Page 107 of Friends with Benefits

It’s a photo of her in Joshua Tree, along with a message.

HEARTBROKEN to miss u, evelyn. next time???

Next time?

Embarrassment crashes into her rib cage.

But she willnotfuck up her makeup over Naomi.

“Evie?”

Miss Stella’s voice pulls focus. It’s time. She drops her phone. Pops one more Tylenol for good luck. Ignores the pain that shoots straight to her gut as she follows Miss Stella down the hall and through the door leading backstage. She doesn’t let go of Theo’s hand until she must. Swallows the emotion in her throat.Save it for the stage. It’s time to separate, but first he wraps his arms around her, then brushes his lips against her forehead. Evie doesn’t react to this very out-of-character action. She’s in character. He’s in character.

In.

Character.

“Ready?” she whispers.

Theo nods.

Evie ignores his flushed cheeks as the emcee calls them to the stage.Dance through.It’s what she always does and it always works. But her stomach cramps return with a vengeance the moment the producer says,Cue music, andfuckshe’s behind the piano notes, only a half beat but just enough to feel off even when she’s back on track after the first rond de jambe. Evie’s not in character. Her body is on autopilot while her brain screams,You fucked up, and there isn’t anything to do except continuebreathing, continue moving, continue dancing.Focus on Theo. He’s grounding during a moment of stillness, his eye contact a different sort of excruciating.I love you, she thinks, and it’s not an in-character thought, but a simple truth. She pliés into a split lift, a move that’s as second nature as breathing.

Ignores her heart.

Her body.

Her pain.

And when she slips out of Theo’s arms and hits the ground?

Evie doesn’t even see it coming.

22

Seated in the waiting room of Dr. Keating’s office, Theo texts Evelyn.

He needs a distraction from his impending appointment that isn’t refreshing his inbox. Yesterday, Theo had his first interview to be a curriculum development coordinator. Some minor lunch drama between Annabelle and Kaia made him ten minutes late to the video call, but Amira Montez, a curriculum development specialist that he’d be working closely with, seemed unfazed by the delay.We’ve all been there, she’d said with a knowing chuckle. It went well. Really well. Learning more about the role from someone who’s leading a project to diversify classroom reading, someone who’s as passionate about the necessity for phonics-based curriculum as he is? His anxious, conflict-avoidant brain hoped that the role wouldn’t resonate, that he and Amira wouldn’t click, that it would all feel too bureaucratic.

Nope.

He wants it.

He has to talk to Evelyn.

But first, he’s desperate to know how her Foley session went this morning.

How’d it go?

She answers immediately.!!!

Theo grins like an idiot at those three exclamation points on his phone. He typesyou’re amazingwithout overthinking it and the moment he taps send, a nurse says his name and ushers him down the hall to Room 4. It’s his first appointment in an entire year. Once upon a time, he’d catch up with Dr. Keating on a monthly basis. Convince her that he needed x, y, z tests run, only for everything to come back normal. Then he’d go on to make appointments with various specialists. Just to double-check. Doctors frequently misdiagnose.

It seemed so rational at the time.

Theo is healthy, so the appointment is straightforward. Dr. Keating orders a standard CBC, a lipid panel, STI tests, and a colonoscopy.

“Based on your family history,” she explains, eyes not lifting from the screen.

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