“You miss having ‘someone’ or do you miss having me?”
“Of course I meant you, Teddy! God!” Jane giggled. She was surprised to hear herself giggling.
“Just making sure.”
Between bites of food, they caught each other up on what each had been up to, while avoiding any discussion about their respective dating lives. Teddy chortled when Jane told him she had spent the day with an influencer.
“Oh, wow, that must’ve been absolute hell for you.”
“The most disturbing part was that her mother cloned her dog—she had two clones! It was some sci-fi horror in real time.”
“Wow, so many levels of wrong there.”
“Oh yeah. The influencer, I guess she wasn’t really that bad. She’s just a teenager. All I know is we’re lucky none of that crap existed when we were that age.”
Teddy told her living with Keith was getting a little exhausting. Keith wanted to go out and do something all the time, making it hard to get him to focus on the projects they were supposed to be collaborating on.
“Which projects?”
“Well, I’ve pretty much given up on the screenplay with him; he never actually wants to sit down and write. Our main effort is trying to score enough followers on Twitch to monetize that.”
“That whole world is alien to me.”
“Well, you’re not a gamer, so it won’t make a lot of sense to you.”
“I’ve triedFortnite!” Jane protested, adding, “But I know how bad I suck at it.”
“Yeah, you’re like epically bad at it,” Teddy agreed with a wink. “It’s kind of cute.”
“The thing I don’t understand is why anyone would want to sit around watching someoneelseplay...?”
“Gamers do and that’s our audience. I’m sort of the straight man and handle all the tech.” Teddy hesitated. “I know you’ll hate this, but the gimmick is Keith gets drunk, and then plays under the influence.”
“You’re right, I do think I hate that.”
“Sometimes he does it stoned, or, you know, rolling on Molly. It’s sort of a PSA, because we always say he would be doing much better if he weren’t wasted. We tell people this is solid proof you should never drive under the influence of anything.”
Jane laughed. Teddy did have a way of making her laugh, and if he liked the company of a pubescent sommelier, that was his business.
Teddy asked what she was planning for the holidays.
Jane shrugged. “Nothing really. Probably Christmas with Anna. I mean, Christmas is sort of my worst nightmare—all the frantic buying, the awful eggnog everyone pretends to like, and all those gross baked goods, like those humongous tins of butter cookies from Costco which aren’t even made with butter.”
“You really know how to suck the joy out of things, don’t you?”
“Yes, I excel at it. Thank you. See! I just accepted a compliment.”
Teddy shook his head. “I’m not sure it was really a compliment,but okay. I’m not trying to bust your chops, Jay. And I do get why all that stuff grosses you out, but the holidays are also a time to hang with family and friends. And by the way, all the clutter and consumption is what keeps you in business, right?”
“True,” Jane reluctantly conceded.
“You don’t always have to go to the glass being half empty.”
“I don’t. Sometimes I go to, ‘There is no glass. And even if there were a glass, there’s no table to put it on.’ ” A little bit of self-deprecating humor seemed appropriate.
Teddy shook his head. “You make life so hard for yourself.”
“Maybe. But I get a lot of assistance from the world at large.”
