It Ends with Us

reached to the bag next to us and stuck his hand inside, then smeared it down my
arms.
Ellen, I am confident that the next sentence I am about to write has never been
written or spoken aloud before.
When he was wiping that cow shit on me, it was quite possibly the most turned-
on I have ever been.
After a few minutes, we were both lying on the ground, breathing hard, still
laughing. He finally stood up and pulled me to my feet, knowing he couldn’t waste
minutes if he wanted a shower before my parents came home.
Once he was in the shower, I washed my hands in the sink and just stood there,
wondering what he meant earlier when he said we were just alike.
Was it a compliment? It sure felt like one. Was he saying that he thought I was
strong, too? Because I certainly didn’t feel strong most of the time. In that moment,

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just thinking about him made me feel weak. I wondered what I was going to do
about the way I was starting to feel when I was around him.
I also wondered how long I can keep hiding him from my parents. And how long
he’ll be staying at that house. Winters in Maine are unbearably cold and he won’t
survive without a heater.
Or blankets.
I gathered myself and went in search of all the spare blankets I could find. I was
going to give them to him when he got out of the shower, but it was already five and
he left in a hurry.
I’ll give them to him tomorrow.
—Lily
Dear Ellen,
Harry Connick Jr. is freaking hilarious. I’m not sure if you’ve ever had him on
your show, because I hate to admit I’ve probably missed an episode or two since
you’ve been on the air, but if you’ve never had him, you should. Actually, have you
ever watched Late Night with Conan O’Brien? He has this guy named Andy
who sits on the couch for every episode. I wish Harry could sit on your couch for
every episode. He just has the best one-liners, and the two of you toget.her would be
epic.
I just want to say thank you. I know that you don’t have a show on TV for the
sole purpose of making me laugh, but sometimes it feels that way. Sometimes my life
just makes me feel like I’ve lost the ability to laugh or smile, but then I turn on your
show and no matter what mood I’m in when I turn on the TV, I always feel better by
the time your show is over.
So yeah. Thanks for that.
I know you probably want an update on Atlas, and I’ll give you one in a second.
But first I need to tell you about what happened yesterday.
My mother is a teaching assistant over at Brimer Elementary. It’s a bit of a drive
and that’s why she never gets home until around five o’clock. My dad works two
miles from here, so he’s always home right after five.
We have a garage, but only one car can fit in it because of all my dad’s stuff. My
dad keeps his car in the garage and my mom keeps her car in the driveway.
Well, yesterday my mom got home a little bit early. Atlas was still at the house
and we were almost finished watching your show when I heard the garage door start
to open. He ran out the back door and I rushed around the living room cleaning up
our soda cans and snacks.

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It had started snowing really hard around lunchtime yesterday and my mother
had a lot of stuff to carry in, so she pulled up in the garage so she could bring it all