Summary

Baker has a conversation with Francis, the editor who had originally assigned him the story on friendship. He describes Francis as having left the magazine where Baker works, working at another publication for a couple of years, and then returning. He is also described as being roughly the same age, and as having roughly the same sort of family structure. Baker asks why Francis assigned him the story in the first place. Francis tells him that he had started to wonder about his own life and friendships, and found many of his suspicions about himself, and about (heterosexual) men in general, confirmed by what Baker discovered and wrote about. Francis also describes making efforts to build and sustain friendships, some of which were successful and some were not. Part of what he learned, Francis says, is that he cares too much about what...