"No."

"Leigh, come on."

"We'll look like we're on a date."

It had happened before. Roman and Everleigh had gone and seen Get Out together and as they left the theatre someone had told them they were gorgeous together. Roman had choked on the last sip of his diet Coke and Everleigh was left to tell them it was not what it looked like—the worst excuse in the book, but the reality nonetheless.

"You think I didn't consider that?" Roman asked. "Flo doesn't want to go."

"Roman, you're a shit." Everleigh sighed, running a hand along her forehead. "How do you know I want to go?"

"Because you're the only person I know who owns sixteen different Scream shirts."

"Seventeen." It was ridiculous of her that she was that particular about facts. Who the hell counted their t-shirts? Who owned that many t-shirts about one subject when they weren't uniforms in the first place?

"Everleigh," Roman said. "I'll buy you snacks."

"Why can't you go by yourself?"

"If I go to a horror movie by myself, I'll look like an idiot."

"You look like an idiot any—" Everleigh started.

"Don't say I look like an idiot anyway—" Roman said at the same time.

"Don't make it so easy."

"I'll buy popcorn, dinner after."

"Do you have any friends?" Everleigh asked.

"Leigh, you're my fiancée's maid of honour and you're still coming to my bachelor party," Roman said. "And my father-in-law is coming."

"That's because you wanted to go to a football game and Pa would've been insulted if you didn't invite him," Everleigh said. "You wanted me there so we could go for beer runs away from him."

"He's embarrassing at football games," Roman admitted. He'd learned his lesson about saying soccer in front of anyone in London. Poor bastard.

"So are you when you're piss drunk." Everleigh pulled her blanket over her head, cuddling more into her pillow. "I don't want to exist today. Putting trousers on sounds exhausting."

"Throw sweats on," Roman said, "you think I'm wearing proper pants to a movie theatre?"

Everleigh groaned. "Did Florence put you up to this?"

"I—no."

Everleigh sighed. "So that's a yes?"

"She wants to hang out with Nav," Roman said. "Told me to get fucked."

"No, she didn't."

"No, she didn't," Roman admitted. "But she did tell me to go do something outside of the house because I was driving her nuts."

"That doesn't sound like you at all," Everleigh said.

"You get closer to me telling mom and dad about you and Maverick every fucking day, Everleigh." Not the full name. Dear lord.

"Ugh. Why don't you just come here?" Everleigh asked. "Stream something while I sleep?"

"You never have any food in your flat."

"Pick something up before you get here," Everleigh said. "I'm not getting up."

"You're such a ray of fucking sunshine."

"Oh, I know."

"Do you want Thai?" Roman asked.

"Obviously."

"If I'm picking up food, you have to pick the movie."

"You're aware I'm going to pick the new Scream because it's on demand now?" Everleigh asked.

"I am."

"Was this your plan the entire time?"

Everleigh could almost see Roman's grin. "I haven't seen it yet and I love Jack Quaid."

"More than Bash?"

"The only people I love more than Brendon Ellis in this world are your sister and our kid."

Everleigh snorted. "Not your loving sister-in-law?"

"Maybe your dad."

"Hope you have Flo's key to the flat," Everleigh said. "I'm not letting you in. You're a bitch."

"I'm like five minutes away," Roman said. "I already picked up the food."

Everleigh rolled her eyes. "Point stands. The only other way you're getting in is through the open window in the loo."

"You live on the third floor."

"You heard me."

"Good thing I know you," Roman said. "I'll be there soon, okay?"

"Just for that, I'm picking X instead of Scream."

*

"I can't believe you're making me watch a porn movie with you." Roman slurped a mouthful of pad Thai.

"You make it sound like I logged into the hub and typed in stepmother—" Everleigh rummaged around the takeout container with her chopsticks. Roman had gotten her Bangkok-style drunken noodles from her favourite Thai place; it was phenomenal. She made them go there almost every time Roman and Florence offered to take her out for her birthday.

Roman choked on his bite of noodles. "Oh my God, stop."

"You stop."

"I'm not having this conversation with you."

"Believe it or not, I understand how babies are made," Everleigh said. "It's not like you haven't had sex."

"We're not talking about this," Roman said. "Absolutely not."

Everleigh shrugged. "It is what it is. It's just a movie."

"You recognize this isn't about a movie?"

"Yes."

"It's about the fact I've known you since you were, like, I don't know. Too young or whatever," Roman said. "And because I'm marrying your sister."

"You asked for a horror movie—"

"Sweet Jesus." Roman cringed as an especially gory scene happened on screen.

"This is a horror movie." Everleigh took a bite of her drunken noodles. "Through and through."

"Scream doesn't have sex—"

"Yes it does," Everleigh said. "It's just not as explicit."

"Can we watch Scream after? This doesn't have Jack Quaid," Roman said.

"Sure."

Roman turned his attention back to the TV and jumped as another kill happened.

Everleigh snorted. "You're almost worse than Kingston."

"Look, the gore is disgusting, man," Roman said. "I can handle thrillers, not intense gore."

"Should've asked for a thriller, then."

