Page 77 of The New Place

“I’ll pay you back.”

“You don’t have to, it’s fine.” Everything is fine. Just a different type of fine than he really wants it to be, is all. “Ned…”

“Yeah, this morning was weird, wasn’t it?”

Abbot nods, relieved that at least about this, they can agree.

Ned grimaces and rubs his palms up and down Abbot’s arms. “We’ll figure all this out,” Ned says. “Whatever Beverly needs from us is one thing, but we’re good, right?”

“Right,” Abbot agrees. Are they? Yes. Of course they are.

But, he can’t help but linger on. But Abbot’s ready to settle down too. He had been ready with Louis, and now he’s ready with Ned. Maybe more than he thought he was. A house together. A family. Not seeing Ned here at his parents’, but having a household of their own. A place they both call home, and with it the decision that if they don’t have kids right now, they will soon.

Not in a couple of years and certainly not in five. Not to begin that life together half a decade from now, but to have it well underway by then.

Abbot draws back. “I should get going. The traffic.” He could find an excuse to stay, but…he wants some time to think.

Which he doesn’t need. Because everything is fine. But still, the idea of driving the highway, a typically interminable experience for how often he’s driven it and how it keeps him from Ned, suddenly seems inviting in its monotony. Abbot pulls out his phone to see if he’s even right about needing to avoid traffic.

Ned leans in to look at his screen. “You get anything from Newbury?”

“Not yet.”

“Would you check?”

“I’ll get a notification when I do.”

“Please?”

Abbot swipes to his email, but no, he hasn’t received any new messages.

Still, Ned points at his phone. “What’s that?”

“From Sandy.” Abbot taps the email to bring it up. “House listings.”

“Oh.”

“She said she can meet next week. Wednesday? I could come down in the afternoon.”

“Wasn’t I going to come up to you next weekend? Do we still even need to do this?”

“Do what?” See each other? Abbot reels slightly, staring at him.

Ned waves at his phone. “Look at these places?”

Oh. Yes. Abbot is just addled. On edge after today, worrying over nothing that needs to be worried about. “Liesl’s landing on Thursday, so I was going to be down here anyway. I can teach remotely. My students won’t mind.” They won’t at all, not for the chance to sit in their pajamas in the comfort of their dorms.

Not that they don’t just wear their pajamas to class anyway, but that’s beside the point.

He offers Ned a smile. “I can skip book club too, if I’m down here early.”

Ned returns it, though it fades just as quickly. “But we did it, didn’t we? We met with Sandy. Now we’re just waiting to hear from Beverly. You should call her. Or at least email, right?”

“It’s only been a day. And I think Beverly was asking for more than a short discussion with Sandy to bring to HR.”

“Would you call her?”

“Now?”