Slow, Nick tells him, and then shakes his head in frustration--self-directed, because he has no idea what this guy is telling him. He can pick out a few words, but he's worse at this than lipreading.

He rips a napkin off the bar with more force than is, strictly speaking, necessary, and scrawls: Nick. Haven't signed in a long time. I read lips. I

He proffers the guy the unfinished note, shaking his head again, and whatever complex mixture of shame and loss he feels is going to have to sit unexamined.