He wonders if anyone is looking at them and assuming they’re on a date, or if they just look like friends. He doesn’t know if friends go out for meals like this. Hockey players tend to eat in groups of three or more, but David doesn’t know if that’s limited to hockey, or if that’s what men are supposed to do to avoid the appearance of — well, exactly what they’re doing.

He doesn’t think he’d be this self-conscious if they were in Detroit proper, but Jake’s neighbourhood falls somewhere between the feeling of a suburb and the feeling of a small town, and David’s heard that small towns talk. He wants the anonymity of New York right now, Toronto. Even Sunrise, though it’s more of a suburb of Miami than a city in itself.

He eats a salad, extra chicken, dressing on the side, while Jake works his way through a burger and fries. David doesn’t know how he stays in the shape he does, plays like he does, when he always seems to be eating something unhealthy. David doesn’t say that, of course. He wants to apologise for being a bad guest, but he doesn’t do that either.

“Your family’s very nice,” he says in the end.

“Yeah, they’re great,” Jake says. “They really like you.”

Jake’s a bad liar. Even if he wasn’t, David doubts he’d believe him.

“I hope so,” he says. He had hoped, coming here. It’s too late now. First impressions are very important, he knows that. His mother would tell him that every time she had to introduce him to someone new. First impressions are everything, and David knows he hasn’t made a good one.

He fights the urge to apologise. He knows Jake would just tell him that there was nothing to be sorry about, and David doesn’t want Jake to lie to him again.

Dinner is greasy delivery pizza eaten in front of another movie. They talk all the way through it again, but it’s one David watched with Jake earlier this summer, so at least he isn’t missing anything. They’ve all stopped trying to involve him in the conversation, even Jake, and David knows that’s probably a bad sign, but it’s still a relief. He doesn’t have the excuse of a travel day for the exhaustion he feels, so he holds out until Mr. and Mrs. Lourdes go to bed to make his excuses, retreat to the comparative safety of Jake’s room. Jake follows him up, like last night, but he doesn’t cross the threshold, just stands in the doorway to wish David good night.