Page 71 - It Ends with Us

“Hah! ” I say with a laugh. “Are you sure about tha t?”

He no ds, so I prep are to let hi m ha ve it. I push agains t hi s ches t
and make my way around hi m so tha t he’s the one lea ni ng agains t the
led ge no w.
“I can’t tel l what you wan t, R yle! And ev ery time I get to the point
where I start to no t give a shi t, you sho w up again out of the blue! You
sho w up at my work, you sho w up at my apartment door, you sho w up

at parties , you . . .”
“I live here, ” he says, ex cusing the last one. Tha t pisses me off ev en
more. I clenc h my fis ts.
“Ugh! You’re driving me crazy! Do you want me or do you not?”
He stands up straight and takes a step toward me. “Oh, I want you,
Lily. Make no mistake about that. I just don’t wan t to want you.”
My who le body sighs at tha t comment . Partly out of frustration and

partly bec ause ev er ythi ng he says makes me shi ver and I ha te tha t I
allow hi m to make me feel like thi s.
I shake my he ad. “You don’t get it, do you?” I say, softeni ng my
voice. I feel too def ea ted right no w to keep yel ling at hi m. “I like you,
R yle. And kno wing tha t you onl y want me for one ni ght makes me
rea lly, real ly sad. And maybe if thi s were a few mont hs ago, we could

ha ve ha d sex and it would have been fine. You would ha ve walked
away and I could ha ve ea sily moved on with my life. But it’s no t a few
mont hs ago. You waited too long , and too many piec es of me are
inv es ted in you no w, so plea se. Stop flirting with me. Stop ha ng ing
pictures of me in your apartment . And stop send ing me flowers .
Bec ause when you do tho se thing s, it does n’t feel good, R yle. It actually
kind of hu rts.”

I fee l defl ated and ex ha usted and I’m rea dy to lea ve. He reg ards
me silen tly, and I res pec tfully give hi m time to make hi s reb uttal. But
he does n’t. He just turns around , lea ns over the led ge, and stares
down at the street like he didn’t hea r a sing le word I said.
I walk across the roof and open the door, ha lf ex pec ting hi m to call
out my na me or ask me no t to lea ve. I get all the way back to the

apartment bef ore I fina lly lose all ho pe of tha t ha ppeni ng . I push
thro ugh the crowd and make it thro ugh three different rooms bef ore
I spot Dev in. When he sees the look on my face, he just no ds and
beg ins to make hi s way across the room toward me.