus that day and talked to Pam, who was frantically trying to find a party assistant for a big local celebrity’s party that evening. When Claire had inquired about the job opening, Pam had said if she could start in two hours, then she was hired. This had been the beginning of a quick friendship and some very busy weekends.
Partiez Plus covered everything from children’s birthday parties to bachelor and bachelorette parties for adults. Although very hesitant to work the bachelor parties at first, Claire had been doing them now almost exclusively for a year. If someone had told her a few years ago that she would be jumping out of birthday or bachelor party cakes, she would have told them they were crazy but after awhile, it became just like any job. Maybe in some small way it gave her a thrill to know that her father would have been so horrified that his daughter was doing something like that.
The bachelor parties paid the best and, with every cent crucial, Claire was too hard-pressed for money to stick with the lower-paying parties. This particular bachelor party was for a groom to be who lived in Florence, which was around two hours from Myrtle Beach. Claire regularly traveled on the weekends when working the parties. This party paid very well, and Claire felt sick to be forced to miss it even though Jason was generous when paying for any type of overtime hours.
Just as she was leaving the bathroom, her cell phone rang. Claire saw Pam’s name on the caller ID and answered the phone saying, “Pam, I’m really sorry about this.”
“Claire, I’ve got to have you this weekend, you know that I’ve no one else on this short notice, and these people are VIPs and use our service for a lot of different functions. If I’m forced to cancel I’ll lose their future business.”
“Pam, I don’t know what to say, I can’t get out of it. I have to travel to Columbia in the morning and will be there through Sunday.”
“Columbia, hmmm," muttered Pam, "That’s only an hour from Florence, which is closer to the party than you are now. Claire, do you think you could get away for awhile on Saturday evening and do the party and then return to Columbia?”
A small flicker of hope sprang to life within her. “Pam, I don’t know."
"I’ll double your rate if you can, Claire, I’m desperate.”
“Let me ask Jason if he’ll need me in the evening, and I’ll let you know.” After bribes and pleading from Pam, Claire closed the phone and headed back towards her office. Claire returned to her desk and tried to work up the nerve to ask Jason about Saturday Night. The switch board showed that he was on the telephone. Ok chicken, go ahead and email him instead of asking him in person. Claire opened her email program and wrote Jason a short line inquiring about Saturday Night and just stopped herself from signing it 'love', or 'lust', Claire. A few moments later the door to Jason’s office opened, and he stepped out with his briefcase.
“Claire did you get the directions I sent you?”