Chapter 17
Trent
“I don’t think anyone is ever prepared for the high of succeeding.
” I’m alone in my bedroom, but I’m actually doing a mini-live through one of my social media accounts while Magnus is out doing Magnus things.
I watch the comments as I’m talking, but there’s only about a hundred people watching right now.
That’s a hundred more than I expected for an impromptu live on a platform where I have to survive on my own merit without Magnus.
“When Magnus first proposed his little experiment, I thought he was completely nuts. My first thought when he brought me the proposal he’d written up was how the eff I was going to be able to get turned on and go off with another man in the room.
I even told him it was a fatal flaw in his strategy of making corn together.
” Can’t have any of the internet autobots shutting me down for indecency, hence the sleight of hand with my wording.
“That bastard had already made up a whole page explaining heteroflexibility for me. I went into this thing genuinely prepared to fail.”
The comments get encouraging about not being down on myself, but they’re misinterpreting me.
“I’m not saying we couldn’t succeed; I just know we’re new and small fish in a vast ocean of possibilities.
I didn’t see how we could make enough of a splash to get noticed when everyone is splashing as hard as they can, you know?
So I genuinely wasn’t prepared for success.
I thought I would be the problem, and when it turned out I wasn’t, I thought just being new and one in a million possibilities would keep us from seeing any sort of success.
But here we are coming up on spring break, and we have almost ten thousand subscribers.
It’s insane. On one platform we have a video with over three million views.
That’s potentially three million people who’ve seen me in my birthday suit, who’ve seen my O-face. ”
I stop and chuckle. “We did that photoshoot together.” I whisper the next words as an aside. “It was an erotic session.”
The comments of course blow up, excited to see the merch when we get it ready.
“Yes, yes. Magnus has already done all the research into how to print and ship erotic photography. Trust me, you will be able to buy a poster of my drooling peen at some point in the next couple of months, I promise. Anyway, we did that photoshoot, and I was told by someone I had never met before the photoshoot that my o-face is not worth photographing.”
I chuckle at how blunt Sasha was about that. “Magnus’s, though, is magnificent, according to our photographer, and I've also seen it with my own eyes. He does look completely blissed out when he comes, doesn’t he?”
I’m not intentionally leading them on today, but part of the script is that we talk about each other like we’re crushing on each other when we’re not together.
Not that I have to pretend that. I’ve already come to the conclusion that I have a small crush on my best friend.
Fortunately, I’m good at focusing on other things.
Magnus and I are solid friends, and my tiny little crush is just a by-product of having my sex life focused on him and what we’re doing together.
I chuckle at myself, shaking my head. “Sometimes that man gets under my skin, you know? He genuinely is gorgeous when he comes, and sometimes it gets stuck in my head that I’m not supposed to know what he looks like when that happens.”
The comments explode again with a lot of encouragement to keep looking, to be myself, to follow my heart, etc.…
“Follow my heart,” I mutter, reading that again.
“My heart doesn’t know where it’s going or what it’s doing.
It gets tangled up in the weirdest things.
If I followed my heart I would end up on some yellow brick road running into lost people and trying to help them find their way home without even knowing where I am.
Ugh—Magnus and I watched The Wizard of Oz the other day because he’d never seen it before.
His parents sent him off to college when he was fourteen and failed to educate the man!
Who doesn’t know what The Wizard of Oz is?
Even people who’ve never seen the movie know what it is at least.”
User56983234: We did our best, but if we’d known you would come into his life we would have chosen a different college.
That comment catches my attention, and it keeps it long enough for me to decide it’s probably a troll.
“Anyway, I’ve got to get back to studying. I’m going to leave the live going for about an hour while I do that, and then I’ll be shutting it off. Feel free to study with me. It’s nice to not feel alone, right?”
I watch the comments for a moment, but everyone stays kind and supportive (and thirsty), so I pull out my textbook and open the chapter I need to read today.
I keep notes on paper rather than highlighting the text so I can sell my books to someone taking the class next semester.
I try to get as much as possible for them since I buy new.
So far, I’ve been able to undercut the campus bookstore every semester and still get back more than I would have if I resold to them.
I guess I won’t have to do that this semester if I don’t want to.
Magnus and I will be able to go house hunting by the end of next month, which means we won’t have to rent a temporary place.
We’re already making more money than I ever expected, more than even he expected.
As much of a genius as he is, I don’t think he expected we’d get the attention we have.
And here I am thinking about Magnus again instead of studying. I’m not going to fail his class, but it might be a close thing. Whoever thought I would be distracted by my best friend? I’m an idiot.
He admitted that he might be bi, and here I am thinking about him like we should give this a real chance at romance.
It’s dumb to mix business and dating. Magnus and I are making this work because we have a business goal, we have a script and a plan, and we’re working toward our mutual goals.
What would happen if we decided to date for real and then it turned sour?
Nothing good, that’s for fucking sure. Right now, we have everything we need to make it through my last semester of undergraduate school and the next three of graduate school without my incurring any debt to do it.
Is a romance with Magnus worth risking that?
I already have him in every possible way except dating.
I’ve got his body, we already agreed not to seek out other sex partners so we don’t risk STIs, and neither of us really has time for anyone else besides each other and the few friends we hang out with between classes.
Well, I have between-class friends. Magnus has the other faculty.
But we have each other, and we have what will develop into a healthy sex-life.
