A/N: Adam found out I let Lee guest-narrate and demanded his own turn, and I am entirely incapable of saying no to Adam.

(Adam)

Noah Flynn is not what I expected. Two years ago, when we got the list of new hires, I did what everyone does in that situation: I googled the heck out of all of my future coworkers. Gwen Zhang—graduated from Duke, teaching history, coaching the swim teams. An Instagram full of travel pictures and a highly political Twitter feed. Nate Parker—UC San Diego, teaching chemistry. Not at all shy about posting drunken party pics; I'll need to tell him to lock down his accounts before the students start snooping. Noah Flynn—Harvard, assistant football coach, teaching math of all things. Yeah, I'll admit to some prejudices when it comes to football players, especially preppy ones. Flynn proves a little tougher to track down online, but there's a reason why my friends call me when they need a new crush investigated.

Finding Harvard football team pictures isn't hard, and soon enough I find one with a caption mentioning a Flynn, and from there it's child's play figuring out which of the tagged accounts is his. He doesn't post much, especially not recently, and most of what he does post isn't personal. He follows a lot of professional athletes and motorcycle accounts, which isn't discouraging my football player stereotyping any. Scrolling back a year things get more interesting, and a few faces start to repeat, one girl in particular. I'm pretty sure that's the girlfriend, or was, but there are also a lot of pictures of her with another guy. I try to research her, but her account is deactivated. Curious.

I don't usually do this deep a dive into my coworkers' accounts—I'm not, like, some creepy stalker—but I'll admit I'm mildly intrigued and so I scroll further back, and yeah, the girl is everywhere in the older pictures and then disappears after last summer. I do one last search for more recent pictures others have tagged him in and find a mess of party pictures, all with different girls. The pictures aren't as incriminating as Parker's, and Flynn's account was harder to find, but teenagers are pretty wily; I should still give him a heads-up to cover his tracks. And then I move on to googling the next new hire on the list. It was fun proving I could still track down just about anyone, but Noah Flynn doesn't seem all that interesting. Jock who used to have a girlfriend and now shows up at a lot of parties: boring.

Gwen turns out to be just as big of a snoop as I am, but way less subtle about it. A few weeks into the new school year, she demands everyone's info so she can follow all of us, and after that she starts scrolling through our accounts over lunch and pestering us with questions. Flynn has so far confounded my preppy jackass expectations, but he's definitely not a big talker when it comes to anything personal. Gwen manages to get out of him that the girl all over his old pictures is his brother's friend Elle, and that he used to date her, but that's about all he tells us before making it clear he's done answering questions. Which isn't surprising, he does have a girlfriend and this Elle situation looks to be old news. I do wonder if there's something more to the brother angle, given the bitter edge to his voice; getting dumped for his own brother would certainly explain it. Gwen tries again a few weeks later, after Flynn starts telling a story but stops short after mentioning Elle, as though realizing what he'd been about to say, but Flynn shuts her down again.

I do gather clues about Flynn's mystery ex over time, despite his dogged silence. He absolutely doesn't want to be asked about his old pictures, but he also never deletes any. His bitterness about the situation is glaring, yet never once does he say anything bad about her, and when Parker once jokingly refers to her as "that bitch who dumped you," Flynn's eyes are steely as he tells him to shut up. He also hates being addressed as Noah; I don't make the connection on that detail until I come across old posts where friends referred to him as Flynn and Elle and the brother went to town commenting back and forth to each other about who this Flynn is and why people keep posting in Noah's account about him.

The brother's name, by the way, is Lee; he visits a couple times and he's a good guy. On one of the visits, Gwen and I try to get the story on Elle from him. Yeah, so my initial theory that Flynn got dumped for his brother? Really, really wrong. Comically wrong, given how profoundly weird Lee seems to find it that Flynn fell for their lifelong friend. Although, maybe not that wrong if you eliminate the romance aspect, because from what I gather Lee is still in close touch with Elle while Flynn is very much not. Lee doesn't tell us much about the breakup, but it's clear he's frustrated with whatever's going on. I can't get a read on what Lee wants Flynn to do about it, though. I also feel a little guilty at how quickly the nickname heartcrusher catches on after Lee's visit, but it's not like Flynn ever denies its accuracy, he just flips us off.

