Page 85 - It Ends with Us

After a few minutes, we were both lying on the ground, breat hi ng har d, still

lau ghi ng. He final ly stood up an d pulled me to my feet, knowing he couldn ’t
was te minutes if he wan ted a sho wer before my parents cam e ho me.
On ce he was in the sho wer, I was he d my han ds in the sink an d just stood
the re, wonde ring what he mean t ear lier whe n he sai d we were just al ike.
Was it a compliment? It sure felt like one. Was he say ing that he tho ught I
was strong, too? Be cau se I cer tai nly di dn ’t feel strong most of the time. In that

moment, just thi nking ab out hi m made me feel weak . I wonde red what I was
going to do ab out the way I was star ting to feel whe n I was around hi m.
I al so wonde red ho w long I can keep hi di ng hi m from my parents. And ho w
long he ’ll be stay ing at that ho use. Winters in Mai ne are unbear ably cold an d
he won’t sur vive witho ut a he at er.
Or blan kets.
I gat he red myself an d went in search of al l the spare blan kets I could find. I

was going to give the m to hi m when he got out of the sho wer, but it was al ready
five an d he left in a hu r r y.
I’ll give the m to hi m tomor row.
—Li ly

Dear Ellen,
Har r y Connick Jr. is freak ing hi lar ious. I’m not sure if you’ve ever had hi m
on your sho w, becau se I hat e to adm it I’ve probab ly missed an episode or two
since you’ve been on the ai r, but if you’ve never had hi m, you sho uld. Actual ly,
hav e you ever wat che d Late Night with Cona n O’Brien ? He has thi s guy
nam ed Andy who sits on the couch for ever y episode . I wish Har r y could sit on
your couch for ever y episode . He just has the best one-liners, an d the two of you

toget.he r would be epic.
I just wan t to say than k you. I know that you do n’t hav e a sho w on TV for
the sole purpose of mak ing me lau gh, but sometimes it feels that way. Sometimes
my life just mak es me feel like I’ve lost the ab ility to lau gh or smile, but the n I
turn on your sho w an d no mat ter what mood I’m in whe n I turn on the TV, I
al way s feel better by the time your sho w is over.

So yeah. Than ks for that .
I know you probab ly wan t an updat e on Atlas , an d I’ll give you one in a
second. Bu t first I need to tell you ab out what hap pened yesterday.
My mother is a teac hi ng as sistan t over at Br imer Elementar y. It’s a bit of a
dr ive an d that ’s why she never gets ho me until around five o’clock. My dad