Page 45 of Business or Pleasure

I get that they said they’re going to wrap it up with graduation butbutbut I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS. Do Caleb and Alice last? Does Hux’s control serum really work? And WHAT was up with that wild boar in S3E17?? #SaveTheNocturnals

@calicecalicecalice

i miss them already wtfffffff

@justiceforsofiaperez

Just posted a petition here. PLEASE sign!!! They can’t ignore us, right?? #justiceforsofia

chapter

twelve

MEMPHIS, TN

Print media is dying,” one of my journalism professors told us on the first day of classes, and a rush of anxious whispers moved through the room faster than applications getting submitted for a Seattle Times internship. “You’re not going to be able to graduate, instantly get a job at a local newspaper, and work there for thirty-five years until you retire.”

That was, in fact, exactly what the professor had done.

A hand shot up. “I don’t get it,” said a guy two seats away from me. “Are you telling us to change our majors?”

The professor shook her head. “Not at all,” she said, calmly but firmly. “You’re just going to have to work a little harder. Be a little more versatile. You’re going to have to innovate.”

Somehow, I have a feeling when she said that, she was thinking more along the lines of learning how to use Photoshop and not fine-tuning X-rated lesson plans for Finnegan Walsh.

Two weeks, we’ve been on this trip, and I’ve been so wrapped up in our extracurriculars that I’ve almost neglected the whole reason we’re here: to write Finn’s book. Sure, I’ve spent some of our off days in cafés, trying to make sense of the notes I’ve taken so far, while Finn holes up in his hotel room reading a wholesome holiday rom-com script or doing... whatever else he does in his spare time. But once we land in Memphis for this weekend’s con, I’m determined to get more material out of him.

To further ensure this, we’re working from the least sexy place imaginable: a conference room in a Hilton DoubleTree.

Laptop and notebook open, voice recorder on. No prisoners.

“I listened to some Sleater-Kinney last night,” Finn says from across the table before I can even get out my first question. He sets his phone in the middle of the table, and a familiar string of chords starts playing. The title track to All Hands on the Bad One, my favorite album. “You’re right; they’re pretty good.”

It’s so out of nowhere that it startles me. “You—oh. Cool,” I say stupidly, unsure what to do with this. I clear my throat. “I mean, I’m glad. I was so beyond happy when they got back together, but they’re just not the same without Janet Weiss.”

“The drummer. She left in... 2019, I think it was?”

I lift an eyebrow at him. “Someone went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole.”

He just shrugs, drumming one of the free hotel pens on the table to the beat. “You said you loved them. I was curious.”

I’m not entirely sure how to name the way I react to this, so I decide to ignore it. “If you’re trying to distract me with riot grrrl, it might actually work, so we should probably focus on the book.”

He switches off the music. “I’m ready,” he says, flicking hair out of his face, posture immediately straightening. “Hit me.”

We start with a few softballs: behind-the-scenes Nocturnals antics, character research. After what we did in Minnesota a few days ago, I’m relieved we’re able to slide right back into our professional roles.

“You were typecast as the nerd for a while,” I say. “In The Nocturnals, of course, and in Lucky Us”—where he played a middle school science teacher who still lived with his parents—“and Just My Type”—his font designer character could barely speak to his love interest without breaking out in a cold sweat.

“There was a failed pilot, too,” he says. “A sitcom about a group of socially inept accountants. Riveting television. And hilariously, it wasn’t even typecasting so much as that was who I was. Hux wasn’t that much of a stretch, although for me, it was Tolkien and mythology instead of science.” Then he turns sheepish, tapping at the skin beneath his eyes. “My publicist even had me wear glasses with clear frames when we weren’t filming, even though I don’t need them.”

“No. You’re serious?”

He nods, laughing. “Isn’t that ridiculous? I was just grateful to have the work. I probably should have been more grateful, now that I know it was about to dry up.”

“We could probably do a whole chapter on that,” I say. “The nerd stereotype, and how Hollywood has at turns degraded it and hypersexualized it.”

I’m not expecting Finn to have such a strong reaction, but his eyes instantly light up. “Yes! I love that.”

---