We both just stared at each other in silence.

It’s not my fault my mom taught me to be polite!

It sure got me in a lot of trouble this time though.

Eventually she moved on,

which felt like an eternity to me,

but probably wasn’t that long; since I don’t think they noticed.

After that I thought of ways to explain that to her:
Oh I was this guy’s pretend wife; please don’t tell anyone.

I’ll be in serious trouble if you tell a-

She’d probably tell; if I told her the truth.

I could try to lie to her,

but that would just make her think it was weird I was…

…working.

Or maybe,

 I just tell this whole convoluted story about how-

Yeah, no that won’t work.

My best bet is to ignore her; it wasn’t me.

I was-

That guy would be a perfect alibi if he wasn’t

also here.

“You going to answer us?”

“Huh?”

I had gotten completely stressed over seeing my coworker,

That I forgot how trapped I was here.

“Well, we stopped at like 1.5 Billion”

“Oh, yeah, sorry…”

“So?”

“I can’t…”

“Why not?
Just take the money, and leave!”

They were still going on about this,

And I was going to have to come up with an excuse to leave.

Maybe the bathroom?

I could go in an jump out the w-

No that’s only possible for the employee only bathrooms,

And I am not letting them find out about that.

Of course, they built all the customer bathrooms upstairs.

I understand the smell,

but it’s just horrible; for escape.

That’d probably be a really weird thing for a restaurant to design for though.

What’s a good excuse then?

…

Music lessons!

They’ll believe someone auditioning,

would be studying music right?

I’m 24, young enough to still be in Uni, so

It’ll be fine

…

probably.

Unless they have access to the records…

Rich people probably have the ability to do that right?

I’ve seen it in the movies,

And some novels I read.

It’s like they have superpowers.

Creepy superpowers that realistically would be really weird,

That they know random stuff about the protag-

Wait how did he know I like Ki-

Wait no, that’s just a common favorite food;

He doesn’t have superpowers.

Phew, I’m in the clear;

Not pretend-dating weird creepy rich guy,

Who knows every little thing about me.

Wait I’ve been monologuing for a while;

What are they doing?

Oh no, I don’t want to stop;

What if they-

Wait, they’re just eating their food…

Somehow that’s worse.

Did they just accept the fact that I daydream?

Wait, my mom told me I talk out loud sometimes…

Did I tell them everything?

I’ll just have to act natural.

“So, uh, what’s that?”

“Oh it’s a-[]-they’re only farmed in a specific part of -[]-,

Then they’re brought here.”

His mother had an unusually pleasant tone for some reason.

They’re planning something.

Aren’t they?

“Here, you don’t seem to have a fork;

You can take this extra they handed over to me”

Why didn’t they give me a fork?
It’s weird that they didn’t do that?
Was she treating me badly now that she knew I wasn’t a “rich person” like them.

I took the fork,

 and began eating what I considered to be

normal lobster.

Then as if right on queue,

She took the fork; right out of hand.

“Oh I’m sorry,

I didn’t see your fork over the lobster.”

She smiled a weirdly sinister,

yet gleeful smirk.

Like she did something really sneaky,

And had gotten away with it.

I just grabbed the fork next to me,

that I didn’t notice before.

Weird.

Then I saw her take out a plastic bag,

And put my fork inside of it.

She was also wearing glove just like her son,

Which I only just realized.

Was I some sort of weird poor people species of human?

Was she going to go do some forensics testing on me?
Was she thinking her son was going to catch the poor disease?

Were they snickering;

Because they could look at my ancestry?

“You going to eat anymore?”

I got it now…
They poisoned the food.

They’re using me as a test subject;

after they ate the food…

Okay, that theory needs some work,

but-

What are they planning?

I can honestly admit I have no idea.

They’re scary; sure,

but they’re also just creepy.

I just had enough.

The music lessons thing will work, or I’ll deal with it failing…

…later.

“Sorry, I have lessons in a bit;

I’ll have to go.”

I tried to sound as nice as I could.

It seemed to work;

since they just let me leave.

“Oh alright then,

Feel free to come meet us another time”

What was she smiling about?

I was dating her son, 

and she was mad about it?
I was preventing her from expanding her business what was there to-

I should just take this as a lucky break;

Today’s been exhausting.

Just as I got up;

he returned.

He ruined my perfect escape plan…

Now I’ll overthink this for another 30 minutes!

He was carrying Kimchi though;

It smelled nice.

“Oh it’s a shame you came so late son;

Your girlfriend had to go attend her music lesson”

He seemed just as uncomfortable about by his mother’s “niceness”,

But he seemed like he knew what it meant.

Though I could tell he wasn’t missing an opportunity to leave

as soon as possible:

”Oh yeah,

I came back; because I forgot

I had to go take her there.”

He added onto my excuse;

Maybe they won’t look into it if he says that.

“Please be on your way then,”

So much politeness was off-putting,

Especially when she looked like she wanted to have you killed on the spot.

We just both quickly left;

trying to keep as calm as possible until we were outside.

Though the second we were outside; 

He immediately asked me a weird question.

“Did she give you a fork?”

An overly specific question, that I immediately understood.

So she was trying to find some sort of p-

“Did she?”

He seemed like he was panicking when he asked.

