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Chapter 4

Clara settled on the sofa next to her best friend and lifted the wine glass to her lips, taking a sip. After a long week of work and dealing with teenagers, Clara thought she had earned a quiet Friday night with Amy and a task that promised to be quite funny: finding her a fake boyfriend on Alibi. It was almost a bit like finding a real date online, but it didn't come with the same pressure attached to it. It was only for one or two events and afterwards, she would never have to see him again.

"What do you think of the picture?" Clara asked, pointing towards the laptop screen on the coffee table.

Amy evaluated it for a while, but it wasn't her voice that she heard first. Suddenly, Rory's head popped up from behind.

"It's cute," he remarked with a shrug. "Bit revealing."

"Married," Amy reminded him sternly and with a soft punch in the shoulder. When she had turned her attention back to Clara, however, she nodded. "I agree with my husband. It's really cute but isn't the cleavage… a bit much for the audience? You might scare the nerds."

She had to admit that her best friend had a point. Clara had created this account to find a fake boyfriend, not to scare potential men away and she had certainly not created this account to find a real relationship. So Clara opened the image tool and cropped the picture at her shoulders. "Better?"

"Much better," Amy agreed. Then, a look of excitement spread across her face. "Now, let's see some candidates. I'm dying of curiosity here."

Clara wasn't quite sure where to look first. Should she choose a couple of parameters like age and appearance and filter out any that weren't suitable for the cause? Then again, Clara didn't have a clear image in mind of what she wanted, so she decided to have a look at the newest users first. She only checked the box for gender and selected a reasonable radius around her area. The laptop calculated the results for a while before the website returned a list of almost a hundred recently registered users.

"That's quite a lot!" Clara exclaimed immediately. "I wasn't aware so many people were looking for fake dates. What happened to real dating?"

Amy shrugged next to her and pointed at the first guy on the list. "I don't know but he seems cute."

Unable to disagree, Clara opened the first profile and had a proper look at a guy named Harry who was undeniably gay which was probably the reason he was looking for a fake girlfriend. Other than that, however, he seemed a little too perfect. He was good-looking, around Clara's own age and worked as a veterinarian.

"I've never come out to my father and since he was diagnosed with cancer and keeps asking about my love life, I've decided to grant him his dying wish of seeing me with a woman," Clara read his profile out loud, suddenly remembering that she had never mentioned a reason why she was looking for a fake date. But right now, as they were focused on Harry, Clara decided that she would fix it later. She shrugged at the cute profile picture. "I doubt I'm going to drive Linda nuts with a nice, good-looking vet."

"Unlikely," Amy agreed. "Next!"

"Ew!" Clara uttered once she had opened the new profile and spotted the man with the greasy hair in the photograph. "Shampoo is a thing!"

"Next!" her friend demanded.

Once the page had fully loaded, Clara leaned back a bit and contemplated the man she was seeing on screen and she had to admit that she quite liked what she saw. Admittedly, he wasn't what she had imagined, but then again, she hadn't given the matter a lot of thought.

Amy leaned forward and started reading from his profile. "John Smith, fifty-eight years old, a widower and single father," she stated. "Oh, he's a doctor. How on earth does he not have a wife?"

"He's quite handsome in an unusual way," Clara remarked, her eyes still glued to the photograph of John Smith knitting his impressive eyebrows at the camera in front of a nice living room backdrop. Above all, it was his curly, silver hair that impressed her.

Her best friend chuckled next to her. "Clara Oswald, may I remind you that you're looking for a fake boyfriend, not a proper one? Don't get all heart-eyed over this one."

"No worries," Clara reassured her. "The age difference is a bit much for a proper relationship, but… not to give Linda a nice scare. I'm messaging the silver fox!"

In a swift movement, Clara reached for the laptop and pulled it down on her lap to type out a message. John Smith was actually perfect for her plan. He was a reputable doctor and widower and probably a nice man, too, so there was nothing Linda could say against that. She would, however, implode over the fact that he was a lot older and already had a kid. Clara was determined to get him.

Clara Oswald

Hello John,

Suddenly, Clara paused as she realised she had no clue what to say to him. She could think of a way to approach someone at a bar or message someone on an actual dating website. But a fake date? Clara really didn't know how to go about that. Then, she decided to just try the truth.

I'm rather new to this website. To be honest, I only completed my profile today and went to look for someone to take to my father's wedding. Your profile caught my attention and, depending on what you're looking for in an alibi girlfriend, I would like to get to know you a little better.

What do you say? Would you like to grab a cup of coffee and talk about the details?

Clara

Proud of herself, Clara hit the enter button and sent the message, grinning to herself and hoping that the silver fox would reply because she could already imagine the look on Linda's face when she showed up to the wedding with John.

"Do you want to look around some more?" Amy wanted to know.

Clara considered this suggestion, but eventually, she shook her head. "No, I think I'm going to wait for him to reply," she said as she looked at the list once more. At first glance, none of the others looked like viable options to annoy Linda.

Her best friend opened her mouth and from the look on her face, Clara could already tell that she wasn't going to like whatever Amy was about to say, but luckily for her, a message popped up on her screen and provided her with an excellent excuse not to pay any attention to her friend.

"He replied!" Clara noted happily and opened his message.

John Smith

Hello Clara,

I was very happy to receive your message because I'm also looking for an alibi partner to take to a family event. I will probably be at home all Sunday, but I am on call and can't really stray too far from the house. Would you like to stop by and talk about the details over a cup of coffee?

John

"You're going to go to his place?" Amy asked doubtfully as she raised her eyebrows in Clara's direction.

Normally, Clara would have declined his offer and insisted on having a cup of tea in a public place, but there was something about John Smith's face that she trusted. After all, he was a doctor and he had a kid.

"Yes," she confirmed determinedly. Then, Clara turned towards Amy with a shrug. "On the off chance they'll find my corpse later, you know where he lives."