Moments Between Sleep

"Like hell!" She called back. "Do your worst, you get to explain it to… who ever the fuck is in charge around here. Teia!"

"Teia does talent management at the club! The apartment is run by a different management company but that's not important right now! Why didn't you just tell me!"

"Tell you what? What did you find?" Jericho looked at them with anxious confusion.

"Nothing! They found nothing!"

"Are you the reason why I couldn't get into the fan club?! I could get you so many pictures, Veryl!"

A blonde head appeared in the curtain-less window, hands pressed against the glass.

"What?!"

"What?" Jericho repeated.

They held their phone up in front of the window, showing the shots they took at the mall with Jericho framed around the dressing room. "Let me in!"

Veryl disappeared from the window. There was a heavy scraping noise, some shuffling and swearing, the deadbolt and chain unlocking, and finally the door was swinging open.

"Only if you let me explain." Veryl stopped them both with a finger in the air.

"I hope it's for money."

"…What else would it be for?" She slowly stepped aside. "Actually on second thought, maybe not here."

"Why not—" they looked past her into a mostly empty apartment, then rubbed the stress out of their eyes. "I swear no one uses the furniture rental form. Why do we even have it?! No. No, fix that when we get back. Just. Fuck."

"What is going on?" Jericho muttered under his breath.

"She wants to explain so hush."

"Was that what that email was? Huh." Veryl mused as she followed them to the other apartment.

"We have a basic set of furniture that can you order so you don't have to sleep on the floor! You're not sleeping on the floor, are you?" they asked momentarily distracted from their tirade as they headed back up to their own place.

Veryl snorted. "No… you really think I sleep here?"

"Where do you sleep?"

"Well, let me think, there's the professor's, the songwriter's, the painter's, Damas, that mechanic at the garage that lets me crash on his couch. There's a sorority too that's really nice, but I think I'm getting too old. It's getting weird." She ticked off each of them on her fingers. "Elek doesn't seem to mind my presence too much."

"You're sleeping with Elek?!"

Jericho made a choked noise somewhere between a cough and a laugh.

"Not recently, he's had his head up his own ass about something and I don't feel like pulling it out for him."

Jericho glanced at Juan with a small smirk. "Give you three guesses what that's about."

"Okay fine. Everyone's slept with Elek. Except Riley, I guess? I never thought I'd say that. I'm just…" Juan shook their head quickly. "Whatever. If you want photos, we can take photos for you. "

"Thanks, but they can't just be any photos."

"I would know that if you let me into the club," Juan nearly hissed.

"Huh, must have failed the talent portion." Veryl joked. "I don't run the approvals."

"Wait, Ver… you run one of the fan accounts!?" Jericho's mouth dropped open and he blushed furiously once he caught up and the realization sank in.

"Aw… honey. You're so pretty." Veryl patted his cheek as she passed.

He turned to look at Juan incredulously. "When you told me you were pretty sure almost everyone in the club had a little crush on me, I didn't think you were being literal."

"Yeah, everyone thinks you're pretty, but this is about the fan club. Even if Veryl's not running the approvals, she knows who is who I guess has a beef with me because I haven't been able to get in ever! Like it's disproportionately secure."

"I could tell you, but, you know…" she shrugged. "So, before I tell you about my part, I want to strike a deal."

"I can't get you a raise."

"Oh for fu-" Veryl rolled her eyes so hard it looked like caused her an instant headache. "Photos. I want at least five a month."

"I already said I'd get them for you!"

"Cool. You got a pen and paper?"

"Is anyone going to ask if I'm okay with this?" Jericho piped up.

"Juan, I don't know how you get anything done, he's absolutely adorable."

"I don't let him sleep. Anyway, I'm not signing anything, that's crazy. I'll just give you collateral." They turned to Jericho, "We were going to do it anyway. If it goes through her, it's a little more legitimate."

"What? You two dating?"

Jericho nodded. "We were going to tease the fan club with some pictures and lead up to a reveal."

"You can't! No, no, no that'll ruin everything! I had a plan! Dammit!" She paced back and forth for a moment. "You know what, forget the photos, you're right this is better. But you can't just release stuff like this."

"I'm open to suggestions."

Veryl stepped back to assess them both. "Fine. Maybe we can work something into my master plan. I need a laptop and an HDMI cable, I am not casting to a screen, it lags."

She pulled out a thumbdrive from her back pocket, and started mumbling to herself again.

They shrugged and connected up their laptop and slid it over. "Come on, movie star, let's see what her plan is."

Veryl hit the lights and launched into a powerpoint that was far too elaborate.

"We will get into the master plan, but first… a complete history." She clicked through the summary pages. "The total time for this presentation is two hours. So, lock in, nerds."

Juan's eyes sparkled and they clapped lightly with soft 'Ooohs.'

Jericho looked between Veryl, the screen, and then settled on Juan. "A presentation like this, you should make her an honorary de Riva."

"Please save all comments until after the presentation is over, thank you!" She clicked to the next slide. "So it all started with this video of Jericho tending bar…"

It really did cover everything. Every post, the reason why it was posted, the response, how it affected the page (eventually pages, some of which have yet to found), top comments, feedback, projections, multiple animated graphs and finally, comparisons.

"You must be asking yourself, what's the point? Why go through all of this trouble?"

Juan raised their hand. "Is it because he's hot?"

"What adjectives am I allowed?" She looked down over a pair of glasses she'd picked up at some point.

