I was relaxing at a caf\u00e9 on my day off when a stunning woman suddenly sat at my table.<\/p>\n
\u201cHi, I’m Meredith.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked around.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I know you?\u201d<\/p>\n
She smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. But I have a strange proposition.\u201d<\/p>\n
She leaned closer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWant to make $500 for three hours of your time?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Naturally, I asked,<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the catch?\u201d<\/p>\n She explained that her strict father kept trying to set her up on dates.<\/p>\n So she had told him she already had a boyfriend.<\/p>\n There was just one problem.<\/p>\n Her fake boyfriend had suddenly bailed.<\/p>\n And now she desperately needed someone to pretend to be her partner over lunch.<\/p>\n I hesitated.<\/p>\n Then she smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’re good-looking.\u201d<\/p>\n $500 and a compliment?<\/p>\n I agreed.<\/p>\n We arrived at an expensive restaurant.<\/p>\n Meredith suddenly became nervous.<\/p>\n I laughed.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’re the one who hired me. Why are you nervous?\u201d<\/p>\n She looked at the entrance.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause my father is\u2026 intense.\u201d<\/p>\n Then the doors opened.<\/p>\n An older man walked in.<\/p>\n I looked at him.<\/p>\n My jaw dropped.<\/p>\n I knew him.<\/p>\n He was the owner of the company where I worked.<\/p>\n My boss’s boss.<\/p>\n The man who had interviewed me for my current job.<\/p>\n I turned to Meredith.<\/p>\n \u201cYou didn’t tell me who your father was.\u201d<\/p>\n She looked confused.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy? Do you know him?\u201d<\/p>\n Before I could answer, he spotted us.<\/p>\n He walked straight toward our table.<\/p>\n Then he looked at me.<\/p>\n And smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cWell,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI suppose this is the young man you’ve been telling me about.\u201d<\/p>\n I swallowed.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n Meredith squeezed my hand under the table.<\/p>\n Her father sat down.<\/p>\n Lunch began.<\/p>\n He asked me about my job.<\/p>\n My education.<\/p>\n My family.<\/p>\n My plans for the future.<\/p>\n It felt less like a date and more like a job interview.<\/p>\n Then, halfway through lunch, he suddenly asked:<\/p>\n \u201cWould you still date my daughter if she weren’t paying you?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I nearly choked.<\/p>\n Meredith’s eyes widened.<\/p>\n I looked at her.<\/p>\n She looked at me.<\/p>\n Then I said,<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n Her father leaned back.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n I could have given him a clever answer.<\/p>\n Instead, I told him the truth.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause I think your daughter is brave, funny, and probably much nicer than she wants people to believe.\u201d<\/p>\n Meredith stared at me.<\/p>\n Her father was silent.<\/p>\n Then he smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cGood answer.\u201d<\/p>\n Lunch ended.<\/p>\n Outside the restaurant, Meredith handed me the $500.<\/p>\n I took it.<\/p>\n Then she said,<\/p>\n \u201cYou know\u2026 you don’t have to disappear now.\u201d<\/p>\n I smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn’t planning to.\u201d<\/p>\n She laughed.<\/p>\n \u201cBut there’s something you should know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n Her father had secretly offered me something during lunch.<\/p>\n A promotion.<\/p>\n Apparently, he had been looking for someone trustworthy to manage a new division.<\/p>\n He had recognized my name before we even sat down.<\/p>\n The fake date wasn’t entirely an accident.<\/p>\n He had wanted to meet the person his daughter claimed to be dating.<\/p>\n But he also wanted to see what kind of person I was when I thought nobody important was watching.<\/p>\n I looked at Meredith.<\/p>\n \u201cSo your father hired me because of a fake date?\u201d<\/p>\n She smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cTechnically\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n She paused.<\/p>\n \u201cHe hired you because you passed the test.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I laughed.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd what about us?\u201d<\/p>\n She smiled.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you already have $500.\u201d<\/p>\n She stepped closer.<\/p>\n \u201cNow let’s see if you can earn a second date for free.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was relaxing at a caf\u00e9 on my day off when a stunning woman suddenly sat at my table. \u201cHi, I’m Meredith.\u201d I looked around. \u201cDo I know you?\u201d She … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1124,"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1123\/revisions\/1124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytv9.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}