Page 12 of Hot Set

After all, this was my childhood home, and I had to defend it. Even if I didn’t necessarily disagree.

“You haven’t gotten around much, clearly,” Seth said.

“I believe in quality, not quantity.”

Seth shifted in the chair and propped his feet up on my make-up case, just an inch or so to my left. “If Bluehaven is your idea ofquality, I shudder to think at what you consider a dump,” Seth said.

“So, why are you here?” I asked.

Seth shrugged. “Cheap rent. Bluehaven is no New York City,” he said. “That’s all. I can be close to my agent and the various studios, and in my spare time, I do things like this.”

“And you care so much about them that you show up three hours late,” I said.

“You’re smart, aren’t you?” Seth asked.

“Not really,” I replied. “I just can’t see how you can—in good conscience—show up three hours late.”

“I wouldn’t show up at all if Brandon wasn’t so great,” Seth said, resting his cheek in his hand.

“Really?”

Seth nodded. “Brandon is a great guy—just lacking a bit in direction. This is his millionth venture.”

“What do you mean?”

Seth waved vaguely with his chopsticks. “It’s always something with him. If he’s not making a movie, he’s modeling nude or trying to sail around the world. The man’s got absolutely no idea what he wants to do with his life, so he just sort of flounders around, hoping to fall into something.”

“Oh,” I said, unsure how exactly to respond to all that.

Seth swallowed another bite. “A lot of it goes back to his family,” Seth said. “They really want him to take over the family business.”

“What’s that?”

“Telecommunications or something boring,” Seth said. “I actually feel a bit sad about it. All my parents wanted was for me to stay out of prison, and they’ve had…dubious success.”

“Dubioussuccess?”

Seth laughed. “Hey, lots of college students have gotten arrested at protests. It was for a good cause.”

“Was it?” I asked.

“Yeah. I chained myself to a tree and everything,” Seth said. “To keep a park from being developed in East Tennessee. They tore the trees down anyway, but it was worth a try.”

I shook my head. “Should I congratulate you, then?” I asked.

“It’s better to have tried and failed than not to have tried at all,” Seth said. “Paraphrasing Alfred Tennyson…I think.”

“You think?”

Seth nodded. “I memorize poetry just to pick up people at bars,” he said, “But I’m awful remembering where it all comes from.”

Seth leaned forward and placed his mostly empty container on my make-up case, and then, rather than getting up, he leaned back in the chair, adjusting so he looked like a king on his throne.

“Shouldn’t you go and find Brandon?” I asked.

“No,” Seth replied. “I’ve got him trained. If I wait long enough, he’ll come and find me.”

What on Earth was I supposed to make of someone like this—a man with such a blatant disregard for what people thought and for what he was supposed to be doing? It was, well, a bit admirable. I’d always been a man who followed the rules to the letter, and I felt profoundly like I’d just met my exact opposite. The Anti-Alex. And maybe I should’ve immediately disliked him. Somehow, though, I didn’t.

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