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 thechancellor 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.”
