Richard laughed outright at her hesitation.
"Of course it's 'Richard'," he chucked. shit, pretty girl, do you think I want to go around having people call me 'Mr Nugent?' That was my father!" He picked up his mug and drained half of it in one swallow, though it was really too hot and scalded his stomach. He was not shy, not exactly, but felt he needed some kind of displacement activity. Her question had come close to disorienting him. He had not really thought of himself as famous and of renown... not in the way she meant. As far as he thought about it, he was a simpler scribbler. The characters he invented might have a certain fame, but the man behind them was nobody.
"Like, a writer isn't like a rock star or an actor," he tried to explain. Johnny Depp might be as well known as Captain Jack Sparrow, or even better, or Harrison Ford more famous even than Han Solo. But Sherlock Holmes is known to people who have never heard of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and King Arthur is much more famous than Sir Thomas Mallory. Authors have to stand in the background, to make their characters seem more real."
But it wasn't really an explanation, or even really true, and he knew it. The media had made him into the nearest thing literature had to a superstar, and he could not avoid it.
"And as for my relationships," he said, "this might sound strange coming from a guy who makes his living from people buying books, but... why buy books when you can join a library? I've never had any wish to settle down with one girl, when I can have a different girl every night. I just - "
He pulled up suddenly, realizing that for a girl with as little experience in the dating field as her, this could have been interpreted as mocking her, or even being hurtful.
"I mean, guys are different that way," he said quickly. "It's to do with nature. Guys are hunters, trying to make connections with as many females as possible to spread their seed. A female is choosier, looking for a man who will be a good provider, who will stay around and nurture children." He shok his head. "I'm saying this all wrong, I think, sorry."
He thought for a second.
"All right," he said. "So do you want to go through with this... this game of your father's?"
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