...And Strangers

"Leah," Jake said with a heavy sigh, "If I've never heard of these people, what's the fucking point of bringing them here? Why even bother doing any of this?"

She gave him, or perhaps whatever invisible cameras recorded all this, a sly smile.

"I didn't say you'd never _heard _of them, love," she said. "Just that you didn't know them."

Jake looked at her warily.

"What's the difference?"

"It means you've admired them from afar," she said, "and not alone, I'll add. Though one only gets admired by a few dozen people a day and one by millions."

"Let's start with her, shall we?" Leah continued. "Our next contestant is the number three female Twitch streamer in North America. Her name is Sabrina Clement, though the world is more familiar with her gamer tag. Please welcome eXeQT."

"Really?" Ryan said, turning to Jake. "You're still watching that fucking fraud?"

"You watch _any _of those cam whores?" Emily questioned, a little hurt.

"Oh yeah," Hannah said, "though he was falling off the wagon a bit when we broke up."

"I've been off the wagon!" he objected. "I haven't watched her or anyone else in ages. Leah, this is madness."

Leah ignored her. And, at that, they waited.

*****

Exe rocked back in her chair as the votes came in on what she'd play next. She hated putting it up to a vote, since it would inevitably result in her playing either Valorant or Fortnite again. All she really wanted was to play some fucking Katamari or Griss or something. But the fans loved having a say, so here she was.

At least she looked fantastic today. Fishnet stockings wound their way up her shapely thighs and pleated black skirt. A hint of tanned midriff separated the skirt’s waist from her knotted white tee, on which Overwatch’s Mercy clung to her staff and Exe’s huge breasts in a tiny nurse’s uniform with the phrase “Sexual Healing” printed above her. Her brown hair spilled to her waist, today ironed perfectly straight, and she wore a hip pair of large, thick, and entirely cosmetic glasses. Perhaps a bit tacky, but it was no hot tub stream, and she often found that teasing her followers was more effective than simply showing them the goods.

Fortnite was winning. Internally, she sighed, then reached under the table to send a text to her brother James.

You free? I could use help with the show.

The response came with disheartening quickness.

Not today. Got plans.

Ugh. She really didn't want to do this.

Please? I'll pay extra.

Dots. Nothing. Dots. Finally a response came through.

You get paid to play video games. For fuck's sake, just go do it and enjoy that that's your job.

She fought to keep an annoyed look on her face, and instead smiled.

"Well, Exe-cutioners, looks like we're going back into Fortnite," she said into the mic.

Beneath the table, she tossed her phone away, and cursed her brother for not making this easy on her. To his credit, she had been leaning extra heavy on him lately. More than was probably prudent.

But he was wrong about what she did for a living. Her job wasn’t playing games; it was entertaining and arousing strangers. And these days, she was doing it as much as 12 hours a day just to keep up with her and her family’s increasingly elaborate lifestyle. The treadmill had kept speeding up, and trying to keep up with it was truly exhausting.

"Alright, soldiers," she said with a warm (though ****) smile, "Let's get ready to kick some ass!"

And she might have, too, if she hadn't picked that moment to pass out.

*****

Exe came to in the same room as the other 10 women before her, and in a similar state of confusion. Unlike some of them, however, she was immediately drawn to the projector.

It was fantastic stuff. That she'd be selected for someone's harem, she had no trouble believing. Nor did she doubt she was reality show material. But the claims they could be transformed? That she'd get a wish for winning? It was like bad online fiction.

But somehow, she didn't doubt it. Something compelled her to believe what she was reading. First, her own presence at… wherever she was… seemed proof enough. Whatever else was going on, she had been whisked away out of her own home studio and brought to this place. And she suspected that anyone who had the power could at least make her swallow this with a measure of grace.

She got to the end, agreed to the terms, but hesitated when asked to provide two emergency contacts. Who on earth did she trust to tell about this? Her first choice was her agent. Then, almost belatedly, she realized that if anything happened to her, she might want to let her family know. She wrote James in the second slot.

