How It All Goes Down
- After criticizing Lou for not going to his weekly exercise meet-ups, Patrick asks her what she wants to do for her birthday. She says that her mom is going to have a dinner at the house.
- Treena had left for college the previous weekend. Mom has been in a tizzy since then, but Lou has spent so much time on the computer at the library that she's hardly noticed.
- One day, Lou tells Will that he should send a thank-you note to his violinist friend. Will doesn't want to, however—he hates sending letters because it humiliates him that he can't write them himself.
- Lou has a plan, as usual. She buys him a small computer he can use to type out letters all by himself. A few days later, he sends her a thank-you note to prove that it works. How swell.
- Lou also invites Will to her birthday dinner. Time to meet the fam.
- It's a little awkward at first, but Will quickly hits it off with both of her parents. Lou's dad seems to get a real kick out of this upper-class bloke.
- Patrick—a little bit less so. He arrives unfashionably late and immediately gets confrontational with Will, pushing the idea that he could recover if he only exercised more.
- For real, bro?
- It's gift time. Lou's parents give her a lovely photo album. Patrick gives her a necklace that is "not remotely [Lou]" (13.101). Swing and a miss.
- Will, on the other hand, blows them all out of the water. He gets Lou two pairs of her precious bumblebee tights—custom-made. Now that's a home run.
- Before leaving, Will alludes to Lou's skills at giving baths to Patrick. Now that's a shot if we've ever heard one.
- That night, Patrick makes love to Lou in way that makes it clear that he's "determined to show off his [...] strength and vigor" (13.212). It's their first time in a while.
- Insecure much?