"Have you... talked to Mav lately?"

Everleigh poked around her takeout container with her chopsticks again. Remained silent. It was something to say that she and Maverick hadn't even managed to watch Scream 3 yet with how opposite their schedules were. Everleigh worked nights on the days she didn't have school, Maverick was either asleep or working when she had time off.

"Is that a no?"

"We're busy," Everleigh said. "It's okay."

Roman raised his eyebrows and muttered into his noodles, "Evidently not."

Everleigh took a pillow and smacked him with it. It was a wonder he didn't spill his pad Thai on himself. Probably made her even weirder that it was a screen-printed case on the pillow that had a photo of Skeet Ulrich that Juno had given her one birthday. "Not two minutes ago you were uncomfortable with sex and now you're making jokes?"

"It was right there!" Roman said, laughing and swatting his hand in her direction, landing a blow on her shoulder. "And I'm uncomfortable talking about my sex life—"

"That's fine but don't—"

"You're not dating my sister!"

"You don't have any siblings!"

Roman waved his hands around wildly. Everleigh was still amazed he hadn't dropped anything on her couch. "Clean slate. Clean slate!"

"Fine."

"How come you haven't been seeing Mav?"

"I said we were busy before you decided to make grotesque jokes."

"Do you think you'll see him soon?" Roman asked. Genuinely curious or, at least, hating the movie enough that he was fine with talking through it. Either way, his attention was on Everleigh.

"I'm going to LA at the start of June," Everleigh said. "But it's only one night."

It kind of broke Everleigh's heart to say that; in more ways than one. The first being that it was only one night with Maverick and how the hell were they going to sustain their relationship if they couldn't even see each other regularly. It was fine when it was Donny and other people she wasn't actually dating. But Maverick? She actually wanted to see Maverick more than once every four months.

The other part of Everleigh's broken heart went to that she had nothing in London. No one knew she was headed to Los Angeles. Everleigh didn't have kids that needed babysat. She didn't have a dog that needed fed and walked. Hell, Everleigh didn't even have house plants that she could've asked Roman to water for her. Everleigh had nothing at home. Was it even home if there was nothing?

"Can you take more days off or are you stuck?"

"I shouldn't even be going in the first place."

"Do you think he'd come back with you?"

"I think he'd said he'd try, but I'm not holding my breath."

Everleigh hated the look Roman gave her. Like he was her father and not her brother-in-law. Like he needed to be worried about her. Or, frankly, like he wanted to be worried about her.

"I'm fine with it, Rome. It happens. We knew this was going to be long distance." Everleigh ate a mouthful of drunken noodles. Focusing on food was somehow the lesser of two evils when it came to discussing the lack of Maverick lately in her life.

"You realize you look... sad when he's not around, right?"

Everleigh contemplated hitting him in the head with the pillow again. "Do I?" she managed instead.

"For the record, he said he missed you when he was here for lunch."

"Goody."

"Leigh," Roman said. "He meant it."

Everleigh dropped her hands. "Did you ever have this problem with Flo?"

"I mean, there were the times we were on breaks," Roman said. "I went back to Jersey for them because housing is... expensive. Especially as a student. As you know."

"At least you had a dorm."

"That's true." Roman shook his head. "We made it work, obviously. It happens."

"I feel like every time I talk to him he's a little further away."

"Have you told him that?"

"Course not. Why would I?"

"I dunno, Leigh. Because you're his girlfriend and he cares about you, maybe?"

Everleigh rolled her eyes. "Definitely not that."

Roman punched her in the arm. (Everleigh tried not to think about how it would probably bruise in the morning.) "Don't be a twit."

"Ow, Roman. Fuck you."

"Did it knock some sense into you or do I have to smack you upside the head?"

"Don't be daft." Everleigh swatted him in the shoulder.

Roman returned the favour with a flick to the forehead. "Kingston Maverick cares about you, you dumbass. Talk to him about it."

"Right, because you're besties now." Everleigh had been spending too much time talking to Stevie. The eye roll was the easiest she'd ever done. Every time she was with Roman, eye rolls came easily.

"That, and—" Roman stopped himself when Everleigh swatted him again. He whacked her in the back of the head with his hand. Lighter than the punch, but a good whack all the same. "—I am... you know, also a man. Who is dating a Meadowlark. And would love if she actually communicated. Properly. So I think I am the only one in the universe who can say I know what it's like. Almost entirely."

"My sister and I are—"

"Two different people, I get it," Roman said. "Bet you I could ask dad what he thinks and he'd agree. It's a Meadowlark woman thing."

Everleigh flicked Roman in the ear. "Pa's a Meadowlark by blood, not marriage, you twat."

"Are you saying Maverick's a Meadowlark by marriage?"

Everleigh raised her hand and Roman dove off the couch to dodge it. He knew the swat was going to be one he wouldn't come back from. Somehow, he'd managed to place his pad Thai on Everleigh's coffee table before he spilt it across the floor. She was going to credit that to him being a father of who was likely going to be a messy kid because she was related to him. It was impressive that he hadn't cracked his head on the corner of the table by any count.

