31. Abbot
ABBOT
Abbot begins his Monday like any other, with the newspaper and a small breakfast at the kitchen table.
The ring glints at him from his finger, catching his eye as he turns the pages.
Made it home, Ned had texted last night, while Abbot had been watching an anthropomorphic cat pilot a spaceship on a mission to save Earth and trying to claim at least a third, if not the half he was surely allotted, of the popcorn he was ostensibly sharing with Liesl.
Peggy will like that movie when she’s a bit older. He imagines watching it with her and Ned together. He wants to drift on that thought, like he can keep the weekend going a bit longer.
Though he can’t, because he should get to campus, and he has the remainder of the semester ahead of him before—
Before Newbury. Moving.
Where? he wonders again. Will it be on Ned’s parent’s couch that they watch that movie together someday? Abbot’s couch?
His and Ned’s?
No, he can imagine Ned saying even now. He hurries to gather his things, tidying his already neat kitchen. “Liesl?” he calls upstairs. “If you want to come to campus, I’m leaving.”
“I’m coming,” she says, her voice muffled by the door and, if he had to guess, the pillows too, since he hasn’t heard her move since he last told her to get ready.
This time at least the shower turns on, though now he’ll have to wait through the inevitable washing of her hair and the ensuing production of drying and then straightening it.
It is straight, or so he thought, but his visit home for the holidays was edifying in all the ways his sister is embracing adolescence and its various rituals.
It’s far later than he’d typically leave when she finally comes downstairs and announces, “We’re going to Pat’s.”
“We are?”
“Of course we are,” she says and he checks his watch, debates the length of time a debate will take on top of the the ensuing detour when he inevitably loses, and sighs.
The cafe is back to normal, but the balloons have remained. Abbot smiles to see them, touching one that’s now taped to the wall, giving the space a little extra cheer.
“Dropped the license off at city hall this morning,” Pat says when they get to the front of the line. “So congratulations officially.”
“You as well,” Abbot says. “Is everything alright?”
“I think so. Sorry for barging in yesterday.”
“It was no problem. Thank you for Friday.”
“Are you kidding? Best night ever.” Pat leans across the counter toward Liesl, who’s examining the pastry case. “Hot chocolate, whipped cream, and sprinkles?”
Liesl gives him a cool look, any shyness around him clearly having evaporated. “I’ll have an iced coffee.”
“You’re not having coffee,” Abbot says. “You’re thirteen.”
“I’m almost fourteen.”
“And it’s winter,” he says.
“Dad got me one.”
“Did he really?”
“Please,” she says to Pat. When he glances at Abbot for approval, Abbot just shrugs.
She smiles. “And I’ll have the maple donut.”
“That’s what you’re having for breakfast?” Abbot asks. “Iced coffee and a donut?”
“You’re right,” she says. “I’ll have two.”
“Get ready for age thirteen,” Pat says, his tone like he’s making a mental list. “One iced coffee, one tea, two maple donuts, and my own existential crisis, coming right up.”
Abbot has to hold her coffee as they walk to the department building, his fingers growing increasingly cold against the plastic as she devours her first donut.
His tea threatens to burn his other hand, and he’s stymied by the door, Liesl busy eating and Abbot unable to pull it open with his hands full.
“I got it,” he hears, and there’s Lee with a travel mug and a mittened hand extended.
She stops short of letting them inside to the warmth of the building, holding the door barely ajar and staring at him. At his hand, specifically.
He can’t exactly tuck it into his pocket like he so suddenly wants to.
“What. Is. That.”
“Iced coffee,” Abbot says. “And yes, we’re aware of how cold it is.”
“On your finger,” she says, her voice rising. “Did you—oh my God!”
“Ah,” he says. His face is cold. “Yes.”
“They got married on Friday,” Liesl says, apparently forgetting to be shy around both Pat and someone entirely new, if given the chance to dispense private information about his life.
“This is my colleague, Dr. Lee Nishimura, and this is my sister, Liesl,” Abbot says and is summarily ignored by both of them.
“You didn’t,” Lee says. “You did?”
“They did,” Liesl says.
Abbot says, “Would you mind opening—”
“Holy shit!” Lee yells and hugs him.
Cold coffee drips onto his fingers. Behind him, Liesl says, “Don’t spill it.”
He’s trying not to, but Lee is still hugging him, and when she lets go, she flings the door open so abruptly he has to quickly sidestep.
“Does Chris know?” she asks and then calls up the stairwell, “Aliyah!”
“Chris was there,” Liesl says.
“You invited him and not me?” Lee half jogs up to the first landing. “Aliyah, you in yet? You didn’t even tell us you two got engaged, Henry!”
“It was rather impromptu,” he says.
“So you are leaving, then?” Lee asks. “Moving down to Boston?”
