I never ate alone. It’s one of those funky networking adages that needy employees use to get ahead in their companies. As an unpaid summer intern, I was granted a grand opportunity: to wake up at inhumane hours, reek of mass transit, and do little to nothing each day in the office.

But I was in love with 12:00, for lunchtime was my playground. An attractive manager — an older gentleman — took an interest in me, and our mentoring lunches became outings at restaurants with dim lights and expensive meals. Weekend meetings melted into hiking trips, free liquor and hotel reservations. Evening rides in his ’Benz became all too comfortable.

Needless to say, I didn’t mind the ring on his left hand — he was a married man with wife troubles, the rising epidemic of most execs and politicians. When a guy seems to find pleasure by buying you Victoria’s Secret gift cards, who can help but fall in love with a handsome sugar daddy? Now I know how Monica Lewinsky felt. So. Damn. Good.

Editor’s Note: Sept. 8, 2012

After the Wall Street Journal fired Liane Membis ’12, the writer of this article, in July 2012 for fabricating sources, the News opened an investigation into her work as a staff reporter for the paper. This investigation found that Membis has offered the News different stories about the authenticity of this story. In an Aug. 31, 2009 email, she said, “My story is not exaggerated, so no correction is needed.” But in a March 2, 2011 email, she wrote, “The piece…was originally written under the pretense of it being a fictional piece by the Scene staff; it was edited without my presence and published in the fall of 2009, with exaggerations which were not true.” The full report on the News’ investigation can be found here.