Two brief things, one both exciting and anxiety-inducing, the other less exciting than it might have been, but more worrying. It seems that everything is settled for Arthur: he will begin working with his father on the first of the month and continue there until the end of the semester. He will not get school credit, but his guidance counselor will remain involved, and she has suggested some structure to the arrangement—for example, Arthur will interview both his father and Jared, and his work will undergo a mid-semester review. At the end, Harrington will write Arthur a recommendation that he can put into his portfolio.
All of this feels very official to Harrington, from whom most of the anxiety comes. He knows that Arthur is looking forward to it, and as Isabella points out, that is a compliment to him as much as anything else. I think, though, that it will take some careful managing. For now, I am reminding Harrington that his relationship with his son is good, but it is built now on mutual respect. That must not change as they work together.
The second thing was an event I had been anticipating, which did not go the way I had expected. Today, while Ted and Elaine were curled up together on her sofa watching a movie, Ted’s phone buzzed with a message. She thought it was hers and picked it up. “Who’s Cole?” she asked.
Ted jumped and plucked the phone from her hand. “Just a friend,” he said, managing to keep his voice calm. Inside, however, he was quite agitated, a feeling that surprised him.
“Yeah? You haven’t told me about him.” Elaine was bemused by his restlessness, but not alarmed or made suspicious by it. This made me a bit suspicious.
By this time Ted had gotten hold of himself. He shrugged and set the phone aside. “I haven’t known him long. I met him the same night I met you, actually.”
“Oh, the wedding? How was he connected? I might know him.”
He had only begun to explain when Elaine started nodding. “Cole Tammer, yeah, I remember. I never got an introduction, but Nathan sings his praises. He says he wouldn’t be married without the guy.” She grinned at Ted. “Did he really set the two of them up on purpose?”
“He says he did, but he likes to brag.”
“Doesn’t he live in Hartford?”
There was nothing behind this question, except curiosity about a long-distance friendship, but it made Ted’s stomach knot. “Yes, he does. He has an interior design business.”
“Huh,” Elaine said, but her attention was already being caught by the movie again.
Her entire lack of confusion about Ted’s reaction made me realize something. I had thought that she would have known about Ted’s attraction to men as well as to women, but she is entirely oblivious. Here I have been worried that she will react badly to a threat to her relationship, but she does not even know that this threat is possible.
How could Ted not have told her? It is such an integral part of himself, so why would he not share it with her? I understand wishing to avoid judgment, but I thought by now that there was trust between them. Clearly their relationship is not as strong as I thought it was.
Either that, or Ted is more eager to keep Cole from her than I realized. And why would that be, unless he is beginning to have deeper feelings for him?
I think my next course of action must be to persuade Ted to tell her the truth. For one thing, it is not fair for him to continue on with Elaine unless there is honesty between them; for another, it may force him to take a closer look at his own feelings. Is he reluctant for Elaine to know the truth because he wants to spare her feelings, or because he wants to protect what he has with Cole? This is what I must discover, and soon, before Elaine falls too deep that it will hurt her to come back.