Claire and the Lady Billionaire_Book 8 Read online

  That just left a lamp, of which there seemed to be none. I wrote that down on another sticky and then eyed the sofa again. It was a mid-century piece that reminded me of something that might belong in Don Draper’s office. And then suddenly, I had a brilliant idea.

  I walked around the room again. I checked the taps in the kitchen; I checked the water in the bathroom. It needed a little TLC but everything seemed to work. It sat far enough away from the other offices on the floor. No one was using it. It was just sitting there… empty and waiting. It was perfect. “Welcome to Sugar Shack, Vermillion branch,” I said out loud.

  ***

  “What are you smiling about?” Camille asked when I went back up to her office.

  “Oh, nothing,” I replied. I wanted to keep my latest scheme a secret until it was time to do the unveiling. Camille loved surprises, especially the kind that involved her receiving some much-needed pampering. I eyed a lamp that was sitting on her shelf. “Are you… using that?”

  Camille glanced at it and shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever turned it on. Take it if you want it.”

  I unplugged it and wound the cord around its base. “Shopping complete.”

  “Are you going home or out to Dad’s?” she asked.

  “Out to dad’s for the day.”

  “Will you stay there for dinner?”

  “Depends when you’re coming home,” I said and circled behind her chair. I bent and kissed her neck.

  “Mmm, not for awhile,” she sighed. “But maybe not as late as last night.”

  I kissed her again. “Should I make dinner then?”

  “If you like,” she said. “Or order something in, whatever is easier.”

  “They’re both easy,” I whispered in her ear.

  Camille shivered and then giggled. I blew in her ear a little again.

  “Careful. You’ll make me all… you know.”

  I glanced at the door. Jamie wasn’t at her desk but we could both see it from where we were. I kissed Camille’s cheek and then stood up. “I’ll hang out with dad for awhile and then hit the market on the way home.”

  “Can you take this to him?” she handed me an envelope.

  “Sure.”

  She sat back in her chair and eyed me. “I miss you, baby.”

  “I miss you too,” I said and reached for her hand. “But I’ll see you tonight, right?”

  “Right,” Camille said. She took a deep breath and sat forward in her chair again. “Give him a hug from me.”

  “I will,” I said and blew her a kiss.

  “Walk slower,” Camille giggled as I headed for the door.

  I added a little bounce to my hips for her enjoyment. “Like so?”

  “That’s… perfect.”

  I walked back to Mina’s office to return the keys. She was at her desk but busy on the phone. I stood and waited for a few minutes before she disconnected and looked up at me. “Did you find everything you need?”

  “I did. I marked a desk and a chair with a sticky note. I also pulled them out so they’re a little more obvious.” I handed her back the keys.

  “I’ll have a van drop them off tomorrow,” she said.

  “I have a question,” I said, trying to figure out the best way to ask it. “Do you know if there’s a spare office, something on a separate floor from this one, that’s empty and not being planned for reassignment?”

  “Where you just were,” Mina replied.

  “Really? It seems like someone might want to use the kitchen.”

  “No. Most of the offices that were down there merged with the thirtieth floor. They have a lunch room there.”

  “You’re basically in charge of assigning spaces, right?”

  She gave me a satisfied smile. “I am. Why?”

  “Well… since no one is using it right now, I thought it might be a good place for the Bettencourt family to meet and perhaps work more privately. With everything that’s been going on up here-”

  “I will mark it as taken,” Mina said as she pulled a clipboard from her bottom drawer.

  “You’ve been such a great help today, Mina. I’ll tell John you said hello.”

  Mina smiled back at me. “I’ll have another set of keys made for you. I’ll send them out with the desk tomorrow.”

  ***

  “I have a wicked idea,” I said when I got back to the car. Sabrina was leaning against it with her phone in hand.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “There’s an office up on the 32nd floor that no one is using. I’m going to give it a makeover; turn it into a place where Camille can get away from all the hub-bub on her floor. I want to do it up nice. I was thinking… massage table.”

  Sabrina grinned. “Another sugar shack?”

  I smiled back at her. “How’d you guess?”

  “Dirty minds think alike.”

  “Wanna help?” I asked.

  “Yeah, of course.”

  “What about a pool table?” Sabrina asked. I was making a list of shopping items on the pad of sticky notes that Mina had given me. Sabrina was burning through traffic like a Formula One driver.

  I added ‘pool table’ with a question mark to the list. “So far we have a pretty good games room. Now we need comfort.”

  “You have the couch,” Sabrina said. “Is it long enough to… you know… lie down on?”

  I hadn’t given it the lie down and bounce test but it certainly seemed big enough for two to get cozy on. “I think so.”

  “Did you smell it? That’s important.”

  I had forgotten about that. “No, that would have been smart.”

  “What you really need is a couch with a pull-out bed.”

  “What about one of those mattresses that comes in a box? No one will know it’s a bed if I get it delivered.” The last thing I needed was to draw attention to the fact that the room was getting used for the occasional conjugal visit.

  “That could work,” Sabrina agreed.

