Page 97 of Friends with Benefits

“I’m kind of obsessed with them?”

“I know.”

She leans into the rest of her afternoon as Ms. Evie, the Foley artist, checking in with each group and offering some tips and advice before their performance. Evie notices red andyellow pom-poms sticking out of Annabelle’s desk and nudges her trio in that direction. Pom-poms make perfect rustling leaves.

Before she leaves them to it, Annabelle says, “I can’t believe you’re married to Mr. Cohen.”

“Why?”

Sierra lowers her voice. “You’re, like,socool.”

Evie beams.

Theo’s students think she’s cool.

It’s embarrassing how validating that is.

“I’mexhausted.” Evie slumps over a freshly Clorox-wiped desk in the now-empty classroom. “You do this every day?”

“That was a good Tuesday.”

“Theodore, they shit-talk the way youuncap a water bottle.”

He laughs as he continues to sanitize the classroom. “They keep me humble.”

“You love it.”

“Being harassed daily?”

She snorts. “Teaching.”

“Yeah. I do.”

His earnest declaration is disarming. Similar to how his New York declaration was disarming.Leaving you.Despite the exhaustion that’s seeping into her bones, Evie had a ridiculous amount of fun with Theo’s students. Watching him engage with them, she comes to understand that they only drag him because they adore him. Every fist bump and high five? It melted her heart. After Theo finishes wiping down desks, he returns to his own. Evie stands and joins him. Sits on his desk. Wants to distract him. Distract herself. Calculates the likelihood of him fucking her right here. Low. But the windowless supply closet across the hall…

She blinks.

Fuck.

Since New York, Evie has been in a state of constant motion. Work. Sex. Sleep. Repeat. She doesn’t want to think about how awful her interaction with Naomi felt or what falling asleep in Theo’s arms after meant. What it means to want him but not want to bemarried tohim. So she doesn’t think or feel. Figures if she’s always doing something, she doesn’t have to feel anything.

Now she sits still.

Theo’s eyes meet hers.

And it’s impossible not to feel everything.

If Theo isn’t going back to New York, if she is impossible to leave…

Maybe it’s okay.

To feel everything.

I love you.

“Annabelle says I’m too cool to be married to you.”

“She’s not wrong.”

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