Chapter One

It had been seven o'clock at night when Castiel received a phone call from his best-friend and manager, Charlie Bradbury. He could barely understand a word she was saying because she was too busy giggling. "So, her name's Dorothy?" He managed to say during one of the moments where she was quiet and was giving him a space to talk.

"She's an actress."

"Ah." That was an impressive position in comparison to Charlie's past girlfriends. He would never forget the girl Gilda that worked at Disneyland as one of the Tinkerbell fairies and kept the costume after she was fired. She was another level of weird.

"Yeah, she's come out in that show we like, Hemlock Grove! She plays the cousin of the main guy!" Castiel could never tell Charlie that he really didn't like Hemlock Grove because she had recommended it to him or that he just stuck around because he had a major crush on the vampire kid.

"That's nice! Tell her she's great in the part." He sat in front of his computer, browsing the internet for new outfits to wear for his performances or new cooking recipes he could try for himself or whenever he decides to bring a guy home again.

"By the way, have you found anyone to take to meet your family Friday night?" The question hit him like ice cold water. He had completely forgotten about Friday night or the date he was supposed to bring to prove he wasn't lonely.

"No."

"You had one job, Cas."

"I know, but I haven't been so lucky in the dating department since Balthazar." He opened up a new tab and went to his Facebook account. Balthazar Roche, he typed into the search bar and clicked on the first result. His fan page had five million likes. Castiel's only had one hundred and fifty thousand.

He couldn't understand how his ex was more popular than him in the violin music area. Not only was he a self-centered jerk but his music had no meaning, it was just covers of popular music. Castiel's was original songs that he had written yet he never managed to catch up to him. He didn't like to treat his career as competition but sometimes it was hard not to, especially when Balthazar constantly teased him and insulted his work.

"What about that cute reporter that gave you his number last week?" Charlie suggested, "What was his name?"

"Gadreel? Yeah, no, I don't want to use him that way." Gadreel was a sweet guy— probably too sweet—that strongly believed that he and Castiel were meant to be. It was nice how he would stare at him with loving eyes and smile at even the worst of his jokes, but Castiel thought he deserved better. It wasn't that he wasn't interested in him, because he was, it just Gadreel wasn't the experience he was looking for. He wanted to be swept off his feet the same way his brother Gabriel had been when he met his fiancée Kali, he wanted to hear his heartbeat drumming for that special someone, and Gadreel, the kind journalist, just didn't make him feel like that.

Charlie paused, "I would go with you but I'm meeting Dorothy this Friday."

"And my family knows I'm not into women so…"

"I could ask a friend to do it."

"It's fine." It wasn't "I'll just tell them the truth: I don't have a boyfriend."

"I'll come up with something, just give me some time."

"You don't have to."

"I'm going to." And she hung up before he could protest.

"Okay." He settled his phone next to his computer and continued with his search. After closing the Balthazar tab, he felt as if he had nothing more to do. This had become a daily routine for him, to google his goddamn ex. He knew it was obsessive of him but it was more of rage and jealousy because Balthazar had used him. He only wanted Castiel for his techniques, to learn how he made his music sound so beautiful without having to try so hard, but when he saw that he wouldn't get anything out of him, he ended the relationship. His sibling had warned him about Balthazar, but he refused to listen until the damage had been done.

At seven-thirty, Castiel received a text message from Charlie: Don't hate me, but I've found your solution. And next to it, was a link to a website.

He was usually hesitant to searching websites that Charlie sent him because they were usually pages that had some bad stuff in them or he just didn't understand what they were for. But he did it anyways. He went to the search bar and typed it out. For a website he had never seen or heard of before, its display was impressive.

Tired of showing up to weddings, dinners, or just friendly meetings alone? Do you want to impress your friends and family with a trophy companion? We've got the solution for you. Rent any of our pre-screened ladies or gents and have a great time!

The small paragraph didn't make Castiel feel comfortable. He knew what this website was for and he was sure of why Charlie, that damn red-head, sent it to him. She wanted him to hire someone to be his date for Friday.

How could she think that he'd go low enough to hire someone and have them pretend they were in love with him? It didn't feel right to force a love onto someone that he would never see again.

He had the pointer on the close button but didn't click on it. Castiel was sure that he didn't want to do such a foul thing, but did he mean it? Could he be that person that hired people to love him for one day? He wanted to impress his brothers and sister with one hell of a date but did he want to do this? As wrong as this was, this was his only solution.

