Just One More Lie

Henry and Laura were arguing in the living room. Anne sat on the couch with her phone, seeming bored.

“You really told her we have two daughters?”

“I know it was stupid, but what was I supposed to say? She is my boss’s boss’s boss and she likes me. When she was talking about how bad it is for children to grow up without siblings, I panicked!”

“But Anne grew up fine!”

“I know that, but she is not the type of person to listen to others!”

“You know how easy that will be to disprove, right? One look into your phone gallery would be enough, unless you claim the other child is ugly,” he laughed.

“I know, I know.” He sighed. “But I don’t think she will be nosy. She asked some questions about our children, I made stuff up, and she seemed satisfied.”

“Let’s hope that’s true. You talked about wanting that promotion for months. I’m sorry I got so agitated, but I just don’t want to see you lose it over something so trivial.”

The atmosphere got more relaxed.

“Thanks, honey. I really didn’t think this through.”

“By the way,” Henry laughed, “what did you tell her about our second daughter?”

Laura laughed as well. “Well, we had her directly after Anne, so she is eighteen now. Her name is Hailey, and she is currently unhappy with her school. She will be in her last year after summer break is over.”

“That seems quite specific.”

“I only added the school stuff because Sarah was ranting about public schools. It seemed an easy way to score some points with her, and I already started lying anyway.”

“Sarah is the woman you said this to? Didn’t I meet her at one of your work events some time ago? A bit older than us, black hair, quite tall?”

“Yeah, that’s her. Her youngest daughter just finished her last year, and she was boasting about the great school she went to.”

“But wasn’t she quite nosy? I met her for the first time and she asked with whom I lost my virginity! I think you might want to confess your lie to her. It will be bad, but it would be even worse for her to discover it on her own.”

“It will be fine, honey. How would she discover it? She never met Anne either.”

After her name was mentioned again, Anne perked up.

“Who never met me?”

“It doesn’t matter, your mom was just telling a story from work.”

“Come on, I heard you laughing at times. Tell me, too.”

“Fine, if you insist.”

The next day, Laura came back from work looking a bit pale. Henry was currently playing a game with Anne.

“What’s wrong, Mom?”

“Yeah, tell us, honey.”

“You were right, Henry. The lying was a problem. The good news is that Sarah seems to want to get closer to me. But unfortunately, she wants to set up a meeting between our families! She says she even took a rare day off.”

“So what did you say? Did you come clean?”

“She could have just said she is busy on that day!”

“No, Anne, I have to work that day, but she gave me the day off! It’s tomorrow, so I can’t pretend I have something planned. But I was too scared to confess.”

“Tomorrow? That’s sudden—are you sure she doesn’t suspect something?”

“I don’t think I gave her a reason to. I honestly think she just doesn’t have many friends to talk to, so she was seemingly happy I shared so many of her viewpoints.”

“Okay, let’s think this through calmly. First: Is her approval this important for your promotion?”

“Yes. She is as high up as possible for me to meet. Disagreeing with her would have been bad for me, maybe salvageable, but if she finds out I lied, it might not just be a missed promotion—it might cost me my job!”

“Okay, breathe, honey. Anne and I will help you.”

Anne didn’t seem overly enthusiastic but agreed.

“I assume you already thought of this, but can’t you just say Hailey is not at home?”

“No, when I told her about Hailey being unhappy with her school, I said that we would look at new schools together this week.”

“Okay, then maybe Hailey is sick? We could meet her, just the three of us.”

“I tried that, but she said if she isn’t better by tomorrow, we could do a Zoom meeting.”

“Okay, but that’s an improvement. We just need someone to pretend to be Hailey. Anne, can you ask one of your friends to help us?”

Laura now seemed hopeful.

“I can try, but I don’t want to give you false hope, as except for two of them, they’re all on vacation.”

She typed something on her phone.

“I’ll tell you when they answer, but you should probably think about an alternative.”

“Thanks, sweetie. But the idea is good, honey. What about hiring an actor?”

“On this short notice? Well, can’t hurt to try.”

Henry sat at his desk and searched for actors.

“Mom, Dad, bad news. My friends said no. Mary is actually sick, and, as I thought, there is no way Alice would do this.”

“That sucks, because I have also not found any actors.”

“No, no, no, that can’t be! I thought we found an out. There is no one else who can play Hailey. Sarah emphasized the importance of siblings, so Anne is not an option. I obviously have to be there and—”

“And what?”

“There might be a way. Henry, tell me, if a sick daughter would go on a Zoom call with her family, she might wear a mask to not spread it to her family, right?”

“I guess so.”

“And depending on the camera setup, you would only see her head.”

“Yes, but what are you getting—”

“And it is plausible to be shy in that situation and not talk too much. And with a bad mic and a few connection issues, the quality will be bad.”

“You are right in all of that, Laura, but we’re still missing a person.”

Anne seemed to get it and burst out laughing.

“You can’t be serious?” After gathering her breath, she continued. “We’re not missing a person, Dad. Mom wants you to be Hailey.”

“Surely not, right, honey?”

He looked at her, shocked. She avoided his gaze.

“You are frequently on business trips, so you being missing would not raise any questions. You wouldn’t need to talk much, so if you make your voice a bit higher, we give you a blonde wig to match me and Anne, shave your face, wear a mask and maybe some glasses, no one would recognize you.”

“We could also give him contact lenses to match our blue eyes, and some makeup.”

“Honey, I am still a thirty-five-year-old man. I am 190 cm tall. No one would mistake me for a teenage girl.”

“Not in person, but think about what I said! Bad image and audio quality paired with a mask and glasses, and we could pretend anything we want.”

“But I don’t want to play dress-up. And I haven’t shaved in years.”

“I know I’m asking for a lot, but with this, I might get my promotion! And I promise I will reward you for this. I know what might convince you.” She seductively cupped her breasts and looked at him with puppy dog eyes.

“Oh, that's just unfair. You know I have a hard time refusing you anyway. But fine, I surrender, but only this once. And I think I will claim the reward right now.”

"Ew. I’m still in the room, guys.”

“Oh, sorry, sweetie, your dad and I got a bit too excited,” Laura squealed. “Oh, I’m just so happy, thank you, honey.”

They kissed while Anne walked out, smiling at their affection but not wanting to risk being there for the continuation.