Anyway, like I told Elle that first day, Flynn—well, Noah, as she'd rather we call him—suddenly makes a lot more sense after meeting her, as does his behavior this year. But damn did that morning at his apartment feel like stepping into a twilight zone. A twilight zone where the guy who broke up with Megan for wanting to get serious and rarely goes on second dates casually tells me he's moving to LA to be with the pregnant girlfriend he's been in love with for six years, never mind that they've been broken up for the last two and a half of those years and he'd never even mentioned having seen her this fall. But after a few hours with them, the whole absurd situation suddenly seems weirdly plausible. Unsurprising, even.

In retrospect, maybe we should have connected Noah's foul mood after our October long weekend and his bristling all those times we'd tried to ask him about the mystery girl. There aren't that many topics I've seen him get that particular shade of upset about. But Noah was exactly as forthcoming with personal details this fall as ever, and no one felt like dealing with his snappishness more than necessary, so we ignored it and let him be. His mood improved to a more tolerable level by January, although he continued to shrug off attempts to set him up. And we tried. I mean, I'd be letting down all my straight single female friends if I didn't at least try. But no, while Noah resumed hanging out with us, he shut down every question about whether he was seeing anyone and why in the hell not.

When Noah told me he had plans that night of the recruiting reception, I knew something was up. And then, once he admitted those plans involved Elle—yes, that Elle—all with a sly grin I'd never seen from him before, I did have an inkling there was a lot more to the story. Still, I didn't exactly imagine the next morning's twilight-zone encounter, let alone that two months later I'd be helping him ring shop. Then again, I also didn't imagine I'd be buying him a parenting book even sooner than that, and those two purchases aren't unrelated. Or at least, not as unrelated as I know Elle would prefer. She's made a few comments lately that have made me wonder how aligned she and he are on this issue. They both look so happy, though, and it's really not a topic I should meddle in. Not that that usually stops me.

Noah's got some last football team event Saturday morning, and on his way there he drops Elle at my place so we can get ready for tonight's party. Not that there's much left to do; it's really just an excuse to hang out. Elle decides we need to bake cookies for the party, and I'm enjoying how relaxed she is today. I've only seen her once since that first weekend—I went down to LA for a conference and managed to squeeze in a dinner with her—but we chat often, and it didn't take me long to understand why Noah fell for her. Before this weekend she's always had this undercurrent of anxiety or hesitation, though, these moments where she seems to remember the bigger picture and need a minute to catch her breath. It's nice seeing her so breezily happy today.

The last tray of cookies finally goes into the oven and we sit down to enjoy a few cookies from the first tray along with a cup of coffee I've been sworn to secrecy about. I need to get Annie to send Elle all those articles she collected about how a second cup of coffee really isn't anything to worry about. How Elle survived finals on her self-imposed single cup a day is a mystery.

"So, you made it." I tell Elle with a smile, lifting my mug to hers in a toast.

"Made it?"

"You're done, you're graduating. And, in a week, Noah will be back in LA for good and I can finally be free of the grumpy moping that starts two days after he's seen you last."

"Definitely tell him that. In those exact words." Elle smirks.

"Now that I know about his punchy history? No thanks. This face is too handsome to risk."

"I can't believe I'm actually done. I can't believe it's already June and I'm here again. It feels like it's been the most excruciatingly slow blink of an eye since I first came up here. The longest and fastest two months ever."

"That makes no sense, but... it also does." I pause to grab another cookie. "Was it really just two months? You were here... that first weekend in April, right? God, I guess that really is just two months."

"It was our belated April Fool's prank for everyone. Except, not actually a prank." Elle comments wryly.

"I did have to convince a few people at Parker's birthday that me telling them to be cool when Flynn showed up with his secret pregnant girlfriend wasn't a joke."

"Thanks for that, again."

"None needed. It was an honor to have my gossip talents recognized and put to use for my new favorite person."

"Me?" Elle grins, and I hate to have to disappoint her.

"Oh, no, sorry—Noah was my new favorite person. I mean, Flynn was a good guy, but this whole new alter ego of his was just fascinating. And hilarious."

Elle laughs, but there's something about the way she's nervously stirring her coffee, staring into it.

"How was he, really?" She finally asks. I'm not sure what she means, and I think she realizes it. "Noah, after he came back from UCLA, I mean. When we first met, you said you knew something was up with him that week."

"That first week, before you visited? He was... I don't know. It's hard to describe. It's like he wasn't listening to us half the time, he was just kind of preoccupied and lost in his own thoughts. But—not necessarily in a bad way. And then by the end of the week, he was just... wired."

"Wired?"

