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“At some point, you’re going to have to tell me what you’re doing, you do realize that, right?” Abi said as Ilan made his third trip through her kitchen.
“This is a ‘trust the process’ situation,” he told her, as he leaned sheets of corrugated metal against the wall.
“This is for the guinea pigs, right? You’re not, like, building a man cave on my sun porch,” Abi said, glancing at the sad wire cage that Ilan had moved to her breakfast nook two hours ago. Latke, Applesauce, and Cream were happily munching on a breakfast of lettuce and strawberries, completely unbothered by the work happening around them.
“I took your notes and did some research. They need space, but bookshelves don’t make sense because particle board is going to buckle after a while. They’re animals, they pee. So you have to be able to clean. But also you want it to look aesthetically like the rest of the house, so it has to have, like, a shell. And you need to be able to get into the little cubbies to clean, but it has to be a cage of sorts because, otherwise, they’d take over the house, right?”
“I would prefer not to find guinea pig jelly beans in my laundry basket, you’re right,” Abi said, amused. Eventually, shehadshown him the section of her planner she’d devoted to her Hanukkah goblins (his nickname), and he hadn’t judged her for it. So she’d let him take the pages out because he asked. She trusted him to bring them back.
“Right, so you need to be able to open and close the thing, but again, aesthetics. So I talked to my guy at the hardware store, and his daughter pointed out that guinea pigs are nocturnal so a sunporch may be a bad idea anyway—”
“Wait, is this why we just had to put in the shades last week?” she said, realization dawning. At the time he’d just said with the trees out back getting cleared away she was going to have an awful glare in the mornings. He grinned, looking smug.
“And I thought that a lot of sawing and drilling on-site would probably traumatize the fluffballs, so we did all the cutting offsite, so now it’s just a matter of tab A into slot B.”
“You are ridiculously sexy right now, you know that?” Abi said, touched in a way she couldn’t quite articulate. It wasn’t just that he’d put in so much effort for herpets. It was that he noticed she had a decorative style. It was that he took the time to care about the noise. It was that fucking simple.
“Hello?” a voice called from the vicinity of the front door. It was a voice that was familiar to both of them, and Abi didn’t miss the way Ilan’s entire body tensed.
“Rachel?” Abi said, craning her neck around him to see who it was that was just walking into her house.
“Hey,” Rachel Melfie said, sounding as though she expected to be told to get out any second. She hovered in the kitchen archway, her arms crossed tight over her chest. “I should have rung the bell, but the door was propped open, and I saw Ilan’s truck.”
“Rachel,” Ilan said, his voice carefully neutral. Cream made a curiouswheekand Rachel’s eyebrows perked up as she looked at him.
“Oh, he looks so much better than he did,” she said, sounding relieved to have something else to talk about, and also truly impressed.
“He’s resilient,” Abi said. “Did you need something?”
“Yeah,” she let out a long breath and seemed to be forcing herself to unwind her arms from her torso. “I was hoping I could talk to you. Ilan, I mean.”
“Do you want me to leave?” Abi said, her hand covering his fisted one on the counter. His jaw muscles were jumping as he clenched and unclenched his teeth.
“Please, stay,” Rachel said, then looked instantly as though she’d said something she shouldn’t have. “I mean, if it’s alright. I’d like you both to hear this.”
“Go ahead,” Ilan said tightly, the effort clearly costing him. Abi swallowed, her thumb moving in tight circles on the back of his fist. He loosened his knotted fingers and his thumb covered hers briefly, just a quick bit of pressure to show he knew what she was doing and he was okay. Abi felt her stomach muscles relax.
“The thing is, I owe you an apology. Both of you,” she said, her eyes flicking to Abi and then back to Ilan, “but especially you. For the things I did, and the things I let happen. It was unacceptable and I get that. You don’t owe me anything, and if you want me to leave I will, but I would like the opportunity to make it right if you’ll let me.”
There was a long, long pause.
Long enough that Abi wondered if she should say something. Jump to fill the space, maybe. But she wouldn’t do that. This was his moment. It was his decision. She would support him however he needed. She swallowed, watching that one jaw muscle tick, tick, tick. Then slowly, so slowly, he blinked. His shoulders loosened. Abi bit down on the tip of her tongue as she waited. The only sound in the room was the snuffling of the guinea pigs.
“I guess I’ve got some time,” he said quietly.
“I’ll make some coffee,” Abi said, squeezing his fingers before she let go of his hand, “Rachel, why don’t you sit down.”
