this duck is getting all fancied up tonight.

tuxedo.

black tie.

charity gala.

Madam has one of those vanilla business events where everyone wears expensive clothes, shakes hands, and talks about investments, boards of directors, and other things that make this duck’s eyes glaze over after about ten minutes.

my assignment?

be Madam’s date.

i actually enjoy these nights. there is something fun about getting cleaned up. Cook spends half an hour making sure i knew how to tie a proper bow tie. Secretary inspects my shoes like they are being audited. Madam takes one look at me, adjusts my cufflinks, brushes a speck of lint off my lapel, smiles, and declares me presentable.

high praise.

what always fascinates me is how people see us.

they see a beautiful, confident, incredibly successful woman walking into the room with a well-dressed man on her arm.

they assume i’m the boyfriend.

or the husband.

or maybe the lucky guy who somehow landed a woman so far out of his league.

sometimes i hear people whisper, “what a handsome couple.”

i just smile.

because they have absolutely no idea.

they don’t know that when we get home, i’ll be hanging her dress, polishing her shoes, laying out tomorrow’s schedule, and asking if there is anything else she needs before bed.

they don’t know that i don’t belong beside her.

i belong to her.

there is a pretty big difference.

sometimes i wonder what would happen if everyone in that ballroom suddenly learned the truth.

what if Madam stood up during dinner, tapped her glass for attention, and casually announced, “oh, by the way, duckie isn’t my date. he’s my property.”

what would happen?

would people gasp?

would they laugh?

would they be fascinated?

would they suddenly start replaying every interaction they’d watched all evening through a completely different lens?

and then i wonder how quickly they would realize she wasn’t joking.

because if Madam gave me a command in the middle of that ballroom, i would obey it without hesitation.

that is simply who we are.

thankfully for me, Madam enjoys keeping those worlds separate.

which means tonight i’ll just smile politely, escort an amazing woman around a beautiful charity event, and let everyone continue believing they’ve figured us out.

they haven’t.

not even close.