Page 33 of Friends with Benefits

And what is she supposed to say to that?

She doesn’t say anything. Isn’t even given a chance to because, once again, Theo’s gone, those words propelling him beyond the front hall, toward his parents’ bedroom in the back of the house. Evie follows him, splitting off at his bedroom door, another room that’s less a memory of childhood and more a storage closet for a hoarder. It’s all Lori’s—her clothes, her books, her baking supplies. Only a shelf of trophies and plaques, relics from their competitive dance past, are recognizablyTheo. She opens drawers and sifts through boxes—endlessboxes—as she tears apart the room, unsure ifshe wants to laugh or cry because the last time she came in contact with an engagement ring?

It broke her heart.

“Any luck?” Theo asks, standing under the doorframe.

“No.”

“Me either.” He rakes a frustrated hand through his hair, then crosses the threshold to sit on the edge of the bed. “She tried to give them to me. Toward the end. But I was in so much denial I couldn’t, and now who knows where they are? If Jacob even knows where they are?”

She moves a box of baking sheets to the floor to sit next to him. “Theodore. We’ll find the rings. Maybe not today, but that’s okay! We don’t need them to get married. It’s not—”

“You’re getting married?”

Jacob’s voice scares the shit out of them, as does his presence in Theo’s room. He’s business semicasual, dressed in slacks a size too large because he hasn’t put back on the grief weight loss and refuses to buy new clothes. Evie hears a hint of joy in the question that’s impossible to process.

Theo stands. “You’re here.”

“In my own home?” Jacob snorts. “Where the fuck else would I be?”

Theo winces. “Hi, Dad.”

“Answer my question.”

“I don’t know where else—”

“No, the first question.” Jacob’s expression softens, his eyes shifting to meet hers. “Evelyn, are you marrying my son?”

Then, Jacob Cohen smiles.

He smiles.

And Evie’s brain breaks.

It’s the only explanation for what happens next, for the way her limbs take on a life of their own. She stands and loops herarm through Theo’s, then rests her head on his shoulder like it’s the most natural thing in the world because Jacob smiled for the first time in literal years and if this marriage is going to give her a shot at her dream career maybe it can also give Theo a chance to repair his relationship with his dad.

So.

Evie speaks before her brain can stop her.

“Yes,” she says, beaming at Jacob, then beaming at Theo. “I am.”

8

Yes, I am.

Theo’s reeling from those three words and how easily they tumbled out of Evelyn’s mouth. How effortlessly she explained the situation, the timing, the urgency to his father. How she conveniently left out the tiny (major!) detail that they’re doing this because they love each other, not because they’reinlove with each other. Key distinction. As Evelyn drives toward the government building that’s not city hall, he attempts to process it all from the back seat. Jacob is in the passenger seat, a spot he occupies without protest.

“I am positive that Lori is losing her shit up there,” Jacob says, the corners of his mouth lifting in a sad smile.

Theo’s positive he’s losing his shitback here.

“I wish she was here,” Evelyn says.

“She is,” Jacob says.

Theo feels the weight of the bamboo ring box in his pocket, his stomach doing somersaults as Evelyn merges onto Arroyo Seco Parkway. He leans against the window, presses his cheek to the glass, and closes his eyes, the only instant remedy forthe carsickness he’s always dealt with on this roller coaster of a freeway. Focuses on breathing through the nausea and his quiet rage because Jacob doesn’t deserve to be here. Not just due to the physical absence from his life since Lori died. Even in the Before Cancer timeline, he’d never been present. But. He is now. Theo hates acknowledging the complicated truth that this, Jacob’s presence, his ability to willingly—no,enthusiastically—hand over the rings, matters to him. He doesn’t.

---