A/N- Thanks for reading.
Despite what many people believed, Klaus' line of working did require some acting ability.
Certainly, nothing on par with the London West End, or even off-Broadway in New York and he probably wouldn't get any call backs for tv shows, but, still, some talent was required.
Unfortunately, not enough that when Caroline bounded over to him with two champagne flutes in hand and made him taste one after the other, before demanding which one was better, he could offer a decent lie.
"I honestly can't tell the difference, love." he admits and she glares down at the flutes with a frown,
"I think this one," she tells him, "It's less bubbly and is nicer even when left on a table for an hour."
"Then go with that one," he encourages, taking both out of her hand and leaving them on the nearest surface before striding into the beach front night club,
"Remember, sweetheart, these are porn stars, not politicians, as long as there's sex-themed cocktails and whisky for the pretentious, they won't care about the champagne."
She chews her lip but doesn't disagree so he tallies that up as a win.
For the last month, every spare moment not dedicated to filming or site building, Caroline had been running herself ragged planning the launch party, even though Klaus had found an event planning company that would have organized it all for her at a decent price, she liked to micromanage everything to ensure it would be perfect.
He'd offered to help and been put in charge of the guest list.
Which had been quite easy.
Actors in their industry relied more heavily on social media than actors in the mainstream industry, that meant frequent self-promotion at clubs and events.
So, he only had to order the invitations, design them, write up a predominately female guest list and coordinate with the guests and their agents to ensure they would attend.
They weren't going to get the most famous female stars, but the ones from the C-list down in this competitive industry were happy to spend a Thursday evening being photographed with cocktails they weren't paying for.
Especially when- in lieu of renting out the entire club- they'd settled for the more financially acceptable V.I.P rooms, which meant their guests would get to cut the line, and walk past the nobodies, up the stairs before dancing on the beachfront balcony almost out of sight of the rabble.
He'd also triple checked that the WiFi would be running for their guests, he'd even made the password their company name, so there'd be no reason for them not to be Instagram-ing every single second of the night and tagging either himself, Caroline or Mystic in the photos.
And hopefully, they could drink away some of their stress about their site going live at midnight.
There was nothing more to do on that front, they'd crunched so many numbers on so many different business programs that Klaus had come away from his laptop with a migraine and they had filmed as many quality videos as they could make in their time-frame. Katherine had been promoting them on her end and 'suggested' that her employees recommend the site to their friends.
He saw Caroline take out her phone and access the program that would keep track of their site views and membership sales, which she'd insisted on setting at fifteen flat-monthly for the beginner package for the next two months and they'd introduce more premium memberships later. It hadn't begun counting yet but she was already in the habit of checking.
Klaus comes up behind her and rubs her shoulders gently, "You want something to take the edge off?" he offers, "I have weed."
She shakes her head, "No, I'll need to be perky tonight."
He accepts this and looks around, noting that after the excitement of having porn stars in their close proximity had worn off, the staff setting up the event just looked bored. So, they probably wouldn't notice them sneaking off.
"Want another kind of stress relief?" he suggests, kissing the back of her neck and she leans into his touch but he doesn't pick up any lustful vibes from her,
"Sorry," she sighs, "I'm not in the mood."
He nods, not the least bit put out, "Okay. Is there anything I can do?"
She opens her mouth but before she can speak, he holds up a finger, "That isn't running the numbers again, it's too late now, love, come what may."
She runs a hand through her hair in frustration, "I'm going to…"
She snaps her fingers, "Pre-party media posts!"
He doesn't know what that means until she grabs her phone and begins snapping pictures of the champagne and realizes that she's generating interest before the event.
She really was at her best when stressed.
"What is happening?"
Caroline was behind the bar, mixing up Katherine's sex-on-set cocktail that the flirty bartender had taught her to make earlier, when her friend and business associate's comment has her looking up.
The guests had started to arrive.
"Oh…" Caroline nearly drops the glass and takes out her phone, "I mean…it is nine-thirty, the party is meant to start soon."
"I know," Katherine curls a strand of hair around her finger, "But who turns up to a party early?!"
Yeah, that was a little weird.
But the DJ has a beat going and Nik is already greeting them, exchanging air-kisses with the women and back-clapping hugs with the men, directing some of them to the bar and others to the dancefloor.
Caroline recognizes a few faces but their names allude her so she falls back on the trick an Australian co-worker had taught her, only instead of calling them all mate, she calls the men handsome and the women beautiful.
She introduces Katherine who immediately begins making nice with the women, likely looking for future clients and the men almost as a collective, order whisky from the bartender.
Caroline notes that the guests are already a little tipsy beyond pre-gaming levels and comes around the bar, taking a glass of champagne and sipping on it as she finds Nik charming two women.
