Chapter 5
EMILIO
It was a hoot being 'Aunt Macie' and getting all creative with my answers for the questions people sent in. Mostly they were just asking for information, but I made it fun by backing it up with free stuff for them.
So far it had been easy. By chance, the first email I'd had to answer had fallen under the purview of something I knew very well - latin dancing.
Every South American I knew grew up dancing these dances, though we more commonly danced in the street and the style was distinctly more casual than the strictly prescribed moves that were taught here.
No matter, when I'd arrived here I'd adjusted my technique and repertoire for the local scene and had built up quite a reputation as a dance instructor, even if I did only give lessons on an occasional basis.
Anyway, that made me more than qualified to send the guy on his way with advice about what he should do if he wanted to get up close and personal with a guy he'd seen at a social dance.
My actual income was derived from a more conservative career in engineering.
Engineering - a strict world of measurements, loads, and business.
It filled my days with structure and calculations and talking to people very carefully to make sure there were no false expectations.
By contrast, being Aunt Macie allowed me to indulge in my fascination for people, satisfying my creative urges in a totally different way.
The requests for help came in various forms - email, through the service's online presence, or occasionally, via snail mail. The latter were redirected to me by someone in Jase's office.
The variety of questions opened up endless possibilities.
One guy had posted a request for first date ideas in Sydney.
Immediately my mind had spun, trying to come up with something really memorable.
I'd suggested a sunrise bridge climb, followed by brunch at a restaurant overlooking the harbour, and I'd been able to arrange gift vouchers for both experiences.
After I'd put the response together, I had a last minute worry that it wasn't enough, and had thrown in a visit to the local amusement park as well.
Someone else wanted ideas for a memorable proposal.
Dinner at a fancy restaurant overlooking the harbor, followed by a night-time helicopter ride over the city - all paid for by Aunt Macie of course.
Obviously, he wouldn't be able to propose over the din of the helicopter's rotor, but afterwards...
well, he could figure that part out by himself.
How to deal with homophobic work colleagues - that was straight forward, if not always effective, but the proper course of action was to go to HR.
Flirty chat up lines for novices. Easy, I'd been to more bars and clubs than I could remember. I had that one down pat. I did not use Jase's pathetic contributions.
How to deal with that one homophobic relative? Trickier, but I used my own experience to answer that.
LGBTQ-friendly cafés in the city - Jase had a list ready for that question so it must come up quite a lot. I selected a couple that sounded promising and organised a gift voucher for each so they could try out both.
Romantic getaway for a couple in a long-term relationship.
Hmm. There was a great hotel down by the harbor with views up and down the waterway.
I checked Jase's lists... there was no list of suggested hotels.
Oh well, we'd have to start one. I emailed back and forth with this guy for a bit, talking suitable dates and getting agreement that staying in Sydney would be fine.
"Yes!" I shouted excitedly, high-fiving myself in the quiet of my room as I successfully made a booking for the required dates, putting in the Aunt Macie email address for the invoice to be sent to.
I was happy about that one. Gerard and his husband were going to love it.
I didn't tell him, but I included a delivery of flowers and cookies to their room, which I organized separately through one of our regular suppliers.
I could see why Jase loved this job. I loved helping people, and I especially loved giving gifts. I could just imagine their faces when flowers turned up, or their favorite chocolate was delivered in a gift basket, or any of the other exciting things I arranged happened.
Here's a gift voucher for some flowers to accompany your apology.
Here are some movie tickets for that monthly date.
Here's a restaurant voucher to celebrate that birthday you forgot last week.
Take that cute coworker out for a hot chocolate with this voucher. Remember casual is best at the start.
Everything was going fantastic. The job was easy. People were grateful. I wasn't sure why Jase had been so adamant about one and done, because a number of people kept emailing me back and we were getting along famously.
I was having a great time and I almost hoped something would cause Jase and Eddy to delay their return.