Family gatherings were the worst for Lara, especially since her sister, Emily, began to make fun of her love life, or lack thereof. Determined to sit through her father’s birthday dinner, Lara decides to hire a boyfriend for the night. Little did she know that a romantic comedy would play out.
I love my family, but family gatherings used to be a nightmare for me. Every single time we got together, my sister Emily would find some way or the other to poke fun at my single life.
Last Thanksgiving, she took it too far and even set a place at the table for my “imaginary boyfriend,” complete with a hand-drawn face on a napkin. Everyone around the table laughed while I forced a smile.
“It’s funny, Lara!” she would say whenever I brought up the incident.
It was anything but funny.
Now, my father’s birthday is coming up, and of course, it was to be celebrated with a family dinner.
“There’s no way I can sit through another one of those events with my family,” I told my friend, Kate, when we met for coffee.
“I’m telling you now, Emily probably has something up her sleeve already,” I grumbled.
“Then just hire someone out for the night!” Kate chuckled, adding sugar to her coffee.
“Hire a man?” I exclaimed.
“Yes! My sister did it through an agency. She didn’t want to go to her ex-boyfriend’s wedding by herself, so she found the agency. Look, it’s all above board and the guys do exactly what you need them to do.”
“It’s not… sleazy?” I asked, trying to think of a better word.
“No, Lara,” she giggled. “And you know my sister. She’s so prim and proper! She wouldn’t have gone ahead with it if she didn’t think that everything was legitimate.”
Which is how I ended up hiring a date to the family gathering. I found Jake through the same agency that Kate’s sister used. He was charming, easy to talk to, and seemed to understand exactly what I needed.
We met a few times before the dinner to get our story straight, because the last thing I wanted was Emily to get wind of something fishy.
“So, the story is that we met at a mutual friend’s party, hit it off over their dog, and have been dating for three months,” Jake said, grinning. “Sounds about right.”
“Look, any story involving myself and a dog are winners,” I replied, opening our Chinese takeout for dinner.
“And I’m an architect with a passion for cooking, right?” he confirmed.
My Pink Hair Was Banned at Work, So I Started Showing Up With “Terrible Wigs”
Following a job offer, a 29-year-old woman faced a huge dilemma. She was given an ultimatum: conceal her pink hair or seek employment elsewhere. Embracing the challenge, she devised a clever solution to the restriction, sparking widespread attention online.
Emily Benschoter turned to TikTok to share her journey at her new workplace, but with the twist that she can never show her pink hair while she’s on duty. She only found out the fact after she had already been interviewed and offered the position, a front-of-house role in the hospitality industry, because there was no prior contact with her employers in person or over video chat during the hiring process.
Her manager then suggested she wear a wig and that’s when she decided to pick the funniest ones she could find. Her first TikTok video with the first wig went up on July 19, 2023, and it read: «When you have pink hair, but corporate does not approve, so you wear terrible wigs.»
Since then, people have become invested in her wig choices and her clips have been viewed millions of times. «The worse the wig, the better,» she admitted in an interview. «It is a way to open up the conversation with the customers who think it is insane that I have to cover my pink hair.»
In the same interview, Benschoter also took time to explain why she didn’t just simply dye her hair instead. «Dying my hair for a job I work at for 40 hours per week wasn’t an option,» she revealed. «I am a self-expressive person and I feel very confident with pink hair, so I came up with a solution to keep the job and my hair.»
Despite her having fun with the situation, she doesn’t approve of it. «It’s dehumanizing that I can’t be accepted at face value because my hair is a non-traditional color,» she said. «It’s so superficial that my hair color is an obstacle.»
Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time someone goes viral on social media because of hair trouble. A different woman also went viral on TikTok after a visit to the hairdresser went wrong. She ended up leaving the salon with a disastrous blowout and the before-and-after photos prompted a massive reaction from folks online. See the photos here.
Preview photo credit emuhleeebee / TikTok, emuhleeebee / TikTok
Leave a Reply