She stepped into the sun and immediately found herself drawn to the courtyard at the center of the pool. There were 9 women and a man sitting around some guy in a ring. The sight made her heart quicken. This really was real, wasn't it? How else could this be explained?

She straightened her posture and put a sway into her hips. If she was going to be on a show, she'd put on one. Now that she was getting a look at the competition, she could see they looked entirely ordinary; attractive, certainly, and moreso than average, but she was easily the best looking of the bunch. Win over an audience? Jesus, she did that for a living. If she played her cards right, this contest was as good as hers.

"Are you the guy?" she asked once she'd finally reached the bowl.

"Yes," he said with a heavy sigh, "I am the guy. My name's Jake. And no, I swear to god I had nothing to do with this."

Damn. She'd expected some otaku or something, but this dude wasn't even bad looking.

Exe smiled.

"Well, I'm glad to be here," she said, before admitting. "It's honestly just nice to have a change of pace."

"Must be hard, paying other people to play video games for you all the time," Ryan snorted.

Exe stiffened, turning toward him. If this guy, whoever he was, knew, how many others might?

It was a slip in composure she snuffed out right away, and hopefully before the little creep noticed.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about," she said.

She stood there with her hand extended, the silence from the others deafening. The blonde bearded guy just started at it.

After a moment, she shrugged, then took a seat. She crossed her legs, which made her miniskirt ride up her thigh. A quick glance caught Jake staring. That was good. She pretended not to notice, or that her sense of excitement was building.

"And finally," the hostess said, "we have one last contestant."

She was extremely, almost ethereally beautiful, but she sounded tired and irritated. Exe briefly wondered if she could wish for her job at the end of this.

She suppressed a smirk. She had plenty of time to figure all of that out.

*****

“Please welcome Lindsey Kerrigan!”

“Who?” Jake asked.

He racked his brain trying to think of any Lindseys he knew and realized almost immediately what a stupid exercise that was. Hadn’t Leah come right out and said that this round was all strangers? Still, he could have told someone who Exe was. He thought on celebrities, porn stars, clerks he met on a regular basis. Nothing came.

Yet when she stepped out of the room, he recognized her immediately. They’d both been sitting, and in the dark when they met, but the same three features that stood out then jumped right back into his mind: her cute young face, huge hazel eyes and the messy bob of teal hair and cute bangs that framed it.

Standing up, and in full light, she was both taller and more attractive than he might have guessed. Not as tall as AJ, but easily 5’9 or 5’10 if he was any judge. She had a tight runner’s body and long legs, currently clad in a pair of cotton jogging shorts and canvas shoes. Those were her only concession to clothing, and she walked with an arm draped over her very generous and very bare breasts. That probably explained why she looked around so nervously, though, reading her expression, he wasn’t detecting any sense of shame or embarrassment.

Those big, expressive eyes snapped onto him as she got close. Her mouth dropped open, and she pointed at him with her free hand.

“Holy shit! You’re that guy!” She said excitedly, hopping up slightly in her excitement.

“Wait,” Hannah said, “You two…know each other?”

“I drove him one time!” Lindsey said excitedly, “It’s a great story actually!”

*****

Jake had seen Lindsey’s name the night he’d met her, but he’d paid neither it nor the little image of her face any mind. It was her car he’d committed to memory.

He was too drained to pay much attention to his surroundings in any case. He’d felt that way a lot in the week since he and Hannah split up; like a survivor of some low grade apocalypse, stumbling through a bleak and largely empty world. The chilly autumn rain, for which he’d not been prepared and was battering him in steady, uncontested sheets, was not improving his mood.

The car pulled up across the road, and he staggered out into it, not paying enough attention to the cross traffic. He nearly getting run over by a speeding BMW. Its driver slammed the brakes, rolled down the window and let fly a string of colorful profanity in a singular motion only a seasoned New York City driver could execute so fluidly. Jake ignored him and continued to the car.

“Woooah, dude,” The young woman behind the wheel said, “You okay there? That guy almost wasted you!”

