Page 24 of Friends with Benefits

“I won’t do it,” she’d declared just a year ago, after she turned down Hanna’s proposal—and Hanna responded by accepting a job offer in Atlanta. Reeling from the breakup, Evelyn asked Theo to spend a weekend in Big Bear. “I love her, but I can’t marry her,” she confessed as the two of them stared up at a skyso magical it almost made the blisters he could feel forming from the six-mile hike worth it. “Naomi jumped into marriage and, like, became a wife. David’s wife. At twenty-six, her identity was so wrapped up in him, and then he left her, left us… and then she left us. I’m working with Jules on not being so angry about it. Naomi leaving, remarrying, tethering herself to someone else because it was such a great idea the first time around. She never learns. But I did… and I love Han, I want to be with her. But I won’t marry her. I refuse to legally bind my heart to someone who could just wake up one day and leave.”

In the darkness illuminated only by the stars, Evelyn Bloom vowed that she would never marry. Then she fell asleep on his shoulder and his heart cracked in half listening to her snore. Once upon a time he wanted it all—marriage, a family, a white-picket-fence cliché of a life.

But he’d let go of that fantasy of a life with Evelyn long ago.

They’d woken up covered in mosquito bites. On the miserable hike back to her car, she referred to them asplatonic soulmatesand he only felt relieved that they’d never crossed the invisible boundary between friendship and something more, that the universe intervened in a truly dramatic fashion every time he walked that line like a tightrope.

Because she truly is his happy place.

In the most platonic-soulmate way.

Marry me, Evelyn.

Of course he understands her visceral reaction to his question that he didn’t even phrase as a question. It’s a loaded ask for him, too, because regardless of his own issues with his father, he can’t deny the truth that his parents were in real, proper love. Lori’s death destroyed Jacob, caused him to push, push, push his grief away, his memories of life Before Cancer, his son who needed him. Now? Theo’s anxious just thinking aboutthat white-picket-fence cliché of a life, overwhelmed at the thought of opening his heart enough to anyone because, really, is the temporary joy worth the inevitable pain? Theo isn’t sure who he’s more afraid to be in these hypothetical situations… the person who dies or the person left behind.

But.

This isn’t a proposal to build a cliché of a life. It’s also not a trap. Rather, it’s a proposal for two platonic soulmates to game an economy that makes it way too hard to buildanykind of life. It’s a temporary freedom. In more ways than just being a short-term solution for their housing crisis.

Finally, Evelyn says, “I’ll call Pep in the morning. I hate to ask them, but getting married just to keep an apartment is kind of insane.”

“Maybe,” he concedes with a shrug. “But have I ever told you that I have excellent benefits?”

She rolls her eyes, but he sees the moment itclicksfor her. The flicker of possibility in her expression indicating that she understands exactly what he’s offering. “Theodore—”

“You could take the fellowship.”

“Oh.”

Oh?

“Did you already say no?”

“No.”

Theo’s eyebrows knit together because he knows she wants this. She told him as much, before she knew that he forged the application that secured her spot. Theo can’t unmake that decision, but he can address the reason why she didn’t apply in the first place and it feels just as important as the apartment situation. Maybe more important, because Theo also fucked up her first dream, shattered her future as a dancer with a single irreversible mistake.

But.

This is a fixable mistake.He removes his wallet from his pocket and pulls out his insurance card. He hands the piece of plastic to Evelyn and watches her eyes widen upon taking in just the minimal information that the card provides—his in-network deductible, out-of-pocket maximum, and copays.

“Are you trying to seduce me?”

Theo swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Is it working?”

“It’s not…notworking? Shit. I’ve never seen a deductible so glorious,” she admits, handing his insurance card back to him. “What’s your coinsurance situation?”

Theo frowns. “Coinsurance?”

“How much does your insurance cover after you hit your deductible?”

“Um.” Is this a trick question? “Assuming it’s in-network… all of it?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Is that not how insurance works?”

Evelyn looks at him like that’snothow insurance works. It’s how his works. Theo should know. Who knows how much money he’d spend without it—on EKGs that assure him thatno, he’s not having a heart attack, on CT scans that do not diagnose him with a brain aneurysm, on bloodwork that always comes back normal. Every visit is justified. Because once he hits that glorious deductible, the most he pays to quiet his brain is a ten-dollar copay for the office visit. It’s always temporary, that quiet, but seeing doctors and running tests provide the reassurance he needs to keep functioning.

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