On Rythme FM’s airwaves, during the Les filles du lunch segment, Maripier Morin and Sébastien Benoit recently asked themselves what their “price” would be—the amount they would accept to spend an evening with someone.
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While Sébastien explained that, for 5,000 dollars—an amount he would later donate to a good cause—he would be willing to go eat with strangers in a concept akin to Coups de food, and while specifying that he wouldn’t do it in any other setting, Maripier Morin shared a far juicier anecdote.
She first wanted to put things into perspective, to make clear that today her reaction and her decision-making process in this story would be different.
$75,000 for an ‘Exclusive’ Evening
“Now, we have to travel back in time a bit—come along, because, you know, today I would never consider such an offer. But I was about 22, I’d just left OD, I worked as a bartender, and I shared an apartment with three guys in a total dump. I get a message on Facebook… I get a message from a guy… he says: My friend is getting married, we’d like to know what your services cost. So I don’t quite understand at first; I’m a bartender. So I say: To be your bartender during the Bachelor party? You know, I ask questions, I’m curious. Then he says: No, actually, it would be to spend the evening with him, and he ends his message with: Money is no object. That means money isn’t a problem. Hey, I come out of my room, I call a top-level meeting: Guys, come here, I’ve got an indecent proposition. So I have them read the message. Then I say: Clearly, the guy is asking me to be an escort—this is what he’s asking for. So I say: What’s my price? Then I look at the guys very seriously, and I say: Okay, we need to think up a number that has some flair… and we land on the figure of $75,000,” she recounts, laughing, as her co-host asks whether she could do whatever he wanted for that amount.
The Lure of Cash versus Values
“Well, not exactly… but what you have to know is that back then I was single, working in bars. I sometimes had flings, but I wasn’t really happy with the outcome. So I thought: well, maybe $75,000 would give me a cash-down for a condo. I saw the lure of cash, I weighed this deal. So I told the guys: $75,000, perfect, let’s go with that. Then I replied to the guy: Perfect, that will be $75,000. I still picture sending the message; I think I looked absurd. And then the guy replies: Are you completely out of your head? … Well, I’m not going to ask you for $1,000, let’s be honest—I have more value than that; I respect myself more than that; I’m not going to cheapen myself. … He said: You’re completely crazy, you’ve lost it, forget it, we had a budget of $1,000. … There, I say: Yeah, sorry, at $1,000 I wouldn’t forget that I’m an escort and that I’ve trampled on my self-respect, on my ego, and on my pride … but I think that if, say, he had said yes to $75,000, I don’t think I would have been able to go through with it. I think my value system would have steered me away from following through on the plan … I was crazy,” Maripier recalls, while Sébastien points out that she did, after all, set a price.
Self-deprecation, Years Later
A delicious anecdote that illustrates how money can nudge our reflexes and shape our choices, and how, with time, experience, and maturity, the way we handle such situations can evolve.
With the passage of time, the story took on a different hue: today she tells it with distance—and a healthy dose of self-deprecation—remembering the era, her life as a young adult, and the conversations with her roommates.
Would you, in Maripier Morin’s shoes, have considered accepting? And would you have set a price, even briefly, before changing your mind?
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