“Yeah. I’m fine,” He said, trying his best not to be irritated by her excitement, “Are you my ride?”

“Depends. Are you James?”

“Jake.”

She’d shrugged.

“Close enough.”

As she checked traffic, Jake made sure he was in the right car. He’d become suddenly and inexplicably certain he’d hopped in with an unstable person. But unless there was another green haired 20 something driving Uber in a blue Subaru, the app confirmed that she was, in fact, his ride.

He looked up into the mirror to find her looking back at him just as warily, and suddenly realized how he must seem; drenched, dead eyed, and so blind to the world that he’d nearly gotten himself killed. He relaxed a little.

“I’m…sorry if I held you up.” He said.

She only shrugged again.

“You’re cool, man. Just wanted to make sure you were alright.”

He sighed.

“I dunno if ‘alright’ is the word I’d use, but I’m not dangerous or anything.”

Her eyes shifted to meet his in the mirror, reflecting more concern then.

“Uhm…cooool. Not really where my head was at, but good to know.”

He felt a sudden wave of both embarrassment and exhaustion, then slumped and buried a head in his hand. He thought he needed to say something; anything that might reassure her, really. Groping around, he fixated on the gear shift.

“Stick, huh?” He asked. “Don’t see those around very often.”

“Yeah,” She agreed. “I don’t like any car that thinks it’s smarter than I am. Do you drive one?”

He shook his head.

“I never learned how.”

“I see…” She implied in a tone that implied that she really didn’t. “Handy skill to have.”

They lapsed into awkward silence then. The traffic was a thick slog that suggested an accident, and they were barely moving. After several long minutes, she finally spoke up.

“So what was the deal, anyway?” She asked. “Why were you standing by the street like you were thinking of diving into it?”

He blinked, so taken aback by the question that it barely even occurred to him to object to it.

“Uh…I was visiting a friend.”

She arched a teal eyebrow at him.

“Do your friends always make you look like that?”

“No, it was just a rough talk,” He said. “I just broke up with my fiance and my friend…well, she kinda let me have a piece of her mind about it.”

The driver had straightened up now, alert and engaged.

“Ah…did you fuck it up or something?”

“I dunno…maybe? Probably?” He said.

Why on earth was he indulging this?

“I think she decided I couldn’t be what she wanted.”

“That doesn’t sound like you fucked it up,” She said gently. “Like a…cold war sort of deal, maybe.”

“Huh,” Jake said with a nod. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

“How long were you together?”

“Bout 7 years. Closer to 8, really.”

She gave a low whistle.

“Sorry to hear that,” She said, sounding genuine enough. “There any chance of fixing it?”

“I dunno…I don’t even know if I want to. It’s all very…”

He waved a hand, and she nodded sympathetically.

“And this friend? Really liked her or something?”

“I mean, yeah, she did. But really it’s more…well, AJ just doesn’t get the whole tact thing,” He said.

“I know people like that,” The driver agreed.

Jake smiled in spite of himself.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem like you are people like that.”

The driver laughed heartily at that; a high, musical, infectious laugh that had him smiling along with her.

“Yeeeaaah,” She agreed. “You’re not wrong. It’s not a bad thing most of the time. But I don’t think our kinds of people are super great at comfort, y’know?”

“You can be, or at least AJ can. If she believes in it,” Jake said. “But she’s pretty disappointed in me at the moment, so that visit felt kind of like we had a pillow fight with sandbags.”

He was being remarkably open with this intriguing stranger, but then again, she was being remarkably forward in her line of questions.

“I guess she thought we should have been in it to win it. Like I gave up too easily or something.”

“That’s fuckin stupid,” The driver said. “I mean, no offense to your friend or whatever, but if you can’t decide after seven years…”

“I guess…I don’t know. I’m honestly kind of tired of talking about it. It’s just dominating life and stuff, you know?”

She nodded.

“So…what do you wanna talk about?”

“Pardon?”

“Pick a topic. We’re gonna be stuck here for a while, it looks like. So tell me what you do wanna talk about.”

