I Wanted to Impress My Classmates at Our 20-Year Reunion, So I Hired a Handsome Actor to Be My Plus-One – What Happened There Left Everyone Speechless
The words didn't change.
Mark believed her.
By the time I understood what was happening, my marriage already had Miriam's voice in it.
For two weeks, I stared at that reunion message every night.
My friend Claire found me in my office one afternoon.
"Delete it," she said after reading the message. "You're not going."
"If I don't, she'll tell everyone I was too scared to show my face."
"You're not going."
"So let her talk."
"That's the problem," I said. "I always did."
Claire softened. "Then don't go alone."
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That night, I opened my laptop and did the only thing that made sense to my tired, wounded brain.
I hired an actor to be my plus-one. Not a boyfriend, not an escort.
An actor, through a real talent agency, for a social event. I didn't need romance. I needed one person beside me who hadn't already been handed Miriam's version of me.
"Then don't go alone."
His name was Norton, and we met two days before the reunion in a coffee shop near campus.
He arrived in a gray blazer, handsome enough to make me consider fleeing through the back door.
"You're Daphne?" he asked.
"Unfortunately."
His mouth twitched. "That bad?"
"I'm hiring a stranger to help me survive a high school reunion. What do you think?"
"Fair." He sat across from me. "Your booking notes were clear. No fake romance, no kissing, no jealousy act."
"You're Daphne?"
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"I'm an English lecturer," I said. "I hate cheap fiction."
He laughed, and I relaxed a little.
"So what exactly is my role?" he asked.
"A steady witness," I said. "Miriam bullied me for years. Then she helped end my marriage by telling my ex-husband the same kind of lies. Now she's invited me to watch her stand beside him."
Norton's face changed. It wasn't pity. It was attention.
"So what exactly is my role?"
"That's cruel."
"She's very good at cruel."
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