4-3
381 Words
AFTER PAUL HANGS UP from the third phone call he’s gotten over lunch in the kitchen, Alex asks, “Should we talk about going home early?” He doesn’t want to, but Paul’s show is everything to him, and he deserves time to give it the attention it needs.
“No. Maybe. Probably,” Paul says and frowns down at his phone. “We’ve been looking forward to this trip for a while.”
“It’s not a vacation if you’re working the whole time.”
“Does it bother you?”
Alex shrugs. “I get you no matter what.”
They decide to stay. Extra time away from L.A. is worth the headache of Paul setting up shop in their room and not always being completely with his family.
The internet continues to be stupid, but Alex is happy to avoid it in favor of rambling around the property, alone when Paul’s busy, with him when he’s not. He loves the space and the quiet, and as spooky as so many parts of this place are — like the cricket barn and the pond that tried to drown Paul — he enjoys it.
Halfway through the week, he gets the call from his agent, Vanessa. The news isn’t bad, but the call is somber. Fourth has been renewed, which is a relief. The terms of the renewal, however, throw everything out of whack.
“Victor only wanted another year, you know, like a normal person,” Alex tells Paul, lying with his arms folded under his chin, stretched out on the bed in their room while Paul sits on the chair in the corner with his laptop propped up on his knees. “We got five more arcs.”
“That’s more than a year.”
“But what happens after that?” Alex asks. A season and change makes no sense as a deal if it’s not a clear message that the end is coming. Victor, he suspects, is furious.
“I wish I knew.”
It’s solving one uncertainly only by adding another. Now instead of fretting but not really worrying over the future of The Fourth Estate, they’re facing down the prospect of it actually coming to an end one day. A world in which Victor and the studio disagree over what should happen to the show is not a stable world. Alex can feel the future starting to shift.
“I still have to go to f*****g upfronts,” he complains.
Paul laughs, until Alex reminds him that he has to go this year, too. And since they aren’t on the same network, they won’t be going together.
* * *
- Writer
