Last night, while driving for Uber, I got a call to pick up a woman from over by the fair. About 30 seconds after accepting the ride, the rider sent me a message via the app. “When you get here, can you pretend to be my boyfriend?” I didn’t know to what capacity she meant, so I asked, “What do you mean?”. She then said, “I just need you to act like you know me, and that you’re not my Uber driver”. Before I got to the pickup, I took my Uber and Lyft stickers out of my window. Although I didn’t feel comfortable removing my wedding ring, I made a mental note to keep it out of eyesight. When I got there, I had my window rolled down. A man and a woman were in the front yard, talking.

The woman was my fare and she set the scene immediately. She looked over and yelled, “Hi, Babe! I’ll be right there!”. I didn’t want to leave her hanging, so i shouted back, “Awesome, because I’m starving!”. I waved at the guy. He half-assedly waved back. The ruse was complete. Thanks to me. The Mayor of Yes-And City. She skipped to my car, got in, and we took off. Once we got out of the guy’s sight, she told me the rest of her story.

She went to the fair with a bunch of friends. In that group of friends was a guy that was very forward with her and wouldn’t take no for an answer. He also had a history of being very aggressive. She thought that she could leave him behind by heading to her car, but he followed her, claiming to be a gentleman. Before they got to her car, she claimed to have lost her keys. He offered to give her a ride, and that’s when she decided to call her “boyfriend”. This should never have had to happen.

Men, learn to accept the word “no” as a response. Learn to take responsibility for your actions. Our sons are watching you and they’re learning how to treat the women in their lives by example. Lead by a better one. Ladies, if you have the Uber or Lyft app, and you need an exit strategy, use the messaging system within the app. You can make special requests that could possibly save your life.