"He was in a good mood, way better than we'd seen him in for a long time, but also... nervous isn't the right word. Maybe on edge. Or restless. And then, man, at that reception, that's when I really knew something was up. He kept checking his phone, and then suddenly he was telling me he had to go with this dopey ass grin on his face."

"Have you been talking to Lee?" Elle laughs.

"Not recently. Why?"

"Lee likes to claim Noah has a dopey-ass Shelly smile. I thought maybe you'd gotten it from him." Elle explains.

Ah, Shelly. That's the most hilarious part of all this. For as much as Elle glares every time he calls her that, I wonder if she's noticed that it's his biggest tell. He manages to call her Elle most of the time, but the second his heart starts talking faster than his brain can rein it in, out comes Shelly. Well, and when he's going out of his way to annoy her, of course. And yeah, Lee is absolutely right, there is definitely a dopey-ass Shelly smile in his repertoire.

"No, no help from Lee needed for me to call that particular expression dopey. Anyway, that's when he admitted you were the mystery girl he had plans with, and between that and how he'd been acting all week, I figured there was going to be more to the story. I just didn't quite expect..." I trail off.

"That I'd be expecting?"

"Yeah, no, that announcement kind of knocked me on my ass."

"Join the club." Elle mutters. She's fussing with her bracelet again. "Did he seem... okay with the news when he told you? I mean, he told you before you got to the apartment, right?"

"Are you kidding me? Elle, the first thing he told me that morning was that he'd been in love with you for six years. Not past tense, present tense."

"Yeah, but—I meant whether he seemed happy about the baby."

"Do you really need to ask?"

Elle shrugs without meeting my eyes, and I realize she really is asking.

"I just... worry sometimes. At how quickly this all happened. How quickly Noah was just—fine with everything. He would have had a lot of reasons to stay angry. Or at least uncertain. Reasons I gave him. I guess sometimes I'm afraid to believe that this is actually working out."

"Look, Elle, all I can tell you is what I saw. And what I heard. And don't you think I asked him how he felt about the news? I'd be a shitty friend if I hadn't. Yeah, he was happy, even that first day. I mean, he also said it was really complicated, but he was happy. And then he made it clear if I said anything to freak you out and derail this he'd kill me."

"Anything to freak me out?" Elle looks confused, but before I can say anything she suddenly shakes her head. "He told you not to mention anything like moving in or getting married, didn't he? Because he thought that would freak me out. That's what you meant, right?"

Lying doesn't seem like the best idea, even if telling the truth has its own risks. "Yeah, kind of."

Elle frowns, then shrugs it off.

"I guess that was fair. I probably would have. I mean, not freaked out and run away or anything, but I didn't need extra people asking the questions I was already torturing myself with."

"Are you still? Torturing yourself with those questions, I mean."

Elle looks at me, not responding. Finally she laughs a little.

"I think this might be one of those times when Noah and I shouldn't share confidantes. Because that's a question I should be discussing with Noah. Or maybe with Mickey. But not with... his friends."

I realize how the question must have come across. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry. It's not the answers to those questions I was looking to find out, just how you were feeling about the questions. I was hoping you were feeling... more settled. Less tortured. That whatever it is you're thinking, the topic isn't stressing you out."

"Oh. Yeah. It's fine. I'm fine. People seem to have quit joking about shotgun weddings; I guess with the date so close they've given up on us. So that's a relief. And the moving in part, well, I'm sure that will take some getting used to, but I've never doubted it's what I want. At least, not this spring."

"I'm glad. That's really all I meant to ask, to make sure you weren't still feeling freaked out."

Elle looks like she's trying to make up her mind about something. I watch her dunk a cookie into her coffee, and I laugh as it falls apart and she scrambles to fish the pieces out before they turn to mush.

"Did Noah tell you much about October?" Her cookie mishaps might have distracted me, but Elle hasn't moved on from our earlier topic.

"He told me... some of it. Not the racy details, if that's what you're worried about." I joke.

Elle blushes, then shakes her head. "Yeah, no, not what I was asking, but I'm glad to hear that. I meant whether he'd told you about my freakout. About how everything went wrong."

"A little. He said he rushed you and you got overwhelmed. And he seemed pretty damn mad at himself about it."

"Overwhelmed is one way to put it. I... completely overreacted and panicked."

"Noah mentioned you had a lot going on, more than he understood in the moment. And that probably you two should have actually talked about the first breakup before jumping back in."

Elle snorts at that a little. "That sound you just heard? That was Lee all the way back in Boston, screaming I told you so. And that one wasn't the first breakup, for the record."

