0:01  
Hey,

0:02  
Gabby,

0:05  
are you?

0:12  
Hi, my name is Isabella. And that's Gabby. I met her just three days before, and I'm paying her to hang out with me.

0:24  
We met on a site called rent a friend. It's exactly what it sounds like. You meet up with people and can request to do whatever you want with them, as long as the date is completely platonic. Whether it's a casual coffee date, a night out to a gig, or even a weekend getaway. It's up to the client. And of course, what the friend is willing to do with Gabby, I wanted to keep things pretty simple. So I requested that we go to a coffee shop to hang out in chat. Gaby recommended craft, which is not a coffee shop at all. Put a bar. Um,

0:57  
what about a drink? A drink? Yeah,

1:00  
sure.

1:01  
Cuz I'm crafty. Okay. Okay. They have like, different kinds of beers like sours, writers, things like that. Yeah.

1:13  
It was nearly four in the afternoon. And I really couldn't think of a reason to say no. So the bar it was,

1:21  
oh, I can see the red sign. Yeah.

1:28  
When we finally got to the bar and asked the hostess for a table, the only thing running through my mind was if the hostess knew that I was paying Gabby to have a beer and chat with me for an hour.

1:46  
In preparation for a little friend ate, I was thinking of conversation topics to avoid any awkwardness. Being that we are two complete strangers and know nothing about each other. I quickly realized that Gabby has done this before starting a conversation with her was like talking to a friend. I mean, it is her job to converse with strangers. She was telling me about how she first made an account on rent a friend over two years ago and recently logged back on one because she broke up with her boyfriend who found this to be questionable. And too, because her job just wasn't paying enough. She's currently working full time and thought a little extra cash from hanging out with people wouldn't hurt.

2:28  
Honestly, like, I think that people can stand to be more open about it. Because it's not an escort service, you know? And you get to do really cool things like, I don't know, I just feel like people have this misconception about it that it's like, oh, that's weird. So yeah.

2:47  
To get more of an understanding on this rental friend business, I spoke to Jessica, who's relatively new to the site. Jessica's not her real name, by the way, I changed it for privacy reasons as per request,

2:59  
I guess like, on one hand, it was like, I really needed a job. And I just didn't have time for a job. And this is like the best alternative, like, I'm going to eat dinner anyways. Like, if I'm going to go watch a movie, like why not do it for like, and I get paid. Like, I don't know, like, why not?

3:17  
Similar to Gabby, Jessica also views renting a friend as a safe and completely normal thing to do. She says she likes it because everything is on your own terms. You decide who you want to meet up with. And when you want to meet up with them.

3:32  
It's like you accept whoever you choose to accept, you don't see anyone you don't want to see, if you're busy. You don't have to see anyone. If it's far You don't have to go all the way there. It's all up to you. I wouldn't personally consider this a job, simply because for me a job consists of making somewhat of a steadier income. But I feel like this is just like, you know, like those once in a while kind of, Oh, I'm, I'm going to do this and I'm going to get some compensation from it. But it's not like enough. It's kind of like those like things you knew where you like, do like a survey, you get entered in for a prize and you don't know if you're gonna win anything. Like you never know when someone's gonna message you It could take like a year for them to message you you don't know. And like whether what they want and what you're able to, like, offer. it aligns. There's like a lot of factors. So I wouldn't really consider this a job simply because it's not. It's like so unsteady. I can't rely on it on a on a way that like I would rely on a job to like, actually feed me. I could never imagine explain this to someone I know. I don't know, I feel like I would get judged. But if I were to, I would simply say I meet people online and we simply become friends. However, when I meet them, I do get some compensation since they are Are wealthier and are willing to pay for my company.

5:08  
Hearing about the site, you might be thinking people from all ages and all genders are looking for friends at all times. But it's not quite like that. Jessica has been on the site for over a year now, and is only had three clients, all men aged 30 to 50 years. Not only do the message request not come in as frequently, which is why she says this is too unstable to be a job. But also many of the message requests she gets are from people, which he just doesn't feel comfortable meeting up with. I spoke to Sam, which is also not her real name to keep her identity private. He has been on the rental friend site now for six to seven months. In those six to seven months, she hasn't met up with a single person yet, she does get quite a few requests, she does have a full time job, meaning she isn't always free. But similar to Jessica, she also gets some pretty creepy messages.

5:59  
I did cheater for French. So that was one of them. But that was enough. It's just once a week. Then they mentioned friend which I thought that was quite interesting. So I just decided to to go on site and and do like a profile. And that's it. Yeah.

6:17  
What?

6:18  
What about it? Did you find interesting specifically?

6:22  
Well, maybe this is gonna sound very conceited. But I was talking to a few friends. And one of them was like, if you were my friend, I would pay you to be my friend. So because of that, I was like, Oh, that's funny. I had just watched this video, so I thought maybe I would be worth renting. So I mean, just the whole concept of it. Like it's similar to Tinder except not as, like, dating oriented or so I thought, I guess I don't know. It's very creepy. Nonetheless. It's curvier than Tinder. That sign a lot. To me, like an example of what someone said. That's like, put you off for sure. Um, I actually can't remember I do have the messages I could go through

7:14  
to them. But we really cool Yeah,

7:16  
chili gang. Yeah, it's a lot of middle aged men. Which is puts me off a little bit, because why would a 50 year old want to hang out with a 23 year old? Like we have nothing in common? So? No. Okay, I did find someone that I thought I would have hung out with him. So he said, Hello. I am 24 years old, McGill student. So to sum up my situation really quickly, I found out that my girlfriend cheated on me and dumped me to be with that guy. Needless to say, it is very upsetting. It is a very upsetting situation. And I'm trying my best to not let it get to me. I know I shouldn't be going out to meet new people and whatnot. But it's very difficult for me to do this. And because of this, I want to at the very least create the impression that I'm not totally devastated by the situation and taking pictures with the new friends have meant doing fun things. If you would be interested, let me know. And I just didn't reply. But I should have maybe I'm just not the candidate to be do a read different because I am paranoid. But like right now like this is fine. Like if I can be more people like yeah, I'll be okay with that.

8:42  
I know you haven't really gone through that yet. I'm assuming you're actually planning on. Yeah. yourself tonight.

8:50  
Yes, but only if it's people are about my age. And don't sound creepy, which is a lot to ask. Apparently.

9:00  
Although it still hasn't happened yet. Sam does still see herself offering her friendly services to someone eventually. She's just waiting for the right person to find on the site. Or better yet to find her. Someone who she feels comfortable with. If the people looking for friends are also around my age, I've come to the conclusion that I would definitely consider becoming a friend if it means I get cash for chatting by the hour. This was rent a friend and I'm Isabella. Thanks so much for listening.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai