Page 140 of Friends with Benefits

An excuse.

I don’t want to be married.

I can’t move to New York.

I want this more.

She instead opts for a factual approach. “He left. But it’s not… I told him to go? Because his dream job is in New York and mine is here and—”

“Evie.” Charlie cuts her off and she has no clue when he reappeared but here he is, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed. “You love him?”

“I do.” She nods, then gestures at the studio, remembering some of the first words Sadie spoke to her once she saw Evie’s passion.If you want this, there isn’t room for much else.“But I love this, too.”

Charlie presses his lips together, understanding etched in the wrinkle between his eyebrows. “Well. Speaking as someone who has a few years on you, this…” Charlie mimics her, gesturing toward the Foley stage. “It’s just a job.”

“And it doesn’t love you back,” Sadie adds, and Evie’s eyesshift to her mentor, whose expression can only be deciphered asI think I fucked up. “The work. I spent thirty years married to this career—putting my ambition,the work, first—and it’s been wonderful and fulfilling and lonely. I believed there couldn’t be room for much else, and it did get me to where I am now.” Sadie’s eyes shift to Charlie. “Lately, I wonder if the journey didn’t have to be so lonely.”

“I—” Evie blinks, so disarmed by Sadie’s vulnerability. “I don’t know what to do with this.”

“What do you want to do?”

Sadie and Charlie leave her with this question because they have a schedule to adhere to and need to set up the stage for their afternoon session. Evie sits with their words, the gentlest of nudges.What do you want to do?

Her heart hammers in her chest.

Go.

Go.

Go.

She hesitates for only a moment before she’s at her desk and hacking into Theo’s airline accounts to find his flight info. (What? It’s not her fault that Theo has had the same three passwords since high school.) She pulls up the flight on her phone. The only seat left on the plane is a middle seat next toTheo’sseat and that must be a sign. She wants it to be a sign. Evie screenshots the seating chart and texts Imogen.

i… think i’m about to book the last seat on theo’s flight to ny??

10:42A.M.

Imogen Bloom

!!!

10:42A.M.

I AM SCREAMING

10:42A.M.

THAT IS ROMANTIC AS FUCK

10:42A.M.

FINALLY

10:42A.M.

The next text is a photo of her sister Meredith Grey ugly-crying.

She laughs, then secures the ticket, exhilarated and terrified all at once. Sadie and Charlie pause on maneuvering a car door the moment she steps onto the stage and says, “I’m going to New York.”

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