Page 112 of The New Place

“It’s not about that. It’s about if you want an important heirloom from your mom passed down into my family.”

“Of course it’s fine.”

“Is it? Cause I’ve been there. I spent a hell of a lot on a ring for Jen, and it’s not like I saw any of it back when we split up. Which is okay. It was a gift. It’s hers. But it’s now up to her what she does with it, if she still even has it. For all I know, she sold it a good while ago and took herself on vacation or whatever. I have no idea if Peggy will end up with it, if Jen wants her to, and what Peggy would do with it if she does get it. But at least it wasn’t my mom’s or grandmother’s or anything like that, just out there in the world now.”

There’s a spot in the paint on the wall. An old mark where Ned likely had a poster hanging at some point, and when he took the tape off, it left a stain. Jen’s ring. Abbot never thought about that. He assumed she’d had an engagement ring, but he’s never wondered what it looked like or how Ned went about choosing it. How Ned proposed, even. It was just something that happened to another Ned, a prior one Abbot didn’t know.

“Will you say something?” Ned asks softly. “Talk to me? Please?”

Abbot studies his hands. What can he possibly tell Ned? That he never wants to see that watch again? That it ought to go back to Geneva and stay there?

“It’s up to you,” Abbot finally manages.

“It’s really not,” Ned says. “This is a big deal, and I can’t just give or not give this to Peggy without knowing what you think, and if you’d want it back, or⁠—”

“Why would I want it back?” He doesn’t want it in the first place. Give it to Peggy and she can put it on a stuffed dinosaur. Just as long as it’s out of this room and away from him.

“Abbot.”

“Do you want a ring?”

“I—what?”

“For this.” Abbot gestures between them. “This engagement.”

“I don’t know. It’s not like I’ve thought about it.”

“Do you have yours?”

Ned’s eyes dart to his desk. “My wedding ring?”

“Yes.”

“I—yeah.”

“Can I see it?”

Ned hesitates. No, Abbot expects him to say, but he gets up.

It’s in the top drawer, which Abbot has reached into a handful of times to find a pen, but apparently it’s at the back, because Ned spends a moment hunting for it. He draws out a little plastic bag and shakes it out, and there it is, a gold ring shining in his palm.

Abbot slowly reaches for it. It’s a bit scuffed, a sign it was worn every day. Abbot remembers seeing the gold glitter on Ned’s left hand he’d used as a reminder to keep his thoughts off his incredibly handsome student who was clearly committed elsewhere. He’d noticed it being gone too, though he hadn’t seen much of Ned in those days, only occasionally passing in the hallway and certainly not stopping to speak. But one of those times, his hand had been bare, and Abbot couldn’t help but check again and again afterward to see if it was truly a pattern.

The ring has two sets of initials inside, Ned’s EDC and another set that starts with J. A date too, in mid-April, and Abbot pictures the trees blooming and the sharp blue of a spring sky.

“Does it bother you I still have it?” Ned asks.

Does it? Abbot turns it over. “No,” he decides.

“I didn’t know what to do with it. I guess I’ll give it to Peggy someday.”

Yes, she’s apparently to be the recipient of a lot of items. That watch among them, sitting on Ned’s quilt in its box, too close to Abbot’s leg.

Abbot hands the ring back. “I’m sure she’d like that.”

“Yeah? Or is it an awful symbol of her parents breaking up?” Ned draws in a breath. “It’s different, too, giving her something of mine. But from your family⁠—”

“There’s no issue with it. And my father already clearly decided.”