Page 34 of Friends with Benefits

Instead, he observes Evelyn and Jacob’s dynamic, their easy back-and-forth, while fuming over the fact that he’s been relegated to the back seat, like a child,on his wedding day.

No.

On the day that he’s signing a legal document so he doesn’t lose his apartment and so his favorite person can pursue a dream career.

That’s a mouthful, though.

So wedding day it is.

Forty minutes later, Imogen greets them outside Not City Hall, a brick building in South LA so nondescript that Evelyn completely misses the parking lot and gets stuck in a fifteen-minute traffic jam trying to loop around one block.

“Genny Bloom!” Jacob says, then hugs her and it’s bizarre, seeing his father act like an actual person.

“Mr. Cohen?” Imogen says, then mouths,What the fuck?in Theo and Evelyn’s direction, still in Jacob’s embrace. Theo can only respond with a useless shrug. “Hi! It’s so wonderful to see you.”

Jacob snorts as he lets go of Gen, then goes to open the door. “It’s not because I was invited.”

Theo hears the edge in Jacob’s tone and chooses to move toward the blast of cool indoor air, to get in line. Chooses toignore it even though there’s something hilarious about the idea that Theo owes him an invitation, that he owes his father anything at all.

Gen laughs, interpreting the dig as a lighthearted quip. “If it makes you feel better, I’m only invited because they needed a witness.”

“Eloping just felt right for us,” Evelyn says.

Is that what they’re calling it now? Theo can’t keep up.

“Did it?” Jacob asks.

“We wanted it to be a surprise,” she adds.

At this Jacobdoeslaugh. “As if this is a shocking development!”

Then he beelines for the bathroom, still laughing. Even if Jacob’s assessment of his relationship with Evelyn is basic and boring and based on the outdated (not to mention heteronormative) assumption that two people of different genders cannot be friends, Theo has to swallow emotion that he doesn’t even know how to articulate because he can’t remember the last time he heard his dad laugh.

No one dares to speak until Jacob is gone.

“Okay. What’s happening?” Gen asks.

It’s the first time Jacob’s been out of earshot since Evelyn threw herself into Theo’s arms. “I’m just as clueless, Gen.”

Evelyn shrugs. “Theo wanted Lori’s rings. We got them. But now Jacob assumes that this,weare real.”

“And that’s necessary because…” Gen starts.

“No way would he have handed them over if he knew the truth,” Evelyn says.

Theo frowns. “You don’t know that.”

“Theodore.”

She’s right.

He knows she’s right.

“Also,” she continues, “if this makes him happy, would it be so bad to… I don’t know? Let him be happy?”

His heart cracks in half. “Evelyn. He’s going to tell everyone.”

“I know.”

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