Page 62 of Friends with Benefits

“It’s my best quality.”

“Bested by motion sickness again, Gen?”

Theo appears at Evie’s side with a blue Gatorade because he’s been around long enough to know that despite Imogen’s best efforts, she’ll always face the consequences of the spinning teacups. Evie didn’t have to ask. Theo just knows her little sister’s post-vom electrolytes of choice. She ignores the way this act of care tugs at her heart as Imogen raises her middle finger in their direction, then stands tall and adjusts her mouse ears.

“Fuck off.”

Theo holds out the Gatorade. “You’re welcome.”

“Thank you.”

Imogen takes the bottle, chugs half of it, then skips towardBig Thunder Mountain. Evie and Theo trail behind, just as they always do, during their annual pilgrimage to Disneyland. It’s where Evie and Imogen have spent every Thanksgiving since Evie obtained her driver’s license and built up the courage to brave the I-5. Because on this day, the Bloom sisters are not interested in eating turkey, or watching grown men give each other concussions, or celebrating genocide. No. What they’re interested in is riding all the rides until one of them (Imogen) pukes. It’s Theo’s fifth pilgrimage. He began tagging along after Lori died. Imogen invited him, a gesture that cemented what Evie already knew to be true. Theo is more than her best friend.

He’s family.

She could’ve used that reminder before she dragged her teeth along his jaw like a feral animal.Ugh.It’s been weeks since she jumped him on a pickleball court, an impulsive moment that stirred up something dangerous. Weeks. Yet every sensation from that day is etched into Evie.

Her tongue on his skin.

Crashing.

Falling.

Bleeding.

Instead of processing that instinct to touch him in front of Violet—thepossessiveness—she avoids, avoids, avoids. For Evie, the back half of November highlights included mid-to-disappointing episodes ofSurvivor, not itching off the gnarly scabs on her knees, and a conversation confirming that Sadie Silverman does, in fact, know her name. She’s still buzzing from the breakthrough she had with her mentor yesterday before they parted ways for the holiday. It was lunch. Evie had just offered Charlie the dill pickle that came with her chicken salad sandwich from Arnie’s when Sadie Silverman enteredthe mixing room, her eyes fixed on Charlie, her expression indecipherable.

I watchedGinger.

Evie gasped.

A piece of celery lodged in her windpipe.

Sadie Silverman pivoted toward a coughing Evie and asked,That… the dancing? It was you?

Still hacking up a lung, Evie could only nod.

Ross is a limp dick. Do you want to accompany me to a spotting session on Monday?

It’s a major upgrade from being the Coffee Bitch and wistfully observing Sadie Silverman work while separated by a glass window. During a spotting session, the director, sound editor, music editor, and Foley artists watch a locked cut of the visuals and catalog the needed special effects, music cues, and Foley sounds. It’s a chance to network, learn, and prove that she’s worth being taken seriously, that she can be trusted to work on real assignments. Union assignments. And shouldn’tthatbe her focus—on making the most out of every opportunity, on securing credits, on reapplying to IATSE as soon as possible? Once that happens, she can file for divorce. Evie can have her best friend back.

“Evelyn?”

His voice pulls her from the memory. “Hmm?”

“I think we have to accept it.”

Theo needs to be more specific, because her mind goes only to things that are impossible to accept. Marriage is blurring the boundary that’s kept him in the friend zone. Gives her an excuse to act on the attraction that she’s been quietly acknowledging for… what, a decade? Only three times has she dared to acknowledge it out loud. At seventeen, when Theo rejected her promposal. At nineteen, when she spenther entire savings on a flight to New York. At twenty-three, the night of Lori’s shiva. Every time? It’s been a huge mistake. So. No. She will not accept it, if theitin question has anything to do with whatever her lips on his jaw may have unleashed.

“What?”

“Gen is a Disney Adult.”

She laughs, feeling relieved and ridiculous all at once. “Did we not already know this?”

“Knowing something isn’t the same as accepting it.”

Theo’s tenor is breezy, but his eyes are fixed ahead, likely searching for the nearest snack stand because he doesn’t do roller coasters. Evie attempts to let his words—their implication—fade with the wind as she removes her nutmeg sweater. If Imogen’s delusion is that she can overcome the teacups, hers is that autumn exists in Southern California. She applies sunscreen onto her bare shoulders. Theo offers to hold on to her backpack and she hands it over and shocks herself when their fingers brush in the transfer. Evie swallows, then walks toward the coaster solo, attempting to navigate aroundTHE HENDERSON FAMILY, a mob of neon orange T-shirts clustered in front of the Big Thunder Mountain entrance, while convincing herself that the sun, thisheat, is the reason for her flushed cheeks. But. Theo’s right.

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