there was another, less admirable feeling, one snaking its way through her guts. Jealousy that Everett had always known what he wanted to do, that he’d had a clear path since he was a child. Well, maybe not a clear path—he’d had to whack away some overgrown brush to get to his destination, but at least he knew a path was there. Teddy felt like she’d been born in the middle of a forest, nothing but trees everywhere blocking out the light, stumbling around and trying to figure out where to go.
“What’s that like?” she asked softly. “Always knowing what you want to do. Having a passion.”
“I don’t know,” Everett said simply. “This is the only way I’ve ever been.”
Teddy sighed. “I wish I was like that. I wish I had neon lights and a big blinking arrow pointing toward my life’s purpose.”
Everett smiled and put his pizza plate on the coffee table. “But isn’t this more exciting?”
Teddy blinked. “In what way?”
“Well, for us freaks who’ve been pursuing the same thing since infancy, there isn’t any room for exploration. I always knew I wanted to be a puppeteer, and I wanted my own show. So my whole life was dedicated to that, and either I succeeded or I failed. With you . . . well, every new thing you try can be a success, you know? Who’s to say what’s a failure?”
Teddy smiled. “That’s a nice way of thinking about it. But what do you mean, no room for exploration?”
Everett leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “This sounds ungrateful. And maybe a little pretentious. Okay?”
“Okay,” Teddy said slowly.
“I’ve never tried anything else,” Everett said. “This has always been what I’m good at, so this is always what I’ve done. And I worked and worked for this, every step leading me toward my own show, and then when I got it, toward making the show the best thing it could be, the ideal version that was in my head. But now that I have it . . . where do I go? I got exactly what I wanted, but I have this strange, empty feeling inside me, like this isn’t enough, but I don’t know why.”
Teddy chewed thoughtfully. “What would be bigger than having your own show?”
“Well,” Everett said, crossing his arms behind his head. “Having my own national show. I have a meeting with the Imagination Network coming up.”
When Teddy kept chewing without reacting, he smiled. “I always forget that not everyone is obsessed with the same things I’m obsessed with. They’re basically the biggest possible deal when it comes to children’s entertainment. Think Disney.”
Teddy nodded. “Yes. Disney. That name, I know. So do you want to make your show with them?”
Everett paused, his brow knitted. “Well, yeah. I mean, doesn’t everyone?”
“I’m not the person to ask.”
“I can’t really go anywhere else from here. There’s no higher place to take the show than the Imagination Network.”
“What if,” Teddy said, extending her arm, “instead of going vertically . . . you explore laterally.”
Now it was Everett’s turn to stare at her.
“I’m sorry.” She grimaced. “I had one glass of wine and I’m giving out unsolicited, unqualified advice.”
“No.” Everett turned to fully face her. “That’s . . . no one’s ever suggested that to me before. What do you mean, explore laterally?”
“Maybe instead of trying to make the show bigger, you could . . . explore other things, you know?” As Everett stared at her, she started to think that maybe she’d said the wrong thing.
“I mean, I’m drunk,” Teddy said, even though she wasn’t. Instead, she felt a familiar sense of shame creeping over her. This was the part where Richard—she meant Everett—would tell her that she didn’t know what she was talking about. That she couldn’t possibly give him advice on being a doctor—er, having a television show—when she worked retail. What would she know?
She opened her mouth to apologize again, but Everett was moving on. He didn’t seem offended in the least that she’d given him career advice. In fact, he seemed excited.
“Can I show you something?” he asked as he stood up, holding his hand out to her.
Teddy let him pull her off the sofa and followed him into his bedroom, which was relatively sparse aside from the desk in the corner. Her feet tapped along the hardwood floor as she looked around. He let go of her hand to grab something off his desk, and then held up a puppet.
“This is what I’ve been working on,”