Page 129 of Friends with Benefits

Imogen shares photos of her soon-to-be cabin in the woods.

Everyone Evie loves is in the same place.

Almost.

Still. It’s just one day. A fleeting moment. She yearns for a universe where this is their life, where she’s a part of a family who stays. She isn’t. David left first, before she knew her father enough to even miss him. Naomi left over and over again. Hanna. Pep and Mo sold the bungalow. Imogen is going to Denver. Theo back to New York. Everyone left or is leaving, and she considers what it could feel like.

Leaving, too.

“How’s Theo doing?” Mo asks.

Evie swallows wrong, has to cough to clear her throat before she answers. “Good.”

“Did you hear his news?” Imogen asks.

Pep’s eyebrows rise. “News?”

“Yeah! Theo—” Imogen is cut off by the swift force of Evie’s foot connecting with her shin under the table. “Ouch.Shit.Did you seriously justkick me?”

“Girls.” Pep chuckles, her chide so unserious. “Well. Now Imustknow this news!”

Imogen looks to Evie.

Gives her a chance to break this news.

Then blurts, “Theo accepted a job in New York.”

Pep’s eyes widen as she covers her mouth with her hands. “Evelyn! What?”

Evie’s eyes shift from Pep’s overzealous expression to Mo, who is staring at the ground. “You already know.”

Her grandmother drops the act. “Of course we know.”

“Theo comments on our pictures in the clouds.”

“Cloud.”

Mo waves off the correction, then rests his hand on Evie’s shoulder. “Are you okay, Evelyn?”

Imogen shakes her head. “No.”

“Gen.”

“What! You’re not.”

Evie snaps a cracker in half. “It’s, like, a dream opportunity for him. He has to take it. I told him to.”

Pep’s expression softens. “It’s okay to not be okay.”

“You can be happy and sad all at once,” Mo says.

“I’mfine.”

Pep, Mo, and Imogen each flash their own distinctno,you’re notexpression.

Then they drop it.

At the Tiki Lounge, Imogen duets “My Heart Will Go On” with Steve, who has an ethereal voice that puts her sister’s to shame. Pep and Mo sing “Islands in the Stream,” so wine-tipsy and adorable that Evie can’tnotgiggle. Solvang magic. Imogen signs them up for “Wannabe” and drags Evie to the makeshift stage to do the ridiculous dance that Evie choreographed for a talent show when they were in elementary school. It’s fun. Evie leaves the stage laughing. Damn it, Solvang magic! She grabs another soda water from the bar, then returns to the high-top where her grandparents are seated, returns to her phone that’s face down but glowing with a notification.

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