It Ends with Us

Fifty-three days later, Lily opens her shop. During this time, she has been busy working and has not seen Ryle. Her first customer, however, happens to be Ryle. Allysa is there, but she doesn't know of the attraction between Ryle and Lily, and unbeknownst to Allysa, Ryle proceeds to buy a bouquet of lilies for Lily. Lily is irritated by him, given their last meeting, but flattered by the attention.  

Lily takes a former colleague to Allysa’s birthday party to make Ryle jealous. At the party, Lily’s attention is drawn to a piece of art on the walls; she slowly realizes it’s the photo Ryle took of her during the night they first met. Ryle approaches her, appearing upset that she has brought a date. Lily grows exasperated and goes to the rooftop. Ryle follows Lily out to the rooftop, where Lily tells him to stop paying attention to her, to stop flirting, taking pictures, and sending her flowers because he “waited too long and too many pieces of [her] are invested in [him]” (89).

She is about to exit the party when Ryle stops her by grabbing her and taking her to his bedroom, where they kiss. He confesses that he wants to prove to her that he is interested in exploring a relationship with her. Lily asks him not to sleep with her to do so, and they spend the night together without having sex. The next morning, Lily tells Allysa that she’d met Ryle months before. Allysa cautions Lily in front of Ryle, telling her, “he doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to relationships” (98). As her friend, Allysa is obliged to warn Lily, “because that’s what friends do” (98). Ryle tells Lily he’s busy but sets a time to see her again. 

Lily hasn’t talked to Ryle since the day after the party. She decides to go back to her old notebooks. According to the diary entry she’s reading, it’s been several weeks since Lily has started spending time with Atlas, but she knows little about him. Lily’s worried about him living at the abandoned house without electricity, especially as it is getting colder. She resolves to get him more blankets. As she and Atlas keep growing closer, Lily realizes he has turned into her best friend. Her father’s abuse has made it so that she’d spent her childhood relatively isolated. While gardening with Lily, Atlas asks her why she likes gardening. Lily replies that plants growing feel like a reward “for loving [them] the right way” (105). Atlas sees plants and people as alike: without care, people, like plants, have no use. Interpreting this to be about him, Lily mentions that some plants can thrive by themselves. In her entry, Lily becomes aware that she’s growing even more attracted to him.

In the final entry, Lily narrates another instance of abuse perpetrated by her father on her mother, during which she found her father choking her mother. Lily tries to intervene but gets thrown off by her father and ends up needing stitches. The next day, Atlas comforts her and shows her his own scars. Later, Lily decides to take him the blankets she’d forgotten to give him. The abandoned house where Atlas lives is so cold that Lily asks him to come sleep on the floor of her room. She locks the door so her parents won’t know. Atlas would only need to stay until he graduates, which is six months away. He has decided he will join the military after, since he has no family or other options. Lily reflects that her father had taught her wrongly about people like Atlas, when he said the unhoused were lazy and deserved their fate.