One Year Later
ONE YEAR LATER
Evie
“You’ll never believe what we heard on our walk.” Evie enters their apartment like a hurricane, a leash wrapped around her wrist. Rupert, a nine-year-old mutt with cavalier ears and the squishiest, most perfect face, dashes over to Theo the moment Evie frees him, in the hope of scoring some kitchen scraps. “A cerulean warbler .”
“Oh?”
“It was majestic, Theodore.” She inhales the scent of homemade tomato sauce. “God, that smells incredible.”
“Lasagna is in the oven.” Theo brushes his lips hello against hers. “What’s a cerulean warbler sound like?”
She smiles. “I’m so glad you asked.”
Evie plays him the sound and is still somewhat in disbelief that she moved all the way to New York City and became a bird person . It’s less about the birds and more about their songs. More about the fact that a cerulean warbler is part of the soundscape of the city, a layer that she never could’ve uncovered if she didn’t live here. How inspiration is everywhere. Evie collects new sounds every time she steps outside. Mimics a random person’s gait every time she walks her dog. Becomes a better Foley artist.
“What did you think, Roo?” Theo squats to greet him with plain pasta he set aside. “Was it majestic?”
Evie rolls her eyes. “Pretty sure Rupert’s definition of majestic is Penelope’s butthole.”
Penelope is the miniature schnauzer who lives next door.
“Evelyn! So judgmental.” Theo’s laughter fills their five-hundred-square-foot apartment as he stands and washes his hands. “This is why I’m the favorite.”
“Right. It has nothing at all to do with the pasta.”
“Nope.”
Evie kisses the smirk right off his face. Rupert (who will also respond to Roo, Dude, and Short King) made eye contact with Theo when they came across a fostering booth at the Union Square farmers market. Then he just trotted over to Evie and Theo like he belonged to them. It was love at first sight. We’re taking him home, Theodore . She swore it would be a foster situation, to test out how it felt to have a dog. Temporary. After a month, they signed the adoption papers, and just like that, oops, they had a dog!
Rupert zoomies around the apartment before collapsing onto the pile of blankets that he prefers to his bed.
It melts her heart.
Evie washes her hands in the bathroom sink, then unzips and shrugs off her track jacket. She reenters their living space in just a sports bra and leggings and their apartment doesn’t just smell incredible. The table is set with the ceramic dishware. A bottle of red wine is uncorked. Fancy bread is on the table. In a basket .
“What—?”
“Happy anniversary, Ev.”
“We said we weren’t doing anything!”
“It’s just lasagna.”
“How much did that bread cost?”
“Don’t ask.”
“Theodore.”
“Sit.”
“Bossy,” she teases.
Theo tosses a towel over his shoulder. It’s so sexy. She’s so hungry, so she sits without any additional fuss. It’s been exactly one year since her husband became her boyfriend. One year since she boarded a plane to New York and chose herself. A year later, nine months after she completed her fellowship and moved in with Theo, they are still married, technically, in the legal sense. Evie’s in a union… but she doesn’t make enough income as a Foley artist to qualify for the health benefits. Yet. It’s a cute excuse to not sign the papers. In their day-to-day New York life? They’re dating. When she introduces him to her New York friends, he’s her boyfriend. For a whole calendar year, Theo Cohen has been her boyfriend. And her boyfriend was always going to splurge on the bougie bread today. She knew that. They recap their days while they eat. Evie loves the soundscape of this city, but it’s these quiet nights at home that are her favorite. After dinner, she changes into cotton shorts and one of his sweatshirts, then settles onto their couch to choose a movie—as if they are going to actually watch a movie —and Evie could be content to end every day like this for the rest of her life.
She wants every day to end like this.
With him.
For the rest of her life. That is why Evie tore their home apart after he left for work this morning, in search of two gold bands that she’s now clutching on to for dear life, hidden in the pocket of her sweatshirt. His sweatshirt. Theo was always going to splurge on the bougie bread today, and she was always planning to upstage the bougie bread.
“So.” Kitchen cleaned to his satisfaction, Theo settles onto the couch next to her. “What’re we watching?”
“Oh.” She shrugs, then climbs onto Theo’s lap and kisses her way from his jaw to his earlobe. “Was I supposed to pick a movie? My bad.” Her lips meet his and he sighs into her mouth and it feels so good, so safe . Had she known that this is love, that it’s supposed to feel safe? Evie might’ve let herself fall so much sooner. As her fingers weave their way into his hair, she pulls back so their foreheads touch. “Hey.”
“Hi.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“I love being your girlfriend.”
His palms press against her thighs, fingers skimming the hem of her shorts. “Yeah?”
She nods. “But… I think I miss being your wife?”
Theo groans. “ Ev . Is this a roleplay thing? Because—”
“I’m serious!” Her laughter bounces off the walls as she drops one hand to her pocket to reach for their rings and she’s sort of in disbelief that something once so terrifying now just feels right. “I know we’re still… that we never signed the papers to change, um, the legal status of us.” Evie’s doing great. This so romantic. “We’re married. I guess what I mean is… I want to be married.”
Theo cocks his head, his expression so intense. “I’m not going anywhere, Ev.”
“I know.” She presses her palm against his chest, like she has so many times before and will do so many times again. Evie doesn’t want their marriage to be real because she’s scared of losing him. She simply wants it. Marriage. What once terrified her now just feels safe and steady and right—because Theo feels safe and steady and right. And really, hasn’t it always been real? “I know . Okay? You’re it for me. And boyfriend is cute, but husband? Hot.”
“So it is a sex thing.”
She smacks his shoulder. “Can you just answer the question?”
“Did you ask me a question?”
“Oh my God, Theodore. I want to be your wife. Do you want that, too?”
“Do I want that, too?” Theo looks at her in stunned disbelief for one more moment before breaking out in the goofiest grin as he takes the rings from her palm. It’s the exact smile he flashed her as children when she called him Theodore for the first time, as teens when Miss Stella declared them dance partners, as one year ago today when she boarded a plane and reenacted the most cliché rom-com ending for them. Then her best friend, her favorite person, slides Lori’s wedding band onto Evie’s finger like it’s back where it belongs now, always, forever, before his lips crash into hers and he whispers his answer—just one word, their word—into her mouth.
“Obviously.”