Chapter 23
Trent
Magnus living up to his name is a sight to behold, and if I live a hundred years, I don’t think I’ll ever watch something as magnificent as him bringing the board of trustees of a not-insignificant university to heel.
Magnus did to them what he did to me, preparing slides to answer their anticipated questions, and he met every word of contention with logic and a hefty dose of social shaming.
By the end of the meeting he’d volunteered and confirmed a date for a university round table discussion about the role of sex work in society and how social structures going forward could change to include the sex industry as an accepted and practical part of a healthy society.
He literally convinced a room full of old white dudes that they should be on the side of legalizing and regulating all forms of sex work, and he did it in under an hour.
It’s a good thing this guy doesn’t actually want to conquer the world, because I think he could probably convince a billionaire or ten to back him.
Fuck, Magnus with ten billion dollars would be… divine, probably.
“I deserve ice cream,” Magnus declares as we walk back to our dorm after we finally escape the meeting. It took us an hour to get out of there after President Barsamian dismissed the meeting because half of the board of trustees wanted to talk to Magnus, and a few of them even wanted to talk to me.
That wasn’t what I’d expected. I thought some of them would have questions for me, but mostly I was just another body standing with Magnus. I answered one question, and it was posed by Magnus, asking me about any comments during any of the livestreams that I thought might be related to our stalker.
The board members who talked to me afterward mostly asked me about my future plans and how they related to Magnus. The most salient thing about me during that meeting was how important I am to Magnus, and it’s a bit humbling to realize that.
“Trent?” the man of the hour says, bumping me with his shoulder to pull my attention away from my thoughts.
I wrap an arm around his shoulders as we continue walking, self-aware for the first time how the way we’re walking together is going to look from an outside perspective.
I’m not afraid of homophobic violence against us on campus.
Regardless of the stalker and his attitude about us, the university as a whole has a healthy and thriving LGBTQ+ community.
“You do deserve ice cream. Do you want to go to that ice cream shop on Fifth, or do you want to buy some pints from the store and take them back to the dorm?”
“Ice cream shop. I like watching them mix my bits in,” Magnus replies with the giddiness of a child in his voice. An hour ago he was bringing a room full of old rich people to heel, and now he’s excited about getting gummy bears mixed in with his berries and cream ice cream.
I lean over and kiss the top of his head. “I fucking love you, man, but it is a trip being your friend.”
Magnus startles at my words, looking up at me wide eyed. “What? What’d I do?”
“You convinced a room full of people who exist to make sure nothing disrupts the status quo unless they approve it that both professors and students shouldn’t be penalized for using the adult entertainment industry as a means of supplementing their studies and careers while working for or attending this school.
You’re like a brand new star that just exploded into existence, and I’m fairly certain nothing is ever going to snuff you out.
And now you’re excited about watching someone add gummy bears to your ice cream. ”
“It is exciting to watch someone add the good stuff into your ice cream, and I never would have even known about it if it wasn’t for you.
If I’m a star, you’re my planet, giving my existence life and meaning,” he replies, and that is the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me, except he’s not trying to be romantic, and that hurts a little.
Not a bad hurt, just a small one, an impatient one.
I’m still figuring out how to woo him, but someday he’s going to say something like that and he’ll be talking to his lover.
“Huh,” I grunt as I have a realization. “I was thinking just now how humbling it is to realize I genuinely don’t matter except for how important I am to you.
The trustees only wanted to talk to me because I mean something to you, but that’s not as bad as I thought it might be.
You’re a star and I’m the planet, and yes, my only importance to other orbiting bodies is how much influence I exert on you, but you and I are locked together, and those other orbiting bodies barely affect you at all. ”
Magnus studies my face as I lead him through the dark to the parking lot where my car is, trusting me to guide him safely.
“That is an interesting analogy. It would make our stalker a rogue comet. If he hits you, it could destroy you, but if he hits me, I’ll just consume him.