Like my answer could be life-changing.

“Yes?”

“Oh no…”

“Oh no why?”

What could be so bad about that?

It couldn’t be th-

“You know those creepy rich people in some romances?”

”Yes?”

This was something I could get.

He was explaining in terms I understood immediately,

But maybe it would’ve been better if I didn’t.

“Well, my mom is probably what they were based off of…”

”So she’ll run a background ch-”

”Worse.

She’ll do DNA test,

fingerprint you and document it

and then use her systems to check if you’re the same person
every time you meet.”

“What.”

“Yeah, in 2 hours;

they’ll know mostly everything about you.”

“Mostly?”

Don’t rich people in those stories just call a guy,

And randomly know everything about you?

”Well they can’t just find private conversations with your friends,

or read your thoughts.

Plus written documents,

if no one knows about them.”

“Well what if my friends tell?”

I knew I didn’t really have any friends after Brad,

and just lived without friends for my last year of high school,

but still-

I was curious.

“You don’t look like you have any friends...

Have you ever uploaded anything about yourself online?”

He said it like he knew everything about me.

What does he know?

I had friends…

If you counted my mom and dad…

I could count them.

“I have friends…”

     I said defending myself.

I could make friends if I wanted to too.

I just didn’t want to.

“I’m sure you do”

That sounded sarcastic.

“You don’t mean that”

“You might have to play my wife, fiance,

For a bit longer”

He said changing the topic.

“Wait but what about the fri-”

”She got the DNA stuff,

so she’ll track you down and find you…

If she finds out you’re not dating me;

she’ll probably just ban you from ever doing music publicly.

If she finds out you are dating me;

She’ll try to split us up then ban you from music,

so you’ll never see me again.”

Both options were bad,

but at least pretending could allow me to continue music,

And find that boy.

“Alright then.”

I had been trapped into a deal I never asked for.

Maybe he was a creepy rich person just like them,

and this was their plan.

Thinking about that gives me the creeps.

“So you need help hiding?”

”What?”

“Well I met you when you were working here,

and your hood is down.”

“So what?
I can come up with a good excuse.

I’m the master of a good excuse”

That was a lie that he immediately picked up on.

“You want help avoiding this job then?
Ms. I can come up with a good excuse.”

He was taunting me and it was annoying.

What does he know?

I can come up with a good excuse.

I even know he should’ve used Mrs. if he was really, 

that much better at pretending.

I began walking away back home, when he stopped me.

He grabbed my freezing cold hand.

It would’ve gotten warmer if he wasn’t wearing gloves.

I don’t know how he annoyed me without doing anything,

but maybe it was a special skill he had.

“Okay look I’m sorry,

I was a bit mean to you, but I just…”

He sounded sorry as he spoke

And he looked sorry.

He was a good actor though.

What did he just need anyways?

What could it be?
Wasn’t the acting that placed my future at risk enough?

“I... want to learn the violin.”

Well that was a surprise,

His hands looked like they’d be perfect for any instrument.

Had he wasted that talent all these years?

“You don’t know how to play?”
I sounded like I was mocking him.

Okay, maybe I was a bit.

I was also genuinely curious though.

Most people at least try an instrument,

But to never learn it?

Maybe he was a piano kid…

Like Brad…

He seemed to recognize the sadness in my eyes,

so he tried to distract me:
”Yeah I uh never learned how to play,

But I saw recordings of you playing and they were amazing.”

He was probably just complimenting me,

So I would listen to him.

“Why can’t you just get someone else to teach you?”

“You know how embarrassing it’d be

if the CEO Of Lition Corp.

Didn’t know how to do something?”

”No, I think it’s more embarrassing you think that way”

“No, the people at the gatherings,

Where all the rich people party care a lot.”

“They have gatherings?
Like the 1800s?”

“More 1500s, but yes”

As if I needed anything else to prove to me,

that rich people were insane.

“Why would it even matter what they think?”

”It doesn’t,

but it’s just really embarrassing for me.

Plus, my mom will probably punish me for playing;

if she doesn’t like it.”

“Are you serious?”

That was the most childish thing I ever heard.

I thought he was different,

But was he just as ch-

“Could you just teach me please?
It’ll give you a reason to quit that job.

Plus I’ll pay you well for it…”

He asked like it was more for me than him.

“How well?”

…

Then I realized his mom owned the company.

He didn’t really have that much money.

He was lying.

“I can pay you in- you can live with me!”

Well that escalated quickly.

“No.”

”It’ll be like you make more money;

Because you won’t spend any on housing.”

“No.”

“Think about how much rent can cost.”

I thought:
”No”

“I’ll help you get music out there to find that composer guy,

And give you money once I do own the company.
Alright?”

He gave me money.

He gave me music,

And he gave me what I wanted most.

That sounded too good to be true.

Like the ones super rich love interests in stories I read

give out to the female lead they love,

But he was definitely not in love with me.

“So what’s the catch?”

”Why are you asking like I’m some sort of scammer?
You know the catch.

Be my pretend girlfriend; until I inherit the company.”

I sighed, as I continued walking.

He followed me.

“Where are we going?”
He asked, looking around.

“My home”

“So you’re going to help me then?”
He seemed awfully happy.

This day just keeps getting longer.