"It's more of a yes or no question but I guess it's up to you," they said looking at Jericho.

"I'm a bartender in a strip club." Jericho shrugged. "I've heard it all."

"Are his numbers better than Chance's? Can you do mine?"

Veryl clicked through a few slides as animations danced too quickly across the screen, "I actually have a full list here. But I'm glad you brought this up, because my goal…" She clicked a few more times, and there was a crown lowered to the top of a grainy picture of Jericho's headshot that hung in the club. "Is to make Jer the number one most followed member of the Snake Pit, nay, the whole of Antivan stripperdom. That's a little more nuanced than, "yes or no", wouldn't you say?"

"Oh, that's so ambitous! But how? Riley's the draw, then Glad, and Turvi's the specialty act."

"Relatability. Tangibility. Access." She had a slide for this one too. "Everyone talks to Jericho, everyone knows Jericho. If people aren't looking at the stage, they're asking him to make a drink. Do you know how easy it is to get lost and feel out of place in a club like that? He's got this magic little bubble of untapped potential right there in the corner of the club, where people feel seen and heard. Not mention he's got all of those slick bottle tricks that give them a private show of their own."

Jericho blushed and raised his hand before asking a question. "They don't know I nearly burned down the club, do they?"

"We ran a poll, and no, they tend to think very highly of you." She patted around on her person. "Right. Phone's busted. I don't think they really ever decided after arguing about it for about a week."

"It's actually a really good way to pull in business for people who generally would be too intimidated to go to a stripclub on their own," Juan said, too thoughtfully. "Are they going to flip out if they find out he's dating?"

"Depends on which camp you ask. Since that shitty photo got dropped of you two canoodling from a distance, I've been trying to run interference. I was planning to roll it out in stages, make it easier, and less… death-threaty."

"Death threats!?" Jericho squeaked.

"It's fine. We're not at the mall anymore and the club's shut down so no one actually knows where we are. Her phone will dry out in a few hours, and we can get this cleaned up."

"Really, I've already done this a couple of times before. They get a little… protective of you, so they've all agreed no one is allowed to get too close. Though they're all for you finding someone. The real problem lies in who they think you're dating."

He frowned. "If they have a problem with Juan…"

"Uh… so, no… they don't." Veryl looked a bit sheepish. "Juan's not even on the list."

"What!? That can't be right." He shook his head and reached for Juan's hand.

"It's fine. It's not like we're obvious during club hours. Besides, it's not like any of the other dancers are on there, right?"

"… there's a reason I need to get my phone back."

"I mean, even if I'm not n the running, I'm eligible, right?"

"I think you're a wild card, if that helps? Like a name they throw out for hypotheticals. My name is a wild card too, but like, could you even imagine." She laughed outright.

"Wait, so neither of us are in the bracket?! That's just rude."

"Well, who is in the running?" Jericho raised a brow.

"Last I checked, so before you two decided to ruin everything…" Veryl thought for a moment. "It was Zalan… Illene… and ah! Right! Viago, which personally, I don't really get, but they seem to think you have a thing for De Rivas. Weird you didn't make the list."

"It's so rude!"

"Well, Zalan makes sense, we've been friends for a long time. And Ilene always hangs out at the bar. But Viago!?" Jericho looked mildly horrified at the notion.

"Seems like a lot of facial hair at one time." She made a face. "Like velcro."

Jericho wrinkled his nose. "Ugh, yeah. No thank you."

"Those are also just the sane options… I think a baby nug made the list."

"Aww! Is there a picture?"

"Ew, no. That's a bad thing." Veryl made another face. "Maker, Viago is better than… that."

"There's always some kind of small animal, but nugs? I guess." They sighed. "So if we reveal without even being a consideration, it'll break the bracket and the group will freak out."

Veryl sighed and clicked off the presentation before sliding… were those different glasses than the ones from before? "There's something to be said for ragebaiting people into interacting, but I'd rather keep things contained. They're nice, for the most part, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"We only have until takeoff then, unless they're not going to have anyone in Rivain. I'm not giving up matching outfits and a waterfall date just for an internet bracket."

Blushing slightly, Jericho turned to Juan with a soft smile and squeezed their hand.

They smiled back. "Aww, I forgot. This really is your first go around with this. How are you doing?"

"I'm alright. Happy even. This is… more fun than I expected," he chuckled. "Though now I'm thinking more about the dates we're planning for Rivain."

"It'll probably be fine. There might be a couple people who show up but most of your fans are local here. Our dates should be okay."

Jericho nodded, but looked thoughtful. "I'm kind of surprised no one's spotted us at brunch."

"At least we know it's none of the wait staff…"

He laughed. "Yeah… they probably all hate us. Just a little."

"Um yeah, not all of them." Veryl cleared her throat. "Anyway! I'll send you a list of shots I want, and you can just send me anything you think would look good on the grid, I'll let you know if it works."

"We should get them done by tomorrow night," they said with a nod. "And your phone repaired in a couple hours."

Her shoulders dropped with relief, "oh thank fuck. Maybe I can stop them from getting the server banned."

"Was that a concern?" Jericho asked.

"Nope!" She smiled broadly. "I'll see you two later, I'm gonna go check in with… the other moderator."

"Wait!" Jericho's eyes went wide. "Who's the other moderator?

"Wouldn't you like to know, Bar boy." She winked and gave a salute. "See ya!"

And just like that, she disappeared. Again.

Juan blinked, then turned to Jericho. "Did… she just wink and run out of here?"