Page 79 of Friends with Benefits

… get thefuckout of here.

Evie dashes past them toward her coat, toward her shoes, toward the door. Lies to Theo’s face.I’m crashing with Mir and Mateo. Hates that she wants him to say,Don’t go. Hates even more that he doesn’t. He just looks at her like,Please let this be a horrible dream. So Evie leaves. Gets as far as across the street and into the park before she curls into herself on a park bench, her head between her knees until the nausea subsides. Then she cries in the snow.God.She’s such an idiot.

“Hey. Are you okay?” Evie looks up, her swollen eyes meeting a set of concerned, piercing blue ones. There’s something familiar about this boy in a buttoned-up peacoat, his shaggybrown hair poking out of his beanie. Evie can’t place him, but he recognizes her immediately. “You’re Theo’s Evie.”

“I’m not Theo’s anything.”

He holds out a glove-covered hand. “Hey, Not Theo’s Anything. I’m Topher. His roommate.”

“Oh.” Evie sniffles as she takes his hand. “Hi, Topher His Roommate. I’m fine. Really.”

Topher frowns, then pulls her to her feet. “You’re shivering. Come on. Let me buy you a coffee. Or tea. Or whatever your preferred hot beverage is.”

“You really don’t—”

“I’ll use dining dollars. So it’s basically free. At least, that’s what they want you to think.”

“They?”

“The System.”

Evie’s laugh makes Topher smile… and it’s cute.He’scute. She lets him buy her a chai with dining dollars, then spends the entire day with Topher His Roommate, her phone set todo not disturb. Later that night, he takes her to a bar that doesn’t card and she dances (well,sways) for the first time since she fell. For the first time with a partner who isn’t Theo. And when Topher’s lips press against hers, she deepens the kiss because she likes that he doesn’t know that she’s broken and Evie is so desperate to feel something,anything, that isn’t this persistent yearning for everything and everyone she cannot have. Tomorrow, she’ll laugh off the poor timing of her surprise. Maybe spend the day with Theo. But for now, she kisses Topher and lets go of it all. New York. Dance. Cheese.

Naomi.

Theo.

Because Evie is nineteen.

And so done with wanting impossible things.

16

New York makes Theo brave.

Giddy.

A little bit delusional. He wakes to the sound of his alarm, a starfish on the sofa bed. Groggy, eyes still closed, his arms search for Evelyn. As if she’s supposed to be next to him. She isn’t. He finds her curled up on the futon, cocooned in the duvet, and when he nudges her she hisses at him like a cat. Theo runs to the bodega across the street for coffee and chai and thinks that somewhere in the multiverse, this is his life.

New York is home.

Coffee is across the street.

Evelyn is his wife.

She’s curling her hair in the bathroom when he returns with caffeine. She’s in a jade satin slip dress with ruching at one side. It’s only partially zipped, enough of her back exposed for him to deduce that she’s not wearing a bra.

“Zip me?”

“Yeah.”

Theo places his coffee on the counter immediately withthis permission to touch her. Feels like he’s seventeen and Evelyn’s asked him to help with a costume. It’s so soft. Her dress. The zipper’s jammed, so he works to gently coax the satin to prevent it from snagging. His fingers skim her skin and she jerks away.

“Shit, Theodore. You’re freezing.”

“It’s stuck.”

Once she stills, he’s able to free the zipper with a gentle downward pull before gliding it all the way up slowly, lingering in this moment. Indulging. Because he’s in New York with Evelyn and he can’t remember the last time he had as much fun as he did while learning that Topher James manages a bar in Bushwick, witnessing Evelyn throw back tequila like water, reminiscing about Slippery People. Last night, Theo felt the end-of-year fog lifting at last. December is always rough. His kids are restless.Survivorends. Holidays are just… super fucking sad. During the school break, he finds himself trying new hobbies that never stick. Painting. Pottery. Chess. The alternative is sitting with the sadness. He and Evelyn usually deal with the December Blues together. But this past month, he felt like he barely saw her.

---