Page 7 of The New Place

“Who’s excited?” Chris asks, clearly thrilled with himself.

“Is that it?” Aliyah asks. “Can we go?”

“Just sit tight, folks; we’re waiting on—oh, here we are! Come on in!” Chris waves someone in.

Abbot turns, then sits up in his chair. “Steve?”

“Hey.” Steve claps Abbot’s shoulder before he can get halfway to standing. “How was the big trip? You just get back?”

“Yesterday. What are you doing here?” Steve ought to be down in Boston. Steve with his curly hair and bright smile, who Abbot knows from his student days. Steve who now works down the hall from Ned.

“Sorry I’m late,” Steve says to Chris. “Traffic was wicked bad.”

“Come in, come in,” Chris says. “Everyone, this is Dr. Steven Potts, an associate professor of sociology down at Adams.”

“So great to meet you all,” Steve says. “I know it’s getting late, so thank you, really, for having me.”

“Adams?” Lee asks. “Did you bring Ned with you? How is he?”

“Ah, your ace graduate we snagged? Sadly, I did not. Ned’s good. But you probably hear plenty about him from this guy.” Steve hooks his thumb toward Abbot.

“Yeah, he’s famously so forthcoming about his life,” Lee says, and Steve laughs.

Ned’s good. How good? Did Steve see him today? He must have. What was he wearing? Abbot has the sudden urge to ask. How many cups of coffee did he manage to drink, what did he have for lunch, and is his printer working yet? All the little details of Ned’s day that Abbot so terribly misses, the tiny minutiae he wishes he could absorb in person.

“Okay, fair point. And listen, I’m sure you’d all rather be heading home, but in exchange for keeping you at the office so late today, I am happy to offer you stories about the inestimable Dr. Henry Abbot. You all know we did our PhDs together?”

“We’re listening,” Lee says.

“Chris.” Aliyah points to her watch.

“Just one,” Lee says to her. “C’mon, this is our only chance. You two really know each other?”

“Really do,” Steve says. “Like, for instance, I know about the time Henry’s guidance committee had an emergency meeting over his qualifying exams not being difficult enough.”

“I’m sure they’re not interested,” Abbot says.

“We absolutely are.” Lee makes a beckoning motion. “And we need more than that.”

“The time he pointed out an error in our stats professor’s slides?” Steve asks.

There had been an error. A glaring one the man should have caught, and he certainly shouldn’t have had such an issue with Abbot’s help correcting it.

“That’s a start,” Lee says.

“I have plenty to tell you about this guy back in the day,” Steve says.

“No thank you,” Abbot says quickly.

“Give us something juicy,” Lee says.

Steve’s having fun with this, clearly. Lee is too, and even Aliyah has sat back in her seat.

“What about his first semester as a TA?” Steve starts.

Abbot’s stomach tightens. Not that semester. Steve wouldn’t, surely he won’t⁠—

“Okay, okay, enough torturing him,” a voice says, and hands land on Abbot’s shoulders.