Fake Date, Real Deadline
A newspaper's bankruptcy reporter and its anonymous advice columnist pretend to date to investigate a couples-only housing lottery.
ImagineYourBook writes a fresh draft from this idea.
How it begins
The housing application asked how they had fallen in love.
Priya wrote: Administrative error.
James reached for the keyboard.
"That will get us rejected."
"Then the system is working."
He deleted the sentence with the solemnity he usually reserved for correcting a misplaced apostrophe.
They were sitting in the newspaper's smallest meeting room, pretending not to hear the staff consultation happening next door. Another round of cuts. Another explanation involving a difficult market.
Priya covered bankruptcies.
James covered the feelings people had while reading about them.
He was also, although almost nobody knew it, the paper's anonymous relationship columnist.
"What would your column advise?" she asked.
"Honesty."
"Unhelpful."
"Usually."
The housing lottery offered six renovated flats to established couples. Priya had found four previous winners sharing an address with the management company's accountant.
The information evening admitted couples only.
James had volunteered before she could ask anyone sensible.
"We met at work," he typed.
"Under fluorescent lights. Beside a broken printer."
"We discovered a shared interest."
"In fraud."
"In public service."
Priya considered the phrase.
She let it stay.
The next question asked for a favorite photograph.
James turned his laptop toward her. A picture from the staff summer party showed them arguing beside a barbecue.
"That's not romantic."
"You were explaining the difference between insolvency and inconvenience."
"You had called the missing ketchup a financial crisis."
He uploaded it.
The application accepted the file.
For a moment neither of them spoke.
Then the screen changed.
Congratulations. Your home is waiting.
Priya checked the time.
"That took eleven seconds."
"Efficient."
"The lottery doesn't close until Friday."
James stopped smiling.
A new message appeared beneath the approval.
We especially loved your story.
Priya looked at the two sentences he had written.
Then at the blank consent box they had not yet ticked.
Somebody had been reading while they typed.
She reached for her notebook.
"Right," she said. "Now we have a story."
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Outline and characters
- Priya finds suspicious lottery allocations.
- James offers access through a couples' information event.
- They agree a fake relationship with clear boundaries.
- Their application is unexpectedly approved.
- Priya discovers applicants' stories are being sold.
- James's anonymous advice column becomes part of the promotion.
- They disagree about protecting a source.
- James discloses his role and accepts professional consequences.
- Priya publishes the housing scheme with verified records.
- They ask each other out without using an application form.
Characters
- Priya Shah, 29. Bankruptcy reporter investigating housing allocations
- James Foster, 34. Anonymous advice columnist confronting a data scheme
Series possibilities
- Priya finds a tenant receiving advice letters written in James's voice.
