Man of the Year by Bianca Giovanni

James as she motions to me. “What a beauty!”
    “Wow, thanks,” I giggle. Now I’m blushing too.
    She hands us a couple bottles of water and James grabs a handful of carrots from the veggie platter as we sit down at the table.
    “Is this your first convention?” she cheerfully asks me, putting her hand on mine like we're on a talk show.
    “I went to our local comic con once when I was little, but this is the biggest one I’ve been to so far,” I reply.
    “It’s fun. The fans are great, for the most part. Sometimes you can get the unruly ones who think they can grab your tits or your ass, but they’ve been pretty well behaved so far,” she says with a smile. “I’m just so happy you guys could make it.”
    “Of course we could make it,” James smiles sweetly. “Shawnna, you’ve basically saved my ass. I’d do anything for you, babe.”
    I will not get jealous . Shawnna is just a good friend to him, even if they have had sex many, many times.
    “You should have seen the response we got on Twitter,” she says, grabbing her face like she’s in shock. “There are girls flying in just to meet you.”
    “Really?” he chuckles.
    “I had a girl from Canada tweet us who said that she’s flying 2,000 miles just to meet the man she fantasizes about while she has boring sex with her husband,” Shawnna muses.
    “No way!” he laughs and I giggle.
    “That’s right, big shot,” she teases. “Ladies’ll be lined up around the block.”
    About 20 minutes pass as we chat about the business. I learn that porn isn’t raking in dough the way it used to back before broadband and that it’s important for stars to build a personal brand. Shawnna’s company encourages stars to cultivate a social media following and they’ll often “leak” clips from new movies onto the popular tube sites that distribute free, user-uploaded porn to help generate a buzz for the upcoming title.
    As she talks, I can see why she loves James so much. His “personal brand” is more valuable than Apple in this industry. His website gets a ton of hits and subscriptions increase every year despite the availability of free porn. He’s big on social media and he answers fan questions and gives out sex advice on his Tumblr blog. He’s great at marketing himself, but more importantly, he’s genuine. James has never thought of things in terms of outward appearance. When he says something nice to someone, it’s because he means it, not because he’s trying to look like a good guy. I think the transparency of social media has really helped people see that good-natured person behind the hot bod and the huge dick, and that’s what’s shot him to the top of the game so fast.
    When we peek back out from behind the curtain, I see that a gigantic crowd has gathered in front of the booth. Showtime, stud.
    While the demographic in the exhibit hall is largely male, this booth must have drawn in every woman in the building, because I see more female faces than I have all day. He’s like fucking Jupiter and they can’t escape his gravitational pull! There are gasps, swoons and excited squeals when he steps out and waves at the crowd.
    “They’re crazy about him. It’s like Beatlemania,” Shawnna jokes to me, nudging me with her shoulder.
    I laugh and watch from behind the scenes as he sits down and takes out a Sharpie from the box on the table.
    Shawnna and I comment like we’re sportscasters as fan after fan moves up to the table to greet the apparent King of Porno.
    There are young women who might possibly still be in high school, soccer moms who probably sneak in a quick session with their battery operated James toys when their husbands are asleep, young douchebags like the guys from earlier, older men who want to shake his hand and take a picture with him like he’s Sylvester Stallone, and a few gay guys who’ve probably only watched straight porn to see my stallion of a boyfriend.
    I know James wants some pictures of this to put on