Apt. Scary, but apt. I’m going to make sure he hits me. ”
I huff a little laugh, pulling my keys out of my pocket and unlocking the car. “You’re sexy when you’re protective,” I tease him, opening the door for him.
He beams up at me as he sits. “Did I turn you on?” he teases back.
I shoot him a wink, closing him into the car.
Not sure if I’m supposed to admit that he turns me on yet.
I can admit that to myself, but I’m not sure how he’ll react yet.
I don’t want to lose my chance because I jumped ahead.
Magnus deserves my best effort, and part of that is being patient and wooing him slowly.
I take a deep breath of the crisp March night and walk around the car, taking my time to regain my composure, confidence, and calm.
Best effort, Trent. You got this.
***
The problem with having sent out the link to our paywall to the people that live where we do, is that the foundation of our fanbase is people who see us in person everywhere we go.
So, after Magnus watches one of our fans mix gummy bears and worms, sprinkles, and cherries into his mixed berry ice cream and we sit down to enjoy our celebratory desserts, we become the center of attention in the little shop, which gets more crowded the longer we’re here.
The watchers are subtle—I’ll give them that—but only because Magnus’s attention is fully occupied with his ice cream.
Since the majority of the customers are girls, and the rest of them are guys giving off a queer vibe, I assume our location has been leaked to some kind of fan group somewhere and we’re being fan-stalked.
Magnus’s obliviousness makes me smile and I shoot a wink at one of the groups of girls watching us from a close table.
“Oh hey, did you get the hotel sorted?” Magnus asks before dropping a gummy worm into his mouth with an excited little wiggle.
A half smile lifts one side of my face at how much delight he gets from simple pleasures, but I shake my head.
“We’re stuck with one bed. The person I spoke to said that they didn’t have any open rooms with two beds, but they upgraded us to the honeymoon suite for the inconvenience.
I only had to pay an extra ten bucks a night for it. ”
Magnus blinks twice and tilts his head curiously. “Does that mean we have an in-room hot tub?”
I chuff, nodding. “Yep, and a two person shower, and a balcony view of the ocean, not to mention a bed big enough for an orgy if we decided to get adventurous.”
Magnus snorts, shaking his head. “You already told me you weren’t interested in group sex, and it’s rather inconvenient to have sex outside of the two of us, anyway.”
Our audience is riveted. I might be too.
“What do you mean? You said you were interested in group sex,” I remind him.
Magnus shrugs, talking around small scoops of ice cream he shovels into his mouth as he explains.
“You and I know that we don’t have any risk of STIs between us; we’ve had our testing done and we know our statuses.
Having sex with anyone else means that we have to get tested again, and wait three months, get tested again, etc.
We have to approach sex with others as if we have contracted something.
It’s inconvenient for an experience I’m not even sure I’ll enjoy and one you don’t want to engage in.
Why bother? I’d rather not have to do the work and genuinely risk contracting an STI. I’m content with you.”
I shake my head at my best friend, pressing my lips together as I do.
He shoots me a questioning look, and I deliberately look around at the people staring at us with expressions ranging from surprise to smugness and everything in between. “You might want to explain to our audience that we are not, in fact, having sex together.”
Magnus looks around wide eyed and blushes deeply, waving sheepishly. “I didn’t mean that Trent and I are having sex with each other. I was just—well, some of the comments suggested fellatio and we’ve been talking about that. Fan service, you know?”
“So not the right space for this conversation,” I murmur, suppressing a laugh.
Magnus’s wide eyes beg me for advice on how to proceed, and fortunately there aren’t any families here this late on a school night. I give up and let my chuckle ring out, which brings our fans in, prompting them to join me, and eventually Magnus also giggles.
As the laughter dies, I hold up my hand to draw everyone’s attention. “I swear we’re not usually like this in public. We just came from an important meeting that could have ended our short career as content creators, and we’re here celebrating.”
One of the girls closest to us clears her throat and asks, “How did the meeting go? Was the board on your side or what?”
