Page 28 of Henhouse
Both girls smiled as they separated. Louisa wiped another smear of tears from Effie’s cheek. “Maybe if I found out back then,” Louisa admitted. “But I’d like to think I’ve matured, maybe thanks to Hazel.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t learned much about the new you.”
“Likewise,” Louisa said, smiling. “Are those tarts up for grabs?”
“Absolutely.”
Louisa filled a plate for her and Dorothea while Effie poured the tea. They sipped and munched until Effie’s bad night ended with an unexpected lightness that only the Thatcher women knew how to bring.
16
Theo woke to Talia’s giggle and the clack of her manicured daggers against the screen of her phone. He groaned and rolled onto his back, the sheets on his side of the bed a veritable nest, mussed from their passionate entanglement the night before. His navy-blue linen duvet draped over her waist, so one silken thigh was on display as she bent her knee skyward. Bare chested as she was, the sunlight through the window bathed her perfect breasts in golden warmth. If her neck weren’t craned over her phone, eyes glazed in a doomscroll seeking tiny hits of dopamine, she might have made an excellent subject for one of Goya’s nudes.
“Don’t you even want breakfast before you mess with your brain chemistry for the day?” Theo grumbled as he picked sleep seeds from the corners of his eyes.
“Good morning to you too, pumpkin,” Talia chirped. She set her phone on the nightstand and slid down into the pillows. She walked her fingers up his chest and bopped him on the nose. “My parents willbe here tomorrow.”
“Queen of the non sequitur.”
“They’re going to ask why you’re not my boyfriend . . . again,” Talia whined, and Theo hated the high-pitched itch of it.
“Because we want different things,” Theo scolded, prying free from Talia’s grasp and sitting up against the headboard. She pulled the blanket over her chest and returned to sitting, pouting.
“It didn’t seem that way last night.”
“Thathas never been our problem,” Theo asserted.Hadn’t they had this conversation twenty times in the last year? Hadn’t she assured him she wouldn’t ask for more from him? Was Theo an ass for taking her at her word? “Aren’t we having fun?”
“Of course. But you claim you want something more than fun, something real. I’m saying I want that too, now. How is that not wanting the same thing?”
From across the king-sized bed, Talia looked out of place. She had teased him the first time she saw it all made up, saying he was the only bachelor in town who didn’t throw a sheet-less, full-sized mattress on the floor with a comforter and call it a day. She’d actually had the nerve to scoff at his carefully selected duvet and throw pillows.
He hadn’t mentioned that he bought the king-sized bed to call in his soulmate. It was a manifestation for the woman he wanted to wake to every morning, which meant making room for her in his life. So, when he moved into the apartment a little over a year ago, he bought a bigger bed. If Talia thought the duvet worthy of jest, he wasn’t about to tell her all of that. So when she asked why a king-sized mattress, he had said he was a sprawling sleeper and kept the rest to himself.
For maybe the first time, Theo acknowledged that he wasn’tmaking room for his soulmate by letting Talia lay in her place. But it wasn’t only Talia that ever laid there. In fact, it had been multiple partners in the last few months. But none of them had belonged in the unclaimed side of the bed. Not long-term. Theo never pinpointed what those engagements went without. He never landed on a trait, quality, or lack thereof that meant a woman wasn’t his soulmate. Rather, he knew it like he knew the sky was blue. It was just a fact, a truth. He didn’t need to know why.
It was the same with Talia. Though if he had to put it into words—Talia was far too self-important for Theo’s liking. She was vain in a way that Theo had only ever dabbled in. She made it a profession—literally with her influencer Instagram and her obsession with likes and follows. He also knew that, someday, he wanted to be a dad. Talia turned her nose up at babies, and pregnant bodies made her gag while she scrolled past them. He wasn’t sure which bit of truth to tell her so they could move on. He may not have wanted to spend his life with Talia or make babies with her or wake to the sunlight glowing over her breasts for the rest of his life, but he didn’t want to hurt her either. They were friends, at the very least.
With all of that in mind, he answered her question as simply as he could. “I can feel my heart reaching for someone my soul knows. You want to hold flesh and bone.”
“I’d think you’d prefer someone with more tangible desires,” Talia grumbled. “Your hands reach for me. Your lips do. Your dick does.” Talia’s voice curdled against the truths she laid out. “I just assumed that someday your heart would too.”
It was the most honest, bare thing she’d ever said to him, and it made his stomach ache. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. He meantit too. He didn’t know she harbored such hope. It had hidden behind flirty looks, a crass mouth, and a flair for being one of the guys. He thought their sharing a bed was a result of failed romances on both sides and a need for release. He thought he was as much of a mismatch for her future happiness as she was for his.
Talia must have read the meaning behind his befuddled look because she said, “It was absolutely a friends-with-benefits situation, Theo. You don’t need to be sorry. I just always wondered if it might be more.”
Talia’s phone chirped. She picked it up and Theo huffed a laugh when he saw the screen. Amatchon some dating app pinged her phone. She shrugged innocently. “It’s not like I pinned all my relationship hope on you.”
“Glad to hear it,” he crooned.
Talia slipped from the covers, and the mattress breathed a sigh of relief at the absence of her weight. She wriggled into her tight-fitting jeans, and as she pulled a loose silk blouse over her head, Theo wondered if he’d ever see her naked again. Probably not. It didn’t sour him as much as he thought it would.
“I know we had an . . . arrangement. We weren’t dating. I don’t want you thinking we weren’t on the same page. But don’t go seducing little Miss Effie if you’re not at least moderately convinced that she’s the one who the other half of this monstrous bed belongs to.”
Theo tried not to let his shock show that she guessed his reasoning for buying the king-sized bed. Talia smiled, obviously proud of herself. “I know you pretty well, Tillerman,” she drawled. “Don’t act so surprised.”
She settled onto the foot of the bed an offering in the candid use ofhis last name. They could be friends. It didn’t have to get weird. The tension in his jaw eased. If there was one thing he lamented about the vastness of his dating experience, it was the loss of cool people in his orbit because they weren’tthe one.
“I’m not surprised, Bernardi. Just grateful.”
