It Ends with Us

Lily finds out that Allysa is working as a distraction from the fact that she can’t get conceive. Ryle continues to lavish attention on Lily through more flowers and, to Lily’s delight, invites himself to a dinner with Lily and her mother. At the restaurant, while her mother and Ryle are getting to know each other, Lily finds the waiter familiar and realizes it’s Atlas, whom she hasn’t seen for years. She excuses herself from the table and goes to talk to him, finding out he’s been in the military. She tells him about her flower shop before returning to the table and finishing her meal. After the dinner, Ryle leaves and Lily speaks to Atlas again, finding out he has a girlfriend. Atlas tells her he wishes he had met up with her a year ago. Lily departs feeling strangely hurt and thinks that this is closure between them, and that her “heart needed closure so [she] can give it to Ryle” (137).

Lily goes back to her diary entries, mentioning that she’s almost at the end. Knowing now that Atlas is well should be enough closure. Her entry describes how Atlas fell sick after he started sleeping in Lily’s room and how Lily nursed him through it. Lily pretended she was sick so she could spend the day caring for him while her parents worked. While watching the movie Finding Nemo, both her and Atlas are moved by the phrase “just keep swimming.” The phrase describes how they feel about their respective situations, Lily in her abusive household, and Atlas being abandoned. Lily mentions her awareness of her attachment to Atlas in the next entry when Atlas speaks of contacting his uncle and broaches the possibility of going to live with him in Boston, in order to finish school there. Atlas and Lily share their first kiss.

In the following entry, Lily mentions Atlas kissing her in public, and her anger when other students made fun of Atlas for being poor. Atlas bakes cookies for Lily, which she eats with him in the evening. Atlas also gives her a heart he has carved. The next entry is sparse; Lily only writes that Atlas is going to Boston. The final entry details another assault Lily witnesses, and how her father almost rapes her mother. Enraged, Lily picks up a knife, ready to hurt her father, but Atlas stops her. They are going to call the police when Lily’s mother goes to Lily and asks her not to. She sees Atlas with Lily, but doesn’t say anything about him. Soon after, Atlas and Lily sleep together. Lily promises Atlas she’ll find him in Boston. He leaves for Boston the next day, and Lily is heartbroken, but resolves to move on because she “thought [she] might die if he let go. But [she] didn’t die. Because he let go and here [she is]. Still living. Still breathing” (158). In the present day, Lily considers that part of her life over. She sees a message Ryle sends her about how happy he is in their relationship, and saves it.

Lily’s shop is doing well, and in an outing with Ryle, Allysa, and Marshall, Allysa tells them that she’s pregnant. They celebrate and Lily discovers Ryle and Allysa are two siblings out of three. Their older brother died when they were children, but they seem not to want to discuss his death. Ryle introduces himself as Lily’s boyfriend to Lily’s roommate.