Humans being humans, vol. 8

Holiday overhearings

“After the Lunch” (1900), Edouard Vuillard

I met a friend for lunch in late December—I love a holiday lunch with friends—at the Sunset Tower in West Hollywood.

Nearby, outside, sitting under an awning, two women in their thirties ate salads.

“I wrote a short story recently,” one said. “It’s about a boy who’s hot, who’s so hot, that the girlfriend is like…