The mystery tingles: Will she turn out to be some lost, sultry beauty? I turn. Facing me stands a blonde in her early forties, neither attractive nor unattractive, wrapped in a sexy, sheer blue-and-black outfit. The effect is of a middle-aged math teacher squeezed into her old high-school-prom dress. As we drive to the wedding, I ask Cathy if we might concoct a story for how we met.
At the country club where the wedding is being held, we leave my car with the valet, hurry upstairs, and find seats together in the back of the gallery.
But then he gets serious. The room becomes a clamor of voices. Cathy and I laugh, and I take her hands in mine. I may only be her hired boyfriend, but I see no reason to hold back. She smiles, her eyes catching a bit of light from the chandeliers overhead. With great import, I lean toward her. Her eyes melt a little. There were plenty of services for men who wanted to hire women—for sex, massage, or simple companionship—but none available for women to hire men.
A lightbulb went on. Shikhman placed ads everywhere from LinkedIn to Craigslist seeking hot, charming, accomplished men. No kissing or sex, she told them; only conversation. At each casting call, only one in a hundred made the cut and were invited, after clearing a comprehensive background check, to join her online Rent A Gent roster. The site launched in December , and the demand was instant. The money is split fifty-fifty between her company and the Gents themselves. Of course, some customers have more complex motives.
According to Shikhman, a woman in Florida recently hired a much younger Gent to stand at the kitchen sink in his boxers, washing dishes, as though he were her new live-in boyfriend. More than anything, it seems, Rent A Gent is simply looking for friendly, curious guys—someone more interested in asking questions than talking about himself. But no kissing, Jon stresses, and certainly no sex. Rent A Gent is not an escort service, and any touching beyond what the role requires is strictly against policy.
