Page 22 of The New Place

“What did you study?”

“Biology.”

“Hönggerberg?”

“Yes, I spent most of my time on that campus.”

“When?” he asks and she tells him.

“Just the one semester?”

“I would have done my entire four years of college there, but yes, it was my study abroad,” she says. “Or three years, I suppose. Did you go there?”

“Three,” Abbot says. “Yes.”

“You only went to college for three years?” Pat asks. “Maybe I’d have gone, if I’d known it could be that quick.”

“It’s a European thing,” Ned says. That much he knows, at least, that Abbot’s undergrad was only three years, even if the rest of Abbot’s experience at college is one of those topics he sits on, sharing out slivers of information so occasionally Ned could count them on one hand.

He wants more, of course, though he’s learned that untangling Abbot is mostly picking around the edges of what he doesn’t say. He’s a giant puzzle Ned’s been working on for over a year now. A very handsome, very attractive, very private, really very frustrating puzzle. Ned squeezes him and holds him there, close against his side.

“I had the best time,” Claire says. “Zürich is so beautiful, and I loved my classes. And the university has this enormous ball.”

“Like a ball, ball?” Pat asks.

Crushing it, Ned mouths at him and he scowls back.

“Cinderella. I’m not even joking,” she says. “There’s a theme each year, and it’s just so well done, absolutely magical.”

“You got to go to an actual ball every year in college?” Pat asks Abbot.

“Yes. It’s annual.”

Ned taps his forefinger against Abbot’s ribs. That, right there, that type of dodge is what Abbot is a master of, and Ned’s learned to spot it a mile away. “Abbot.”

“Yes?”

“Answer Pat’s question.”

“I was able to go every year, yes,” Abbot says.

“Like an actual ball?” Pat asks.

“Keep saying that, and Baxter’s gonna want you to throw one for him,” Ned says. “Hon, you didn’t go, did you?”

“Oh, you gotta go to a ball if there’s going to be a ball,” Pat says.

“You totally didn’t,” Ned says.

“You didn’t go?” Claire asks.

“I’d even go to a ball,” Pat says.

Claire puts her hand on Pat’s arm. Bingo, Ned thinks. “It was so amazing,” she says.

“I was busy,” Abbot says.

“Hitting the books?” Pat asks. “Or who was he?”