  “Paint will help. It looks like a dingy old office right now but with a rug and some nice light, maybe…”

  Sabrina smiled at me. “She’s going to love it.”

  “She’s going to think I’ve lost my mind,” I said. I was starting to question my plan altogether. “Is this a dumb idea?”

  “She’s going to love it, no matter what she does in there. Your girl needs a break. Make it a place she’ll want to hang out in: a boss cave.”

  The Boss Cave angle helped give it a less debaucherous light. Camille would only have to take the stairs down four floors to get a little distance from all the drama. Giving her a few minutes of peace every day was certainly worth the effort. But moving a pool table in without anyone noticing was definitely going to be tricky. “The pool table might have to wait, but at least we have space for it. Maybe a dartboard will suffice. Hey, I wonder if it’s possible to get kombucha on tap. She loves that stuff.”

  “You’ll have to get the locks changed,” Sabrina said. “You don’t want the cleaning guy to bring his pals up for a games night once he sees all the great stuff in there.”

  “Good point,” I agreed. “Maybe changing the locks is something we can do ourselves? I don’t want to draw attention to it.” That was the last thing Camille needed: more potential spies.

  Sabrina shrugged. “How hard could it be to change a lock?”

  I added new locks to the growing list of supplies we had to buy. The first step was clearing it with John first.

  “Mina sends her best wishes,” I told him when I arrived. John was reclining on the sofa in the living room with a book in his hand. “Whatcha reading?” I asked.

  He flashed the cover at me.

  “Superhuman Potential 2.0,” I read out loud. “Is that Anton LeBray’s new book?” Anton was Avery Dean’s husband; the elite performance coach that didn’t know how to stay off Twitter.

  “Mmm hmm,” John said, not sounding all that impressed. He closed the book and tossed it onto the coffee table besi
de him. “Enough of that.”

  “I take it you don’t think much of it.”

  “Well,” John said as he swung his legs onto the floor and sat up. “The guy has a few points, but he makes them all in the first chapter. The rest of it reads like a brochure for his seminars.”

  “It’s a bestseller,” I said, picking it up.

  “That’s why I bought it. Thought maybe I could learn something about what people want these days.”

  “And?”

  John looked over at me and rolled his eyes. “Take it. I’m done with it. How did it go at the office? Did you find everything you need?”

  “A desk and chair will be dropped off tomorrow,” I replied.

  “Good stuff. You might want to paint that room upstairs. I don’t know if you like it all white.”

  “I was thinking about adding an accent wall, like your old office,” I said.

  John laughed. “Whatever you want, just give me the receipt.”

  “So… Vermillion owns the tower it’s in, right?” I asked.

  “It sure does. It was either buy it or build my own and I liked the location.”

  “So, technically, all of the offices inside the building are yours?”

  John looked over at me and frowned. “They belong to the company. Why?”

  “I have an idea, but it might sound weird.”

  John grinned. “Uh, huh.”

  “There’s an office down on the 32nd floor. It was where I found the desk and chair for the room upstairs. I don’t need to move the rest of the furniture that’s being stored in there, but it’s a nice space that’ll work well for what I was thinking. It even has a bathroom and a kitchen area.”

  John looked puzzled. “What do you want to do with it?”

  “It’s not for me; it’s for Camille. She could really use a place to decompress. She spends so much time at the office and has no time to go anywhere else to relax. She could heat up her food and eat it in peace. She could make herself a coffee or tea and unwind for a few minutes. If she felt like-”

  “It’s a great idea. Tell Mina, she deals with all that stuff.”

  I hadn’t actually expected it to be that easy. “I asked Mina when I was there today. She said it was okay and that no one was using it.”

  “Do what you want with it then.”

  This was going to be fun. “Fantastic, thanks!”

  After we left John’s place that night, Sabrina and I hit Giant and Nippon Paints before scouring the outdoor market for the fun stuff. Pretty soon, we had everything we needed to outfit the Boss Cave and my new office. We left it all piled in the car and planned to start painting the next morning after training.

  The desk and chair had already been delivered by the time we got to John’s place the next day. They were sitting on his front porch waiting to be loaded in. Sabrina and I carried the desk upstairs in three pieces and fastened it back together. Then she helped me paint the wall that faced the door a deep chocolate brown. After that, setting-up was as simple as moving the desk into position and plugging in the lamp that I’d poached from Camille’s office. I’d already decided to leave the bed that was in there where it was, knowing that I might need it one day.

  Mina had included an envelope with my own set of keys for the Boss Cave along with the desk delivery. After Sabrina and I finished upstairs, we sat out back and had lunch with John.

  “I was thinking of heading out a little early today so that we can start setting up the new space for Camille.”

  “Smart idea,” John said as he bit into a huge forkful of salad. “What have you got planned?”

  “It’s dusty in there,” Sabrina said.

  “Yeah, it needs a good cleaning. Then we’re going to paint and decorate.”

  “We’ve got people that can do all that for you,” John said.