It was already bad enough that his siblings weren't interested with his achievements. According to his older brother Michael, he was just as violinist, he wasn't as above as they were. Michael was a lawyer, Gabriel was an English professor at Washington State, and Anna, his older sister by eleven months, was a nurse. There was nothing about being a really good violinist that impressed him. Not even that his concerts almost filled up.

There were four pink tabs with white letters: Hire a Date, Hire an Entertainer, Reviews, and Our Prices. The first thing that came to mind when he saw entertainer was sex. Did they really have their people prostitute themselves for the purpose of creating a name for their company?

The website was nice and inviting, it was eye-catching enough to make the decisions of the customer very tempting. "I cannot believe I'm doing this." Cas told himself as he clicked on Our Prices. There were three categories listed.

—Pricing with a minimum of a 24 hour notice is only $200 per hour with a three hour minimum.—

—Our five hour special is $700 and additional hours are just $50.—

—Our 'Full Experience' Service is $1,300 for eight hours.—

The Full Experience service sounded quite tempting so he opened the link on another tab. According to the site, the full experience was where the best escorts were guaranteed. He wasn't sure why he needed one for eight hours or why it was so expensive. Then again, he would only have to choose from the best hosts. By taking this deal, he had enough time to relax and not have to worry about his family liking whoever he took or not. Interested in our Full Experience Service? He selected yes.

He opened up the gallery for the male section and was impressed to see the amount of very handsome men that showed up in the first row of pictures. There were several with fake tans but amazing eye colors, some were young looking that made him doubt if they were even legal enough to be there, and there were some older guys that looked like they had a pretty good sense of humor and were extremely kind but had no business in there anymore.

On the top of the page was a question. Are you a male or a female? He picked male. And the results became less, but the men that displayed were still unbelievably handsome.

Benny Lafitte, 30, 5'11. He was attractive with a beard and blue eyes, but didn't meet any of Castiel's standards and he looked like more of a relative rather than a person he wanted to date.

Dick Roman, 38, 6'0. Castiel quickly rejected him because he looked like a real jerk judging from a first impression and his name sounded like he worked for the porn industry.

Cole Trenton, 23, 5'9. If there was something Castiel was certain of, it was that Cole was not twenty-three years old. If anything, he looked to be in his early thirties.

Aaron Bass, 24, 5'10. This one looked really sweet and like he had a great sense of humor. For a brief moment, Cas considered him but kept him aside in case a better option came up.

And after a few more candidates, the perfect one had showed up on his screen like he hoped for. Dean Winchester, 27, 6'1. His first thought when he saw him was that there was no way a guy could be that good looking. He had short, dark blond hair and gorgeous apple green eyes that stood out mostly besides the track of freckles on his cheeks and nose.

Castiel clicked on his name for his profile. My name is Dean Winchester. I'm an Aquarius; I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach, and frisky men/women. That made Castiel smile, at least he was forward.

There was something about him, besides his dashing looks, that hooked Castiel to his profile. Maybe it was the way he cutely smiled to the camera in the picture, or that he looked awfully real yet fake. It was just something that he couldn't pinpoint.

On the bottom of his name was the question. "Is this who you're interested in?" He wanted to click yes because he was too interested in this guy and he hadn't even met him. But he proceeded anyways. Dean was going to cost him one thousand three hundred dollars plus taxes. If he was that worth it…then it didn't matter how much he'll pay.

But he did think about it again though. He wasn't going to pay for some man that would probably not even look as good in real life as he did in the picture and was only there to get it over with. Was it really that worth it? He glanced at his phone and thought about texting Gadreel and ask him if he wanted to be his date but that would only make the poor man believe that he and Cas could be together.

He couldn't bring himself down to doing that to the poor man, even if he was desperate so he clicked yes on the question and the page began to ask him for payment forms and showed him the Terms and Condition, which he quickly looked through before agreeing on his deal.

And just a second after he paid, Castiel regretted his decision. This Dean Winchester was a total stranger that would pretend to be his date. What if his siblings didn't like him? What if he screwed up his cover? Oh, he knew he was going to regret this but he wanted to leave an impression on his brother and sister, especially Anna, and maybe an ideal partner was the right answer?

As wrong as it was, it seemed like the best thing he could've done.