15-05-2021-052358It-Ends-with-Us

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.”