Roman laughed from his spot on the floor. "Look, you didn't say no—"

Everleigh threw the Skeet Ulrich pillow at him, nailing him in the face with it. "I am not marrying Kingston. I don't like weddings."

"You also said you didn't like him. And that you weren't dating him." Roman was smart. But he wasn't smart enough not to put her pillow back beside her. Gently, like an olive branch. Everleigh didn't believe in olive branches.

"This is different, Roman."

Roman cut his teasing enough to register what she was saying. Actually think about it, not simply bug her about it. "You really don't want to marry him?"

"I don't want to marry anyone," Everleigh said. "Whether it's Kingston who I'm with for ages or not."

"You..." Roman trailed off. "Does he know that?"

"I'm assuming Kingston isn't itching to propose to the girlfriend he hasn't actually been on a date with," Everleigh said. "So that's not something I'm bringing up."

"You clearly don't see the way he looks at you."

"I don't look at him, we don't have time."

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Roman sat back, his hands behind him; elbows almost inverted. He seemed to have given up on his lunch—dinner? Everleigh wasn't sure what time it was, she'd spent most of the day in bed—and left it for Everleigh to probably have to clean up later. Hopefully not weeks later by someone who was, hopefully, Maverick and not her father when he visited to make sure she'd been actually existing like a functioning human being. (Sometimes Roman snitched on her.) (Also a reason he had to trick her into hanging out with her at her flat.)

"I don't like the idea of marriage," Everleigh said. "In general."

"But..." Roman moved his finger in a circle, begging her to go on. He knew her too well.

"But—" And Everleigh was disgusted she was saying it. She sounded like a teenage girl who would get murdered at the start of a slasher. "—I don't... hate the idea of, you know, not-marrying him for the rest of my life."

"That was the worst possible way you could've said you want to spend the rest of your life with Maverick."

Everleigh turned back to the movie and focused on the screen. She tried to ignore that she was staring at the credits. Every cast and crew member became infinitely more interesting than any conversation she was no longer having with her brother-in-law.

"You can ignore me—" Roman leaned forward and picked up his takeout container. "But that doesn't make it untrue."

It was true. Everleigh saw probably too much of her future with Maverick for someone who had seen him for ten days and then lost him again for what would be three months by the time her trip to Los Angeles came around. Everleigh saw so much with Maverick he'd molded himself into memories she didn't have yet—onto Christmas photos they hadn't taken, during birthdays they hadn't celebrated. Maverick took his hand in hers and sculpted a future along the intertwining lines on their palms.

"Being in love suits you," Roman muttered into his pad Thai. "Whether you want to admit you are or not."

Everleigh smacked him in the back of the head.

Roman swatted her in the side of the knee. "Suits Maverick too."

"If we're watching Scream, you're paying for it on demand."

"Small price to pay for the truth, Leigh."

Everleigh sighed. "I don't know if I want to spend the rest of my life with him. We're still figuring things out. But at the moment? I don't hate the notion."

"They should make a Nobel prize for romance," Roman said. "Wow. That was fuckin' revolutionary."

Everleigh fought the urge to swat him again. "This was not worth getting out of bed for."

"I'm always worth getting out of bed for. I'm funny, and handsome—"

"Good God."

"—and I bring you food," Roman continued. "I'm the full package."

"You're something, for sure," Everleigh said. She dropped her takeout container on the coffee table and pulled the sides of her hoodie together so she could cross her arms.

Roman smirked into his noodles as he took a couple more bites. Like he knew something Everleigh didn't. He was a shit.

Everleigh took another swing at him with her Skeet Ulrich pillow. Right in the side of the head.

"I didn't even say anything." Roman gaped at her.

Everleigh shrugged. "That one was for fun."

"Asswipe."

Everleigh poked him in the shoulder with her foot, narrowly dodged Roman swatting at her again. "Buy your tux yet?"

Roman leaned forward and took Everleigh's takeout container from the table, replacing it with his empty one. It was well-known she rarely finished her meals, nobody knew the details. It was also well-known that Roman was a champion at finishing other people's meals. It's why they worked as in-laws. He took a big bite of Everleigh's noodles. "Nope."

"Flo buy her dress yet?"

"You'd know more than I would," Roman said. "She doesn't want me seeing it."

"Fuck."

"Aren't you getting married in, like, six months?"

"You bet."

"And that's not worrying?"

"Worrisome."

"Don't make me hit you again."

Roman poked Everleigh's chopsticks and ate the final few bites of her noodles. "We're probably not going, like, Say Yes to the Dress, Leigh. Just something semi-nice."

"You watch Say Yes to the Dress?"

"It's not The Repair Shop," Roman said. "But it's entertaining. And it's always on while I'm trying to get Nav to sleep."

"There's such a thing as DVDs, Rome."

"But then how would I know how far over budget they went?" Roman laughed, dropping Everleigh's now empty takeout container beside his own.

Everleigh shook her head. "I can see why Florence wanted you out of the house."

"I'll shut up if we watch Jack Quaid."

"I genuinely think that's impossible."