Page 135 of Friends with Benefits

Caro leaves it at that, slamming the passenger door shut without saying goodbye. Evie puts the car in reverse and gets out of the studio parking lot before she chokes on her tears, on Caro’s words.Theo will waste his entire life waiting for you if you let him.Evie told him to go to New York. Pushed him to stay.I will hate you if you don’t stay. Now she wonders if she only pushed because she knew that he would come back. Or thought. Because she’s his best friend. Because he loves her, too.

Too.

Does he?

Did he?

Does it even matter?

Summers were supposed to still be theirs, but Theo didn’t come home.

Not for dance.

Not for her.

I will hate you if you don’t stay.

Evie pulls into a street spot in front of the bungalow. Puts the car in park and manages to throw the door open just in time to hurl onto the street. Then she presses his name on her phone and it rings and rings and rings, and it’s for the best that it goes to voicemail. What would she even say?I’m obsessed with you, too. I think it was some fucked-up test. Insisting that you should stay. I didn’t want… I fucked up.No. She hangs up. Cuts the line.

Evie pushed Theo away.

Theo stayed away.

Is it not for the best that she pushed before he left?

28

“Hey, Theodore.”

Theo is reading Kaia’s final book report on the Heroes of Olympus (the entire five-book series, because how could Kaia possibly choose just one?) when Evelyn returns to the apartment after she didn’t come home and he had a not-so-mild panic attackbecauseshe didn’t come home. He acknowledges her presence in the apartment but keeps his eyes on the book report, unable to focus on the words but too mortified to look at her. Evelyn’s overnight bag lands on linoleum with a thud a moment before she slides into the seat across from him.

“I’m sorry.” She nudges his foot with her toes. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I know.”

“I hate Solvang.”

“I know.”

“Theo.”

It’s the pain in Evelyn’s voice, her inability to exhale the second syllable that sends his eyes upward. She’s bone-tired.Puffy eyes. So beautiful.Home.His heart slams against his chest cavity. When she didn’t come back to the apartment last night, didn’t come home forSurvivor, didn’t answer his firstfive callshe… well. He freaked out. One more unanswered call and he would’ve driven to every emergency room within a thirty-mile radius until he found her.I didn’t mean to scare you.It’s not Evleyn’s fault that everything about herterrifieshim.

Loving her.

Losing her.

She breaks eye contact first, standing to pull two pints from Afters out of the freezer. Scoops the ice cream into ceramic bowls thrown by Imogen. Ube brownie for him. Dairy-free mint chip for her. Theo watches the flex of her biceps as she scoops and swallows the emotion lodged in his throat as she sets the bowls in front of them, then slides back into her seat. They eat their ice cream in silence. Evelyn always takes a too-big scoop. Always licks it on the spoon like an ice cream cone and Theo is transfixed by her tongue. Wants it on his skin. In his mouth.

Wants her.

After Afters, she nudges his foot with her toes once more. “Can we talk?”

“Maybe I still need a beat.”

The metal spoon clatters against ceramic. “Okay. That’s fair.”

Theo is just as surprised by his response.

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