“They’re working at Newbury University, which isn’t as good as Henry could do, but it’s better than Callahan,” Liesl says and starts in on her second donut.
“Thank you for your input,” Abbot says. That came, likely verbatim, from their father and his unending opinions on Abbot’s career.
“You’re going to Newbury?” Lee asks. “You got married and also hired at Newbury? What the hell?”
“What’s the noise. It’s Monday,” Aliyah says, appearing on the landing above them.
“Ned and Henry went and got hitched and Henry’s leaving us to teach at Newbury,” Lee calls up to her.
“With Ned,” Liesl says. “He’s going to work there too, and I’m going to go to college there.”
“Please don’t—you are?” Abbot asks.
“Dad says I should go somewhere better, but I’m going to go to Newbury.”
“Better than Newbury,” Lee murmurs. “Right, that exists.”
“Well, look at that,” Aliyah says. “Congratulations.”
“You have to get accepted, first,” Abbot says.
Liesl licks sugar from her finger. “I will.”
“It’s on your face, too.”
She wipes her cheeks with the back of her hand and then takes her coffee from him. “I’m going to your office.”
It leaves him standing there, Lee and Aliyah both staring at him. “Excuse me,” he says.
Lee steps in front of him on the stairs. “No way.”
“Married,” Aliyah says.
“You and Ned,” Lee says. “This is amazing.”
“And Newbury University,” Aliyah says. “We all knew you’d leave eventually, but that’s certainly a move.”
“What can we get you two?” Lee asks.
“Sorry?” Abbot asks.
“Did you register?”
“Ah. No.”
“Well, we have to do something,” Lee says. “Something for your new place, when you guys move. Oh, you must be so happy.”
Yes, their new place. That they’re getting together.
Except they very much aren’t.
“We are quite happy,” Abbot says brusquely, and he’ll just go up the other staircase, at the other end of the building. “Thank you. Excuse me.”
It’s Monday. It’s just another workday. Nothing, really, is different.
The ring sits on his finger, so odd in its brightness and its weight.
Liesl isn’t alone in his office when he reaches it, though she has occupied the chair behind his desk, her iced coffee perilously close to his keyboard.
“Steve?” he asks, letting the door fall shut behind him.
“I’m just getting confirmation on the rumors I heard.” Steve comes over with his hand outstretched, a handshake that turns into a hug, and Steve claps him on the back. “You and Ned got married? I heard you were engaged, but that’s so great, Henry. I’m so happy for you two.”
How? Abbot wants to ask, unsure how the news could have beaten him to his office, though Liesl is explanation enough. “Thank you. And this is my sister, Liesl. Liesl, this is Dr. Steven Potts.”
“We’ve met, haven’t we?” Steve asks. “When we graduated? You were way younger, then, but it’s nice to see you again.”
Liesl offers a glance in lieu of a proper greeting, and brief eye contact will have to do, because she’s already back on her phone.
“So is it official?” Steve asks. “You and Ned are married and to cap off your big week, I hear you both found positions at Newbury?”
“We’ll start in the fall,” Abbot says.
“That’s the news I’ve been waiting for. What luck, isn’t it? Chris asked me up here this morning to talk again, and said he’d resolved a lot of the budget issues. Which are you, I can pretty much guess.”
“Yes, it must be. I’m glad it’ll work out for you.”
“You have no idea. Except that you actually do, don’t you? I’m definitely calling dibs on this office, if I’m getting your salary and probably your classes, too,” Steve says, looking around. “Nice spot you’ve got. And like I said, I’ll trade you that house.”
“They already looked at a house,” Liesl says without taking her eyes off her phone.
“Started the hunt?” Steve asks. “Okay, but let me sell you on my grandma’s place. Haven’t you always wanted to live somewhere with wallpaper forty years out of style?”
“You and Ned are old enough for that,” Liesl says.
“Again, thank you for your valuable feedback,” Abbot says.
“Come on down and take a look, at least,” Steve says. “I don’t mean trade-trade. We can work out the details, but it’s in a pretty good location if you’re working at Newbury, and if you like it, it could save you the headache of house hunting.”
“Let me talk to Ned,” he hedges.
Who will say what, exactly? That he’s not moving? Except isn’t he? With his parents’ plans to travel?
“Come over for dinner this week,” Steve says. “Will you be down at all?”
Abbot balks. He needs to escape this conversation. This is not the solution Ned is looking for, he knows, but still he hesitates, a yes sitting on his tongue.
“Yeah, because he has to drive me to the airport tomorrow night,” Liesl says before he can correct into a Thank you, but no.
“Well, perfect,” Steve says. “We’ve been meaning to have you two over anyway. Tomorrow for dinner then. Bring the family and we’ll celebrate the big wedding. It’s good timing too, because my wife is getting on me to get the house listed soon, with spring coming.”