Page 16 of The New Place

Abbot and Ned should retreat to Abbot’s house. Surely Ned didn’t drive all this way to sit in a too-warm, too-noisy bar.

“Hey.” Ned squeezes Abbot’s knee.

“It would be a great opportunity,” Abbot says. “Adams. I hadn’t thought there’d be an opening there.”

“I mean, no, me neither. Are you really interested?”

“If Steve’s position is available.”

Steve sets his phone down, clearly giving up the pretense of not listening. “So, about that. I’m sorry for the runaround, but it’s been a hell of a couple weeks. And I knew there was no avoiding Henry here at Callahan, so Ned, I should have told you I’m aiming to get hired here, and I didn’t. I’m sorry.”

“No worries. Job hunting is complete madness, and you gotta do what you gotta do. But what’s the story?”

“That we want to move to Portland and Callahan is the obvious choice?”

“Nice try.”

“Fine, but you two can’t say anything.”

Ned claps his hand over his chest. “I swear on the baseball team.”

“Damn, you are serious. Fine. Listen, I can’t tell you much, but let’s just say there are going to be some changes around the university, and Jess wanted to get out ahead of them.”

“What kind of changes?” Ned asks.

Steve cups his hand around his ear. “What?”

“Aw, c’mon, you heard me.”

“The music,” Steve half shouts and shakes his head. “It’s so loud!”

“Steve,” Ned says. “You didn’t even tell us anything.”

“I can’t, okay?” Steve asks, dropping the act. “But Henry, don’t set your sights on Adams. Trust me on that.”

“Why not?” It’s perfect. So perfect. Ned is there, as simple as that.

And Beverly isn’t.

“They’re not rehiring for a tenure-track position when I leave,” Steve says.

“Of course they are,” Abbot says.

“Why wouldn’t they?” Ned asks.

Steve takes a comically long sip of beer so he doesn’t have to answer.

“Are they hiring an adjunct, at least?” Abbot asks. “Or a lecturer? To cover your classes?”

Ned laughs. “Okay, Mr. Overqualified-For-That, don’t even think about it. No way are you going to end up without tenure. Something else will come up.”

“Might want to move on it now, if it does,” Steve says. “If you’re serious about being in Boston. Like Newbury, for instance.”

Newbury isn’t an option. Surely he’s made this point. Frankly, it’s also a nice idea to not only turn down that offer, clearly machinated by his father, but also to allow himself the idea of doing exactly what Ned is so horrified by: giving up his professorship, and doing so at a school like Adams University.

Joining an institution several tiers down from Newbury? Ranked far weaker than Callahan? Oh, his father would be horrified by Abbot taking any job there, let alone an untenured one. How satisfying that news would be to share.

And it is tempting. Not the lack of benefits, or the salary or job security he’d be giving up, but the idea of being with Ned. He could continue to look for a different job while working at Adams. It’d be a poorly strategized career move, but it would mean any interim of waiting for an ideal job would be spent with Ned, not up here in Portland.