It's lunchtime at Televisionia and the lunch crowd has settled in. Jed Harbor, pictured above on the left, and Holland Wheatear, pictured above on the right, enter the diner and are shown a table outside in the clean Summer air. Most people would be uplifted by an environment such as this. However, Jed and Holland are not like most people. It's a quality that they both enjoy.
Holland Wheatear- Is it always this busy.
Jed Harbor- It tends to be. A nice day like this tends to bring out the yuppies who value ambience over quality. Luckily, this diner has both in droves.
Holland Wheatear- Huh. Is that why you come here?
Jed Harbor- Well, the food is quite good, and they deliver to my shop, which is a plus.
Holland Wheatear- Ah yes, delivery is a luxury for the lazy.
Jed Harbor- So, I looked up some of your work for The Ridgefield Press.
Holland Wheatear- How stalkerish of you.
Jed Harbor- I know. Anyway, I saw some of the pictures you've taken. I hope it's not strange for me to say this, but you seem to have a knack for capturing the family of murder victims in a way that is tragic but not exploitative.
Holland Wheatear- It's a gift. Also, I just shoot a shitload of photos and pick out the most useable ones later.
Jed Harbor- Really? What do you do with the excess photos?
Holland Wheatear- They sit on a hard drive that I've come to call "The Holding Place Of Misery".
There is a short pause in the conversation.
Holland Wheatear- So, what have you been up to. There's got to be someone in your life. Men who run book stores have a certain unknown allure to them.
Jed Harbor- They do? Anyway, I did have someone in my life. Her name is Robin, and up untill last year, I thought this was the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with.
Holland is intrigued by this.
Holland Wheatear- Really? You have a picture of this Robin?
Jed Harbor- No. Unfortunately Robin was not real. She was a alcohol fueled delusion, one that I quite enjoyed but eventually had to deal with in a healthy manner.
Holland Wheatear- How did you do that?
Jed Harbor- I went to rehab, started going to AA meetings, and eventually got dried out.
Holland Wheatear- Well, it's good to see you healthy again.
Jed Harbor- Yeah. So, what personal drama did you endure in the ten years since High School?
Jed meant this to be playful but Holland reacts mournfully to this question.
Holland Wheatear- I got into a relationship with a journalist for the Boston Herald. Really, that's the only reason I stayed in Connecticut after graduation.
Jed Harbor- You went to UCONN, right?
Holland Wheatear- Right, that's where I met Starlin.
Jed Harbor- Starlin?
Holland Wheatear- Yes. That's his actual name.
Jed Harbor- Hey, I don't mean any ill will, it's just I've never come across a person named Starlin.
Holland Wheatear- Neither had I, which is what first intrigued me about him. Anyway, we dated for a while, moved in together, then we got married once our state finally wised up and started treating people like people. We had a civil ceremony in a large park with us, our friends, and the wedding planner next door.
Jed Harbor- That sounds romantic.
Holland Wheatear- Shut up.
Jed Harbor- No, I'm serious. It sounds more romantic than my story of falling for an alcohol fueled hallucination.
Holland Wheatear- True. Unfortunately, our relationship didn't last much longer after that.
Jed Harbor- Care if I ask why?
Holland Wheatear- I won't go into much detail. I'll just say, if I ever see Rosie again, I just might cut a bitch.
Holland makes this threat just as a waiter comes to take orders. After this, the two continue to talk.
Jed Harbor- So, why did you go to the reunion?
Holland Wheatear- Is it so unusual that I'd want to be around people?
Jed Harbor- No. Those people, yes. I mean, you barely wanted to be around those people when you were in the same school as them.
Holland Wheatear- I could say the same about you.
Jed Harbor- Yeah, but I didn't move across the country to get away from them.
Holland Wheatear- I didn't go to UCONN to get away from them. My parents couldn't pay for college, UCONN offered me a partial scholarship, so I went. It's not like I had a rich grandfather to bankroll my education.
Jed Harbor- The only reason Rodger paid for my college is so that I wouldn't end up a drunken failure like my dad. Now I'm just a formerly drunken semi-failure.
Holland Wheatear- Semi-failure? How so?
Jed Harbor- I have no idea how the store makes money. I sincerely think Rodger's just making up the numbers as he goes along.
Holland Wheatear- So, why did you go to the reunion. The way you interacted with Cambra and her husband, it was like you had some kind of personal grudge against them.
Jed Harbor- What about you? You did the same thing.
Holland Wheatear- Yeah, but we're talking about you. Why did you go to the reunion?
Jed takes a second to get his words right.
Jed Harbor- Initially I was against going to the reunion. Then I saw that you were going and...
Holland Wheatear- And?
Jed Harbor- I wanted to see if I could reconnect with you.
Holland seems perplexed by this.
Holland Wheatear- Why? Why would you endure that just to talk to me?
Jed Harbor- Let me explain.
END PART 3
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