It Ends with Us

Lily,
On the seventh floor. Apartment 749.
—A
She has an apartment here just for extra furniture? I know they’re rich, but
even that seems a little excessive for them. I get on the elevator and press
the button for the seventh floor. When the doors open, I head down the
hall toward apartment 749. When I reach it, I have no idea if I should
knock or just go inside. For all I know, someone could live here. Probably
one of her people.
I knock on the door and hear footsteps from the other side.

---

I’m shocked when the door swings open and Ryle is standing in front of
me.
“Hey,” I say, confused. “What are you doing here?”
He grins and leans against the doorframe. “I live here. What are you
doing here?”
I glance at the pewter number plate next to the door and then back at
him. “What do you mean you live here? I thought you lived with me.
You’ve had your own apartment this whole time?” I would think an entire
apartment would be something a husband would bring up to his wife at
some point. It’s a little unnerving.
Actually, it’s ludicrous and deceptive. I think I might be really angry at
him right now.
Ryle laughs and pushes off the doorframe. Now he’s filling up the
entire doorway as he lifts his hands to the frame over his head and grips it.
“I haven’t really had a chance to tell you about this apartment, considering
I just signed the paperwork on it this morning.”
I take a step back. “Wait. What?”
He reaches for my hand and pulls me inside the apartment. “Welcome
home, Lily.”
I pause in the foyer.
Yes. I said foyer. There is a foyer.
“You bought an apartment?”
He nods slowly, gauging my reaction.
“You bought an apartment,” I repeat.
He’s still nodding. “I did. Is that okay? I figured since we live together
now we could use the extra room.”
I spin in a slow circle. When my eyes land on the kitchen, I pause. It’s
not as big as Allysa’s kitchen, but it’s just as white and almost as beautiful.
There’s a wine cooler and a dishwasher, two things my own apartment
doesn’t have. I walk into the kitchen and look around, scared to touch
anything. Is this really my kitchen? This can’t be my kitchen.
I look in the living room at the cathedral ceilings and the huge windows
overlooking Boston Harbor.
“Lily?” he says from behind me. “You aren’t mad, are you?”
I spin and face him, realizing that he’s been waiting on me to react for
the past several minutes. But I’m completely speechless.

---

I shake my head and bring my hand up to cover my mouth. “I don’t
think so,” I whisper.
He walks up to me and takes my hands in his, pulling them up between
us. “You don’t think so?” He looks worried and confused. “Please give me a
naked truth, because I’m starting to think maybe I shouldn’t have done
this as a surprise.”
I look down at the hardwood floor. It’s real hardwood. It’s not laminate.
“Okay,” I say, looking back up at him. “I think it’s crazy that you just went
and bought an apartment without me. I feel like that’s something we
should have done together.”
He’s nodding and it looks like he’s about to spit out an apology, but I’m
not finished.
“But my naked truth is that . . . it’s perfect. I don’t even know what to
say, Ryle. Everything is so clean. I’m scared to move. I might get something
dirty.”
He blows out a rush of air and pulls me to him. “You can get it dirty,
babe. It’s yours. You can get it as dirty as you want.” He kisses the side of
my head and I don’t even say thank you yet. It seems like such a small
response to such a huge gesture.
“When do we move in?”
He shrugs. “Tomorrow? I have the day off. It’s not like we have a whole
lot of stuff. We can spend the next few weeks buying new furniture.”
I nod, trying to run through tomorrow’s schedule in my head. I already
knew Ryle was off tomorrow, so I didn’t have anything planned.
I suddenly feel the need to sit down. There aren’t any chairs, but
luckily, the floor is clean. “I need to sit down.”
Ryle helps me to the floor and then he lowers himself in front of me,
still holding my hands.
“Does Allysa know?” I ask him.
He smiles and nods his head. “She’s so excited, Lily. I’ve been thinking
about getting an apartment here for a while now. After we decided to stay
in Boston for good, I just went ahead with it to surprise you. She helped,
but I was starting to worry she’d tell you before I had the chance.”
I just can’t wrap my head around this. I live here? Me and Allysa get to
be neighbors now? I don’t know why I feel like this should bother me,
because I really am excited about it.

---

He smiles and then says, “I know you need a minute to process
everything, but you haven’t seen the best part and it’s killing me.”
“Show me!”
He grins and pulls me to my feet. We make our way through the living
room and down a hallway. He opens each door and tells me what the
rooms are, but doesn’t even give me time to go in any of them. By the time
we make it to the master bedroom, I’ve concluded that we live in a three-
bedroom, two-bath apartment. With an office.
I don’t even have time to process the beauty of the bedroom as he pulls
me across the room. He reaches a wall covered by a curtain and he turns
and faces me. “It’s not a ground that you can plant a garden in, but with a
few pots, it can come close.” He pulls the curtain aside and opens a door,
revealing a huge balcony. I follow him outside, already daydreaming about
all the potted plants I could fit up here.
“It overlooks the same view as the rooftop deck,” he says. “We’ll always
have the same view we had from the night we met.”
It took a while to sink in, but it all hits me in this moment and I just
start crying. Ryle pulls me to his chest and wraps his arms tightly around
me. “Lily,” he whispers, running his hand over my hair. “I didn’t mean to
make you cry.”
I laugh between my tears. “I just can’t believe I live here.” I pull away
from his chest and look up at him. “Are we rich? How can you afford this?”
He laughs. “You married a neurosurgeon, Lily. You aren’t necessarily
strapped for cash.”
His comment makes me laugh and then I cry some more. And then we
have our very first visitor because someone begins pounding on the door.
“Allysa,” he says. “She’s been waiting down the hall.”
I run to the front door and swing it open and we both hug and squeal
and I might even cry a little more.
We spend the rest of the evening at our new apartment. Ryle orders
Chinese takeout and Marshall comes down to eat with us. We have no
tables or chairs yet, so the four of us sit in the middle of the living room
floor and eat straight out of the containers. We talk about how we’ll
decorate, we talk about all the neighborly things we’ll do together, we talk
about Allysa’s impending delivery.
It’s everything and more.
I can’t wait to tell my mother.

---