Page 4 of Fan Favorite

Edie and Alice had been running late. Typically, Alice ran the household with military precision, dragging a wild-haired Edie along behind her. But today, the day of Bill Pepper’s funeral, it was Alice who seemed to have no concept of time.She stood at the bay window in the living room, in her neat black dress and heels, staring into the abyss.We have to go, Edie called. She crossed the Oriental rug and placed a hand on her mother’s back and Alice startled, as if she’d forgotten who, or where, she was entirely.

“Every home needs a man,” Alice whispered.

Edie looked out the window and there was Charlie Bennett, mowing the grass that had gotten much too long in the blur of her father’s heart attack and death.

“I’m alone now,” Alice said.

“That’s not true,” Edie said. “You have me.”

But Edie would leave for college in less than a year. And her father—a man who wore bow ties, who read the paper every night, who slipped her a good luck Werther’s Original before her drama club plays, who’d been an old man her entire life, but who’d always loved her—was gone. And somehow her mother already seemed smaller.

Alice took Edie’s hand and looked her in the eye. “Find someone to love you,” she said. “I won’t be around forever, and I don’t want you to be alone.”

Another memory came to Edie now of Charlie, in the fall of their senior year, right before they were officially boyfriend and girlfriend. They were on a school bus after an away game, sitting together on a pleather seat sized for elementary kids. He’d taken off his marching band jacket and his T-shirt was sweaty from where the bass drum had hung from his soft chest; his neck was splotchy red. He smelled liked fall. When they’d performed the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” at halftime, she’d matched her steps to the thud of his drum and thought it was unbelievably romantic. It was dark on the bus, and when he’d taken her hand and held it on the seat between them, she could hear Cassandra Bernstein and Jonathan Nash making out in the seat behind them. Charliehad looked at her then, shyly, and smiled. He’d had that one crooked tooth.

Edie’s eyes were bleary from wine and despair when Lauren finally walked in, jingling her pet-sitting keys.

“I almost crashed my car into the side of a Walgreens, so thanks for that,” she said. “Charlie fucking Bennett, I literally cannot.” Lauren kicked off her shoes and pitched her purse on top of a box. “Seriously, when are you going to unpack this place, it’s been, what, a month?”

“Charlie Bennett’s going to marry a fitness model and have five perfect children and live in a mansion and be rich and tan all year round and I have thirty-eight dollars in my checking account and no one loves me or will ever love me and I’m going to fill my pockets with rocks and throw myself in Lake Michigan. Take care of Nacho.”

“Oh, please.” Lauren plopped down on the couch and took Edie’s mug of rosé and drank. “Charlie Bennett. Charlie Bennett! I mean, when I think about Charlie Bennett, I think about that time he dressed up as Severus Snape at the premiere ofHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secretsat the mall. Like, this fool was walking around with a wand and shit. This is so weird. I mean, didn’t he have, like, a severe skin condition or something?”

“Yes.”Edie was completely relieved to be seen again. “Hetotallydid. He was always breaking out in hives. And you know what? It never bothered me. Because I loved him.”

“Girl.”

“It’s true,” Edie pouted.

“Let me see that.” Lauren took the yearbook and began flipping the pages. “Oh my god!” She doubled over with laughter. “Look at you! ‘Most Likely to Win the Lottery but Lose the Ticket.’ I completely forgot about that! Too good.”

Edie looked over Lauren’s shoulder at the photo.

“That was during my Christina Aguilera phase. Look at that cropped cardigan. Fuck, have I always been awful?”

“Don’t be an idiot. Everyone is awful in high school.”

Lauren, of course, had never been awful in high school. Lauren had always been effortlessly cool. A couple of months ago, she’d chopped her hair into a short mullet and dyed it lilac. Tonight she was wearing high-waisted denim shorts over black pantyhose, combat boots, and a preppy striped button-down with her favorite leather jacket on top. Edie would look like she was cosplayingThe Craftif she tried to wear that get-up. But Lauren just looked like someone you might talk to about bourbon. Or the best BBC deep cuts on Netflix. Or her favorite tattoo artist specializing in intricate floral work. Fucking Lauren.

“Apparently, some people change,” Edie said. “Where were you tonight? You’re cute.”

“I joined a feminist pinball league in Logan Square,” Lauren said with a wave of her hand. “I was on my way home when I saw your text. Obviously, I couldn’t let you live through this trauma alone. Anyway, I did some googling at the stoplights—did you see he was onGood Morning America?”

“What? No. Show me.”

Lauren got out her phone and they watched Bennett Charles strut onto theGMAset in a gorgeously tailored black suit. He hugged Robin Roberts and flashed a million-dollar smile and a magnanimous wave at the squealing ladies in the studio audience. His bowl cut had been replaced with a trendy pompadour, short on the sides with a deep part, deliberately messy curls cascading over his right eye. The total effect was very sexy-surfer-investment-banker, anddamnit was good.

“He’s seriously so hot now, it’s mind-bending,” Lauren said. “Literally cannot believe I just said that. I don’t even like men. But objectively it’s true. Do you think he had plastic surgery?”

“Lauren.” Edie chewed her lip. “Don’t make fun of me, but I think maybe Charlie Bennett isThe One.”

Lauren squawked with laughter. “Girl, no, he is not. Honestly, he seems pretty douchey.”

“Don’t say that! Why would you say that?”

“Edie, c’mon! The whole thing is pretty douchey. What kind of person turns their name backward and chugs Muscle Milk ’til they’re culturally relevant? It’s weird.”

On Lauren’s phone, Charlie and Robin took their seats. Golden locks and keys fluttered digitally on a screen behind them. Charlie and Robin chatted, but Edie couldn’t really concentrate on anything they were saying. All she could think about was all the terrible boyfriends she’d had, all the guys who’d cheated on her, or ghosted her, or dumped her via text, and all the guys to come who’d be exactly the same. What if Charlie Bennett was the only real, true relationship she’d ever have?

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