“You look good,” his agent, Dave Summers, tells him before everyone takes their seats. “Nice suit.”

“Thank you,” David says. He finds himself self-consciously touching his tie, his newly lucky cufflinks.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about here,” Dave says.

Dave doesn’t look particularly worried himself, but he represents both Lourdes and David, so no matter what happens one of Dave’s clients is probably going to go first, another second. The media’s torn as to whether it will be David or Lourdes first, but they’re the consensus one and two picks. David wonders if Dave bought Lourdes lucky cufflinks too. He hopes not.

“Sure,” David says.

“There’s nothing you can do anymore,” Dave says, which is true. He had an amazing season, broke Remparts records. He won Gold at the U18s. His results at the combine were lauded. He thinks he did well in his interviews with his prospective teams. Dave and his assistant coached him before the interviews, told him what questions were likely to come up, what answers to give, and he answered all the questions like they trained him to. There were only a few questions that Dave or Marjorie hadn’t anticipated, and David had done his best with those.

The Panthers GM shook his hand after with a broad smile, told him he’d be looking forward to seeing him soon. David doesn’t know if that meant they would next see each other when he was calling David up to put a Panthers jersey on, but he hopes so. He’s never been to Sunrise before, doesn’t know if he’d even like it, but you go where you’re asked to, and nothing is as big an honour as being the first pick of the draft.

“Enjoy it,” Dave says.

David smiles weakly.

“I know you won’t,” Dave says. “But this is what you’ve worked for. Try to enjoy it at least a little. Maybe even crack a smile.”

“Of course,” David says. He thought that was what he was doing.

“Your folks here?” Dave asks.

“Yeah,” David says.

His parents are avoiding one another, but David’s not surprised by that. This must be the first time they’ve been in the same room since his father moved to Calgary five years ago. His mother didn’t want his father to come, and honestly, David didn’t really either, but his father said it was his right to be here, and so he is. When David sits down it’s in an empty seat between them, a barrier.

“You good, Dave?” his father asks.

“That’s my agent,” David says, instead of ‘please don’t call me that’, and his father laughs like it’s a joke.

The Commissioner takes the stage, and every muscle in David’s body goes tense, tight, as the audience erupts in boos, the standard response to his presence. He waits it out with a little smile on his face. David has no idea how someone can endure abuse with a smile. Practice, maybe.

When the boos finally peter out the Commissioner thanks their host city for their hospitality with more than a little sarcasm, getting scattered applause in response.