Rio uploaded his honest, confessional video to Onlyfans on Saturday night before joining Jay in bed. He checked that the upload was successful, then quietly shut his laptop down.
"Well, it's done," he said, slipping under the bed covers. "It's posted."
Jay knew what he meant.
"It's out there now. Out in the world of zeroes and ones." Rio paused, contemplating what he'd just done. It was life-changing in every sense of the word, and potentially career-destroying, too. He felt like a reptile shedding old skin. He listened to the sirens in the distance; they never went away. There was too much crime and too many emergencies, but not enough people to respond. "Like, even if I changed my mind right now and deleted my post, someone would've already seen it. Someone, somewhere, has already watched my post and knows what I said. Maybe someone has even downloaded a copy. And if logged back on and deleted it now, I'd look like a fuckin' coward."
Jay rolled over. "I don't think you're a coward," he said, placing a reassuring hand on Rio's chest. "Actually, I think you're extremely fucking brave. I mean, you're asking people to view you differently to how they've viewed you in the past, which is hard enough for anyone in your position. But in your case, it's also tied up with your career, and I know how hard you've worked recently to resurrect it." He felt Rio's chest rise and fall underneath the weight of his hand.
"Yeah," Rio agreed. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see how people react tomorrow. I'm tryin' hard not to think about it anymore tonight." He spooned Jay from behind.
"I love you, Rio, whatever happens."
"I love you too."
"I'll get you a job at the library if I need to."
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
Jay reminisced. "Hey, you remember the time you came in to join the library and you asked me, very fucking loudly I might add, where the hardcore porn section was?"
Rio laughed. "Yeah, bruh, I do. That was funny. I'm just glad I didn't kill that old lady."
"She was deaf as a fucking post. I heard she made a recovery, but she didn't hear any of your complaint that the library didn't store porn mags on its shelves. She passed out because she came across a racy paragraph in the Barbara Cartland novel she was reading."
"Fuck around and find out," said Rio. "That Cartland skank had a dirty fuckin' mind."
Jay laughed hard. He went to sleep with a gigantic grin on his face.
*
Jay woke alone on Sunday morning -- the other side of the bed was vacant.
Rio was already up; he woke with the sun. He poured himself a coffee and logged on, steeling himself for the worst of all possible worlds. He began scrolling through the comments to last night's post. While there were a few nasty and ignorant comments, most of the feedback from his followers was either neutral or positive. A few people offered praise for the guts he showed in owning his truth, even though he feared for his career in doing so.
Jay padded out to the living room where Rio was sitting with his laptop. "How did it go?"
Rio peered at Jay over the top of his reading glasses. "I'm feeling very relieved, bro."
Jay sat next to him and gave him a big hug. "I mean, I've got a few less followers this morning than I had last night," Rio continued, "but most of the comments are good."
So some people had unsubscribed. "Show me?" Jay asked. Rio turned the laptop screen in Jay's direction.
Jay began scrolling down through Rio's feed. Some of the negative comments were downright nasty and offensive, but Jay felt way more upset about them than Rio did. He kept his thoughts quiet. This morning was about Rio, and not himself.
Rio pointed at the screen. "Look at this comment, Jay. That's a word I never thought I'd ever be called."
Jay knew the pain that six-letter word beginning with the letter F could bring. He'd been on the receiving end of it a few times himself. "I know."
"You know what? Fuck 'em," Rio decided. "If people like that have unfollowed me because of what I said, I'm glad they've gone. I don't want people like that as my fans."
He quietly closed his laptop and made breakfast for Jay and himself. Poached eggs on rye toast, with wilted spinach, hash browns and an abundance of coffee.
They thought no more of it until Rio's cellphone rang in the middle of the afternoon. He was sitting outside, enjoying a cup of herbal tea, but not doing anything in particular. He picked up his vibrating handset, but he didn't recognise the caller's number.
"Hey, Jay," he hollered, "what does it mean when you get a call from a number with a plus sign in front of it?"
Rather than shouting back, Jay stepped outside to join Rio. "It means it's an international call. Someone's calling you from overseas."
Rio's phone stopped vibrating -- the caller had given up.
"Who the fuck could be calling me from overseas? I don't even think I know anyone from out of the country."
Jay shrugged his shoulders. "Don't ask me."
"Must be a wrong number," Rio concluded. "Someone's doin' an international buttdial. They're gonna get a surprise when their next bill arrives."
