Malik was standing at the curb when I stepped out of my building.
"Morning Mr Cruxs," he said and opened the rear door.
I stopped before getting in. "How did you know which building I live in."
"Ms Takahashi gave me the address."
I got in and said nothing else.
The other night I had deliberately asked her to drop me blocks away. I had not given my home address to anyone connected to this project. It was not on my portfolio, only in my agency files, nowhere that a client should have access to it. But here was Malik, parked directly outside my building like it was the most normal thing in the world.
I was going to ask her about it the moment I arrived.
I forgot the moment I walked through the door.
The house was unrecognizable from the quiet space I had sat in during our first meeting. Every room was alive. Warm light ran along the walls and ceilings casting everything in gold. People filled the spaces between furniture, glasses in hand, conversations overlapping, laughter cutting through it all in short bright bursts.
Outside the garden was open, a long pool running down the center of it reflecting the string lights hung above. A live band played in the far corner, low and unhurried, the kind of music that sits underneath conversation without demanding attention. Tables lined one side loaded with food and drinks that had clearly not come cheap.
I stood at the entrance and took it in.
Fellow streamers, content creators, people I recognized from thumbnails and platform pages and exactly the kind of cultural spaces I researched professionally but rarely entered personally. An upcoming singer in a silver dress standing near the bar laughing at something on someone's phone. Two men in expensive trainers debating something with so much intensity you can tell they cared deeply about winning small arguments. A woman I was almost certain hosted one of the biggest travel channels online, standing near the garden doors with a glass of red wine looking effortlessly at home.
All of them in one room.
I straightened my jacket.
This was opportunity. Every person here was a brand, a platform, an audience that needed a visual identity at some point. I had come as a guest but I was not about to leave without making the most of what this room was offering. My promotion is at stake .
Raina appeared from across the space almost immediately. Deep emerald dress, clean cut, her red hair pinned up on one side. The opal pendant at her throat. She moved through the crowd and people shifted for her without being asked.
"Ethan." She smiled. "You made it."
"Nice party," I said.
"Thanks." She glanced around.
"Come. There are people I want you to meet."
She moved and I followed.
She cut through the room and stopped beside a man standing near the garden doors with a drink in his hand. Camel coloured cashmere turtleneck, tailored black trousers, boots that had not been bought locally. A watch that caught the light every time he moved his wrist. Natural hair, relaxed posture.
"Zayn," Raina said. "This is Ethan Cruxs. He's the graphic designer on my rebrand."
The man turned and I felt my brain stall completely.
That face.
I knew that face. Not personally. From five years of streams, from viral clips, from the kind of content that pulls ten million views in forty eight hours because nobody else on the internet was doing what he did.
Jumping out of planes over active volcanoes. Surviving seventy two hours in the Siberian wilderness with nothing but a water bottle and a camera. Racing motorcycles through the streets of cities that had agreed to close their roads just for him.
Mr Zedd. Three million followers and climbing.
"Oh my God," I said before I could stop myself.
"It is such an honour to meet you. I have watched every single one of your streams. Every one. The Ubekzia survival series, the Monaco race, the underwater cave one that everyone thought was going to go wrong."
He laughed. Genuine, unguarded. "Always good to meet a fan man. Appreciate that."
He shook my hand and I made a conscious effort to respond like a functioning adult.
"Ethan is extremely good at what he does," Raina said. "I wouldn't have him on my project otherwise."
Zayn looked at me with renewed interest. "Graphic designer yeah? What kind of work?"
"Brand identity mostly. Visual systems, overlay design for streaming clients, promotional work..."
"Promotional work." He pointed at me. "I've got a live event coming up in Abu Dahar. Big one. I need promotional art and I've been putting off sorting the design side of it for two months."
He tilted his head. "You think you could handle something like that."
I opened my mouth.
Closed it.
Mr Zedd was asking me to design the promotional material for the Abu Dahar stream. The stream that had been teased for four months and had the internet losing its mind in anticipation.
"It would be my absolute honour," I said.
He grinned. "Good man. I'll find you through Raina and we'll set it up."
He raised his glass slightly. "Welcome to the circle Ethan."
