27. Abbot
ABBOT
Pat’s isn’t far. Nothing in Portland is, and Abbot knows these streets far better than the maze of Boston, so he finds a place to park quickly and locks his car, heading up the salted, slushy sidewalk on the edge of campus.
Liesl throws open the door of Pat’s cafe before he’s even halfway down the block. “We are going to have cake,” she yells toward him as if it were in question.
“Are we?” he asks, making sure the door shuts behind him. “What is all this?” Because the cafe is in the midst of being transformed, tables pushed to the side.
When Pat spots him, he sets down the stack of chairs he’s carrying and comes over to crush him in a hug.
“I am so fucking happy,” Pat says and shakes him a little in his excitement.
“I am officially official. I can marry anyone at any time. And I have Miss Liesl here, my chair-arranging assistant and cake consultant.”
“And you met my father?” Abbot guesses.
“Sure did. I’d heard so much. Just: wow, you know?”
Yes, Abbot does know. His father is standing in his long black coat, sternly looking around the room with its scuffed floor, worn bar, and the chalkboard on the wall with a drawing of a bottle of champagne, two rings looped around its neck.
The specials still show through the drawing, the list not thoroughly erased, like a lingering ghost of what today intended to be before it took a sharp turn.
Which was clam chowder, a salad with butternut squash, and a chicken bacon ranch grilled sandwich, and Abbot can guess what meal will be served tonight.
What would he and Ned have picked? He can’t even guess.
“Isn’t it great?” Pat hooks a thumb back toward the kitchen. “I got the creatives working on the decorations and also the cake.”
“Thank you,” Abbot says. “Really. You didn’t have to do this.”
“My man!” Pat laughs like Abbot’s joking. “You are making my every dream come true.”
Abbot gets slapped on the shoulder, and then Pat’s off again, half galloping toward the opening door with its jingle of bells. “There he is! The groom to be!” Pat yells.
Ned comes in, Peggy and his parents in tow, all of them laden with shopping bags.
“Just a few things,” Cheryl says, setting them on the bar. “Pat, we got the balloons like you asked.”
“People!” Pat yells toward the kitchen. “The balloons are here! Can we have all hands and mouths on balloon duty!”
“I’m doing them.” Peggy climbs onto a stool to start rifling through the bags.
“Balloon duty,” Ned whispers. “Pat.”
“I fucking love you.” Pat wraps Ned in a hug. He glances at Liesl and Peggy. “Freaking. Whatever. My beautiful little Ned, all grown up.”
“You are having too much fun with this,” Ned says, muffled in Pat’s grip.
“It’s your damn wedding day,” Pat says.
“I heard that,” Liesl says.
“Well, darn.” Pat grins at her. He’s so happy. All of them are, the swirl of Ned’s family and Pat, and Liesl and Peggy too.
And Ned is too, right?
“Ned?” Abbot asks, and Ned turns to him.
Abbot has no idea what he’d meant to say. Hello, but he just saw Ned moments ago, and before he can decide, Ned is pulled away.
“The two of you,” Chris says, holding onto Ned for a long time.
Abbot finds himself similarly embraced next, and then Chris hugs both of them at once. “I can’t believe it. But I can! I do! You two do! Today!”
“Hi, thanks,” Ned says, extricating himself.
Abbot isn’t quite so lucky, because he’s crushed once more in Chris’s hug. Chris finally lets go, only for Susan to kiss his cheek and then cup his face. “We are just so happy,” she says. “What a fun surprise. Everyone’s here. It’s so perfect.”
Is Beverly? Abbot looks up when he can, but it’s just Chris and Susan in front of him, and then they’re drawing his father over, too.
“Charles, you must be thrilled,” Susan says, and trades Abbot to hug him instead.
“Of course,” he says, his voice as cold as ever.
Yes, clearly so happy he hasn’t taken his coat off yet.
“And Newbury,” Susan goes on. “For both of you. What great news, isn’t it?” She turns to Ned’s parents. “Oh, we met, didn’t we? At Ned’s graduation? I’m Susan.”
“My parents,” Ned says quickly. “Dan and Cheryl. And Peggy’s here, somewhere. Buried in balloons, I think.”
“So good to see you again.” Dan holds Susan’s hand in both of his as he shakes it. He’s thrilled. Abbot sees it in his smile, the energy in how he’s moving and talking.
And Abbot’s father?
Embarrassment courses tight and hot under Abbot’s skin as he watches Ned introduce Charles to his parents, noting all of Dan’s enthusiasm and Cheryl’s calm joy against Charles’s formality. These two parts of Abbot’s life are colliding and Abbot’s unable to do more than stand here.
“A pleasure to meet you,” his father says, and he clearly isn’t prepared when Dan ignores the hand he holds out and hugs him.
“You must be so happy,” Dan says, as if Charles is anything of the sort. “We couldn’t be more thrilled, a new son in the family.”
“Ah.” Charles politely pats Dan on the back. “Yes.”
“You two look so alike,” Cheryl says, and it’s some relief she doesn’t hug Charles too, just clasps his hand in both of hers. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
“It’s a privilege,” Charles says and draws his hand back.
