in the air. “With the right strategy you can appear more successful, more popular and more interesting than you are in real life. But face-to-face? Forget it.”
“It’s not that hard to do something wild and crazy. Take my word for it. All you need is poor judgment and witnesses. The problem is living it down for the rest of your life.”
“Not you. You’re the golden boy. You could do anything and it doesn’t stick to you.” Claire slowly pushed her hair from her face and sat up straight. “In fact, you’re an expert on this. You could help me reinvent myself.”
Jason’s eyes widened. “Excuse me? I don’t know anything about transformations or changing an image. That’s why I hired you to promote this place.”
“But I don’t have a personal image.” She pulled at the lapels of her blazer and smoothed her hands over the pink blouse she wore underneath. “And it’s time to work on that. With your help.”
“No way, I’m not doing it.” He wasn’t sure what all it would entail, but his imagination was going wild. Jason didn’t like that determined look in Claire’s eyes. He raised his hands as if he could stop her. “If this guy is making you do weird assignments for an interview, what is he going to make you do once you get the job? I’m not so sure about this Max Blair.”
She slapped her hand against the bar. “Jason, I’m calling in a favor.”
“No.” He stood up and crossed his arms. “When I said I owe you one, I meant something like a reference or a free case of wine.”
Claire slowly rose from her seat and met his gaze. She had a spark in her eye that he hadn’t seen before. “Do you know how many favors I’ve done for you? How many times I made your project my top priority? You wouldn’t want that to stop now, would you?”
“What are you saying? That you’ll stop working for me?” He couldn’t let that happen. Claire’s work was critical to his success. Not only that, but she made his work life easier.
“No, I will continue to work for you because we have a contract.” She copied his stance and crossed her arms. “But I won’t break my neck trying to meet your insane deadlines and emergencies.”
“You wouldn’t.” She couldn’t. Claire never said no to him. He hadn’t realized that until now.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t go that far. I’m calling in all my favors.” She pointed at him. “If you help me transform into a party girl for one week, I promise to wipe the slate clean. You won’t owe me anything.”
Jason paused. Anything? That was a generous offer. “Seriously?”
“I promise.”
He believed her, but that didn’t mean he should agree. “This is going to blow up in our faces.”
Her eyes twinkled when she realized he was weakening. “No one will know.”
Jason scoffed at her prediction. “You are transforming yourself into a wild party girl. Someone is going to notice.”
“It’ll only be temporary.” She clasped her hands together, silently begging him to agree. “You can spare a week.”
“There is no such thing as a temporary reputation.” He’d been labeled as the golden boy in middle school and everyone in town still expected him to succeed in everything he did.
“I got it!” Claire’s eyes grew round as the excitement built inside her. “I’ll tell everyone I went off the rails and you pulled me back from the brink of self-destruction. You’ll be the hero in the story.”
Claire loved storytelling in her social media campaigns but this was different. “No one is going to believe that.”
“Please, I can spin a story,” Claire said with quiet confidence. “Max doesn’t agree with some of my methods or my emphasis on storytelling. This is my chance to show him that I know what I’m talking about. So what do you say? Are you in?”
Jason sighed and raked his hand through his hair. It was clearly important to Claire to show her expertise to this so-called legend. But Jason didn’t trust the guy’s motives. He doubted there was a legitimate job offer at the end of the test. Claire was naive and her ambitions were blinding her to the risks. He needed to watch over Claire and make sure she didn’t do something that could hurt her in the long run.
“I’m in,” he said with great reluctance. “What all does Max want you to do? Start from the beginning.”
“REALLY? YOU’RE IN?” Claire was surprised by Jason’s answer. He was obviously not thrilled about her plan and she’d figured she’d have to do a lot more convincing. She doubted he would go back on his word but she couldn’t take any chances with so much at stake. “I can’t afford for you to have second thoughts.”
“What’s there to think about?” he asked as he sat down on the bar stool. “You need my help and I need yours.”
Claire frowned. Was it really that simple for him? “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
She bit her lip before she asked any more questions. The last thing she wanted to do was point out the inconveniences and potential problems. “You won’t regret it.” She grabbed her messenger bag and hurriedly opened it. “I will make this up to you.”
“We’ll see.” Jason rubbed his hands over his face and sighed deeply. “How much of a reinvention are we talking about? Is it just a new wardrobe or do you have to create a secret life?”
“Something in between.” Claire stopped pulling her laptop computer out of her bag. She tried to remember what she had told Max about her wild life. “I was dipping my toes in the reinvention idea and said I’d joined a Roller Derby team. If anyone asks, my Roller Derby name is Claire Carnage.”
Jason started to laugh and Claire enjoyed watching him. He tossed back his head, the lines around his eyes deepened and the sound of his laugh encouraged others to join in.
“And he believed you?” he asked.
“I do an e-newsletter for a local derby team, so I was convincing. But it was hard coming up with a name. Kim got that off a name generator.”
“My sister is helping you with this?” He sat up straight. “Then why do you need me?”
“Because Kim is on the other side of the state.” And her best friend was against this project. She didn’t like the sound of Max Blair, either, and she predicted that all of this would turn into a mess.
Jason’s eyes widened with concern as he watched her set up her computer, notepads and a collection of highlighters on the bar. “Wait, what is all this?”
“I always carry these things in my bag. You never know when an idea is going to strike,” she explained as she placed a file folder on the bar. “Let’s put together a strategy for the week.”
“No, no, no.” He started waving his hands.