"Ah, right. I did know that, it's just a complicated story to keep track of." I'm grinning, but given her pained expression my attempt to lighten the mood seems to have fallen flat. "Sorry. That wasn't actually funny, was it?"

"Not so much. But don't sweat it, it's not your fault we're idiots. Anyway, if there's anything good that came out of that disaster it was realizing I had a lot of crap I needed to deal with. So I'm actually doing a lot better on the whole freaking out front, now. Or at least less terribly than before."

"That and Dinah, right?"

"Dinah?"

"She's something good that came out of that disaster."

"Oh—I meant disaster as in the freakout and the fight. The rest of the weekend, before I freaked out, definitely not a disaster. Although it did, uh, bring its own set of challenges. I wasn't really planning to be gigantically pregnant at graduation. But I also wasn't expecting Noah to be there, so it all kind of balances out."

"Yes, gigantically." I roll my eyes at her.

"Eight nieces and nephews and you haven't learned not to contradict a pregnant woman?"

"My apologies. Yes, you're gigantic. Gargantuan, even. But anyway, I'm glad to hear things are less overwhelming. It's nice seeing you both chilled out, finally."

"Yeah, a whopping six weeks of relaxation before everything goes haywire."

"Maybe six weeks. Could be shorter."

"If you jinx me, I'm going to kill you."

"You both keep threatening to kill me for various offenses, but you'd miss me too much."

"That's how Lee's survived this long. You should compare notes."

Noah returns around noon and I say no to joining them for lunch. As much as I like them both, they don't need a third wheel right now, nor is that actually my favorite role. I should ask Lee for tips on that, too. And, anyway, I do have a life of my own to tend to this afternoon before everyone invades my apartment.

I've been jokingly referring to tonight as a combination drunken baby shower and farewell party, but really it's just our usual weekend hangout with a guest list broadened to include Noah's nearby Harvard friends. Gwen and a few others do show up with baby gifts, and it's kind of weird to think that pretty soon those tiny clothes will be on an actual person. I mean, not that babies are weird; I'm more than familiar with the concept after three nieces and five nephews. But a baby that Noah is responsible for, both literally and figuratively speaking? Now, that's an entertaining and mildly terrifying thing to ponder.

Speaking of, I return from grabbing more drinks from the kitchen to find him leaning against a wall, watching Elle hold court on my couch. We'll miss him, but somehow I don't think he's remotely sad to leave. Sometimes I wonder if his whole reason for taking this job was to bide his time at a safe distance from LA until he figured out what to do about Elle.

"So, what's the plan?" I ask Noah, tipping my head in Elle's direction.

"The plan?"

"For that ring I helped you buy."

Noah smirks, but doesn't actually answer.

"I don't see her wearing it, and despite your track record for keeping secrets, I would hope you'd have mentioned an engagement. And I know she would."

"You'll be the first to know when it happens, I promise. Well, after Lee. And our parents. And Mickey. And her brother. But a solid seventh to know." Noah chuckles.

"So Lee before your parents?" I can't help asking.

"You have met the two of them, right? Actually, I guess you haven't, not together at least. But yeah, my money's on Elle's first call being Lee. It always is." He says it in a vaguely sardonic tone.

"And you're... okay with that?" Their whole triangle is still rather a mystery to me.

"As long as the reason he's the first call is that there's no need to call me because I'm there with her, yeah."

"And so the plan is to always be there with her?"

"You could say that."

"Oh come on. Just tell me what the plan is. I know you, you must have a plan."

"If you know me, then you also know I'm not going to tell you." He has a point, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.

"Seriously? Can you at least confirm there is a plan?"

"Nope."

"On her birthday? Next weekend at the graduation party? The summer solstice? July 4th, with fireworks? Some other occasion before this baby shows up? At the birth? Gotta tell you, that one seems risky for her being fond of you right then."

"The solstice? I hadn't thought of that one, but sure, I'll add it to the list, and I'll definitely let you know if I decide to go in that direction. Afterward."

"Fine, be that way. But you're going to, right?"

"I told you. Seventh to know, guaranteed."

"Jackass."

I give up then. I've had to revise a lot of my initial assumptions about Noah Flynn, but I guess his tendency to play things close to the vest hasn't changed. Still, he's not what I expected when I saw him on that list two years ago, and definitely for the better. He might not miss us, but we'll miss him. And I'm hoping I can convince him to give me some of those million frequent flyer miles he racked up this spring, because I'm going to need to get to LA to witness him wrangling an infant. But yeah, Noah Flynn? Not what I expected.