As far as he was concerned, she could just remain with not meeting his parents anywhere closer than a grocery store. They could be decent people and he was sure others had it plenty worse, but everything was just so weird around there that he had no intentions of visiting. One day he was going to be that weird guy that the family invited over because he didn't have anyone else. At least he wouldn't be the creepy dirty "uncle" person at all of the group gatherings in the future. He'd leave that to David. "Well I'm probably a little biased when it comes to the paper, but I think we're the best in all of Maine if not the entire United States. The New York Times is just a bunch of Maine-Lander wannabes." Or it was the only place willing to hire him, so it was as good as home for now. Where else was he going to go when he couldn't actually get anywhere?
"I would hope there were a few more dangerous people around here than just me. Can you imagine some of these creeps having something exceptionally powerful? At least I'm well behaved and not looking to blow anyone up." He looked at the cover for a moment, trying not to roll his eyes. Figured she'd go for the one with a half-naked guy on the cover. "I'm not going to get scared over a bunch of guys hitting each other with swords. Right back though."
He got her water and a glass of soda (in mugs, but they were easy enough to clean) for himself before taking it out with the popcorn and setting it out on the coffee table. "What are you going to do though if you get scared?"