Do we really need to “date” when we already sort of are for our subscribers?
Every week we go out, and we’re supposed to be making those trips as romantic as possible without actually being on a date.
Maybe what I should do is treat him like I would if I was trying to genuinely romance him like I would if he was a girl.
With a girl I start off as friends and let her get to know me, so she knows I’m safe when I do eventually ask her if she wants to get a coffee with me.
I would make sure she feels comfortable with me before I ever approach her for a real date, and that kind of long term strategy takes time.
Magnus deserves my time and effort, too.
He might already know I’m safe, but making him comfortable with the idea of me as a romantic partner might take more time.
I don’t mind putting in the effort, plus it would fit into our business strategy, and what’s the harm of making a fiction less fictional?
Well, except the chance that it will go bad.
Except, I don’t think there’s an alternate universe that exists where Magnus and I can’t be friends no matter what we go through.
We’re the kind of people to get along, the type of personalities that mesh.
Even if we date and break up, we would remain friends. At least we would try.
I certainly would.
Alright, that settles it, I’m going to try to date my best friend.
“Anyone have any ideas for unique dates? Something that isn’t food oriented.” I look up to find the chat has been busy while I wasn’t studying.
They’ve been talking amongst themselves about what they would love to see happen with me and Magnus. It’s cute that they’re so adamant that we should be together. At least I have their support, even if they don’t know they’re supporting me.
River walk
Fishing
Amusement park
Aquarium
Volunteer work
Ghost tour
Museum
Art walk
“You guys had those suggestions at the ready,” I laugh, jotting each one down even as more scroll by. “I’m going to use these, thanks.”
More date ideas scroll by, and eventually they do start devolving into food related dates, but I stop them, thank them for their help, and say goodbye just as Magnus gets back.
I turn around to greet him, surprised to find him laden with a laptop bag, a backpack, and a stack of books in his arms. His eyes immediately find mine, and the bags under them have me standing and moving to take his books before he’s even two steps into the suite.
“Food, water, nap,” I tell him, taking his books and setting them on the shelf, then helping him get out of his straps. I set his backpack by the door, along with his laptop bag.
As I grab him by the shoulders, he groans softly.
“I don’t think I have time for a nap today.
I have seventy papers to get graded that I had to put off already because of the conference last weekend.
I need to call our hotel for spring break because they changed our reservation from a double queen to a single king, and Sasha called me while I was in class; she’s ready for us to look through the pictures she took.
She’s going to put together an album for us, and then we also need to figure out which ones we want commercial licenses for.
And my parents are on campus this week. They’re auditing my classes and want to take us to dinner. ”
Ok, the first thing he needs is a hug, so I pull him into my body and tighten my arms around him.
“The hotel isn’t important. I can call, but it’s not the end of the world if we don’t have two beds.
We just have to be careful about keeping the sheets clean is all.
We can put towels down or something. I can also call Sasha and make arrangements with her to come look at the pictures after spring break.
That will keep, and she’ll definitely understand a hectic schedule. ”
Magnus presses his face into my chest, relaxing a little into my hug, and nods miserably. “Thank you. I’m sorry. I told you I would do it all, and I’m—”
“Nope, fuck that. I’m perfectly capable of doing anything you need me to do. How about if you drink some water, text your parents to arrange dinner tomorrow night, and then lie down and try to nap while I take care of food. I’ll wake you up to eat, then you can tackle the grading?”
Magnus whimpers softly and groans. “Ok. Ok, I can do that.”
I kiss the top of his head and squeeze him a little more before trying to let him go, but he wraps his arms around my neck and holds me tighter. “Carry me?”
I chuckle at his ridiculousness and pick him up under his butt. He wraps his legs around my waist and I carry him to his bedroom, laying him on his bed before he releases me. “Text your parents and then close your eyes. I’ll take care of food for us while you rest.”
He turns over, eyes already closed, and completely ignores me. The outline of his phone is in his pocket, so I reach in and pull it out. I unlock it with his passcode and pull up a text thread he already has with his mother.
Me: This is Trent. Magnus just got home, and he’s already asleep. He mentioned dinner, and I told him tomorrow would be better.
Emily: He did look exhausted when he left. Dinner tomorrow is fine. We will let him know where to meet us.
Me: I’ll let him know.
I’ve never met the woman, but I know Magnus has talked about me with her, so hopefully tomorrow’s dinner will be fine. Hopefully they don’t know about our business venture.
I cover him up with his blanket and hit the light as I leave his room.
I gather up the ingredients to make him a bowl of Comfort Noodle Soup, the fancy name I call ramen that I put real meat and vegetables into.
Since I started cooking for him, I’ve started experimenting with adding to the soup base, and I’m pretty proud of myself for my creation.
I mean, yes, I did use a recipe I found online for it, but I didn't follow the recipe, I used it as a guideline, and now my ramen tastes amazing.
I put everything I need into the little basket I’ve been using to take food downstairs, then go to grab my laptop, discovering as I do that the live stream is still going even though I thought I ended it, and it peaked at a thousand views while I was comforting Magnus.
“I thought I ended the live stream when Magnus got home,” I whisper to them, a little annoyed with myself. “Let’s hope he’s not upset that I accidentally put him on camera without his consent. Thank you all for spending time with me, but I’m going to go make Magnus’s dinner. See you soon.”
This time I definitely end the livestream. There’s going to be so many rumors about us tomorrow.
Oops?