A few seconds later, Rio's phone sprang to life again, buzzing loudly. He looked at the screen. "I think it's the same number, Jay. There's a plus sign on my screen, followed by 61. So if the plus sign means international, what does 61 mean?"
"Wait a second." Jay unlocked his own phone and googled international dialling codes. "So, 61 is the international dialling code for Australia. Someone's calling you from down under."
Rio looked perplexed. "Who the fuck do I know from Australia?"
His phone rang again. Same number. This time, out of sheer curiosity, he answered. The line wasn't very clear, but he heard a distant female voice.
"Uhh ... yeah ... g'day. Am I speaking with Rio?"
"Yeah, I'm Rio. What can I do for you?"
"My name's Sandy. I'm calling from Australia. I'm a journalist from the Sydney Evening Garbage. I believe we've met before. In Fiji. You might remember me."
Rio put his handset on mute for a second. "Fuck. Jay, it's that fuckin' Australian whore with those terrible plastic titties who hounded us on vacation. Remember?" Jay nodded, and Rio returned his attention to the call. "Yeah, I remember you. But how'd you get my fuckin' number, bitch? My digits are private."
Sandy's answer was nonchalant. "I'm a journalist. Phone numbers are easy." She pressed on with her inquiry. "So, Rio, I follow your Onlyfans account, and I was interested in the post you uploaded last night where you said you were bisexual and that you live with a guy. I was wondering if the guy you mentioned was the business partner you were vacationing with in Fiji."
Rio wound up. "Listen, whore, I said what I said last night, but I ain't got nothin' further to add. My life ain't none of your goddamn fuckin' business ..."
"I just want to let you know," interrupted Sandy, "that I took some photos of you both in Fiji. You were splashing around in the pool, throwing a plastic football back and forth to each other in the sun. I think I overheard you talking about libraries. Is your business partner a librarian? I know librarians don't get paid very much, so I assume that's why you both shared the same room."
Rio's mouth opened, but no words came out.
"I also took some photos of you both when you were watching a football game at the bar one night. You were high-fiving each other and hugging. I guess that means you and your business partner follow the same football team. You both looked happy. Decades ago, people might have described you as having a gay time that night."
Rio said nothing. He knew precisely what she meant by that word, but he refused to bite.
"So did you enjoy your vacation?"
"Until I met you, I did. Now listen, bitch, I thought I made things clear before. I ain't your fuckin' property."
"I know that, Rio," she said. "But the photos I took of you and your business partner are still on my phone, and they *are* my property. It'd be a pity if they ... you know ... got accidentally leaked to the internet."
Rio wasn't ashamed about anything. Personally, he couldn't give a fuck if this sleazy journalist uploaded private pictures of him, but he wanted to protect Jay. He thought hard: nothing in last night's post mentioned who his partner was. His shoulders sank. "What do you want?" Rio asked.
"An interview. An exclusive one, where I ask you about your ... journey. My newspaper will pay you."
"Listen. Why don't you write some bullshit 'bout Taylor Swift and leave me the fuck alone." He ended the call. His face was a scowl.
"What did she say?" asked Jay.
Rio sighed. "She saw my post last night. And she took photos of us in Fiji when we were in the pool, and when we were at the bar watching the Raiders game. She wants to interview me, and threatened to publish the photos she has of us if I don't agree."
Jay waited for Rio to continue.
"I've got nothing to hide anymore, but you ain't part of this story and I wanna keep it that way. In my post, I mentioned I lived with a dude, but I didn't say anything about who you were. So this ain't about me right now, but about you. I wanna protect you and keep you outta this, but fuck, Jay, this bitch is blackmailing me right now."
Jay rubbed Rio's sculpted shoulders. "Fuck, dude, that's what journalists do. They work in the fucking gutter. But you don't need to protect me. I don't care if she publishes those photos either. And if she's got photos of me, she already knows what I look like, and it's probably only a matter of time before she learns we did a scene together."
As if on cue, Rio's phone received two images. The first was a screenshot of Rio's huge dick buried in Flower's ass, with Jay sitting in a chair in the distance, jacking off as he watched. The second was of Jay's tongue slurping Rio's thick nut out of Flower's ass.
"So it's true," texted Sandy. "He really *is* your business partner, isn't he? You're definitely 'working together' if these screenshots are anything to go by."
Rio showed Jay the screencaps she'd sent. "Fuck, dude," he said. "That didn't take long."
His phone beeped again. "I can't publish these screencaps," Sandy messaged. "Besides being a breach of copyright, they'd be too raunchy for my newspaper to print. But there's nothing stopping me writing about them."
