"Thing with a mystery," Theodore said, "is you have to be clever about it. I think you would need to give the reader enough clues to figure it out themselves, so they can feel good about it. But you also can't make it too easy. And it has to make sense, and be solvable. It sounds like a fine challenge. Honestly, there are writers who churn two or three of the things out every year, it seems, and I can't imagine how." He paused. "You know, you did a fair job just now of representing my childhood - though I don't think I'm very dark and brooding, nor am I a hero. Oh, and the house was mostly wood and brick construction, if I recall."
Theodore switched to sipping on his water, instead. "I often wondered what it would've been like, to have a sibling or two. It might have made things either. My father and I were not...hm. Comfortable, with one another." They had hated one another, actually. "I would've taken an ally." Though Jamie had grown up in a similar situation, and his own half-brother had been firmly aligned with his father in that regard. So it wasn't a guarantee.
"Oh, I see," Theodore said, letting the lighter tone rule, happy to move on from the topics that were definitely heavier and somewhat less dinner-appropriate. Well, they weren't, but they were harder, and they both knew that. He could tease, though, open up a little and let Hugh see a different side of him. He stopped short of suggesting, even in jest, that that sort of thing could do Hugh some good. It might, it might not, and he certainly wasn't the one who knew. "Do they make something like that, but just for friends? And I don't mean 'friends.'" Air quotes implied in his tone of voice, a little smile on his lips.
"Yoga, now, I might be able to manage. Most of my therapy was walking and bending and exercise, all those lovely, minute tortures. But yoga, now, that could certainly be something I could benefit from." Physically, at least. He knew yoga was supposed to provide some calm or something, but Theodore was general as calm as the lake most mornings. "Do you know a good instructor? I think dancing might be a bit too embarrassing, though I'm happy to watch from a wall somewhere."