And she doesn't want to cockblock him but the night is young and he doesn't seem overly worried about closing that deal.
"Explain?" she requests through a toothy smile, as they shuffle in for a group photo.
"I staggered the times on the invites," he answers, as the girls hurry to the bar and Katherine drags two men out to the dance floor, "I made sure the ones that get sloppy early would get here before the party so that it's already going when the rest turn up 'fashionably late' and the ones who take a while to get into it will be turning up around eleven."
She grins and squeezes his hand, "Good call."
Parties in the adult film industry could actually be pretty tame, after all, they could film orgies and drink up in sex dungeons while getting paid for it during the week, so there was little they hadn't done by the time they got to a club.
If it was a company promotion and a lot of press around, they might play it up for the attention and to cater to the mainstream idea that they were all sex-crazed hedonists, but Caroline had wanted a tasteful vibe with only a hint of debauchery.
She reckons the party is hitting that note.
The dance floor is filled with hot men and women who are grinding against each other, a few making out in dark corners and there's some people having sex in one of the cubicles in the men's room, but that was to be expected in any nightclub.
She looks around and sees Nik on the balcony, he had a woman on his lap and there's the frequent flash of phone cameras as endless photos are taken.
She knows he's rolling on molly but he's keeping neat and she took a bump of coke with their people earlier so she can't exactly judge.
Their team had commandeered a few couches and were trying to network and drink at the same time, with moderate success and she checks her watch.
It was nearly time to launch the site.
They could do it by phone, all she had to do was press a few buttons on the screen and she had thought about having a laptop set up but had figured that would be too businesslike for a porn site.
But they did have a projector aimed at one of the walls by the seating area and videos would be playing for the rest of the night.
She searches the room for the few bloggers and press that had been invited, those who were used to reporting on porn and managed to write articles in an accepting, non-judgmental manner.
Jenna Sommers was one of them, and Caroline found her at the bar, downing a violet coloured cocktail and leaning very close to Katherine, who had her hand on the reporter's bare thigh.
Well, that was one way to get good press.
"Hi!" Caroline beamed as she reached them and gave Jenna's now empty glass to the bartender, who immediately began making another, "You having fun?"
"Katherine has been telling me all about your site!" Jenna exclaimed, "Made for the female gaze and no violence at all, I'm impressed."
That had been mentioned in the emails that Caroline and Nik had sent her but she supposed they weren't the first to have made that claim.
"We're about to launch soon," she says, "I'd be happy to give you temporary membership so you can see for yourself."
Jenna makes a noncommittal hum but Katherine's hand delves under her dress and she simpers, "That might be fun."
"Great!"
Nik meets Caroline in the middle of the floor, smelling of alcohol, weed and cigarette smoke but seemingly capable of standing and holding a conversation.
"Shall we?" he suggests, a bottle of champagne in hand and she nods, heading to the DJ booth on the slightly raised stage and the music begins to fade out. The voices continue for a little while after that and Caroline waits patiently for everyone to turn their attention to her.
"Hi everyone, I want to thank you all for coming…" she pauses and waits for the predictable jokes hollered at her by the men,
"Nik and I are excited to be launching Mystic, our own site for adult films, we've been going hard…" she pauses again for more laughter, "But we think this site is going to be great for those who are after something a little different than what's on offer on other sites."
"We want to thank everyone who helped us bring this to life," Nik adds, "And while we've loved working with you all in the past, and hope to see some of you again in the future," he raises his glass to those two women, "We know you'll be wishing us your best."
There's applause and he turns to her, "Shall we?"
She holds up her phone, which has been linked to the projector, so when she presses the button, the site shows up on the wall.
"We are live!" she announces and the audience cheers as the DJ resumes playing.
Nik kisses her cheek as the cameras flash and they delve back into the crowd, accepting congratulations as her fingers twitch, eager to start checking her phone.
The party begins to wind down at three am and Caroline sways over to the bar for a few last drinks, because she's spent the night dancing, grinding up against a few guys and girls whose names she wouldn't remember in the morning and left them wanting more.
The bartender is tired but begrudgingly pours her some shots from a near empty bottle and she downs them, barely even tasting the alcohol and she has a craving for food.
Someone bumps her shoulder and she looks over to see Nik leaning on the bar, staring down at an empty glass with a look of wonder that usually comes from tripping on something.
"Pretty," he mumbles and she snorts, "You good to go?"
She hums in agreement and judges the distance to the cloak room, deciding she needs one last shot before getting there,
"You aren't going home with…" she pauses, "I didn't bother learning their names."
He grins, "Neither did I but we had some fun in the men's room."
She sticks her tongue out at him, "Pig."
