I couldn’t let Jordan walk in with Percy and reduce me to the sad, discarded wife.
Not in front of my children.
Not in front of the neighbors who had watched our family for twenty years.
I opened my laptop and searched for something I’d never imagined typing.
“Actors for hire, private events, discreet.”
An agency near downtown responded within the hour.
Something I’d never imagined typing.
The woman on the phone was efficient.
As if hiring a fake boyfriend was as ordinary as ordering catering.
“We have someone available Saturday. His name is Clark. Very professional.”
“Just for a few hours,” I said quickly. “He doesn’t have to do much. Just stand next to me. Maybe smile.”
“Of course. He’ll play the role you describe.”
“He doesn’t have to do much.”
I hung up and pressed my palms flat against the counter.
I’d become the kind of woman who paid strangers to pretend she was loved.
***
We arranged to meet at a coffee shop the day before the party.
I got there early, ordered nothing, and picked at a napkin until it was shreds.
When Clark walked in, I actually looked over my shoulder to see who he was really coming to meet.
We arranged to meet
He was tall.
Dark hair, warm brown eyes.
The kind of clean-cut face you saw in magazine ads.
He slid into the seat across from me and offered his hand like we were old friends.
“You must be my client,” he said.
“I think this was a mistake.”
He tilted his head, waiting.
“You must be my client,”
“Look at you,” I whispered. “Nobody is going to believe you’re with someone like me. My ex-husband will laugh in my face. He’ll know.”
“What do you do for a living?” Clark asked.
The question caught me off-guard.
“I raised four children while he built his career. I ran the household. I kept everything together while he cheated on me for a year.”
“Nobody is going to believe you’re with someone like me.”
Clark nodded slowly.
Then he leaned forward.
“So you kept an entire family standing while a grown man lied to you every day. That’s not weakness. That’s the kind of person anyone would want to stand beside.”
Heat rushed to my face.
I looked down at my shredded napkin.
“That’s not weakness.”
