Page 87 of The New Place

The swirl in Abbot’s gut eases. “Oh.”

Ned raises his eyebrows and his hands all in one motion. “Oh?”

“That’s it?”

“It?” Ned’s voice rises. “Abbot. He’s Chris. He’s a master at hearing what he wants to and running with it at a thousand miles per hour. Beverly checked with him about our relationship, and that conversation ended with both of them sure we’re heading toward the altar.”

That’s alright, though. Ned isn’t here to tell him that five years is really ten or never. It’s only that Chris thinks they’re engaged. He’s done what he always does, taken a shred of information and enthusiastically blown it out of proportion.

“What are we going to do?” Ned asks. “I couldn’t correct her. What was I going to say? Haha, funny joke, we’re not getting married but please still tell HR we’re good to go?”

“I’m not sure I see the problem.”

“You don’t?” Ned asks, the question pitched high and tight.

“I’m nearly certain Chris already thought that.”

“We are pretending to look at houses, not pretending to be getting engaged!”

“Ned,” Abbot says. “It’s alright.”

“Is it? Everyone at Newbury will think we’re fiancés.”

“They’ll already know we’re together.”

“This is so different.”

Abbot takes his elbows and draws him a step closer. “Chris has done us a favor.”

“That man has never made anything in our lives easier.”

“I don’t know about that,” Abbot says. “I could barely figure out what to say when you were in the same room, and in the course of half a semester of his meddling, we were dating.”

“That was a mess too.”

“A good one. No?”

Ned sighs, and with it, some of the tension leaves his body. “Yes, a good one.”

“This might be our comeuppance for undertaking a second attempt.”

Which was your bad idea, he braces for Ned to say. But Ned shuts his eyes and murmurs, “You sound like Pat. Though he’s on a whole soup thing, but still. Neither of you are worried about this.”

“No, I’m not.”

“He thinks it’s funny.”

“Isn’t it?” Abbot squeezes his arms. “Ned, we kissed for the first time on a concourse at Fenway because of Chris.”

“Yeah, but that was ridiculous.”

“This is too,” Abbot says. “And we can laugh about that now.”

“I’m just trying to get a job, and now we’re here, apparently looking at this house,” Ned says. “I—is that me or you?”

Yes, Ned’s right that a phone’s buzzing. Ned pats his pockets. Abbot finds his phone, vibrating as he pulls it from his pocket. “Hello?”

“Abbot? Henry? Oh hell, whatever, this is Claire. I realized I didn’t have Ned’s number saved, but I had texted you the address for the vet clinic the other day,” she says. “Hi. We got Baxter’s bloodwork back.”