Page 128 of The New Place

Abbot stands so quickly his chair scoots backward a few inches.

“Right in here.” She leads them to a small office full of tidy stacks of paper. There are only two chairs, so Ned lifts Peggy onto his lap, even though she’s grown so tall her feet hang barely above the ground. “Congratulations to you all. And you’re getting married here?”

Abbot touches Ned’s arm. “Did you get my text?”

Ned shifts Peggy to look at her face. “Was there a text from Abbot?”

“Yeah,” she says.

“And?” Ned asks her.

“Pat wants to officiate,” Abbot says. “At the cafe. He said he’d get ordained online, if that’s alright.”

“Just fine by us, as long as he has the proper license,” the woman says.

“Great,” Ned says. “Sounds good.”

Does it? Abbot tries to study him, but the woman is holding out pieces of paper.

“In that case, all you need to do is fill this out for me, and I’ll take your IDs and fill out the marriage certificate.”

“I have this, too.” Ned pulls out an envelope. “I didn’t know what page you needed.”

It’s from a law firm Abbot doesn’t recognize, a series of papers inside that she flips through. Abbot takes a pen from the holder on her desk, focusing on the form in front of him.

At the first line, he hesitates. Groom, Bride, Spouse are the options. Does it matter, as long as he doesn’t select Bride? He takes a breath, checks Groom, and quickly fills in today’s date. He adds his name, writes Geneva, Switzerland for where he was born, hoping that won’t cause any issues. He has his US passport at his house, if she asks to see it. His birthday, his age, his father’s name—and his mother’s.

He pauses with the pen hovering over the page, like now, finally, Ned will realize what they’re doing. Who Abbot is.

Beside him, Ned kisses the side of Peggy’s head and catches Abbot’s eye. “Okay?”

Abbot jerks his chin in a nod. Ned wanted him to talk, and he did, and Ned is still here with him. Marrying him.

Quickly, he writes his mother’s name and his own address, then passes the form to Ned.

It takes him longer, reaching for a paper on the desk. “What’s the date of dissolution on there?” he asks.

She reads it to him, and Peggy watches Ned write that down.

“We’re not changing any names, right?” Ned flips back to Abbot’s sheet, where he’d left Proposed New Name After this Marriage blank and filled in his social security number.

It’s more statement than question, so Abbot shakes his head. “I hadn’t thought to.”

Ned points at the form, the side of his mouth curving up. “And we’re not first cousins?”

“I suppose it would be a rather interesting meeting of my father and your parents today, if we were.”

“We don’t get many of those, thankfully.” The clerk gathers the form, signs the bottom, and presses the paper into her notary stamp. “I’ll be right back with the certificate.”

Peggy squirms on Ned’s lap. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Can you wait a minute?” Ned asks.

“Yes,” she says and then shifts again. “No.”

“Alright.” Ned stands up. “Let’s go find one.”

Abbot sits alone in the office, waiting. There’s a view of a parking lot outside the window, the cars encrusted in salt amid piles of dirty snow.