He accepts that and staggers across the floor, nearly falling into the cloak room and she hears the protest of the girl staffing it. She finds this hilarious and nearly chokes on the last shot given to her by the bartender.
Sheer miracle gets the two of them down the stairs and somehow, they manage to call a taxi, not wanting to risk a bad Uber rating through drunken antics.
Caroline knows they should probably get to their respective homes and start sleeping off what would be rough comedowns, but she instead slurringly navigates the taxi to the nearest iHop and the two of them weave their way inside.
The waitress doesn't seem overly impressed but they fall into a booth and manage to point in the general vicinity of the food section in the menus.
Caroline takes her phone out and puts it on the table, trying to access their site but accidentally going into her contacts and then into her fitness app.
After failing for a third time, she gives up and Klaus- who is giggling at the ring on his hand- takes the phone and hums along to the noises it makes as he presses the buttons.
"We have…" he holds it out and stares at it, "One thousand views."
She nods, "Not bad, we must be getting the…isn't it weird that it's four in the morning here and not in other states?!"
"So, strange," he agrees, "Time zones…how are they real?"
"Seriously."
That's the last thing Caroline really remembers. She has broken memories of paying for the pancakes in cash and arguing with the waitress over the money, and she climbed into a cab really, really carefully because she knew she was super drunk and…
She opens her eyes and the room spins, causing her to close them and fall back asleep.
It's only when it becomes too bright with the afternoon sun does she finally give up and make an effort to wake up.
Her mouth is dry and her head is pounding and there's someone in her bed.
But she realizes that someone is Nik and that's okay.
There's also a glass on her nightstand that had been knocked over, splashing water everywhere and she winces as she looks about for her phone.
It was on the floor and the battery was flat.
Sighing, she slowly lifts herself up, seeing that she fell asleep in her clothes and her panties were still in place but digging into her skin. Groaning, she internally debates whether to shower or eat first and her roiling stomach demands fruit juice.
There's a charger in her kitchen and she plugs her phone in, struggling to attach the cord properly and turn it on. With another groan of self-pity, she slides to the floor and pulls open the fridge, scrambling for the juice and resting it between her legs as she built up the strength to start drinking.
Whatever she had taken after the coke last night, she was never taking it again.
Seriously.
She jumps as her phone begins vibrating and falls right off the counter, the long cable leaving it hanging in the air as it lights up and the nausea in her stomach is now partly due to fear.
What was wrong?
Had the site crashed? Were the videos not loading? Had someone blasted them?
Oh god, had they broken some sort of laws somewhere?
She reaches over, pulls the phone off the cable and the screen immediately dies.
"Fuck." Caroline whispers, her hands trembling and her armpits sweating as she plugged it back in, holding it awkwardly at an angle as she waited for it to come on again.
When it does, it takes another minute to connect to her WiFi and she's thought of a thousand different things that could have gone really, really wrong.
She has emails, missed calls and messages across social media, she decides to check her text messages first and sees that she has dozens from Luke.
'Why aren't you or Nik picking up?'
'Tell me that you're seeing this!'
'Holy shot checking our ducking numbers!'
What?!
Caroline's eyes blur as she scrolls through her apps until she reaches the one for Mystic and pulls up the numbers and…
"Fuck!" she repeats, this time in disbelief.
Nik had been wrong when he'd read the stats last night, at four am, they'd had one hundred thousand views.
She checks out the comments for their top video and reads them excitedly,
'Wow, they're both sooooooooo hoooooootttttt!'
'OMG, I love how this is focused on her and not the dude'
'I 3 dis site, so nice to find vidz that ain't low-key rap'
'Totes gonna buy the teddy she was wearing'
Caroline's smile grew wider and wider as she left the site and began checking her messages, she had groups messages from the team gushing about the results, an email link to Jenna Sommer's glowing article about Mystic, which had been reposted onto other sites. She had another email from Katherine about increased traffic to her own page and a final one telling her that thirty memberships had already been purchased.
"Oh my God," she whispers and then with a squeal she jumps to her feet, sways dangerously because she's still drunk but excitement keeps her upright long enough to get to her bedroom and throw herself on the bed.
"Nik!" she shouts, smacking his shoulder, "Nik, wake up!"
He's face down in the pillow and groans, "No."
"Yes," she argues, "You have to check our stats!"
He groans again, long and wailing like a ghost but stretches out a hand, reaching under the pillow and drawing out his phone and pressing the button to show the screen.
She sees it's set to the page and he'd checked already this morning.
"But three hours ago!" she protests, "The numbers have nearly doubled."
He lifts his head and turns it just enough so he can meet her eyes, "Told you so."
A/N- Let me know what you think.