Chapter 2

They met at Sweetbake's, which was a new restaurant that had opened to much fanfare and acclaim a few months ago. It was sunny and airy, but rather nondescript, not that much different from the other pretentious restaurants semi-owned by Hollywood stars. Scott ordered a waldorf salad and water, while Liz hemmed and hawed before deciding on chicken pasta. Pedro was picking at some pieces of sushi while pouring over Scott's schedule for the next week, lost in his own world. When the waiter left, Scott immediately pounced.

"So. The script!" He held out his hands. "Gimme gimme!"

"Geez, impatient much?" But Liz was clearly excited too, reaching into her oversized bag and pulling out a brown envelope. She handed it over to Scott, who tried not to look too eager in tearing it open.

He squinted at the title on the front page. "Broken Flames?"

"Don't let the name fool you." Liz took off her oversized sunglasses, which almost everyone else in the restaurant was also wearing. "It's a solid, incredible drama about the lives and loves of firemen. Jake told me it's just a working title for now."

"Oh." Scott flipped through the first few pages. Over at the next table, he could sense two blondes staring at him and giggling, trying to catch his eye. He steadfastly refused to even look. "It's not really the title that bothers me. What's it about?"

"It's about these two firemen-" Liz paused as the waiter arrived with Scott's salad.

"Thanks," Scott said to the waiter, who smiled and left. "And?"

"They, um." Liz looked down at her hands. "They're gay."

Scott stared at her with his mouth open. Even Pedro looked up from his work, stunned.

"Gay?' Scott quickly flipped through the rest of the script. Sure enough, words from random stage directions started popping out at him, stating the obvious. He read some aloud. "...embraces him tenderly...loving kiss...Liz, I really don't think-"

"Look." Liz had her mouth set in a firm line, and Scott knew that when she was like this, she could barely be argued with. "This is the first good script that's come along for you, Scotty. This is a gem. The rest I've gotten are absolute stinkers. Just shitty teenage stuff. And also, yet another basketball movie. You really want to go back to those?"

"No," Scott said sullenly. "But I really don't think that a gay movie is a good-"

"No, no, no." Liz held up a hand to silence him. "This is not a gay movie. It's a good movie, with an amazing script, and it just happens to have gay characters in it. It's got 'Oscar' written all over it, babe."

Scott rubbed his hands over his face. He didn't even know how to begin telling Liz exactly why he had a problem with this. "So who do they want me to play?" he asked, defeated.

"Jake is keen to have you play Travis," Liz said. "You'll have to go in and read for the part first. If not, they may consider you for the other lead, Paul."

"Who else are they thinking of, for Paul?' Scott was beginning to jiggle his left leg up and down nervously.

"No one, yet." Liz waited as the waiter arrived and set down her plate of pasta, then grated some pepper over it for her. Once he left, she continued, "I heard rumors, though."

"Who?" This was Pedro, who seemed to be dying of curiosity.

Liz smiled. "Well I heard that Jake was trying to get in touch with Brandon Beck's agent. And Will McCleary's, too."

"Christ." Scott couldn't help his grimace. He had heard so many horror stories about Brandon Beck. On the other hand, he didn't really have an issue with Will, though. They had worked together on some buddy movie a while back. "Well, keep me updated then. I may consider it."

"Fine." The way Liz stabbed at her pasta with a fork pretty much told him that she was annoyed that he wasn't as enthusiastic about it as she was. Still, it just couldn't be helped. Scott had a really huge problem with the script, and it wasn't what Liz probably thought it was. And if Brandon Beck were to get on board, it would just be worse all around.

Scott knew that beggars couldn't be choosers, especially someone with his acting background. Now that he was 24, it was time to stop acting in duds about college and road trips and start trying to be taken seriously as an actor. His looks, which were such a huge help when he was younger, were now a hindrance in getting a foot in the door for serious acting projects. And any actor worth his salt knew what 'serious' meant: an Oscar nod. And Scott really, really wanted one. He wanted it almost as badly as he wanted people to stop typecasting him as some dumb blond jock.

He sighed as he picked at his salad. This was going to be a long day.