Hiring a companion vs going alone

The case for going alone

You keep the evening entirely your own: leave when you like, talk to whoever you want, and answer to nobody's timing but your own. There is nothing to explain and nothing to manage, and at an event full of people you already know, that ease is worth more than company.

If the only reason to book is that being seen alone feels embarrassing, going alone is usually the better choice — and one evening tends to prove it costs less than it threatened to.

What a booked plus-one actually changes

• The logistics of arriving: a seating plan, a table for six, a couples' weekend
• The running commentary — questions land differently when you are not standing there alone
• The gap between events, where you would otherwise be scanning the room for someone to talk to
• The decision itself: you stop weighing whether to go at all

What it does not change

It is company for an occasion, not a fix for how the occasion makes you feel about your life. It is strictly platonic, agreed in writing beforehand, and it ends when the booking ends — nobody is pretending otherwise, least of all him.

He will not invent a shared history either. The simplest true sentence — a friend, you came together — is the one that holds all evening without maintenance.

A way to decide

• Is the hard part the event, or the arriving and the questions? Only the second is something a booking helps with.
• Would you go if you had someone to go with? If no, do not book — skip the event.
• Is it a big, structured occasion, or a casual one? Weddings, galas and formal dinners are where a plus-one earns its place; a drinks thing rarely is.
• Would you enjoy the evening more, or just survive it differently?