His Official Fiancée

"His Official Fiancée" by Berta Ruck is an early 20th-century story about Monica Trant, a typist in London, who finds herself with an interesting offer from her boss, Mr. Waters. In a time when society had strong ideas about what men and women should do, especially in a relationship, Monica has to deal with the fact she is being contracted into being someone's finacee. Instead of getting fired, she is asked to pretend to be his fiancee for a year in exchange for money, which creates challenges around self-sufficiency, and the idea of not being who one is. The story kicks off when Monica is called into Mr. Waters's office, worrying about losing her job, but he asks her to play a role. This wasn't for love but to keep up appearances. This leads Monica to think hard about pretending to be in love when she's not, while the reader watches her navigate between the simple life of working in an office and the tricky issues of who she is versus who others want her to be.