“I uh…well, how about you?”

“What about me?”

“Tell me about yourself.”

She arched an eyebrow.

“And spoil my sense of mystery? Nah. Take some guesses, I’ll let you know if you’re right.”

Jake sat up a little straighter. He made a show of studying her in the mirror.

“Well…you’re not from here. The accent’s off and you’re way too fucking friendly,” He said “I’m guessing…Midwest somewhere?”

The driver nodded.

“Michigan.”

“You’re a…student. Studying…art and women’s studies.” He tried.

She made an exaggerated buzzer sound.

“Wrong! I’m a student, but not in those subjects. My turn…”

“Woah, wait a minute,” He objected, putting up a hand. “What do you mean your turn? You already learned…really, more about me than I probably should have told you.”

“Uhm, no,” She said, pausing to flick a bang out of her eye, “My car, my rules. Now, let me guess. You’re a….craft beer brewer. That seems like the right balance of obvious money and hipster chic.”

“Investment banker,” He corrected.

“Really?” She blinked. “Bit south of your natural habitat, no? Shouldn’t you be in like, middle Manhattan raiding someone’s retirement or jacking up rents or whatever?”

“I get out and about,” He said with a smile, “When I want a break from eating babies, and all.”

She snorted a laugh. A police cruiser waved them by a road block and, by the time she’d swerved around it, they were back to making good time.

“You know I’m just fucking with you, right?”

He nodded.

“I would expect nothing less from…” He hazarded his next guess. “A 21 year old Bronx dweller living with her boyfriend and a cat.”

Again she pantomimed a buzzer.

“Wrong on all counts. Dude, you kinda suck at this.”

Jake chuckled.

“Well, it looks like I won’t have to suffer for long. You’re almost there.”

As she pulled up in front of his place, he stopped before getting out.

“That was actually a pretty fun ride.” He said.

“It was…although I’m sorry to hear about your old lady.” She said.

“Thank you. For…” Jake started to say.

“Listening?” She cut in with a shrug. “Comes with the territory.”

“For helping me think about something else for a while,” He finished instead. “It was nice.”

Her smile was warm and genuine.

“Any time! Or, well…probably not. The odds are pretty statistically insignificant.”

A strange sort of madness overtook him then.

“You…wanna come up? To my place, I mean? We can have a drink.”

Her look turned a bit pitying.

“No. I mean, you seem like a nice guy, but I think that’s kind of a terrible idea for both of us.”

He nodded, and turned toward his place, already feeling embarrassed.

“I’ll tell you what, though,” She said, stopping him. “We passed an Aldi with a lot that looked pretty empty about a block back…”

He turned back to her, genuinely confused now.

“...You wanna learn how to drive stick?”

*****

“So I taught him how to drive stick,” Lindsey explained. “Tipped me $100, too. I couldn’t believe it.”

“Oh, did he now?” Emily asked, annoyed.

“I’m…sorry,” Leah cut in, “I don’t mean to cramp your style on a show where sex explicitly sells, but by why are you topless?”

Lindsey arched an eyebrow at her.

“Why are you nosy?”

She looked around at the others.

“Although if someone has a spare…” She wiggled a finger down her chest. “Y’know…I wouldn’t complain.”

AJ got up and stripped off her work shirt, revealing a tank top that clung to her hard abs beneath it. Lindsey turned away, then put it on, buttoning it around her chest, then tying it off beneath her breasts.

“Thanks. That was really annoying,” She said. Her eyes ran up and down AJ’s arms. “Love your tats.”

“Thanks. Love your hair.” AJ said, returning her look in a way that signaled her appreciation.

She took a seat next to Megan.

"But like, really," She whispered. "Why _were _you topless?"

Lindsey shrugged.

"I had a good night last night."

Megan looked confused by that answer.

"But you had your shoes on."

"Yeah, it was a really, really good night."

Finally, Hannah interrupted.

“Sooo…what happens now?” She asked. “You said there were 12 of us. We’re all here, right?”

“Thank you for asking,” Leah said, “Now we…”