He offers her some weed to relax

The Frenchman made a sympathetic noise. “Mon Dieu, Jessica! You need to relax!”

“You’ve got a point, Pierre. I’ll do that when I’m retired…”

“No, no, no, ma vide-couilles, you need to take your breaks! Self-care is important!” Pierre chided her. “In fact, I have a proposition for you…”

“You do?” she cocked an eyebrow, giving the man a testing smile, which immediately turned into an intrigued gasp when he reached into his suit pocket and produced a small, tightly rolled joint.

“Pierre, you can’t be serious!” she chided, an amused smirk on her lips as she leaned in, carefully glancing towards the waiting staff who hung around at the bar, not paying them any mind.

“Come on…” the Frenchman teased, a boyish grin on his face as he playfully waved the joint back and forth in front of her face, “Don’t tell me you never indulged.”

“Of course, I have!” she blushed. Realizing she was defending herself a little too intensely, she lowered her voice, adding: “When I was younger. But I’m a mother now, a role model Is… is that even legal here?!”

“Who knows… who cares! I’ll tell you something though,” Pierre gave her a conspiratorial wink as he put the joint between his lips, then fished a shiny, metal lighter from his pocket, “You share this joint with me and I will sign with your company!”

The words took a moment to sink in and Jessica was speechless, captivated by the man’s calm confidence as he stared back at her, apparently perfectly at ease. She hadn’t smoked weed in years. Of course, she had done it in the past, she was a famous actress and had attended some spectacular parties. In fact, she had experimented with some other substances as well, but that had been years ago. Now she was the face of her company. A photo of her lighting up a blunt with some strange, attractive man late at night in a European hotel would raise questions that were unbecoming to a woman of her stature. She bit her lip, her mind racing. On the other hand, Honest really needed this hire. If all it took was to have a relaxing joint with this man, she could easily manage that!

Swallowing hard, she made her decision. Lifting her finger, she pointed at him, making sure he understood how serious she was. “If I do this, you’ll sign with us?”

He smiled. “If you smoke this one with me, I’ll sign whatever you want…”

She gave him a piercing look, then sighed, giving in. “Alright, Mr. Gane, you win! But we’re not doing this here! I’m not going to smoke weed in fucking public!”

“Naturally,” The Frenchman grinned, extremely satisfied with the turn of events.