  Of course, Vermillion probably had a long list of cleaners and contractors, but I really hadn’t thought of handing the project over to someone else. I looked over at Sabrina. “I don’t know… I like doing this stuff. Don’t you?”

  “I don’t mind getting my hands dirty for a good cause,” Sabrina said. She looked at John. “You should see the stuff Claire bought yesterday.”

  John looked back and forth between us. A smile spread across his face. He definitely seemed curious.

  “Would you like to take a look after lunch?” I asked.

  A little while later, we all walked out front to the car. Sabrina opened the trunk and I pulled out some of the stuff and laid it out on the grass.

  John shook his head and laughed.

  “What do you think?” I asked him.

  “Does it matter what I think?” John asked.

  “Some of it may look a little out there, but I’m going for a fun and light atmosphere. I don’t want to put her to sleep; I want there to be energy in the room, you know?”

  John smiled again. “And this?” He poked at a large package wrapped in bubble wrap that I’d purposefully left in the trunk.

  “That is… a massage table,” I said. Sabrina looked away, trying not to laugh.

  John grinned at me. “A massage table. I see.”

  “I thought maybe…”

  “I don’t want to hear it,” he said and laughed again. “Have fun, kid. Take pictures; I want to see it when it’s all done.” He walked back up the steps to the house.

  And so the Boss Cave project began. We cleaned it from top to bottom, then got to work on giving the dull-gray lounge area some color. We painted the walls a nice golden yellow and then washed a slightly darker shade over top of it with handfuls of cheesecloth. The result was a rich sunny texture that completely transformed the room.

  With a little indirect lighting set up in the corners and against the walls, it was possible to unscrew most of the fluorescent bulbs from the light panels on the ceiling. “Now this is a room I’d like to hang out in,” Sabrina said when we were done.

  Next, it was time to set up the lounge space we’d had so much fun planning. Before long, the Boss Cave was a bona fide establishment, complete with a healthy selection of snacks and beverages for Camille to enjoy whenever she wanted. I couldn’t wait to show it to her.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The day finally came to do the big reveal. Someone had canceled a lunch appointment with Camille and Jamie used the time slot to pencil me in instead.

  “What are you doing here?” Camille asked when she saw me waiting out at Jamie’s desk.

  “I’m here to take you to lunch,” I replied.

  “Oh, Claire. I’m sorry, I can’t. I have a meeting.”

  “Well, yes and no,” Jamie said, rising from her seat. “Claire is your 1 o’clock today. I thought it would be a nice surprise and we all know you could use more of those. Have fun.” She gave us both a smile and then went off to take her lunch break.

  Camille grinned at me. “You two have been conspiring.”

  “Jamie was a willing participant in my diabolical lunch plan.”

  “I love it. Where do you want to go?”

  “I have it all arranged. Follow me.”

  We walked to the elevators, but instead of pressing the button, I took a sharp detour down the hall toward the stairs.

  “Where… are you going?” Camille asked, lagging behind.

  I smiled back at her. “You’ll see.”

  She knew something was up but she followed along beside me without asking questions. When we reached the 32nd floor, I stopped and held the stairwell door open for her. That made her really curious. “What are you up to?” she asked.

  “Straight through,” I said and pointed down the corridor. Camille walked on, looking at each closed door that we passed. “I haven’t been down here in years.”

  “This way,” I said and pulled her special set of keys from my pocket. When we reached the door of the Boss Cave, I stopped and handed them to her. “Try the gold one.”

  Camille took the set of keys from my fingers and slid the gold key into the lock. She
turned the handle and pushed open the door. I reached around beside her and flicked on the lights. The stacks of furniture and boxes were still there, though Sabrina and I had tidied it all to make a nice wide corridor through the center. Camille was looking very confused.

  “Do you need help moving something?” she asked.

  “Nope. Come on in.”

  I closed the door behind her and clicked the deadbolt into place. Camille scanned the furniture and boxes on either side of the room as if they might give a reason as to why we were there. I pointed her toward the door. “Try the silver key with the happy face on it.”

  Camille looked down at it and gave me a smile before sliding it into the lock. She pushed the door open and stepped inside. I’d already prepped things; the lights were on and music was playing softly in the little office. I stood back and watched Camille take it all in.

  “Claire, what is this place?” she asked. Her eyes were wide as she focused on all the little areas we’d set up: the beanbag chairs in the corner, the wild purple and blue rug beneath them, the lava lamps and the long chains of white Christmas lights, the video projector that was playing a reel of the Oregon coastline on the wall in front of it, the soft blue chenille spread on the long orange couch, the happy face throw cushions, the espresso maker on the counter, and the beaded curtain hanging in front of the massage room door.

  “This place is for you. I call it… the Boss Cave. Come, look in here.” I pulled her toward the little room at the far end. The vaporizer was blowing calming essential oils into the air. The portable massage table was set up in the center, with clean white sheets waiting for her. The Bluetooth speaker in the corner was playing soft ambient music.

  “I can book you in whenever you like.”

  Camille laughed. “How about right now?”

  “That sounds great,” I said. “There’s a bathroom. Let me go wash my hands.”