Raina touched my arm and we moved on.
"Holy shit," I said the moment we were clear.
"Mm hmm," she said.
"You just introduced me to Mr Zedd."
"Yes I did ," she said.." with promotion season around the corner , I'm glad to help "
"Thank you," I said. "Seriously. Thank you."
"It's my pleasure." She steered me toward another group. "We're not done yet."
She was right. The introductions kept coming. Delara, an upcoming singer who needed cover art for her first EP and said Raina's word alone was enough for her to commit to a collaboration. A content creator duo who ran a travel channel and wanted a complete visual rebrand before their next season launched. A gaming streamer who had outgrown his current overlay design and wanted something that matched where his channel was going.
By ten thirty I had more potential clients than I had walked in expecting to leave with and Raina had personally vouched for me to every single one of them.
"Wait , how do you know about promotion season " I said to her at some point between introductions.
"A little birdie told me " she said and smiled and moved on before I could press it.
Kuro. It had to be Kuro. I made a mental note to have that conversation later.
The night moved well after that. Food, good wine, music shifting into something warmer as the crowd relaxed. People taking pictures near the pool, laughter getting louder .
I talked to people I had only ever seen on screens and they were mostly just people, interesting and self aware and easier to talk to than their public personas suggested.
At some point I drifted outside.
The pool was still and lit from underneath, a long rectangle of pale blue running down the center of the garden. Most of the guests had moved back inside and it was quieter out here, the music softer, the air cold enough to be a relief after the warmth of the house.
Raina was standing near the far end of the pool alone.
I walked over.
"Wow," I said.
She turned. "Enjoying yourself?"
"More than I expected." I stood beside her and looked out at the garden.
"Thank you for introducing me to all those people. That was more than I could have asked for."
"It's my pleasure Ethan. Truly."
We were quiet for a moment. The lights above the pool moved slightly in the breeze.
"How are you doing though," I said. "Really. Now that the Soul Beauty deal is in effect "
She looked at me.
"You know," she said slowly, "you are the first person tonight who has actually asked me that. Everyone just assumes I'm thrilled and moves on."
"Are you not?"
"I am." She paused. "It's just...
She looked back at the pool. "Soul Beauty is not the kind of brand I ever thought would come to me. An avatar streamer in a beauty campaign sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud. When they called it came out of nowhere. No warning, no build up, just a call from their acquisitions team saying they wanted a partnership."
"That surprised you."
"It did. My manager pushed me to sign immediately. Said it was the opportunity of a lifetime and I was overthinking it." She was quiet for a second.
"I signed. But I can't shake the feeling that I'm being used for something I don't fully understand yet. " Like I'm in a box and I don't know why I was there in the first place ... "
I looked at her.
Underneath the composure, underneath the emerald dress and the opal pendant and the party she had thrown for a deal the whole world was celebrating, she was just a person sitting with a feeling she could not name to anyone around her because they were all too busy being excited on her behalf.
"If anyone can handle Soul Beauty," I said, "it's you. And whatever they think they signed, they're going to find out they got more than they bargained for." I paused.
"I'll be here to help with anything on the creative side. Whatever you need."
I said it because she had spent the entire evening handing me opportunities I would not have found on my own and this was the only thing I had to give back.
She looked at me for a moment.
"Thank you Ethan," she said quietly. You can tell she really meant it .
I checked my phone. 12:06 AM.
"I should head out," I said. "Early start tomorrow."
"Let Malik drive you."
"No it's fine. I'll get a cab."
"He really doesn't mind. It's part of what he does."
"I'm sure he doesn't ," I said. "But I'm good. Really."
She looked at me for a beat longer than necessary. "Alright. If you're sure."
"I am." I looked at her. "Thank you for tonight. For all of it."
"Anytime," she said.
I found my way back through the house and out the front. The night air hit me properly as I stood at the top of the driveway and opened my cab app. Thirty minutes. I stood there and waited and looked back at the house once, gold light in every window, the sound of the party still running warm inside.
Somewhere in the last four hours the question about my address had slipped completely out of my head.
The cab pulled up and I got in.
Only in the quiet of the back seat, the city moving past the windows, did it come back to me.