“We just adore Henry, and love seeing Ned so happy with him.” Cheryl hooks her arm through Abbot’s, drawing him to her side.
“And your daughter too,” Dan says, his enthusiasm unchecked.
Ned, Abbot thinks, and meets his eye, but in that moment, Peggy’s balloon bursts.
“I—” Ned points at her, and what can Abbot do but nod? Peggy’s shaking her hand like she got stung from the recoil of rubber, and Ned goes to her quickly.
“You’ve met Peggy, right?” Dan asks.
“Yes, I have,” Charles says. “We shared dinner last night.”
“Did you get inducted into the cape club?” Dan asks. “Which, speaking of, we’ll have to have Liesl down the Cape this summer. It’s the whole family, plenty of other kids for her to play with, and we had so much fun with Henry there last year.”
“Peggy couldn’t stop talking about Liesl the last time she visited,” Cheryl says. “She followed her around the entire time. I’d never seen anything like it.”
Charles glances over at the girls. Liesl is releasing a balloon she’s blown up, making it fly around as it expels air. Peggy, the shock of her ruptured balloon forgotten, starts blowing up another, surely to copy what Liesl’s just done.
“She would enjoy that,” Charles says. “We’ll have to have you all to Switzerland as well.”
“We were just talking about how much we’d love to travel,” Cheryl says.
“Ned,” Abbot says, pitching his voice over the din. Save your parents, he means, but Ned is tying a balloon and leaning over to look at something on the bar.
“Where’s Pat?” Ned calls back.
Pat? Abbot’s lost him in the whirl of people. Chris and Susan too—though no, there’s Chris blowing up a balloon just to release it, to Liesl’s delight.
“Big kangaroo negotiation in the works,” Dan says.
“Ned,” Abbot says more urgently. Don’t, he thinks at his father. Don’t sneer or sniff or give Dan that cold, cold look for being his wonderful, enthusiastic self.
“Patrick!” Ned holds up Pat’s phone, a call lighting up the screen.
“I haven’t seen him, but Ned—” Abbot beckons Ned over.
“Just think how lovely Europe would be in the summer.” Cheryl lays her hand on Dan’s arm. “It’ll be so cold in Australia. It’s winter there.”
“Does Australia get that cold?” Dan asks.
“I suppose parts of it,” Charles says.
“I can find him,” Abbot says to Ned, tipping his chin at their parents, trying to nudge Ned toward the conversation.
Ned looks at the screen again and taps it to answer Pat’s phone. “Hey, it’s Ned. I’m looking for Pat for you.”
“The little island, down south,” Dan says.
“Tasmania?” Charles asks.
“That must get chilly,” Dan says.
“Ned,” Abbot says, louder.
Ned nods, holding a finger up, and then finally crosses the room to them, pushing the phone at Abbot.
Abbot fumbles to take it and quickly raises it to say, “Hello?”
“Pat?” a woman asks.
“No,” Abbot says. “But he’s here somewhere.”
“Abbot? Hey. What’s all that noise?” a voice he recognizes as Claire asks.
“Our—ah. Wedding.”
“What?”
“Ned and I are getting married,” Abbot says. “At Pat’s cafe. In just a moment.”
“Oh.”
“Claire?” Abbot asks at the sigh in her voice.
“No, no. Congrats. That’s—wow. Cool.”
“Are you alright?”
“I just…” she laughs. “I put off this call to Pat all damn week, and I apparently have great timing to finally find the balls to do it right now.”
“Let me get him for you.”
“No, no, I’m not going to interrupt.”
“It’s fine,” Abbot says.
“Tell him I’m coming up to see him on Sunday, okay?” she asks. “In the morning. I’ll text him when I’m on my way.”
“I think he’s just back in the kitchen.”
“I am—oh, I am such a fucking wuss. I am actually okay not talking to him right now? Kind of glad he didn’t answer? But don’t tell him that, okay?”
“Okay,” Abbot agrees slowly.
“He’s a good guy? Right? You promise?”
“He is.”
“I’ll be up on Sunday,” she says.
Pat comes through the back door, not the kitchen, holding a wooden crate of wine bottles. “I think this is nice stuff,” he says, setting it on a table. “I looked it up and it’s not bad, at least. Not an ’02, but I think it’s worth a glass swirl and a thoughtful nod.”
“Claire’s coming to see you Sunday morning,” Abbot says.
Pat’s face splits in a wide grin. “She is? Awesome. She called?”
“Ned answered.” Abbot turns and yes, there’s Ned right behind him, hopefully navigating the conversation from any harm Charles can do to his parents. And behind him—
“I suppose this is one way to go about things,” Beverly says with a laugh, and then she’s hugging him.
The smell of her perfume. How she rubs a circle on his back.
Did Ned truly have to invite her and Sandy both?
Yes, and Ned’s greeting them with hugs of his own, saying, “I’m so happy you could make it.”
“Wouldn’t miss this for anything,” Beverly says.
“I was told to jump right in the car,” Sandy confirms. “Oh, Chris, Susan. Charles! Everyone is here. What a treat.”