Page 94 of Friends with Benefits

Evelyn stands and Theo just watches her like an actual idiot as she rebuttons her blouse hastily, then finger combs disheveled hair. Her cheeks are on fire. Words are stuck in his throat.You. You. You.As soon as she’s decent, she slips out of his room and Theo knows in his bones that she’s not staying tonight. Already feels the dread, the panic, the fear that he screwed up so massively that she’ll never stay again and that he’s just supposed to… what? Never sleep again? Then learns that half a bottle of peppermint schnapps is just as effective a sleep aid.

He wakes the next morning with a splitting headache and a body pressed against his back. Images of last night swirl in his brain. Evelyn kissing him. Theo stopping it. Her leaving. But. At some point, she came back. Theo is mortified. Relieved. So in love it hurts.

“Hey,” she says when he stirs.

Theo presses the heels of his hands to his eyes. “Morning.”

“It’s over. We got through it.”

“Yeah.” Theo swallows, then turns so he’s facing her. “Ev. Last night—”

“—really sucked. I know.” Theo searches Evelyn’s expression for any indication that they’re talking about the same moment.Really suckedwould not be among all the phrases hecould use to describe what happened between them last night. “What? Do I have drool on my face?”

“No.”

Her eyebrows lift. “Did I do something embarrassing? Yesterday?”

“No.”

“I totally did.” She covers her face with her hands. “What happened under the influence of peppermint schnapps? Actually. No. Don’t tell me. Let me live in ignorant bliss.”

Theo tries not to freak out. He’s so relieved that they stopped, that he stopped them when he did. Before it progressed any further. There are moments from yesterday that are a blur, but everything about kissing Evelyn Bloom is in sharp focus. Does she really not remember? Just the thought makes him nauseous. Theo is never drinking peppermint schnapps again.

“Ev—”

“Don’t.”

Evelyn’s eyebrow twitches as her eyes meet his, her expression confirming what she refuses to acknowledge out loud.

She remembers.

“Theodore,” she whispers. “Please.”

He nods. Assumes she means notnow. In the moment, it’s a relief not to assign words to this one overwhelming feeling when he’s goddamn drained from so many competing overwhelming feelings. He has no idea, as she curls against his body and they drift back to sleep, that they will spend the next five years pretending it didn’t happen, that so much time will pass that sometimes Theo will wonder if it even happened at all, or if it was just a devastating dream.

19

“Does anyone know what Foley is?”

Hands shoot toward the ceiling.

“My mom was a sound designer onSpider-Man: Home Away from Home.”

“I follow Foley Dave on TikTok.”

“We weren’t born yesterday.”

“Right.” Evie attempts to maintain a neutral expression, convinced that there isn’t anything more intimidating than twenty-two fourth graders. There are so many of them. Just one of her. “Follow-up question. Whose parents work in the industry?”

More than half the class. Evie shoots Theo a look. It’s Career Week at Foothill Elementary School. When Theo asked Evie to be a guest speaker she thought it might be fun. Well, no. First, she told him that it’s some late-stage capitalist bullshit. Career Week? They’reten. Then she considered how cool it could be, to be a kid’s introduction to this weird and wonderful art form. And she felt inspired. Stayed up until 4:00 a.m. creating a lesson plan that leaned into moments of discovery,the magic that made her fall in love with Foley when she was their age.

So.

It just would’ve been nice if she knew to cater this presentation to industry nepo babies. Does her expression convey this? Probably not. Theo at his desk, dressed in chinos and an olive cable-knit sweater, is too distracting. How stupid hot he looks in teacher clothes.

Evie needs to pivot.

She plucks a bag of plantain chips from the snack bowl on Theo’s desk, takes a seat on the rectangular table at the front of the room, and folds her legs like a pretzel. Pops a chip in her mouth, then points at the kid whose mom works for Marvel.

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