Page 120 of Friends with Benefits

She needs to stay.

“No. But…” Evie presses on the wound, feeling eighteen all over again. “A move is a life-changing decisionwithoutan autoimmune disease and I’ve… well, I’ve been in remission since you moved home. You weren’t around when it was bad—”

“I would’ve been.” His voice is strained as he leans in, so close their foreheads touch. So close she dares to press her palm against his chest. “God, Evelyn. YouknowI would’ve been.”

“I know.”

It’s unintentional, this admission.

“Okay. I’ll stay.”

Theo says it so simply, makes itfeelsimple.

Staying.

Loving her.

“Theo.”

“I want to stay.I love you.” Theo attempts to wipe away her tears, cannot catch them fast enough. “Ev.Trust me.”

And.

Well.

Shedoes.

Evie Bloom trusts Theo Cohen with her whole heart. It’s not something she has the best record with. Trust. For the first eighteen years of her life, she trusted doctor after doctor who assured her that she was healthy. She trusted that Naomi’s beats would always be temporary. She trusted that Hanna understood that marriage was off the table and still loved her anyway.

Trusting Theo?

It scares the shit out of her because if—when—he breaks that trust?

It will break her.

“How can I?” Evie squeezes her eyes shut, knowing the perfect combination of words that will puncture, deepen the wound. “Theo. The last time I trusted you? You literally dropped me.”

Theo recoils.

All the air exits his lungs in an audiblewhoosh.

She may as well have slapped him.

“I’m sorry.” Instant regret buoys her toward him as soon as she sees the guilt that flashes across his face. It was a fucked-up thing to say, to insinuate that her injury was in any way his fault when she knows—sheknows—that he still believes that. Evie pinches the bridge of her nose, her stomach gurgling. “Ididn’t… I don’t know why I said that. I feel like shit. Can we just talk in the morning? Take a beat?”

Theo stands, expression blank.

“Okay, Naomi.”

It’s Evie who recoils now. “Fuck you.”

“What? Is this not what Naomi did to you? Shut down and disappeared when shit got hard or complicated or real or—”

“Theo.” She cuts him off, her nostrils flaring. She only lobbed words that hurt, pushed him away, becauseshe loves himand if he’s going to get everything he wants, he needs to let her go… and he’s retaliating with the most painful combination of wordsto hurtand she is already in so much pain. “I can’t do this.”

“Ev—”

“Get. The fuck.Out.”

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