Magnus immediately straightens, and with a wicked smile, he answers loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Oh, the board of trustees was very much on our side from the start. We had to address some lingering philosophical prejudices about the adult entertainment industry, but once we cleared up the philosophy the university would be working under going forward, the meeting was quite productive. Trent and I have the full support of the university from the provost to the chancellor to the president of the board of trustees. There won’t be any more questions about whether we’ll be allowed to continue our experiment, and going forward, the university is implementing more safety precautions for the students.
We’ll have more security officers on-campus, and I get to plan the installation of more blue light boxes since the campus has grown since they were installed in the late nineties.
We’re upgrading student security, and there’s going to be a university round table discussion about the sex industry in April that I get to be a part of.
Exciting things are happening, and I hope you all will support us while we do this. ”
“Of course we’re going to support you. We stalked you here just to watch you guys have a date.” That comes from one of the guys with a group of girls I recognize from one of the sorority parties I went to last year.
Magnus giggles, shaking his head. “I mean, it’s not officially a date, but I guess you have a point.”
“It looks like a date from here,” the guy points out.
Magnus shakes his head. “What exactly are the parameters of a date?”
“Two people doing something together,” the guy replies.
Another girl chimes in, “The purpose is to spend time together and connect.”
“Gotta build up your relationship, so you spend time together doing that.”
“One person usually pays—”
“And that person is usually the person who drives!”
We’ve got the whole shop chiming in, including one of the employees, who adds, “There is usually at least some sexual tension, if not whole ass conversations about it.”
“And at least one person has romantic intentions.”
Magnus points to the person who said that. “If that’s a requirement for a date, then Trent and I aren’t on one, because we don’t have romantic intentions toward each other.”
As soon as he says that, more than half of the people in the shop look directly at me.
Magnus isn’t paying attention to them, and I shake my head at all these people who’re about to give away the game. Fuck, I should not have asked for date suggestions from my viewers.
“I think it’ll be easier to just admit this is a date than argue with our lovely subscribers,” I hum, not sure if I’m hoping Magnus will accept it or not.
Magnus frowns at me, puzzled for a second before finally shrugging. “If you’re fine with it, then I am. We can call this a date, but we should be filming it, if it’s a date.”
“Oh don’t worry, I got you,” a non-binary person says, holding up their phone.
Magnus wags his finger at the person. “You need to get consent for filming like that, my person.”
“My person?” someone asks, confused.
Magnus shrugs. “They appear to be enby. I wasn’t going to call them ‘my man’ until I knew their pronouns.”
“They/them,” the person supplies and laughs.
Smiling Magnus points to the person. “See.” To the person he says, “Please delete that video since we didn’t give our consent to be filmed.”
The person sighs, but taps their phone and looks up. “Deleted, but you should know everyone who isn’t here is in the group chat, and a bunch of us are keeping the chat updated, and pics have definitely been shared.”
Magnus perks up. “Wait. There’s a group chat? What platform? Can I join it? Purely for research purposes?”
“I’ll ask the group chat if they want you to join, but they probably don’t. It’s a place for fans and probably isn’t a safe place for you,” a girl beside us says. “Fan groups aren’t really for creators, you know.”
“It’s probably enough to know that it exists,” I tell Magnus.
“Oh no, we have three of your graduate student mods in the group chat. They’re saying they can take any notes you want for your research,” the girl says, waving her phone at us.
“Oh, well, that’s fine. Can you tell them to make a point to visit with me during office hours this week so I can get data point parameters to them?” Magnus asks, fully into his research mode now.
I let out a little sigh, giving up my date until we can get out of here.
Magnus in research mode is pretty fucking amazing, but he’s not exactly date material.
I’ll have to wait to get his attention again, but maybe that means instead of watching a movie on my bed, next time I take him to the drive-in.
But hey, at least he’s open to making our outings dates, that’s a step in the right direction.